Page 85 of A Lie so Dangerous and Fragile

“Can I wash your hair for you?” he asked me, and I nodded.

I sighed in contentment as he massaged my scalp smoothly with the shampoo and brushed his fingers through my hair.

“Why did you cut your hair?”

“I was having a breakdown. It was actually shorter than this, but I like it,” I said.

He was awfully quiet, and I had a feeling he was overthinking. I turned around and faced him, and his hands stilled on my head.

“I forgive you,” I said, looking up at him.

He looked speechless as he met my eyes. I cut him off before he could say anything.

“I want us to move on from what happened and be the best parents to Kayden and Kayla,” I added. “I’m not promising anything, Tristan. I just want us to put our differences aside and focus on the twins.”

“I will take anything you give me if it means I don’t lose you and the kids again. I promise to make this work,” he said and brushed my hair back.

I laughed when he smeared my cheeks with foam from my hair.

I touched the scar on the right side of his stomach, where he had gotten shot. I traced it with my fingertip. I explored the curves and texture of his torso, and I couldn’t shake off how intimate this moment felt. Unable to resist any longer, my eyes trailed lower, and heat ran through my body when I found him hard. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes as Tristan rinsed my hair, his long fingers brushing my back and stroking my scalp.

Was I that sex-starved that I was getting turned on from Tristan washing my hair?

My lips parted when I felt his fingers trail down my cheeks to wrap around my throat. When I opened my eyes, he was staring at me with a hunger that warned me to leave quickly or he would have me against the wall, making all the dirty thoughts in my head come true. I pulled closer, running my palms up his chest as water ran down our flushed skin.

Coming in here had been a bad idea. I was trying to fight the craving, trying to resist closing every bit of space between our bodies to kiss him. He was fighting it, too, even as his skin tensed against my fingers that skimmed up his chest. Our ragged breaths filled the tiny distance between us as I pushed myself up onto my tiptoes, Tristan’s erection knocking against my stomach. His left arm reached quickly to wrap around my waist. Our lips drew closer like magnets, our breaths mingled, and just when I thought he’d kiss me, he pulled away.

“Not like this,” was all he said and left the shower while I stood under the running water, flustered and confused.

I hadn’t even been thinking clearly. All I had been focused on was his touch, his tight grip on my thigh and the marks he’d leave on my body. I cursed and mentally face-palmed myself. I stayed a little longer in the shower, trying to wash off the longing and shame.

We brushed our teeth at the same time, neither of us saying anything to each other, but I caught him looking at my ass when I leaned down to spit out the paste in my mouth. He smiled and tried to play it cool while I elbowed him, laughing. I smacked his ass on our way back to the room, and he tried to retaliate but ended up chasing me around the suite. He gave up and went to bed. It was nice to wear him out and have a good laugh.

I stayed up on the phone with Vina, who was quick to call me out on the change in my voice. I couldn’t describe the feeling, but it’d been awhile since I’d felt like this—almost happy. I went to sleep on the sectional but ended up waking up in bed. Tristan must have moved me to the bed.

***

The date for the court hearing was set. We had a week to make an appearance in court. Dr. Mendoza and Mrs. Gonzalez arranged for another visit for us to see Kayla. She was still quiet, but she played with us.

On the day of the hearing, I threw up and kept going to the bathroom to pour water on my face. I gripped on to Tristan’s arm as we entered the courtroom. The judge’s face was enough to make my heart race in fear.

Mrs. Gonzalez sat across from us with Kayla. The hearing began, and questions were thrown at us. I had a lot of explaining to do, and by the end of the first hearing, I was trembling. We took a break and went over to see Kayla. Tristan’s lawyer was good. His persuasion skills were mind-blowing.

They didn’t bring up anything about me and Ryan, and they didn’t dig deep into why Tristan and I had separated. They were more focused on our financial status, my relationship with Tristan, custody arrangement, and our relationship with the twins. They asked Mrs. Gonzalez what she’d observed about our relationship with Kayla and if we were good parents.

We took another break before the judge made her final decision. I gave Mrs. Gonzalez a big hug for everything she had told the judge about us and thanked Andrew for his hard work. We went back into court for the result of the hearing.

“After listening to both sides, I hereby restore the parental rights to Tristan Sanchester and Chloe Simpson of their daughter, Kayla Simpson,” she said and hit her gavel on the block.

I jumped up from my seat, unable to contain my happiness. I beamed at the judge, who wore a smile for the first time since we had walked in.

“Oh my God, we got Kayla back!” I exclaimed and wrapped my arms around Tristan.

“Yes, we did,” Tristan whispered.

We took Kayla for a walk before she left with Mrs. Gonzalez. Some paperwork needed to be done before we could take her. Tristan was counting the hours after Dr. Mendoza told us it was only going to take a few days for the paperwork to be complete.

We shared the news with everyone, and there was so much screaming that I was sure someone from the hallway could hear. Andrew worked on the papers to get Kayla out of the country. Everything was finally falling into place.

---