Page 40 of The Regrettable Mistake

I nodded my head and followed my best friend out of the hospital where we were immediately greeted with assholes taking our picture.

“Did Stephanie kick you out?” One yelled.

“Oliver, over here!”

“Did you know that Jia sent that message to your wife?”

That last question caught me off guard and I spun around. “Who said anything about my wife being sent a video?”

“So, it’s true?” The reporter who had asked the question followed up.

I spun in a slow circle and took all of them in. They were clogging up the entrance to the emergency room and taking video and photos of anyone and everyone who entered. That wasn’t acceptable.

“Tell you what, I’ll give you all a statement right now, but we’re going to move this circus over there.” I pointed to an area that was probably used by smokers on their breaks. They could go somewhere else to suck back their habit for a little while.

I didn’t wait to see if they would follow.

They did.

Once I had them all surrounding Caleb and myself, my lawyer managed to lean in and tell me he didn’t think this was a smart idea. His advice had fucked me over more than it had helped in the past couple weeks, so I didn’t give a fuck any longer. I almost lost my baby today, and with it, I firmly believe Steph would have followed. She was already clearly not doing well.

“Can I get everyone’s attention!” Flashes temporarily blinded me as photographers snapped pictures. “As you have all already reported, my wife is in the hospital. As of right now, both she and the baby are okay. I’m not telling you this to give you the scoop. I’m telling you this to appease your curiosity and get all of you off her back.” I glared into every camera present even as more showed up.

“Stephanie Burton is not the villain of this story. She is, and has always been, the victim. I cheated on my wife. It kills me to admit that. I’ve never cheated on anyone I have been with before and that includes my ex-girlfriend, Julianna Hightower, otherwise known as Jia. I met my wife four years ago, moved her in with me and my son after six months of dating, and then married her three years ago. Our entire relationship has been fully documented by my wife. Not to mention, she was 19 years old and didn’t live near me when Jia abandoned me and my son to go to Hollywood.

“So, you’re going on record that Jia lied about your wife being the original homewrecker?”

“I already went on record about exactly that before. You need to pay attention. You all call yourselves reporters, meanwhile you’ve been attacking the wrong woman. You’ve cost my wife the job she loved. You took away her livelihood during a time when she became a single mother who happens to be pregnant and she’s unemployable right now because of your bullshit.”

“Steph wouldn’t want all this put out there.” Caleb’s whispered admonishment didn’t stop me. I shook him off.

“I’m putting it all out there because my wife had her job wrongfully terminated, which means she also lost her health insurance. All of that, on top of finding out that her husband was unfaithful and then having to deal with my ex causing more problems that sent Steph to the hospital today. This needs to end. If you want to harass someone, go after Jia, because she craves the attention and deserves for you to take a really close look at her life and the lies she’s been spilling – have at it.

“If you want to take a look into me personally, go for it. I deserve the ridicule that will come from everyone for stepping out on my wife ONCE. Then for being so fearful of my wife knowing what was said and done that I allowed that D-list actress wanna-be to blackmail me into traipsing all over the damn country searching for her perfect surgeon.

“Turns out, that’s not what she wanted. She wanted to be seen with me, so she could spin this web of lies in the hopes that I’d have to get back with her at that point to save my own butt and her reputation. If you want to be good little reporters, you should look into that accident that scarred her face. Funny how you missed the fact that it was her fault and that she hit and killed an innocent man earlier in the evening while giving her latest married producer a blowjob.”

Caleb had to turn to hide the way he snickered at that. We hadn’t planned to release that information just yet, since the DA asked us not to, but fuck him. He was taking too long to get the situation in hand. The longer all this bullshit played out, the longer my wife and son suffered.

“Now that I’ve done your damn jobs for you, what you will no longer do is follow my wife or son around. They have both had their lives disrupted enough and neither of them deserved it.” I got ready to walk away and then thought it better to go ahead and get my threats out of the way.

“One more thing. If I find out any of you have caused my wife one iota of stress by following her, trying to contact her or my son, or publishing more slanderous lies about her, then I will not stop until she not only owns every single publication you work for, but your personal homes, vehicles, and every last penny in your bank accounts.”

CHAPTER 15

Steph

“I need to know that she is going to have someone around to care for her for the time being. Truthfully, I think she should be admitted for a few more days.”

“Doc, my mom and I will be there for her twenty four hours a day, seven days a week until she’s feeling more like herself. She didn’t try to harm herself, she was just overwhelmed by her situation. It happens to the best of us, just so happens my sister has pregnancy hormones on top of all the other shit to contend with.”

“I happen to agree,” The obstetrician who came to check on me stated. “I’ve spoken with Ms. Burton, and don’t believe she would harm herself or her baby. This was a combination of being overly emotional, hormonal, and dehydrated. All three can happen to a pregnant woman on a good day, but add in all the stress she has been under, and frankly, I’m surprised she made it this long without having an incident. I am happy with the family involvement Steph will have, and will sign her release order myself if you won’t.”

I had a lot of respect for the woman for sticking up for me that way. The sad part was that it meant everyone else thought that my mental health had taken a huge tumble. They weren’t entirely wrong, but I was mostly recovered from the initial shock after viewing that video. My phone still hadn’t been returned me, but I honestly didn’t want it back. I asked my brother to get me a new phone, complete with a new number.

I also made the request that my future ex-husband not be given the new number. When I was ready to hear from him, I’d reach out and not a moment sooner. He was on my timeline now.

“Mom, where are my clothes?”

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