Chapter Seven

Jensen

I wait until I hear footsteps go out the front door and then the door slam before I hang my head. My own hands digging into my hips. “Dude, what the fuck was that? I thought you were going to eat her head,” Brody, my cousin and business partner, says as I look over at him. I shake my head.

“I met her this morning on the beach,” I tell him as I close the door to make sure Kimberley doesn’t hear any of this. “Mila and I were walking down the beach like we do every morning, and there she was, wrapped up in a blanket. Mila went to her first, and I thought she was lost. Fuck, she looks lost.” I sit down in the chair that the woman was in.

Brody finally sits down. “I don’t know about you, but the last thing that woman looked like was lost. She looked like she was going through something, but not lost.” He folds his hands in front of him. “I told you someone was going to be staying in your house.”

I cross my ankle on top of my knee. “I thought you were bullshitting like you always do.”

“Not bullshitting you this time. She signed a one-year lease. Actually, Grams was the one who had her sign it. She goes way back with Hailey’s grandmother,” he says as I roll her name through my head.

“I want her out of that house,” I tell him, getting up and going to the door. “Give her another fucking house. I don’t care, but I don’t want her in my house. Not now, not ever.”

“Not your call to make,” he says, leaning back in his chair. “She rented it, so that means she wants that one. Suck it up. Besides, it’s been five years. How much longer are you going to hold on to the past?” he asks me, and I don’t answer him. “Either way, this list needs to be done by Sunday, so you’d better fucking pray I don’t call you in to help.” He smirks at me, and I walk back into my office and slam the door. The frames on the wall shake as I look out the window and think back.

I walked up the steps of the house we had just finished building, carrying roses in my hand. Glancing at the swing where we’d sat last night, I smiled, remembering how it finished with me inside her. My Julia.

We met in junior high, and I fell head over heels in love with her. The moment she walked into class with her brown hair blowing in the wind, I knew she was the one. I stopped talking and made my way to her. “I’m Walker,” I told her, and she blinked her eyes and looked down, only to look back up again and smile at me. From that day on, we were inseparable. Her family had moved to town when her father took a job as foreman, working for my father. As the weeks turned into years, we were stuck to each other. There wasn’t a time when I wasn’t without her, so it was only normal for me to propose to her the day I turned eighteen. Surrounded by our friends and family, we finally tied the knot the day after graduation. I was heading off to college, and she was following me. She wanted to be a nurse, but one year into the program, she decided to take a year off. So I continued with school, and she was a stay-at-home wife. Luckily, we didn’t have to worry about rent since we were staying in one of my parents’ homes.

When I finally graduated from business school, my father handed me the keys to the business. Two months later, he had a heart attack while eating breakfast. The hours were long and hard in the beginning. I had to make my stamp on it, but I had Brody by my side. Brody was my cousin, and I brought him in as a partner the day after the company became mine. Then I hired my best friend, Scott, to be foreman for the jobs, since Julia’s father had passed away.

It took me two years to get the company where I wanted it. Dad had a staff of twenty; I worked my ass off. My staff of fifty guys was all over the town, and we were doing business in the next town over. Walker Construction was never better, so I built us a home, surprising her the same day she told me she was pregnant. I had everything I could ever want. On our fifth wedding anniversary, she completed my life by giving me Mila two months before I turned twenty-three. I had everything I ever wanted.

Julia sent me a message, telling me she dropped Mila off at my mother’s house and would be waiting for me at home. I wore a smile the whole day. Since Scott had an emergency, I had to finish the job.

Tucking the roses into my hands, I opened the door to our perfect white house. “Honey, I’m home,” I said out loud, taking in the rocking chair by the couch with Mila’s toy basket next to it. I walked down the hall to our bedroom and found it empty. I ran upstairs to see if maybe she was soaking in the tub, but she wasn’t there. I took my phone out and called her, but her phone went straight to voicemail. I walked to the back deck to check if maybe she had fallen asleep on the other swing I installed on the back porch. Walking back inside, I set the roses on the table, and when I looked around, I spotted a letter on the fireplace. Right beside the picture of us on Mila’s christening day.

I walked toward the letter as my palms sweat. I picked up the envelope with Julia’s handwriting on the front. I turned it over, opened the flap, and pulled out the white letter.

Dear Walker,

I don’t know how to start this letter, or even have the words to explain everything.

I want to start by saying that I’m so, so sorry.

I don’t know how it happened or even when, but my life has been incomplete. I thought it was just me. I thought I was just going through the motions, but nothing I did could fulfill this void I had. A void I didn’t even know I had. Until Scott.

I’m in love with him. I guess there is no easy way to say this except to come right out and say it. I’ve been in love with him for over a year. I swear to you I never meant to hurt you. I never meant for this to happen, but it just did. I thought it would change as soon as I gave birth to Mila, but I felt nothing. It was just another anchor to keep me rooted in a town I now hated.

We just got the results back, and Mila is yours, so we won’t be taking her. But I won’t be coming back. I can’t live a lie anymore.

I want to be his wife. I want to be the mother of his children.

We will be leaving this morning, and I will send the divorce papers as soon as we get settled. I don’t want anything except for you to let me go.

Please, please forgive me and know that I really did love you.

Julia.

I looked at the other paper in there, proving with 99.97% probability that I was Mila’s father.

My knees gave out, and as I fell to the floor, the letter in my hand was like a knife stabbing me through the heart. I looked down at the fucking letter and let out a roar. I got up on my feet and tossed everything on the fireplace mantel to the floor, including the picture of my sweet little Mila. Two-month-old Mila.

I put my face in my hands and sobbed out the pain, the pain from learning my wife just left me for my best friend. I was so stupid, so blind, and didn’t even see it. The knock on the door shocked me as the door was pushed in and Brody walked in, taking in the disaster surrounding me.

“What the fuck is going on?” he asked. I just shook my head as he leaned down, picked up the letter, and read it. “Motherfucker,” he said as he walked to the kitchen and took out the bottle of scotch I kept. He grabbed two glasses, and we finished it; or better yet, I finished it and fell into a stupor.

“Walker.” I hear Kimberley’s voice coming through the speakerphone, bringing me out of my memories. “Your grandmother just called again, and she said she is going to be here in thirty minutes if you don’t call her back.”

“Thank you,” I tell her as I grab my keys off my desk and storm out. Getting into my truck, I head to my grandmother’s house. She went too far this time. I pull up to the big ranch-style house my grandfather built with his bare hands. It’s where my father grew up. It’s where I licked my wounds after Julia fucked me over.

I don’t bother ringing the bell and just walk in. “Where are you?” I shout out. “Meddling woman,” I say under my breath as I walk into the living room. Looking in the kitchen, I see fresh blueberry muffins on the counter. I grab one and take a bite before walking outside where I hear her laughter. Storming around the wall, I stop in my tracks when I see Hailey. She is here, in my grandmother’s house, sitting down having ... fuck if I know, with another blonde at the table. Grams looks up at me with a smile. “Oh good, you’re here.” I stand there, my feet stuck to the floor, and the blueberry muffin like glue in my mouth as the other two women look at me. Hailey glares at me.

“I need to talk to you,” I say, pointing at my grandmother. My feet finally work, and I walk to the table. I’m about to say other things when I hear the door open and my daughter, Mila, appears.

“Poppa, you came to the tea party?” she says, running into the backyard as my mother follows her. I smile at her as she leaps into my arms and kisses my lips. No matter what Julia did to me, she gave me Mila. “Nana said GG is having a tea party.” Her eyes go wide as she wiggles down from my arms and my mother makes it to my side. Nana is what Mila calls my mom, and since Grams wanted to be the hip great-grandmother, she chose GG.

“I didn’t know you were joining us?” She comes closer to me, and I kiss her cheek.

I look over and see Mila sitting on Grams’s lap, looking over at Hailey. “You aren’t lost.” She shakes her head, reaching for a cookie. “Poppa,” she yells out, “she’s not lost.” She smiles at me, and I nod at her.

“Um, Grams, can I have a word with you?” I say out loud now as my mother looks at me. “It will just take a minute.”

“Nothing to discuss, Jensen. Fix the house.”

I clench my teeth together so hard I think I might actually break them. “That’s my house, and I want her out,” I say. Hailey looks at me with hatred ... pure hatred.

I’m not the bad guy here. “So you two need to pack up your shit and get out of my house.”

“Poppa, shit’s a bad word. Right, GG?” She looks up at my grandmother while she licks some chocolate off her fingers.

“They signed a lease.” My grandmother looks at me. “A lease that is a binding contract.”

“Oh, dear.” I hear my mother next to me. “This isn’t going to end well for anyone,” she says under her breath. “Mila, come and wash your hands so we can start the tea party.” Mila throws her cookie on the table as she claps her hands in glee. Getting off Grams, she skips over to my mother, takes her hand, and goes inside. I wait for the door to close before I turn back around.

“I guess we are going to see you in court because there is no way in fucking hell I’m renting out that house.”

“My father is a lawyer,” Hailey says finally as the other one just grabs her hand. “A good one. Technically, my name on the lease means I can come and go as I please. Unless you file eviction papers.”

“Listen, I don’t know what game you’re playing”—I finally glare at her—“or if you came to lick your wounds because your husband didn’t want you.” I regret the words the minute I say them when Grams and the other woman gasp. Hailey’s eyes fill with tears, and she gets up slowly.

As I watch one tear fall on her hand, she says, “If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to lie down.” She walks past me, and I watch her walk inside, her shoulders hunched over as she hangs her head.

“Asshole,” I hear and turn back to the table as the other woman points at me. “Excuse me, Delores, I suddenly feel sick.” She throws her napkin down as she walks away. I turn back and see Grams glaring at me.

“You think she wants to sit in your shell of a house while you wait for your wife to come back? Newsflash, Jensen, her husband just died,” she says, and my stomach roils as I look back inside and see Mila talking to her as Hailey stoops down in front of her. “Except he wasn’t her husband,” she whispers, and I whip my head back.

“What the fuck are you saying?” I ask her, fearing the worst, but the minute she says the words, I know it’s way worse than I thought. “He was married to someone else. So the life she was living was all a lie. So not only did her husband die, but she found out he was also someone else’s husband first, leaving her alone and with questions he will never be able to answer.” She gets up and comes to me. “So I offered her a place where she could try to live again. That house is yours, but that land is mine,” she points out. “Fix it.” She doesn’t give me a chance to answer; instead, she walks into the house, and all I hear is laughing as I watch Hailey throw her head back with Mila in front of her giggling.

“What the fuck is going on?” I say to myself and the universe. While I wait for an answer, all I get is a text from Brody.

Tomorrow, the white house. I bought the paint.

I don’t bother to answer, while I walk out of the backyard to the front. Instead, I pick up the phone and make some calls. Even if I have to muck and clean out the town sewer system, someone else will be taking my place.

When I look back inside the house and don’t see anyone walking outside from the backyard, I look up at the house and my eyes land on the room in the corner. The room where I pulled myself together for my daughter, the room where I dealt with her colic, and the room that made me realize I could get through this. I see the curtains move as I look down and get in my car. Driving away, I never once look back.