Page 48 of His Bittersweet Regret

“Sorry, today has been a complete mess from start to finish.”

“Sit down,” she ordered as a bottle of water was thrust into my hand. “Now, tell me everything.” And so, I did.

“Let me get this straight, the man bought you a whole house, furnished it the way you always dreamed about, and then you came back to this dump? No offense,” she tacked on at the end. I’d be offended if she wasn’t correct.

“He didn’t buy the house for ‘me’. He bought it for ‘us’, which means strings are attached. Even if he doesn’t pull them yet, he will. Plus, it also means that the rug can be pulled out from beneath my feet at a moment’s notice. Would you really move out of this dump just to jump into uncertainty with a baby possibly hours or days away?”

My best friend pouted as she contemplated my dilemma for a moment. “I see your point. Still, that’s a huge thing for him to have done. Did you at least talk things out a bit? Get something settled about visitation and custody, or do you think we need to get you a lawyer?”

“We didn’t get to talk about anything except all the pictures of us that were hung around the house like it was some kind of shrine to our relationship.”

“Well, if he’s trying to win you back, that’s probably exactly what it was.”

“It was in poor taste, considering.”

“Yeah, I see your point there.”

I laughed, after taking a healthy slug from my bottle of water. “The crazy thing is, he pretended like he didn’t know he took everything with him when he left.”

Beth listened to me rant and rave for another few minutes before she sighed. “Your whole situation sucks and I’m sorry you’re having to go through it all while pregnant with his baby. I’m sure that makes it a million times harder.”

“It does. No matter what, I’ll have to deal with him for at least the next eighteen years and then for special occasions after that involving our son.” I groaned in misery as I pictured what that future might look like. “What if my son ends up with a step-monster like Monica?”

“Then we’ll go out for target practice and make sure we’re ready if she ever steps a toe out of line. We can start saving now for bail money, or get out of the country money, whichever we can get away with.”

I laughed at her suggestion because knowing Bethany, she was serious as a heart attack. She would go with me and my son to a foreign country to hide out after killing Marsh’s wife, fiancé, girlfriend, fuck buddy, or whomever dared to mess with my boy. That was true friendship.

“So, Uber Joe asked you out?” Beth asked as she waggled her eyebrows at me.

“Stop! That is so not happening.”

“Pshh, wait and see how you feel in a couple months. Time changes things. Besides, I think it would be good for Mr. Marshal Kennedy to see exactly what it feels like to watch the love of his life dating someone else.”

“I’m not the love of his life,” I argued.

“Agree to disagree.”

“How can you say that?” I asked in all seriousness.

“Honey, I think the boy did something completely idiotic after years of being taunted, tormented, and worn down by his friends and family. They basically brainwashed him into believing that he wasn’t meant to be with you until he got other people out of his system for sure.

“Was he a moron? Yes. Did he do idiotic things? Yes, again. Did he break your heart to pieces and make me want to break his legs and his dick in much the same way? Also yes. Does any of that mean you aren’t the love of his life? No. Anyone with a pair of working eyeballs can see that you two are soulmates. Hell, even a blind person could see it just by spending five minutes in a room with you. The energy you two put off is electric.”

“A soulmate wouldn’t do that to their other half,” I whispered.

“Normally, I’d agree with you. I’m not saying you should forgive him, forget what he did, or not go on living your life and making decisions like he doesn’t exist beyond his connection to your son. I’m just saying that the man never stopped loving you. It’s obvious.”

I shrugged my shoulders and changed the subject because it hurt too much to consider that Marsh might still be in love with me, despite what he’d done to destroy us.

“I could have this baby at any moment,” I declared.

“Holy shit! Are you having contractions?” Bethany yelped as she jumped up and looked between my legs.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking to see if your water broke?”

We both started laughing so hard that I peed a little and that just made us laugh even more. It was something I hadn’t done much of in a long while, and something about it was almost healing in a way.

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