45

AIDEN

 

 

I get a text from Bella as me, my Dad, our VP of sales, Ben, and the newly promoted (to replace Brad) Miami sales manager Russ head into the lobby of Babylon.

“You made a big mistake by screwing me over.  Thanks to you doing nothing, trying to deal on my own, they messed up my face and broke two of my ribs. I’m leaving town. I had to do what I had to do. When you see your Mom on the news, you’ll know you could have stopped it.”

The message is long. I don’t have time to read the rest right now. There’s also a file attached that says New Recording, 1 Audio File.

I tuck my phone into my pocket. No time for her shit now.

***

The meeting went well. We’re expecting good things. I’m back in San Diego and on my way home from the airport in a cab when my phone makes noise. It’s a text from Adele with a picture of Braeden holding Lilly. It says “Your daily smile. Call me when you’re back. I have some ideas about Suki’s birthday.”

I scroll to the message from Bella and read the rest of it.

“I ran into your new girlfriend, btw. So much for your vow of no relationships, right? She was so pretty and sweet laughing with her friend walking into the building where you two share an apartment like love birds. She saw me. She saw me and figures you had this done to my face. She also listened to this. Don’t bother trying to get revenge. I’m gone with the money I got from selling the story about your Mom. I know that the cloud videos got deleted so fuck you, you dirty motherfucker. You’ve got nothing. Have a nice life. Thanks for the cock.”

My gut twists as I hit the audio and within two seconds of hearing my own voice, I realize that the bartender that was giving fuck me eyes to Jude was recording our conversation that night. She and Bella were obviously friends.

Fuck.

Carly avoided me last night. I called her today at work and she cut me short, telling me she was in the middle of something.

“Hurry and get me home, man,” I say to the cabbie. It’s the usual cabbie that gets the girls to work in the mornings. He must jump whenever he hears it’s the Carmichael account.

“Mr. Aiden, sir. I will. But, can I say something?”

“Yeah,” I bite off impatiently. I need to get home to her.

“Carly has shining spirit. I saw it first day when I bring her from the airport. She is one of those pure souls. You understand?”

“What?” I’ve heard him, but what the fuck is he on about?

“I brought her and Ally to work and to home today. Her spirit isn’t shining today. I heard some of what you play on your phone just now.”

I give my head a shake. “It’s a misunderstanding…”

“If you burn out that light, you will regret for all time…” He lets that hang and speeds up.

Fuck sakes.

My phone rings. Adele. I can’t right now. I reject the call.

 

***

I rush into the apartment, dropping my bag. My phone starts ringing again. Austin.  I toss the phone to the couch.

I throw the door open to her room. She’s not in there. I throw the door open to mine. Not there, either. She’s not in the bathroom or the laundry room.

I’m tearing my fingers through my hair, trying to find her. I’m about to head downstairs to Ally’s when I spot that she’s out on the terrace. She’s sitting in the dark, staring out.

I step out, feeling so much fucking relief.

“Baby.”

She doesn’t look up at me.

“Carly…”

She still doesn’t look at me.

I start talking. “Bella sent me the audio. I was talkin’ shit. I didn’t know you. I was being an asshole. This wasn’t… it isn’t about playing games or fucking you over.”

“Okay,” she whispers.

“You don’t believe me.”

I get to my knees in front of her and take her face into my hands.

She looks so fucking sad. She swallows.

“I didn’t say that. I figured it. You wouldn’t have told me all those personal things… you wouldn’t have me around your family, people you care about if we weren’t real.”

I breathe out relief and put my forehead to her knees and wrap my arms around her waist.

She’s stiff as a board. I look up.

“Then why have you been dodging me? Why are you looking at me like you don’t know me? Why are you stiff?”

“You had her beaten,” she whispers.

I jerk back. “I didn’t.”

“She was beaten so badly, Aiden. Are you going to have Sienna beaten, too?”

“What? No. Fuck no. I didn’t do that, Carly.”

“You didn’t order that? Like you did with Seth?”

Her forehead crinkles and she looks at me assessingly.

“I did not do that. Not to a woman. Fuck no. I did that with Seth because he was a sick freak who was trying to sniff around even after getting arrested, which meant it’d take something extreme to wake his shit up. I did not fuckin’ order a woman to get the shit kicked out of her.”

Her lips part. She’s searching my face.

“She has debts. Loan sharks. Jude dug and she’s a pill popper. Her parents cut her off a few years ago because she flunked out of school. She was blackmailing me, threatening to go to the press about my mother’s DUI unless I paid off her loanshark. She’s the one who stole my phone. She’s doin’ whatever she can do to fuck me over. But, the loanshark beat the shit out of her; nothing to do with me.”

“Your Mom’s arrest was on that gossip news TV show a little while ago. The video showed her slapping the cop across the face. Bella must have gone to the press,” Carly whispers.

I roll my eyes. “Great.”

She starts to cry.

“Carly, baby…”

“I thought you had her beaten up. I couldn’t… I couldn’t wrap my mind around being with you if you could do that and I…” she wipes at her eyes. Her shoulders are shaking.

My fucking gut is in knots.

“Shhh, I didn’t. Swear I didn’t.”

“Okay,” she whispers.

I lift her up into my arms like a bride and put my lips to her soft ones. “I didn’t.”

“Okay.” She puts her head on my shoulder.

I slip in and slide the door shut, then carry her to my bed. My room is spotless. My bedding has been changed. There are royal blue satin sheets on it now and a bouquet of flowers on my dresser in a vase. She’s cleaned the apartment, done all my laundry. She’s making this place feel like a home.

Fuck, I’m such a fucking asshole.

I hold her close as she cries for a few minutes, her head on my chest, my fingers in her hair.

She lifts her head and looks at me. “Do you need to call your family?”

“In a minute,” I say.

I hold her close and kiss the top of her head.

That fucking bitch. That Bella did this to her, to us, it makes my blood boil.

Carly lifts her head up. Her eyes are rimmed with red and her nose is pink. She’s so fucking pretty. I tuck her hair behind her ear.

“How’d it go with Babylon? She asks.

I smile a little. “It went really amazing, baby.”

“Yay,” she says softly and snuggles into me.

“I should go see what’s what with my mother,” I grumble.

“Okay,” she whispers.

“I’ll be back soon. We okay?”

She nods and swallows.

I kiss her on the mouth and say, “I’m falling in love with you, Carly. I don’t want to do anything to fuck this up. Honest, baby.”

She smiles against my lips.  “I’m falling in love with you, too, so don’t do anything to fuck this up.” She hugs me.

I bury my face into her shoulder for a second and take a deep breath. “I’ll try.”

I get up a minute later. “I’m running to my parents’ house. I’ll be back. If you go to bed, sleep in this bed. Move your stuff to this room. Okay?”

She gives me big eyes and nods slowly.

I lean over and kiss her lips one more time. “Be back soon.”

***

When I get to my father’s house, I see my siblings’ vehicles in the driveway.

I bang on the door. Auz opens and waves me in.

My mother is sitting on the couch in the drawing room, puffy-eyed. My Dad looks ten years older, sitting beside her, his hand on her knee.

She looks up at me guardedly.

“You okay?” I ask her.

She bursts into tears.

I hesitantly move in and sit down on the other side of her. She leans into me for a second and then straightens up.

My sister is sitting in the chair on the other side of the room.

“I’m entering rehab,” my mother says, clutching her tissue. “I’m sorry for the shame I’ve brought on our family. I’m… I’m going to work on it.”

“You’re not the first person to make a mistake, Mom,” Adele says.

Dad gets up and goes to the kitchen and returns with a bottle of water for my mother.

No one is sitting here drinking. This is like being in the Twilight Zone. I’ve always thought of this room as the boozing room as this is always where my parents go for drinks. Before meals. After meals.

“No, but today was the first wave. The DUI and assault. I received a text message telling me the second wave is going to be about my infidelity to my husband who has cancer. I’ll be crucified. Is it weak of me to go into rehab and leave you all to deal with that? By the morning, they’ll be on our lawn with cameras. I’m surprised it hasn’t already started.”

“No, Mom. You take care of you. We’ll handle that,” Auz says.

“I don’t deserve any of you, you know? But here you all are for me.” She starts to weep.  Auz moves in and puts his arm around her. I rake my hand through my hair.

She did this to herself with her association with Bella, but I’m not exactly feeling like rubbing her nose in it right now.

There’s another knock at the door. It’s late so the staff must be all gone. Adele goes this time.

“Careful, Adele. It might be a---” I move to answer the door, in case there’s paparazzi. It’s Roger Greer. Roger strides in and glances at my father and goes directly to my mother.

“I do not think so,” Dad shouts and he’s suddenly between Roger and my mother.

“Aw fuck,” I say aloud, and move in to flank my Dad. Austin rises and gets on Dad’s other side. We’re a wall in front of my mother.

“Audra? Can we speak?” Roger asks.

“Get the fuck out of my house,” Dad snaps.

“Go Rog,” Austin says.

“I…”

“Go!” Dad barks.

“You’re all here for her? You’ll be there for her through this shit storm?” Roger demands. He’s seen the division in my family for years. He’s had a front row seat.

“We will,” I say.

Roger gives me a pointed look, then backs out and leaves.

Shortly after, we say our goodnights. My mother goes to bed, looking frail and exhausted. She won’t stop crying. Adele climbs in with her, saying she’ll stay until my mother falls asleep.

Dad’s told us he’s driving her to rehab in the morning. It’s probably more like a five-star resort for rich women, but either way, it’s a start.

He tells me that once she’s out of that, they’ll go to marriage counselling and see if they have anything worth rebuilding.

I get home at two o’clock in the morning.

Carly is fast asleep in my bed. I crawl in with her and pull her close.

She nuzzles in. “Everything okay?”

“Quite a night,” I mumble. I fill her in while she lays on my chest, listening.

***

I leave for work before Carly is awake, leaving a note against the banana I leave on the counter to say I’ll meet her at the office. I started leaving a banana out with a post-it on it whenever I leave before her in the morning.  I always sign it,

See you a work. Yours Always,

The Banana Thief

 

I hit my safety deposit box the minute the bank opens and pull out the thumb drive that says “Bella Wilson” on the label.

I slip it into my inside pocket and head to the office. I open my private laptop and login through my VPN.

That fucking bitch is going to pay. No, I don’t have scheming bitches beat up. I fuck their lives up in other, more lasting ways than a few bruises.