Chapter 19
chapter nineteen
ivory
A phone vibrating against the side table stirred me from the best sleep of my life. Blindly, I tried to reach for the phone – I usually kept mine on DND – so I’m sure it was Donavan’s.
His muscular arm held me hostage, “Stop moving,” The sound of his gravely voice penetrated my body. Were we this down bad now that the sound of his voice was enough to drive me crazy?
“Answer the phone,” Closing my eyes to chase the much needed sleep, it didn’t work.
“Man, I appreciate you getting back to me but it’s 5:00 a.m. over here. Damn, I didn’t know it was that bad. Wow, okay. Yes, she should be at the location today. Alright, we won’t interfere, you got it. Thanks, yup, enjoy the rest of your day, too.”
Whoever he was on the phone with did a better job at whispering than I ever did. I couldn’t hear anything.
“Who was that?” There was no way I’d get any sleep now.
“It was the answer to your problem. Apparently, your girl has been up to no good. Acacia is a con artist and has been wanted for identity theft from the FBI. The guy I met at Expresso Café, the boss, is a big fan of Graycen so we chopped it up a few times in there. I called in a favor in exchange for tickets on his behalf. He called in a few favors and there we go. He warned us to not let her in on anything, so try to act normal today.”
Wow, a con artist.
I can’t believe it, a part of me feels stupid for not seeing it. But I mean, how could I? People will only show you who they want you to see.
“That is unbelievable, should I have seen the signs?” Donavan turned on the bedside lamp.
He sat up and pulled me into his lap, we were still naked. My body thumped at the memory of last night.
“There wouldn’t have been any signs, people are so good at scheming, there is no way you would have known.
But, now it makes a little more sense as to why she dipped out on you.
Maybe something about getting married would have messed up her plans.
It’s crazy to think that if she didn’t do what she did, we wouldn’t be here. In a weird way, I should thank her.”
He was right, if she didn’t leave me, I probably would have never left her. My abandonment issues from my father disowning me had me clinging to love in whichever form I could receive it.
“Well,” I gazed up at him, “Luckily for us, everything happens for a reason.” Donavan kissed my forehead, I relished in the feeling of being exactly where I was always meant to be. Here with him.
I watched Clarissa walk back and forth with a sense of deja vu – this was me merely three months ago, nervously excited to start the rest of my life with my love.
My stomach dropped every minute the clock ticked closer to the time the ceremony was supposed to start.
Donavan didn’t trust me not to say anything, so he was in the corner acting as my security. I don’t know how he managed to get out of practice for his tournament but I was thankful; he’d moved mountains to make me happy.
“Clarissa, you look amazing. I am going to head out, we will start in seven minutes. See you in five.” She gratefully smiled at me, but I didn’t deserve it. I knew I was about to blow up her entire life.
But it was better that she get out now before actually marrying Acacia, whoever she was.
“Thank you, Ivory, you have been my saving grace throughout this whole thing.” She squeezed my hand, and I quickly walked out the door before I spilled the truth.
I avoided Acacia’s room at all times, her mother was here and she must have been in on it, too, because she acted as if she never met me before, either. I’ve known that woman for the past seven years.
My heels clacked against the marble flooring as I made my way to the front. I watched the guests come in and take their seats. Mostly everyone was in attendance, which was good for a destination wedding, someone always backed out of them.
I nodded at the band to start, they played a few renditions of Clarissa’s favorite songs. The wooden arch was covered in an array of white and pink roses. Acacia walked underneath it, followed by the priest.
She smirked at me once she caught my gaze, I planted my fakest smile. Her side of the room was empty, besides her mother and a few people I’d never met before.
Clarissa had a whole crew of people, “Cue the bridesmaids,” I said into my headpiece, Donavan was on the other end.
“You got it,” One by one, each person came down with their mauve satin dresses. There were a total of three, each of Clarissa’s best friends.
The prettiest flower girl strutted down, doing an amazing job just as we practiced. It pissed me off that all of this would be for nothing.
Clarissa didn’t want to walk down to the traditional song, she came down to “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys; she did make a beautiful bride.
I watched Acacia’s reaction, if I didn’t know better, I would think she was actually in love. She looked at Clarissa how she used to look at me.
Clarissa’s mother – Tiffany – gave her away. They gazed into each other’s eyes, Acacia was playing her part.
“If there is anyone here who doesn’t think this couple should be together, better speak now or forever hold your peace.” The priest said, giving that statement a few seconds to flow over the room.
“I do!” A loud voice called out, we all watched in horror as a small, petite woman stood up and walked down the middle aisle.
Her face was concealed by the large church lady hat, but when she took it off, I blinked a few times.
She looked very familiar. Murmurs from the guests began to circulate through the room.
I watched Clarissa’s loving smile slip into panic, looking from Acacia to the direction where the voice came from. Acacia just sat there, not saying anything, but her beige skin turned a sickly red.
“Shit,” Mumbling under my breath, I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sure if this was part of the plan from the police or something else.
I was closer to the middle of the aisle, tucked off to the side, but when I started walking toward the couple, the woman stopped to look at me.
“Veronica?” I whispered under my breath. She looked like Acacia’s old roommate from back in our SSU days.
“Ivory Jones, I didn’t think I would see you again. I heard she left you at the altar, at least she took pity on you and didn’t ruin your entire life.” Veronica snarled, not fully stopping her stride to the couple.
“You did what?!” Clarissa spluttered, putting some distance between her and Acacia. My heart ached for her because this is what I wanted to avoid.
“Baby I-” Acacia tried to plead but Veronica’s yelling silenced the entire room.
“It took me ten years to track you down, you can trust you won’t get away from me now!” She pulled out a gun, pointing it straight at Acacia.
Chaos stirred up over the room, everyone started screaming. I did my best to remain calm and tried to make eye contact with Donavan for him to escort people out. He got up quietly, and started guiding people to the backdoor.
“She opened up apartments in my name, bank accounts, the bitch even started going by my middle name. Her name isn’t Acacia…
it’s fucking Vera. We grew up in foster care together, once we aged out, she did everything I did.
She started dressing like me, talking like me, she didn’t want to be herself – she wanted to be me! ”
My legs were shaky as I walked up to Veronica, my heels clicked against the marble floors, alerting her of my presence. She kept her gun locked in on Acacia, “Ivory, this isn’t about you or anyone else. We are all victims of her fucking lies!”
Gingerly, I held my hands up and took a step toward her, making sure she could see me. “Listen, I had no idea. We all believed her lies. Can you put the gun away, I don’t want you to get in trouble…please.” My chest was heavy, this was too much.
We waited with bated breath until she put the gun back in her purse. Acacia said nothing, she just stood there with a stupid look on her face. That was the smartest choice if she wanted to live.
Clarissa was silently crying, looking just as I felt when I read that letter back in my bridal suite. Betrayed.
“Who are you?” The astonishment was clear in her tone. I wanted the same answer.
“Tell them the truth!” Veronica screamed. I watched out the corner of my eye as Donavan escorted someone else in.
“Y-Your-” Acacia stammered.
“Police, everyone put your hands up now!”
The swarm of people in blue uniforms ran down the middle aisle, cuffing Acacia and her mother. She didn’t even put up a fight.
donavan
It only took a matter of five hours before the video of that disastrous wedding went viral on the internet. Somehow, my name along with Ivory’s was spun into the story. The media was a shitstorm, but it didn’t take long for the FBI to release a statement.
Vera, also known as Acacia, had done everything she was accused of.
She’d stolen that woman’s entire life and they first got intel around Ivory’s wedding, which is why she left and moved across the country.
The woman who claimed to be her mother, Sharon, was someone from their group home, and she got Vera into identity theft in the first place.
Sharon had done this to plenty of other girls who had gone through the system; she believed that it was easy since they came from a rough background.
Both she and Vera will be going to prison for a very long time.
"That was the longest day of my life,” Ivory groaned from beside me. She was working around the clock nonstop after everything went down. Clarissa was devastated, at least the truth came out when it did, before she got wrapped up in it all, too.
Ivory ended up refunding Clarissa half of her fee for the wedding, and I put the money right back into her account.
“Give me your foot,” I peeled off her shoes, giving her ankle a tender kiss.
“Can we just talk about last night, cause I got a few questions and concerns.” I knew she was about to say some crazy shit.
“Go on,” I took my time massaging her foot, I didn’t have a foot fetish before Ivory.
She was my fetish, she always has been.
“Do you fuck every woman you ever been with like you did me?” I smirked and matched her energy.
“Do you?” She stuck her tongue out.
“I’ve had my share of escapades, don’t tell me you’re jealous, Mr. I-Have- Women-Tailing-Me-At-Night.” Ivory would never let me live that down.
It wasn’t my fault one of the women that had time in my bed thought we would be more than just our few nights together.
She didn’t want to listen to me, she thought pussy power could move me.
But outside of God, the only power I let move me was the woman staring at me with the biggest smirk on her face.
“Hell yeah, I’m jealous. You can have anyone you want, and I only want you to want me as much as I want you.” Her face softened, I was a bit insecure that she would change her mind about me at any moment.
Ivory walked over to me, not saying a word, she unbuckled my pants and we both watched as my need for her sprang into action.
She pulled her dress up over her hips and moved her panties over to the side, before sinking down on top of me.
“You’re right, I can have anyone I want.” I could have drawn blood by how tightly I bit my bottom lip. Ivory used the back of the couch for leverage to slowly rise all the way to the tip and torture me by never coming back down.
I watched the way she bounced up and down, too focused on her own pleasure to keep teasing me. Ivory was lost in the show she put on, and so was I.
She was so ethereal I didn’t know where to look, everything about her was calling out to me.
Ivory wrapped her hand around the front of my neck, garnering my attention to her eyes.
“But, lucky for you I only want you.” Planting my feet firmly on the floor, I grabbed her hips, loving the feel of her body in my hands.
“Good, now show me.”
Ivory showed me all night long.