Page 7 of Our Lips Are Sealed
“Don’t call her that.”
Rebecca despised her youngest’s nickname. Cecilia wasn’t Simone’s daughter, she was hers, and it was high time the child accepted it.
“So, if the two of them stay with Laura Jean and Simone, are you saying you expect me and Livy to just go off and live somewhere without them?”
The muscle in his hollow cheek twitched at her tone. “Olivia is going to live with Miranda, where she’ll attend private school with Samuel and get an education worthy of my daughter,” he informed her. “At Parkland Grounds, Livy will want for nothing.”
Rebecca stood gaping at him. There was no way in hell she was just going to leave. Three children, twelve years, and countless apologies. She had endured it all for him, for them, and for her reward.
“I’m sorry, but you actually think I’m going to leave my home and my children?”
He thought her question was funny and smiled at her condescendingly. “Haven isn’t your home. The house might be in Simone’s name, but she could never maintain it without my family’s funding. And do you know what that means? It means it technically still belongs to the Fairweathers.”
“And?”
“And you’re not one of us.”
The walls slowed their roll, slicing downward to break open the floor. They speared the length of the tile, threatening to break the ground open and gobble him whole.
“I won’t do it.”
“It doesn’t matter what you will or won’t do,” he told her with more menace than usual. “It’s done. Ben made the deal, and I took it. The shares and the kids, for whatever I want. He’s doubled my allowance, too. I’m set, with the only loose thread being you.”
“I’m their mother, and I haven’t agreed to anything.”
“Do you think that matters?” he shouted. “Ben always gets what he wants, and right now, the main thing he wants is for Laura Jean to be happy.”
Cold. Rebecca was so very cold. She shook violently, her vision going in and out of focus.
“When I went up to the house, Laura Jean asked me to give you this.” Charlie extracted a wadded leaflet from his pocket and threw it in her face. “It’s for rehab. Those dumb bitches honestly think they can save you.”
A succession of firecracker pops went off from the direction of the dock, but Rebecca didn’t flinch this time. The explosions outside were nothing compared to the screaming in her head.
She thrust the fake wedding ring in his face. “What about this?”
“What about it?”
“You promised.”
“I promised to take care of you, not marry you,” he said, as if talking to a child. “And that’s exactly what I’m doing. You’ll get paid, Becca.”
The dark roared, no longer in her head, but seeping from the walls, the floor, and the very air surrounding them.How dare he, it wailed.We are owed. He destroyed us. He made us this way.
“What’s done is done, and it’s best to accept it,” Charlie said in a low voice. “Because if you don’t, Ben will make your life hell, and even I won’t be able to save you.”
Ben would do it. With Charlie’s help, he would throw her into rehab and have her declared an unfit mother. Then she would never see Livy again or get a dime out of any of them.
“Don’t let him take the kids,” she begged, hot tears of frustration burning. “You can stop this.”
Charlie laughed outright. “I’m not going to stop anything. You don’t care about those kids,” he said. “I want my life back. I want my money back. The other women are willing to take on the hassle of raisingmykids.”
“Give me Livy,” she pleaded, latching onto his shirt. Ben might consider paying more if she had at least one of the kids, and Rebecca loved her girl. They could make a new life together—just the two of them. “Don’t let Miranda raise our daughter. You and I both know that the whole situation with Josie isn’t right. Something is going on there, and our baby is so beautiful. They’ll turn her into something horrible.”
Ripping her hand away, Charlie slammed her to the floor. “Look at you,” he yelled as she bawled at his feet. “How are you the better alternative?”
Black silky wisps oozed from the breaks in the walls and floor, gathering around her, telling her that none of his words were true. She was better than Miranda.
She was better than all of them.
