Page 9 of The Princess & the Prospect

The picture Melody sent was of the blond woman I’d seen making out with Joker last night right before I left with Merc. She was on her knees in front of him – my husband – on our wedding night. He had his fingers tangled in her hair and his head thrown back in ecstasy. The angle was just tilted to the side enough that I could see it hadn’t been faked. The woman on her knees in front of him had his dick in her mouth as her eyes were rolled up toward his face, seeking his approval or something.

Another big, fat tear slid down my cheek. “Isn’t this your new husband?” the text that had accompanied the picture had said. I was sure Melody and all her friends were having a big laugh at my expense. None of them knew I was pregnant yet. They didn’t know why I was getting married, only that I was, and I had opted to finish school online as a result. For just a second I felt a glimmer of what Ever must have gone through back in high school, and I was thankful I wouldn’t have to stick it out as long as she had. I wasn’t sure I could handle going back considering I was pregnant and I didn’t need the worst moments of my life thrown in my face on a daily basis for everyone else’s amusement. I imagined that wouldn’t do my little one any good to have me so stressed out.

Two knocks sounded on my door before it promptly opened and Tiger Lily moved into the space I was occupying. My mom’s best friend glanced at my phone, my tears, and then she walked over and took the darn thing from me. I didn’t even bother to hide what I was looking at. What was the point? Most of the younger crowd from the club was there last night. Even though I never saw her son J-Bird I was sure he would hear all about it. So would Deck, and in turn the rest of my family. As if I needed to be further humiliated.

I watched as Tiger Lily glanced down at the image displayed there. Her lips thinned noticeably as she pulled them tight causing the little lines around her mouth to deepen. Her eyes narrowed briefly, in what could only be anger. Then she released a harsh breath before taking a seat next to me on the edge of the guest bed.

She handed my phone back to me as her eyes met mine. Unlike the prospect who had been waiting on me last night, there wasn’t a drop of pity in her gaze. Then she spoke softly, but with a purpose. “Can I tell you a story?” Since she hadn’t reacted the way I expected I simply tipped my head up and down acknowledging that she could, in fact, tell me a story.

“If it’s happier than the one I’m currently living, sure.”

She gave me a half-hearted smile before she continued on. “It didn’t start out that way, but it changed, eventually.” She stared off into the empty space across the room clearly not seeing the chair that sat there or all the decorative pillows I’d removed from the bed during the night when I’d attempted to sleep and they bothered me. Truth be told, breathing bothered me considering how my night had gone, but I had to admit I took it all out on those poor, undeserving pillows.

“I was young when I got pregnant with Deck. I was 16 and he was 18. We weren’t seriously dating or anything even though I wished we were. I’d had a crush on that boy since I was 12-years-old. He lived across the street and I planned our wedding while he did his own thing, oblivious to me.” I knew they had been young parents, but I hadn’t realized they’d been that young.

“I knew right away what I meant to him after our first time together. It had been at a party, and we hadn’t gone there together. Just one of those things where we ended up there. Anyway, he all but forgot me and our night together afterward. When I’d see him in passing it was like he looked right through me.”

“I bet that hurt,” I told her as she paused and glanced back at me. She nodded her head and I could see the pain of those memories still haunted her. The sadness was so evident in her eyes. In that moment, I ached for Tiger Lily.

“It hurt like you wouldn’t believe,” she said as she glanced back down at my phone I’d tossed on the bed between us. Unfortunately, it had landed screen up and the image of Joker and the woman who had been with him last night were still there. Suddenly, I was hating the fact that the screen hadn’t timed out yet. “Actually,” she spoke again, pulling my eyes from the horrible image. “I guess you would know exactly what that’s like.”

I made a noise of agreement in the back of my throat as I marveled at the fact that bonding over our tainted loves had me feeling truly like an adult for the first time in my life. “What happened?” Obviously, I knew she ended up with Merc and that they were still together today so it couldn’t be so bad. Could it? Tiger Lily was one of the strongest women I knew. I figured she was about to tell me how to fight for your true love and never take the kind of shit she’d just seen on my cell phone.

“The day I finally worked up the courage to tell him I had gotten pregnant, I interrupted a make out session with a girl from school who I hated. I didn’t realize the two of them had been dating before. They’d been so quiet about it the first time around. Apparently, she was trying to make sure her parents didn’t find out she was dating the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. That’s why they had broken up just before he was with me at that party.” Oh man, my heart hurt for the younger version of Tiger Lily. I couldn’t imagine walking in on the boy I was in love with and an enemy of mine from school while I had news about being pregnant. No way could I have gone through with telling him. I stopped her story, because I laughed at that thought.

“Sorry, I was just thinking I couldn’t have dealt with a situation like that and managed to tell him anyway, but I guess I had to go through something similar too.”

Lily patted my leg in comradery before she carried on with her tale. “The girl who he was with had always been a bitch to me. It hurt double that he was with her, of all people. He knew, or at least I was pretty sure he did, how mean she was. I almost walked away without telling him, but that bitch opened her mouth and said the worst thing. ‘Oh, look honey, virgin Lily was probably hoping you’d pop her cherry for her since she’s so in love with you.’ The cow actually laughed at her own joke after she said that to me. I lost my temper and my damn mind for the first time ever in that moment. I told her, ‘He already did and now I’m pregnant with his baby, honey!’ Then I walked out to find my dad and Merc’s dad standing there in the hallway. They definitely heard what I said. I was mortified all over again.”

“You and Merc ended up married because of your dads?” I guessed at her situation, seeming somewhat similar to my own.

“You betcha!”

“But it all worked out. You had Jason and you’re still together after all these years.” I smiled as I told her what she’d already lived through.

“Ah, sweet girl, it ain’t all sunshine and roses. Merc and me went down some dark paths to get here. He cheated – a lot – at first. I told myself I didn’t care because I had Declan to care for and we were taken care of financially, but I went through a world of hurt. When I found out I was pregnant with Jason I made a plan to leave Merc. I had caught him cheating again and the stress… Well, I cramped bad and I thought I was going to lose the baby as a result.”

“Why did you stay?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “That was around the time your dad lost your mom for a while. I don’t know if seeing Double-D go through that was what did it, but Merc changed. He stayed home more. He didn’t come home smelling like perfume or with lipstick on him. And he started spending time with me even when Deck wasn’t around.” Lily smiled at some long-lost memory before she was ready to continue.

“The day Jason was born was the first day I felt like I had a real husband.”

“I’m not saying things will be the same for you, but considering that picture, I am telling you that you need to decide what you can live with. What you can forgive. Forgetting will never be an option, especially since that picture was taken on your wedding night. Moving forward is tough. If you want this you work for it and lay down your own ground rules for what you will and will not tolerate. You may have messed up by lying in the beginning, but that doesn’t give him the right to treat you like a punching bag for it. He agreed to marry you because you’re having his baby. Not so that he can keep beating you down.”

“He’d never hit me,” I argued, misunderstanding her meaning of punching bag.

“Seeing what you saw last night, and the picture you got in that message, wasn’t a giant punch to the gut for you?”

I glanced away, unable to look her in the eyes then. The misery swamped me at the glaring accuracy of what she’d just described. “Yes,” I finally answered meekly. “It was exactly like that.”

“Sweet girl, there are many forms of abuse in this world, and I’m not saying that’s Joker’s norm. I am saying, if you stay, you need to put your foot down about things like that. The stuff you can’t or won’t tolerate needs to be discussed so that he doesn’t turn a mistake into a bad habit that will slowly eat away at your soul, and probably his own too, whether he realizes it or not.”

Tiger Lily gave me a lot to think about it, and a different perspective as she was doing it. For a brief instant I wondered if my life could turn out like hers where I end up with the man I’d wanted after all. The problem was, every time I closed my eyes all I could see was his fingers wrapped around a blond head of hair. I twirled a finger around the now limp, messy chocolate brown lock that managed to slip free of my unkempt ponytail. I knew then that I couldn’t stomach going through years of knowing he was cheating on me the way Tiger Lily had with Merc. I wouldn’t survive something like that. I also didn’t think I could bring myself to ask her how she had managed to get through it all. Maybe another day.

---