Page 83 of Fourth Wall

I walked up to the door and rang the bell. It was a few moments of silence as I heard footsteps inside.

“You can do this.” I felt Christian squeeze my hand, but honestly, I think I was too far gone down the rabbit hole of stress to hear him.

“Maeve.” The door opened, and Tyler stood there in his typical three-piece suit. “I would say that I’m surprised to see you here, but I’m not.”

“Can we talk about what happened?” I asked.

“Where are the girls?” Tyler questioned, looking around.

“They are at the house. We thought this conversation would be better suited for adults,” Christian responded, and I shot him a look of gratitude. That was my bodyguard, and I loved seeing this side of him. He was still protective and controlling of thesituation without waving his guns around, showing Tyler that his words could be a weapon, too.

“Okay.” Tyler folded his arms in front of him. Christian grabbed my hand to head inside, and just as I passed Tyler, he whispered so it was barely audible. “Brought your dog with you, eh?”

39

Christian

I was fucking pissed. The audacity of this fucking asshole to say that shit right in front of me.

I paused immediately from where I stood.

“You said what?” I questioned him, raising my chest a little more.

“Christian, please don’t.” Maeve pulled against my arm, and I shot her a look that told her I knew she shouldn’t have anyone talking like this to her.

“Let’s get one thing straight. We are here to have a civilized conversation with you. If that is something you are unable to do, then we need to leave this house, and we’ll happily see you in court.” I stared him straight in the face. Tyler nodded, and we walked into the house.

I saw Stephen’s back before I walked out to the patio. Tyler lived in a large house with a big grassy backyard. It was in a nearby neighborhood that we had lived in, and it was nice to see Stephen did well for himself. His choice of partner was questionable now because Tyler was an asshole, and I have no idea how he didn’t see that.

Tyler and Maeve were behind me, and I released Maeve’s hand just as I opened the patio door. I shot a glance back at her to let her know what I was doing, and she gave me a slight nod of encouragement.

As I walked into the dark, cool air, the familiarity of the shadowy night gave me the final nudge of encouragement to go up to the one person who I trusted most, and was married to the one person who was hurting my family the most.

“Funny seeing you here,” I said blankly and stood over where Stephen was on the wooden picnic-like table. “This house looks awfully similar to the backyard in the foothills.” Slowly, Stephen glanced up, and a sense of shock hit him hard in the face.

“Are you okay? How did you find out…? Are you?” He was unable to make a sentence, but I walked over to him while he stood, and he gave me such a confused hug.

Maeve walked out slowly with Tyler, who looked between Stephen and me.

“Is this your girlfriend? How long have you known?” Stephen asked. Tyler stood there frozen and utterly confused.

“Maeve is my girlfriend. I just realized who you were.”

Stephen turned to Tyler. “This is Christian.” Tyler’s mouth practically dropped.

“Like from the Marine Corps Christian?” Tyler asked, and we both nodded our heads.

“I think we should all sit,” I offered, and everyone took their respective places at the table. Maeve slid in next to me, and I placed a supportive arm on her thigh.

“Tyler, why are you doing this to me?” Her voice cracked. The desperation leaked from her. It literally killed me to see her like this. “We used to be friends. What happened?”

Stephen stared at me from across the table.

“You are a terrible mom,” Tyler spat. Stephen grabbed his hand.

“I really don't think that’s fair to say. You don't know what that even means, Ty…” Stephen looked over at Maeve, whose tears were brimming on her lower lashes.

“I know that we never really got the chance to ever sit down and have a conversation like this, but for what it’s worth, I’m so sorry that the way we happened ended your relationship. I never intended it to. I’d just started to become sober and quickly fell in love with Tyler.”

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