Chapter 3
Three
Xavier
Outwardly, Brady’s expression was saccharine, but his eyes spoke of devastation. It gutted me on a cellular level seeing him break character for just half a second, letting me see how badly this had torn into him.
“Aww, what a lovely family!” Brady chirped as he took our photo. His friend, Jae, wasn’t as good at acting as Brady was, and looked horrified at our appearance.
We stopped in our tracks, my hand falling from Candice’s grasp. “Do you know him?” Candice asked in a timid voice. She had to have guessed who this was after our earlier conversation, yet she was feigning ignorance.
“Oh, no! Sorry, I just thought you looked sweet together. A perfect family.” Brady managed another of his fake smiles. Then he took Jae’s hand and practically dragged him from the clinic. I called after him, but if he heard me, he didn’t respond.
“That was him, wasn’t it?” Candice asked. She wobbled over to the seating area and sat heavily with a gusty sigh. Tears pooled in her brown eyes.
The receptionist hurried over with a paper cup of water. “Are you alright?” he asked with genuine sympathy. With what this place was charging for its services, I expected nothing less.
Candice mumbled a response before a new client called the receptionist back to the desk, leaving us alone.
All my words had dried up. What was there now that Brady not only knew, but had seen us? How was I supposed to make this right with him?
It was only then that I realized my marriage, my relationship of twelve years, was done. There was no saving what me and Gio had despite all our history, because my love for him had dried up, completely shriveled and withered under the weight of all his lies.
Maybe, just maybe, I could have accepted Candice if it wasn’t for Brady.
If it weren’t for the lies. It all kept coming back to Brady, though.
He was my omega. Gio had made the biggest mistake of his life when he let me choose the omega.
His greatest error was when let me fall in love with Brady, because for that omega, I would burn down my entire life.
In time, I would rise from the ashes and convince him to give me another chance.
I stood staring at my husband, who leaned against the wall, all his bravado stripped from him. He had a hand on Candice’s shoulder, absently playing with a lock of her hair while he stared into the middle distance, seeing nothing, a frown on his face.
He jolted when I closed the distance between us. I slipped the ring from my finger, the band I had worn for the last ten years. Taking his hand, I pressed the platinum band into it without a word, then turned and walked away.
With nowhere else to go, I went home. Back to that sterile apartment that Gio favored, where there were only corners that represented my tastes. How long had I let his needs and desires consume my own?
Falling apart could happen later. First, I needed action.
I needed to get my shit in order. A place to stay, a lawyer, sort out the financial situation, tell people.
A lump formed in my throat when I thought about telling my parents that I was getting a divorce.
There would be no trial separation. My marriage was over.
Gio had detonated our lives. I still didn’t understand why.
Those questions would have to be answered later, when I had more distance from the emotions trying to choke me. I had some calls to make.
Malik was up first. He already knew how rocky my situation with Gio was, so he had to be expecting the worst. He didn’t offer platitudes when I laid it out for him, only a brief “I’m sorry,” before getting down to what I needed.
“I wish I could represent you in the divorce, but that’s a conflict of interest. What I can do is give you Miranda Noble’s number. The woman is a shark. She’ll eat Gio up in court—”
“Even with our open marriage?”
“Absolutely. There are rules to your arrangement that Gio’s broken. If he’d only communicated with you, none of this would have happened.”
Then I wouldn’t have met Brady, or at least wouldn’t have tried to date him. I could have spared him so much pain. I tried sending him another message. They were stacking up unanswered. Without thinking it through, I sent another.
Xavier
I didn’t know about Candice until today. I’m sorry.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I absently answered Malik, tuning back into the conversation despite my need to call Brady. I couldn’t, though, or rather, I wouldn’t. He wasn’t answering texts, so there was no point in trying a call. Hassling him would only get me blocked.
“Okay, so here’s what you do. She often works on Saturdays because she’s that in demand.
You call Miranda and tell her assistant that Malik is calling in a favor.
She’ll get you in as soon as she has a free moment.
Then you go through everything and find evidence.
Hotel charges, dinners, check your insurance—”
“That fucker!” I exclaimed in horror when the pieces fell into place. I heard Malik call my name. “They only told me now because they used our insurance! Candice lost her job because of her morning sickness.”
“What a shitty employer! I hope she sues—nevermind, not important right now. Okay, so log that. The insurance forced them to fess up. You need a timeline of events, and you’ll have to request a paternity test.”
“I’m not the father, though.”
“No, but you’ll need to prove those babies belong to your husband and you weren’t aware of the conception.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“If you’ve got any joint accounts, take half the money from them, not a cent more—"
“We kept them separate. We use a joint checking for bills, including the mortgage.”
“Perfect. That makes things easier.” Over the next half hour, Malik took me through what to do while I searched the apartment for my evidence.
“The idiot has his messages synced to his tablet,” I muttered incredulously.
“Do you have access?”
“Yeah, this isn’t the work one, just his personal device.”
“Take a bunch of screenshots and send them to yourself. Back them up in the cloud.”
We ended the call so I could concentrate on what I needed to do.
My call to Ms. Noble’s office was brief, but I appreciated that.
My emotions were fraught, just simmering under the surface, needing to escape before they drowned me.
As Malik said, I was put through, and the lawyer laid out the process for me.
We made an appointment. I paid a retainer, and she assured me that the ball was now rolling on my divorce.
I was to bring my evidence and a timeline with me.
The no-nonsense attitude of Ms. Noble—I couldn’t bring myself to call her Miranda yet—put me at ease, or at least as much at ease as I could be, given the circumstances.
The tablet wrecked me. It turned my stomach to witness their affair.
There was everything on the tablet, from the first night we met via the hookup app, to Gio sexting her after, claiming he couldn’t get her out of his head.
She asked about me. Gio explained we were open, and I preferred guys, which she accepted.
When I got to the part where Candice admitted she was pregnant, I had to put the tablet down. All I could see were Gio’s words, “He’ll come around.” They repeated in my mind over and over.
I broke then and called Brady, wanting to explain. He let it go to voicemail. Not that I blamed him. I just wanted to hear his voice, to explain myself. I cried some after, so gutted by everything that had happened, by all the deceit, then tried him again.
Brady never answered.
Finally, I called my moms. Mama answered. She didn’t need me to speak, not that I could with the words stuck in my throat. Her omega instincts kicked in even over the phone. All she needed was my sniveling down the line. “We’re coming, baby.” Then she ended the call.
Within twenty minutes, they’d arrived at my place.
Since they knew everything about my life, I let them read my texts with Brady, the messages Gio sent to Candice, and let them build a picture.
Mom packed my things while Mama held me, letting me cry it out.
They didn’t ask questions, just let me grieve for my marriage and for what I’d been building with Brady.
They even called Malik and let him explain what I was supposed to do.
They helped me pick up the pieces of the life I had built without comment, just love. My relationship with my moms had always been a close one. Same with my sister. The four of us were tightly bonded, always ready to share a meal or just hang out over the phone. Without them, I’d have been lost.
Once they were sure I had all I needed, we headed out the door. Mom rolled my suitcase toward the elevator just as it opened to reveal Gio.
My husband looked worn, as if he were holding the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was alone, at least. I didn’t think I could handle him and Candice together, presenting a united front, not after the clinic, the texts, the pictures I’d seen.
My moms didn’t speak to him, just took most of my things and left us to talk.
“Xavier, please. Don’t do this,” Gio pleaded once the elevator doors were closed with them inside.
I looked him directly in his eyes. “All you had to tell me was that you wanted a baby.” I sighed, utterly drained.
“We could have found a way. If you really loved Candice, then you should have told me sooner, not strung both me and Brady along.” My voice cracked.
“Why did you let me pull him into this mess when you were seeing her? All you had to do was be honest about your feelings.”
“If I did that, then you would have left,” he said flatly, defeated.
“Yeah, maybe. I’m not sure how I would’ve reacted. We’ll never know that because you never gave me the chance.” My lips twisted into a mocking smile. “Now it’s over. You can have your omega and your babies. Just give me a divorce and leave me alone.”
“But I love you, Xavi. You’re my husband, my everything—” He reached for me, but I side-stepped his grasp.
“Clearly not, or you wouldn’t have created a new life without me. You’ve had months to tell me about her, but you didn’t.” I let the words hang there for a moment, then added, “Let me go, Gio. Let me start over.”
“With Brady?” he demanded, anger flaring.
I gave a bitter laugh. “If you haven’t ruined that for me, then yeah, with Brady. I need to get him to forgive me for something I didn’t do.”
Gio’s deflated, resignation settling in. We stared at each other without words.
“All I want is a divorce. You can keep the apartment and everything in it.”
“Please, Xavi, we can work this through. Don’t throw away our marriage—”
“You threw it away when you cheated. I’m done here, Gio. My lawyer will be in touch.”
“Counseling!” he cried, reaching for me once more. “We’ll do couples therapy. I can fix this if you just—”
“No, Gio. There’s no fixing this. We’re done.”
I left my husband standing outside of the door to our apartment, the symbol of our life together, and took the elevator down to meet my moms without looking back.
They were waiting to wrap me in their arms when I got to the parking garage.
I cried for a minute before bone-deep exhaustion hit.
Maybe I was being a coward, running back to my parents, but I needed to regroup, to end this chapter with Gio and get my omega back.
Mama bundled me into my car, then took the driver’s seat. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered before turning the car on. “Everything will work out as it’s supposed to.”
As long as that meant Brady was in my future, then I didn’t care what I needed to get through first. I could handle it.