Page 29 of The Princess & the Prospect

Chapter 11

When I pulled up to the house, there were several cars and bikes lining the street, leaving the driveway open for me to pull the truck in. They were all waiting out there for me too, as if afraid to enter the house and ruin the surprise for Anna.

“I told you guys that she already knows you’re all coming over,” I joked with them.

“You organized this for our baby,” Lucy told me. “We didn’t want to go in without you. I took hold of the duffle that had been tossed into the back of the truck this morning. It was good to finally be coming home, especially since I felt things finally moving in the right direction with Anna. Talking to her yesterday had been very reminiscent of the times we’d spent together before our happy little couple-bubble blew up and I found out she was the VP’s daughter. She was his youngest, under-age daughter to be exact. Granted, by law, she wasn’t underage, but in the club’s eyes I could have lost my ability to become a full-fledged member by being with her. If she hadn’t lied about a couple things, at the time, I would have said she was worth losing the club over. I couldn’t contain the smile that spread across my face as I moved closer to these people. Since I was discharged from the Army they had become my family. Knowing that they were going to more of a family as Anna and I grew closer again was only a bonus.

“You look like a new man today,” Merc commented.

“It feels great to finally be heading in the right direction again,” I answered.

“‘Bout time,” Double-D grumbled.

“Now, don’t fuck it up!” Ever scolded playfully as we walked through the door. Her blunt reply had everyone laughing as we did so.

We all managed to file through the door and into the living room when my eyes met Anna’s. She was smiling, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. Something was very wrong. It dawned on me then that I hadn’t let her know I wouldn’t be back last night, but it should be easily cleared up since Merc and Lily were here to vouch for me. That’s about the time I heard another voice.

“I really think I should…” the woman sounded panicked as she got ready to stand, but my wife interrupted her.

“Nonsense, everyone is here now.”

An exchange of lowered voices happened, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying before Anna turned our way again. She turned my way specifically.

“Look, Joker,” she started before turning back to the curvy little blond dressed like she was going clubbing rather than a family birthday party who also seemed absolutely terrified now. “Sorry, how rude of me,” Anna was saying with mock sweetness. “I didn’t get your name.” She paused, but seemed to think better of allowing the woman to speak. “Never mind,” she turned her attention back to me then. “She was here to return your…” Her head swiveled back to the as yet named woman again. “What was it again?” She bent awkwardly, squishing her adorable, yet still smallish, baby bump as she did. The she retrieved men’s underwear from the woman’s purse. Oh fuck no! I was already seeing where this was going. Anna held them out, dangling them off of a single finger. “Apparently, you left these with her last night.”

Every set of eyes in the house moved to me. Most of them not in a kind way. The lying bitch was pleading with her eyes for me to save her from this scene while most the others clearly had my murder on their minds. Everyone except Merc and Lily who knew, without a doubt, it wasn’t true.

“That’s a fuckin’ lie!” The words flew from my mouth laced with both truth and accusation. Anna dropped the underwear to the floor, but I turned to the blond. “I don’t even fuckin’ know you!” I yelled at her.

“Now, that’s a mother truckin’ lie if I ever heard one,” Anna started with only a tiny bit of cool emotion filtering through her words. “You know her very intimately. You know her so intimately that you consummated our marriage with her on our wedding night. Shoot, you drove her piece of crap car to this house just yesterday to deliver me an ice cream cake and balloons.” Oh fuck no! Please, if there is a God out there, tell me that wasn’t true. I had taken those keys from a man, not a woman. I glanced at the woman in question again as Anna shifted and moved over a bit. I didn’t recognize her at all. Then again, I’d been completely hammered and thought she was Anna when I’d woken up to her draped over top of me after my wedding night.

When I shifted my glance back to Anna I noticed she had been blocking a new addition to the décor of the house with her body previously. There was an awesome, handcrafted photo frame sitting there. It looked to be silver, or maybe pewter. I couldn’t tell from this distance. There was a heart in the middle with words etched into it. I couldn’t make out the words from the distance, but I did notice the two pictures that took up space in the frame. They were from our wedding day and night. One was of Anna and me at the courthouse. You couldn’t see either of our faces because I had shifted so Anna could only be seen in profile and my hand was held in front of me so my face was obscured from the shot. It was proof of the asshole I had been on our wedding day. I wouldn’t even let her sister take a picture of us to commemorate the occasion. It was no wonder she hated me, and couldn’t move past my stupid reactions that day.

Nope. Scratch that. I moved from that picture to the one that made me want to puke. Jesus. She had a picture of that? I turned my attention back to the blond woman – the same one who was still sitting shell-shocked at our kitchen table. In the picture, she had been going down on me. It had clearly been the same night I got married to Anna. The most damning part of it was I looked to be seriously enjoying it in that picture. I didn’t even fucking remember it happening, let alone who it had happened with. When I was finally able to tear my eyes away, it was to see that Anna had fled the room. I turned my glare on the woman from the picture, but I focused on the version of her still seated at my table.

“You gave this to her today?” I roughly questioned the woman sitting there.

“Oh my God!” The woman shrieked as she finally turned to see what I had been staring at. “Who took that? Why would someone take a picture of that?” She seemed genuinely upset at the idea that someone had taken the picture, which led me to believe that she hadn’t been the one to give it to Anna. That begged the question, where did it come from then? Surely, she hadn’t taken it herself. Merc had told me he took her out of there when I was just kissing another woman. Apparently, that had been the blond woman sitting in front of me too.

“I didn’t know you had gotten married that day. You didn’t even speak to her at all that night. I thought she was just another club slut wanna-be, or I swear I would have never come here.” Tears streamed down her face. “I’m so ashamed. She’s pregnant. I didn’t know she was pregnant either. What kind of a horrible person do I look like now?” The woman was babbling and blubbering as she spoke. “You borrowed my car yesterday, and I thought it meant something. I thought you finally remembered our night together, and…” She cried some more. “When I got here and saw her, I figured she was just a club slut. It turns out I’m the homewrecking slut. How could you do that to such a sweet girl? She couldn’t even cuss at you after what you did. Oh my God! After what I did with you!” She glanced over to Merc and Double-D then. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear!” She knew her ability to show up at the clubhouse would be nil with the admission that she had come here to find me and decided to cause trouble when she found another woman in my house instead. The club had a zero tolerance policy with that type of drama since Toby had been killed by a crazy, jealous club whore.

“Get out of my house,” I hissed at her. She wasted no time doing just that. I noticed Deck followed her to the door saying something as they went and causing her crying jag to ramp up. I had moved without thought to the kitchen island where the photo frame sat mocking me with the worst mistakes I’d ever made. I snatched it up ready to launch it across the room when Ever was suddenly there yanking it out of my hand.

“Don’t you dare!” She took the back off the frame and tore the pictures out then tossed them to the floor like they were on fire. Then she reverently put the frame down on the counter. “She bought that years ago to save it for her wedding photos because it was perfect in her eyes.” Ever teared up while talking about it. “I remember hearing Momma-Luce tell her she was too young to worry about stuff like that. Anna insisted she’d regret it forever if she didn’t get it then, because she’d never find another one like it. She insisted her wedding photos had to go in it one day.”

I hadn’t allowed Anna to have a single usable photo of our wedding. Now, the damn frame was tainted by the horrible memories I’d left her with of a day that was supposed to be sacred. Never in my life had I thought of harming myself for any reason, but in that moment I finally understood the amount of despair and self-loathing necessary to contemplate doing just that. As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry about inflicting harm on myself. Before I could even register the movement, Ever had hauled off and clocked me right in the corner where my eye and nose met. I actually stumbled back from the impact, having been caught by surprise at her attack.

“That’s my girl!” Double-D called out. He must have been ready to pounce too, but when I turned to take the much deserved hit from him, Merc had a hold of him instead.

“He was with me and Tiger Lily every night since they split up, last night included.”

“That picture, those pictures,” Double-D pointed to the offending things lying on the floor. “That was my baby girl’s wedding night!”

“I know,” I offered up miserably. I grabbed the pictures and started ripping at them furiously, not even realizing I was crying like a baby in front of everyone.

“She can never unsee that,” Lily informed me, breaking the silence that had descended over everyone else there. “But honey, she had that picture since her wedding night.”

I glanced up at Lily through eyes swimming with tears and my face crumpled with more emotion than I could handle. “She knew? All this time?”

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