Brody
A few hours earlier
Life is good.
Life is really good.
Who would have thought that I’d be this fucking happy again after the shit storm of the last year? Not me. Not in a million years.
I have Brooke back in my life, in our home, in our bed, and it is going to stay that way. There is no way on this earth that I’m letting her go again, not without a fight. That woman has been mine since the day I was born, and she’ll remain mine until the day I die.
Brooke is it for me, it’s that simple.
I can’t believe that I was that arrogant, that…stupid, that I thought I could live my life without her. I’ve been lucky enough to be given a second chance. Believe me, that chance won’t be wasted, which is why the ring I proposed to her with the first time has been burning a hole in my pocket this past week.
I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to ask her to marry me. I nearly asked her last night, after we made love, but I managed to stop myself just in time. I would have asked her today but that asshole, Jake, called and said that he had some news regarding Brooke and Hope’s case and that he would be travelling up tonight. Hope and Brooke have gone to get extra groceries for dickhead’s arrival, while I decided to catch up on my paperwork in the relative peace of my office.
Truth be known, I don’t think that Jake’s a bad guy. I think I’d like him in another life, just not this one. What I don’t get is how that guy is so freaking rich…Hope mentioned that he would be flying here by private plane. Is stripping that lucrative? If it is, then I’m in the wrong fucking job. I discovered a long while ago that paperwork is not my forte. Working with my hands however…I reckon I’ll be here for a while yet, that’ll give me plenty of time to miss the girls fawning over stripper boy and just enough time for me to eat something, then drag Brooke off to bed.
The sound of a car pulling into the lot takes my attention away from the stack of papers in front of me. Outside, the sun has disappeared, replaced by deep golds and rich purples that signal that nighttime is almost here. I wonder for a moment if Brooke has given up and has come to get me, seeing as I’ve been here so long.
Quickly, I stuff some of the paperwork in the top drawer of my desk. She’ll have a fit if she sees how much work I haven’t gotten done today. I can’t risk her finding out that the reason why was because I’d spent so much time looking at wedding venues for us. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
As soon as that ring goes on her finger, we will be getting married. I don’t care where, I don’t care how, but I’m not going to wait this time. Hell, even if we get married in front of the judge at the courthouse, naked, I’d be happy, but Brooke deserves more. She deserves the best of everything, which is why I’ve been looking at booking us flights to somewhere exotic, like Bali, to have the wedding that she’s always dreamed of.
After the ceremony, I’ll give my wedding present to her…a baby. I know we had trouble in the past when we tried, and I know how much it hurt Brooke every month when nothing happened. In case nature doesn’t take its course, I’ve put enough money aside for a cycle of IVF treatment; if that doesn’t work, then we’ll look into adoption. It’s not the most romantic of gifts to my future wife, but it’s a gift that’s important to her…to us. I need to show Brooke how much she means to me, to let her see that I love her, and I’m committed to our future together.
The door to the outer office slams open. That sound gives me enough warning that I’m able to bookmark the webpage I was looking at before shutting it down. I give the few remaining sheets of paper in front of me a quick shuffle to make it look like I’ve been doing some actual work, and snatch up a pen to help with the illusion as I laugh inwardly. Brooke won’t buy it for one second.
“Where’s my money?” I look up in surprise to see the angry, twisted face of Joely staring down at me.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Well,” she says, examining her nails, “I looked at my account this morning. Your sister wanted some food. Apparently, the brat doesn’t want to live on chips and chocolate.” Joely sighs. “Imagine my surprise when I saw that my monthly payment hasn’t come through.”
“I told you,” I growl, “that you’re not getting another cent out of me or my family. Now get out of my office.”
Joely lets out a shrill laugh that makes me cringe. It’s the human equivalent to running nails down a blackboard.
“Brody, Brody, Brody,” she says, shaking her head as she perches her bony ass on the corner of my desk. “I don’t think you understand what will happen if I don’t get my money. You see, I have the power to destroy your beloved Brooke’s life. One word and I get her locked up for a very, very long time.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I warn.
“Oh, but I would.” The smile on her face stretches into a twisted, evil grin. “And I wouldn’t stop there. Just imagine how the press will react when I tell them all about how I had sex with your brother, and that I don’t know who the father of my child is because, well, I slept with your father first. I’m sure they’d be really interested to hear my story.” Joely’s voice drips with malice.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated someone as much as I do her right now. My fists are clenched firmly by my side, and if she were a man, I would have laid her out in an instant. It’s only by virtue of her gender that she’s still standing and conscious.
“Think how humiliating that would be for your poor, sainted mother,” she continues as she flicks her hair over her shoulder. “The whole world knowing that your father fucked me, a young, innocent, vulnerable girl, who didn’t know any better. A girl young enough to be his own daughter. Not only that, but either he or his son got me pregnant, even though I trusted them.” She gets off the desk and stands directly in front of me with her hands on her hips. I’m grateful that there is a desk between us. I’m in danger of lashing out at the vile bitch; it’s all I can do to keep my breath steady so that she doesn’t know that she’s getting to me. “Now wouldn’t that just be precious?” Her ugly face is smug as she carries on with her vicious plan. “You and I both know that this town is filled with hypocritical cunts who’ll be nice to your dear mother’s face, but behind her back…”
“Leave my mom alone. You’ve done enough to her.”
“If you don’t give me my fucking money, then I’ll do a whole lot worse.” She sneers. “I will ruin your whole fucking family, and there won’t be anything that you could do about it. Everything you love, everything you’ve worked for, will be gone. All I have to do is open my mouth.”
“Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. Here,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Give me my money and I’ll go.”
“You’re not getting any more money out of me or my family, Joely.” I push back angrily from my desk, stalking around to the front of it so that we’re face-to-face, my arms folded across my chest. “Now leave.”
Joely cocks her head to one side, her face a mask of pure hatred.
“Wrong answer.” She smiles before letting out a long, breathless moan.
“What the hell? What are you doing?” I throw my hands up as she gets ahold of my tee, pulling me toward her. “Get off me.”
I’m about to push her on her ass when she says quietly, “Lay one hand on me and I’ll call the cops. That will add attempted rape to the long list of shitty things that your family has done.”
“Jesus,” I whisper, horrified at how sick and twisted she actually is. “You’re insane.” I try to back away but my ass hits the edge of the desk. Her response is to let another moan escape her mouth as she advances on me.
“You can’t do this.”
“Yes, we can. Your girlfriend will never know,” she says, placing her hand behind the back of my neck, forcing her mouth on mine.
What. The. Fuck.
For a moment I’m too stunned to move, until I quickly come to my senses and push her by her hips to get her skank, disease infected mouth off of me.
In a bid to keep her hold on me, she shoves both her hands in my hair, pulling down hard and taking huge clumps out of my hair in the process. Another loud moan escapes her poisonous lips, the fucking bitch is getting off on this. Joely’s eyes flicker to the door, and I catch a look of victory in them before she closes them again as she smiles against my lips.
A loud bang as the door slams into the wall is what it takes for her to relax her grip, finally enabling me to push her off. For a moment I wonder who my savior is, realizing with mounting horror that that person is Brooke.
Oh God, no.
Brooke’s face is a picture of agony, her eyes full of unshed tears as she stares between Joely and me in disbelief.
“Brooke.” My voice trembles as I push Joely away from me. “Brooke, baby. It’s not what it looks like.”
The look on Brooke’s face tells me everything that I need to know. I’m losing her. I continue to walk toward her, hoping beyond hope that she’ll see it for what it is, a set up by an evil bitch who wants nothing more than to tear us apart.
Don’t let her, baby. Please don’t let her ruin us.
“Stop.”
I do as she says, not wanting to give her a reason to leave before I have a chance to tell her the truth.
“Brooke. Please let me explain,” I say gently.
Her expression changes from distraught to disgusted as she raises a trembling hand, pointing directly at the smug witch that caused all this.
“You were kissing that…”
“It’s not…” I start, trying to find the right words that will let her know that I am telling the truth. “That’s not…”
“So, you weren’t kissing her?” She interrupts.
“Yes…no. She kissed me, baby. I swear.” Even to my own ears that sounds lame. I’m about to open my mouth again to speak when Joely’s nasally voice fills the small office space.
“Brody.” I turn my head to look at her, wondering why on earth I ever let her into my life in the first place. What the fuck was I thinking that night? If I’d just said no…if I’d not gotten it into my head that Brooke and I were finished, then none of this shit would have happened. This is my fault. My relationship is hanging on by a thread because I allowed that toxic slut into our lives.
“Get rid of the bitch so we can…” she continues, oblivious to the fact that I’m considering hitting a woman for the first time in my life, “carry on with what you started.”
Oh no she didn’t.
My gaze is drawn back to Brooke, in the vain hope that I imagined what the poisonous dwarf just said. From the way her face pales and the way she staggers back slightly, placing her hand over her heart, then I didn’t imagine it. The whore is going down.
“Get the fuck out of my office,” I growl, not taking my eyes off of Brooke as I try to convey the message that Joely’s lying. Brooke turns her head away from me, a single tear tracking down her cheek. I’ve got to make this right. I can’t do that with the skank in my office, so I stalk over to her, and take her roughly by the arm, shoving her toward the door.
“What are you doing?” Joely shrieks.
I’m about to commit murder.
“What I should have done the moment you walked into my office. Now get the fuck out of here.” I’m angry as hell as I pick up her bag and coat and drag her outside.
“Get off me,” she sobs, trying to pull her arm out of my grasp.
“You’ve gone too far this time.” I keep my tone low, but control my anger. “Go to the fucking papers, Joely. Hell, I’ll go to the fucking press and tell them what a blackmailing whore you truly are. Stay away from Brooke. Stay away from me, and stay away from my goddamn family. First thing tomorrow, I’m going to go to my father and ask him to sue for custody of your kid. I don’t want any member of my family around someone as vile as you. The kid needs a chance in life, not have you as a role model.
“You wouldn’t.” She gasps. “You can’t.”
“I can and I will. You like playing games so much? How about this one, it’s called ‘fuck off’. You go first.” I wrench the outer office door open, pushing her out into the cold night.
“You can’t take my daughter. Please,” she begs, the vindictive smirk now gone from her face and replaced by a vulnerability that I’ve never known Joely to show openly. I’d almost feel sorry for her but after all the sick and twisted things that she has done to the people I love, she doesn’t deserve any sympathy from me.
“My sister, deserves to be…”
“She’s not your sister,” she says quietly.
“What?” I let her arm go from my grasp, causing her to stumble.
“Your dad isn’t her father.”
“Explain, now.” I’ve never felt anger like this before. After all the stunts she’s pulled, after all the money she has taken, and after she has ripped my family apart, she’s now telling me that she lied.
“Dair isn’t her dad.”
“Caden?”
“Caden isn’t her father either.”
I place my hand on the wall to steady myself. How can someone be so fucking evil that she would willingly look on while a once happy, loving family is torn apart? All for what? So she can get her fucking kicks? As much as I want her to tell me why she lied, I’m acutely aware that I need to get back to Brooke as quickly as I can.
“You spiteful bitch!” I rage, as she backs away from me. “You destroyed my parents’ marriage. You broke my mom’s heart. My father is a fucking shell. You’ve nearly brought my business to its knees, and now you are saying you did all of it for the hell of it, or was it the money? Power? That it? You like to watch everyone crash and fucking burn because you get off on it? You disgust me,” I spit. “I can only hope to God that Brooke doesn’t believe your lies. Now get the fuck out of here before I do something that I will regret.”
“I’m so…sorry.” She sniffs.
“Sorry won’t fucking cut it, Joely. Jail might.”
“No…no. You can’t do that.”
“Fraud, blackmail. These are felonies, Joely. I bet if I did some digging, it wouldn’t stop at those.”
“I’ll drop the charges against Brooke and Hope. I’ll tell the cops that I made it all up. I’ll do anything, Brody. Just don’t let them send me to jail,” she pleads.
“You’ve put my family through hell and you expect me to be merciful?”
“Please,” she whispers.
“Get out of here. In fact, get out of Emmerton and never come back. If you do, I will destroy you,” I growl, and slam the door in her face.
I practically sprint back to my office, stopping in the doorway to watch Brooke. Tears fall silently down her cheeks as she wraps her arms around herself. Her heart is breaking all over again, unaware of all of Joely’s lies.
My future, my chance of a happy ending, lay in pieces along with my shattered heart on that office floor. I don’t know how long I stayed there and I don’t care. I remember chasing after her on foot. I ran and ran, never able to catch the car as it drove off into the distance. After half a mile, I had to finally admit defeat. I headed back to my truck, which I should have fucking done in the first place, and broke all known speeding laws to get to Brooke before she could leave for good.
As I turn into my driveway, I see Brooke silhouetted in my headlights, and relief rushes through me that she hasn’t left yet.
There’s still a chance.
Brooke looks up as the truck comes to a stop. Her arms are wrapped around her middle, her eyes are puffed up from crying. Next to her stands Hope with her arms folded across her chest, annoyance spread across her elfin like features, from the look that she is giving Brooke right now, I figure that for once her ire isn’t aimed at me.
Without regard for anything except Brooke, I jump out of the cab door, charging straight for her.
“You’re not leaving.” Brooke stares at me with openmouthed disbelief, her posture changes from dejection to defensive in the blink of an eye.
“Excuse me?”
“I said you’re not leaving.”
“Like hell I’m not.”
“I’ll um…I’ll just go sit in the car.” Hope gives me a small smile and a thumbs up behind Brooke’s back as she heads off toward the other car parked in the driveway.
“You’re not going,” I say, folding my arms across my chest. “I won’t allow you to make the biggest mistake of your life.”
“You don’t get a say in anything I do,” she hisses. “Did you miss the memo? We are over.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
“You’re gonna give up. Just like that?”
“Yup,” she says, popping the P. “And I think that no one on this earth would blame me.”
“That’s it? You’re leaving because of something that you thought you saw?”
“I saw you kiss that slut, Brody. I’m not fucking blind.”
“That’s not what happened.” I keep the tone of my voice low in an effort to disguise the irritation that I’m starting to feel at her unwavering stance. “If I have to go get that bitch and drag her here by her hair just so that she’ll tell you the truth…”
“I don’t care about the truth!” she exclaims.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? You don’t care about the truth? I’m innocent, Brooke…one hundred percent innocent of the crime that you are charging me with and I think that you know that as well.”
“I know what I saw.”
“You really don’t,” I scoff. “So what’s this about, Brooke? Why are you running away? Come to think of it, where are you going to go? Last time I checked, you’re under investigation for battery. Don’t think the cops will take too kindly to you disappearing, do you?”
“I’m not running away, asshat.”
“Really? Looks that way to me.”
“I’m going home.”
“Home? You are home.”
“Scottsdale,” she answers, rolling her eyes.
“Your home is here with me.”
“I’ve made a new life for myself, one that doesn’t include you, and I want to get back to it.”
Ouch.
“What about the assault charge?”
“It’s been dropped. I’m free to go, and I’m going back to Arizona.”
It feels like I’ve been punched, hard, in the gut. All this time I thought that Brooke and I were making a go of it, that we were having our second chance. I was so blind. She never really wanted me back, did she?
As we stare at each other, her features soften as she realizes that I know.
Shit. This hurts.
I let out a long shuddering breath as I consider what I’m going to say next. “That’s it then. The charge gets dropped, so you’re leaving. Were you ever going to stay or were you using me?”
“Bro…”
“Don’t. Please. I thought we had a chance. Obviously, I was wrong.”
“I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life with you,” she whispers.
“You wouldn’t have been.” I take a minute to burn into my memory how she looks as she breaks my heart. She looks so beautiful, but none of that matters now. “Go back to Arizona. Live your life like you want. I won’t come after you. I’m done.”
Brooke gasps loudly, shock and confusion in her expression.
“I tried so hard with you. Nothing I’ve done would’ve changed this though, would it?” I say sadly. “I’m giving you what you want…I’m letting you go, Brooke. Have a nice life.” I brush past her, striding toward the house, not looking back as I hear her start to sob, even though my heart is breaking.
As far as I’m concerned, the story of Brooke and Brody has come to an end.