Underestimated

Chapter 9

I was doing well, and I was so proud of myself. I slept every night in Dawson’s arms, and my nightmares were becoming a thing of the past. My thoughts of Drew grew few and far between. I did it. I was happy in my small town practically living with my sheriff. I loved calling him my sheriff. I think he secretly liked it too, although he did tell me more than once that he had a name. It was usually followed by a kiss though.

The shop couldn’t have been doing better. There was no such thing as a slow day anymore. I did however, have to keep on Starlight some. Her lack of organization and my OCD sometimes clashed, but it was all out of fun.

I turned twenty six on October 2^nd, well not really, Riley turned twenty six on October 2^nd. Morgan had turned twenty six in June. I had never been so happy in my life. It was almost surreal. I had run away from Morgan Willow, leaving her in the hills of West Virginia, and Morgan Kelley was dead in Las Vegas. I never wanted either Morgan back. I loved being Riley Murphy.

I thought that Dawson was taking me out for my birthday. I showered and was ready to go when he picked me up at my house. I had on a new pair of jeans that fit me well, and a new flowing embroidered Kurta that I had ordered from one of the hippy catalogues. It was white with a brown embroidered Indian design around the sleeves and waist. I wore brown leather dingo boots with my jeans tucked inside. I looked cute. The mirror behind my door said so.

“Happy birthday. I don’t want to take you out anymore,” Dawson decided, kissing me.

He had told me happy birthday at least ten times already, not counting the multiple texts that I had received throughout the day. I loved his compliments. I didn’t always love them, and it took some getting used to, but I finally learned to accept them with a smile.

“Feed me and I may let you spend the night,” I teased.

I read the text from Starlight just as we pulled out of my drive.

“Star wants to know if you will stop and hang some kind of hooks for her,” I said, looking to Dawson.

“I guess we have time,” he replied.

We parked on the front street, and he held my hand as we went inside.

I should have known something was up. Star never said anything about any hooks before.

He held the door for me, and the whole place was decorated with balloons and banners.

Lauren, Levi, Matt, Star and several of our regulars were there. I couldn’t believe it. I almost cried. I was twenty six and was having my first birthday party…ever.

“You guys,” was all that I could think of to say. I was in shock.

Starlight handed me a blue drink on ice with a cute little umbrella.

“What is it?” I asked, eyeing the neon blue drink.

“Sex in the driveway,” Lauren was the one to say with a smile.

Dawson and I exchanged a private glance, both thinking the same thing. A couple of months back we had gone out with Lauren and Joel to celebrate her birthday. We never made it inside and jumped in the backseat and had sex. We woke up just after daylight, both still naked. The paper boy had come and left the paper on the door. Needless to say, he had to walk right past the car to leave the paper.

We ate pizza and drank the sex in the driveway drinks.

I couldn’t believe the presents. I had never gotten presents like this for my birthday. I did usually get one gift. When I was real little it would be like a Slinky or one of those plastic Barbie’s that seemed to always get their faced smashed in, and you could never push it back out. I would get cheap Jewelry when I was older. I never got a birthday present from Drew. Hell, he probably didn’t even know when my birthday was. Rebecca always got me something though. It too was usually earrings or a bracelet of some sort.

Even the patrons bought me gifts. They were nothing extravagant. I got the cutest little key chain from my beach friend, John. It was a piece of sea glass. He explained that it meant happiness. I was very happy. Lauren bought me a Miranda Lambert CD. I opened all of my gifts and Dawson had saved his for last. When I turned to see where he was, he knelt on one knee in front of me.

Oh, God…

I didn’t freak the way I would have expected myself to. I could only feel how much I was loved, and was beyond grateful for my friends and of course Dawson.

He smiled and opened the black velvet box.

“Will you marry me, Riley?” he asked.

“Of course I will marry you,” I smiled. I didn’t need to think about it. I knew what I wanted. I wanted my sheriff.

He slipped the diamond on my finger and kissed me while my friends hooted and hollered.

I was well on my way to being drunk from the blue drink that I had been consuming for the past three hours by the time we left.

Dawson stayed at my house, and it was the best night of my life. I couldn’t believe that I was going to become Mrs. Dawson Bade. We were planning a May 1^st wedding, and I wanted it all. I never had the church wedding, the white gown or anyone that cared about me at my last wedding. I didn’t want anything lavish or anything, just a small church wedding with my friends.

Dawson made slow passionate love to me that night, and I don’t think I could have been happier had my life depended on it. I’m not sure if it was because of all of the excitement, the fact that I was going to marry Dawson or the ring that I proudly wore on my finger, but I did dream that night. It was bad.

It was the third time that Drew had given me my wedding set back. We were meeting some very prominent clients for dinner at a fancy high-rise restaurant. He coached me to keep my mouth shut and to only speak if he spoke, he would answer any questions directed toward me.

I was almost sick from the affection that he was showing me. He held my hand, kissed me several times and called me baby. He never called me baby unless it was when he was close to coming. He made sure that he kept my hand in his on the table, showing off my thirty five thousand dollar wedding set, I was sure. He was trying to get his prospects to be envious of my expensive set, or at least her anyway.

After a couple of drinks, I needed to go to the bathroom. I didn’t dare just excuse myself without asking first. I almost puked when I leaned into Drew and whispered in his ear. He nodded and smiled the fakest smile I had ever seen.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” he said with the nod, giving me permission.

“Excuse me,” I politely spoke, laying my fancy cloth napkin on the table.

“Oh, I’ll go with you,” the beautiful diamond ring prospect announced.

My eyes instantly looked to Drew. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.

I tried to get back to the table as quickly as possible, but Ms. Chatter box wanted to talk, and thought that she needed my opinion on which of the three engagement rings I liked best. Of course, I said the most expensive one, talking it up like nothing else.

We were gone for at least ten minutes. Our entrees were being placed around the table.

Drew was livid. It was written all over his face. His clinched jaw may not have been noticeable to his guests, but it was exceedingly obvious to me. The young lady did end up picking the one that I had suggested. I was sure that Drew wouldn’t want to hear about how I talked it up though.

As soon as we were in the back seat of the limousine he practically ripped the rings from my finger.

“What the fuck did you tell her?” he asked.

“I didn’t tell her anything, Drew. She was only asking my advice about the rings. I swear. I never said anything that I shouldn’t have.”

He ran his hands through his hair, angrily. I was scared. I knew he was mad, and I knew that I was going to be the one that he took it out on. I just wasn’t sure how.

He grabbed me by my hair and threw me over his lap. I didn’t have to worry about the panties. I was no longer allowed to wear them when he was home. He raised my party dress and cracked me on the ass more times than he ever had. He didn’t even rub the sting out between the blows. All I could think about was whether or not Derik could hear what was going on from the driver’s seat of the limo, not that he didn’t know what was going on. He had to know. He was around almost as much as Rebecca. I didn’t cry. I had stopped that a long time ago. It didn’t do any good anyway. Drew had no compassion.

Drew kept me bare assed over his lap the whole ride home, even after he thought I had enough of his assault on my ass. Once Derik parked the car back in the extravagant garage Drew threw me off of him.

“Don’t move!” he demanded, getting out.

I didn’t. I was too scared to move. I heard him tell Derik to keep me out there until he cooled off and called him.

I had never spoken to Derik before. I couldn’t believe that Drew was going to leave me with him. Wasn’t he afraid that I would talk? Of course not, I was sure that Derik knew more than anyone, he was there when he forced my signature on his stupid marriage license. He probably knew more than I did. Maybe I could talk to Derik. Maybe he would help me get out of here. I stopped that notion very quickly. I wasn’t getting out of there. That was my life, and I wouldn’t take the chance of Derik telling him that I tried to get him to help me.

I didn’t even need to be thinking about that. It wasn’t at all what Derik had planned. He opened the back door and sat across from me. I didn’t like the smirk on his face, and I was all of a sudden afraid of him. I had reason.

He pulled my knees apart and raised my dress more. I swiftly put my knees back together, only to have them forced apart again.

“What are you doing? Drew is going to see you through the cameras,” I pleaded. I wondered then if I was afraid of Derik or of Drew. He would make this my fault. He always did.

“There are no cameras in this car or this garage. I have waited for this opportunity for almost two years,” he said as he slid to his knees in front of me. I wanted to object, but how could I? He had more power over me than I had over myself. If I screamed, Drew might come out. I didn’t want that either.

He moved his fingers into me and all I could do was stare out the dark window while he rapidly and vehemently thrashed his middle and forefinger in and out of me. I didn’t get aroused. I didn’t want to come. I was too terrified to even think about it. Not of him as much as Drew. I just knew he was going to sling the door open at any second.

Derik must have been worried too. He was in a hurry, and it showed. He took himself out and moved into me with a hiss. Now I was freaked out. Drew would know. I was sure of it. He didn’t speak, and only made sexual grunting and moaning noises. He had one thing on his mind, and that was getting off. In me!

Or not.

“I’m going to pull out, and you are going to swallow me. I don’t want to leave any evidence for Drew. Do you understand?”

Fuck no…

He grabbed my hair and pulled when I didn’t answer. “Do you understand me?” he asked again, and I tried to nod.

He pumped faster and harder, and I knew that he was getting ready to come. He stood as much as he could. I wouldn’t open my mouth and turned my head. It didn’t work. He grabbed my head forced his dick into my mouth, pumping just as rapidly there.

“Oh, yeah fuck,” he moaned as he invaded my mouth just before he spewed out. I was happy that he didn’t do it like Drew did and make sure that I had to taste him. I was able to swallow all of him without any dripping out of my mouth.

He kissed my lips. The bastard had the nerve to kiss me.

He put himself away and got out of the car without one word. I supposed he didn’t need to say a word. He knew that I would never mention it. I sat in the car waiting and anticipating what Drew had in store for me next, for over an hour.

When I was finally escorted back into the house, I never saw Drew. I went to my suite and bathed away his idiotic sidekick. Drew came in and sat on the toilet while I bathed. He didn’t speak, and only sat there glaring at me. I got out of the tub, mostly to get the rest of the night started so that it would be over. He hit me right across the same cheek bone that he always seemed to aim for. When I stood back up, he did it again.

“Riley!” I heard Dawson calling my name over and over.

I jumped and covered my face to stop the next blow.

“You’re okay. I’m right here, baby,” he said, trying to soothe me back to reality.

“Dawson?” I wept, needing to make sure that I was with him.

“Shhhh, I’ve got you, Ry,” he said, trying to calm me.

“I didn’t tell her anything. I swear.”

Dawson sat up and turned the lamp on, trying to get me coherent enough to realize that I was safe with him.

I crawled into his arms, and he embraced me. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why he wanted me. Would it always be this way? Would I always be the broken one?

“Tell me about your dream,” he requested, holding me tight and placing soft kisses to my forehead.

“It wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I did. I told him every last detail, and then some. I never got to finish my dream before Dawson woke me up. I told him about how after he dragged me from the bathroom he made me squat on a rather large dildo that he had lubed up for me. I wasn’t allowed to sit on it. I had to hold myself up while he sat on the bed and watched. When my legs finally gave out, and I plopped to the bed he removed the foreign object and replaced it with himself.

Once he was spent he picked up the phone and called Rebecca. It was almost two in the morning. I couldn’t believe that he expected her to be at his beck and call whenever he wanted her.

“Morgan’s going to need an icepack,” he said, but I wasn’t sure why he cared about my black eye. He didn’t care when he was giving it to me.

I started to get under the blankets to cover myself before she came in.

“Did I tell you to move?” he asked. I froze.

“Lay down,” he demanded.

I lay down and crossed my ankles.

“Spread your legs. You want to humiliate me? I’ll show you humiliation.”

I was mortified, enough so that a tear did escape from the corner of my right eye when I heard the tap on the door. I lay there spread eagle while Rebecca brought me the icepack. She only looked at my face and smiled a warm smile as she placed it on my eye. I flinched from the pain.

“Riley. Please tell me that was only a nightmare and didn’t really happen,” Dawson begged, but he knew. Now he not only wanted to kill Drew he added Derik to his hit list too.

“It did happen, Dawson, and so much more. I am never going to be whole.”

“What is his last name?”

“You know that I’m not going to tell you that. I don’t want you to do anything. Please,” I pleaded.

“Don’t you want that son of a bitch to pay for what he did to you?”

“No. I just want to forget that he ever existed.”

“Is he a good looking man?”

I rose up to give him a stressed look. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m just trying to figure out why, if he is so rich and powerful, why he would come to a poor town in West Virginia to marry you?”

I relaxed and lay back to his chest. “He is very handsome. I’ve asked myself that same question a million times.”

I finally dozed back off. Dawson never let go of the hold he had on me.

When I woke, Dawson was still holding me. He was never still in bed when I woke up. He was an early riser too, not quite as bad as Lauren, but he was still normally up before me.

I looked up and he was wide awake, staring pitiful glares through me. He opened his hand palm side up, and I placed mine in his. He kissed me on top of the head as I lay back to his chest.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked. I knew what he was thinking about, and I wished I would have kept my past in the past and not shared my horrific nightmare.

“You,” he quietly said, kissing me again.

“About how pathetic I am?”

“Not at all, I was thinking about how much I loved you, and how I wished I could take all of this away from you.”

I snorted. Nobody could take it away. Drew had taken it all, and although I hated to admit it. He still controlled me. It wasn’t as much as when I first left. It seemed like every time that I was happy, and things were going exceptionally well for me was when he decided to haunt me. Why? I didn’t know. I guess the subconscious is just one of those mysteries that you just never figure out.

“Why did your wife leave you, Dawson?” I asked for some reason. I never asked about his past. I guess it was just another one of my hang-ups. I was never allowed to ask questions, and it was always no concern of mine.

He snorted next. I assumed he was thinking about how crazy I was.

“I met her at the police academy. I knew I wanted to stay here and take over once my father retired. She was from Chicago and couldn’t get used to the small town. She needed more action than Misty Bay could give her.”

“Your wife was a cop too?” I asked. I never knew that. I had seen a picture at his house once of a graduating class, and I assumed one of the two females was her, but had no idea that she was an officer. I was shocked that Lauren never mentioned it. Not that she was much on gossip, but she would answer my questions. I guess I never asked what his wife did.

“Yes, she was a cop or is, I should say. She went back home to Chicago after one year here. Her dad was also a cop, so she knew that there was more action than writing parking tickets in some small hick town.”

“I like this small hick town,” I smiled up at him. He carried a heavy heart. I could see it in his eyes.

“I need for you to talk to me, Ry.”

“I’m not telling you who he is, Dawson,” I assured him.

“Then don’t, but I need some answers.”

I took a deep breath. I owed it to him. There was nothing that I could tell him that would scare him away. If he was going to run, he would have done it before now.

“What do you want to know?” I asked, turning back to lie on his chest. It was easier not to look at him when I talked about my past. I didn’t want to see the disgust on his face.

“How did you spend your days there?”

“Most days were good. He traveled a lot, so I spent most of my time either alone or with Rebecca.”

“Tell me about Rebecca. She knew. She knew that you were there against your will. Why didn’t she help you?”

“Rebecca helped me in more ways than you could ever know. I don’t know that I would have survived without her.”

“How old was Rebecca?”

I’m not sure why that mattered, but I answered. “She was probably in her mid-thirties when I first got there.”

“And she was just the help there?”

“She was more than the help. Her only job was to take care of me.”

“What do you mean take care of you? What did she do?”

“Hmm, a little bit of everything I guess. She made my appointments for my hair, dress fittings for his stupid dinners, made sure that I had my birth control shots. She cooked for me too, but I think that was because she liked to do it. I remember her always being close by. I used to ride around the property on one of the golf carts, and sometimes I would see her in a distance checking to see where I was.”

“Were you able to talk to her?”

“Not much. Every room in that house had cameras, and he could hear everything that was said. Sometimes she would ride with me on the cart, and we would talk, but she was always afraid to say anything.”

“Why would she work for a man like that?”

“Rebecca too, came from the same side of the tracks as I did. She grew up very poor and never had much. She was waitressing in a diner in some small town when Drew approached her about working for him. I don’t think she really knew what she was getting into, and I think she too was afraid of him. She had a five year contract to take care of me. He would give her, her own suite, take care of all of her needs, and once her contract was up, she would be paid a half a million dollars for her time. I guess Drew thought that five years would be enough time to train me.”

“So she too was weak. What a coward. So she left before you?”

“No, she signed another one year contract. I think she was afraid to leave me. She was the one that came and put me back together when he decided to come home pissed off and take it out on me. But she was leaving shortly after I left. I hope she did,” I added.

“How often were you…”

“Punished, you can say it,” I said, finishing his sentence.

“You were a grown woman. You shouldn’t have been punished.”

I ignored that part. “It depends. Sometimes I would go months without any encounters. He would come home and do his thing with me and leave me alone. Other times, mostly when I had to go out with him,” I added. “I always said something or looked at someone or something that he made sure that I was going to be punished for.”

“And this Derik prick, did he leave you alone?”

I snorted. “No. Once I was trusted enough to go out and shop or go to the library, Derik had to be the one to go with me. He always made sure that he took a back way home, but I did become friends with his wife Jena and was occasionally allowed to go out to a show or to eat with her.”

“You couldn’t talk to her?”

“And tell her what, Dawson? Hey, your husband has sex with me, and I am living in this mansion with everything that a woman could want with this good looking rich guy against my will. We didn’t talk about personal things, well I didn’t anyway. She did. I used to be absolutely repulsed when she would giddily tell me about their sex life.”

I almost felt bad thinking about it. I said, almost. I did start to somewhat enjoy sex with Derik. Not that I liked him or anything. I hated the slime ball, but at least he would let me finish. He loved for me to come and tried to make sure that I did every time, unlike Drew who used it to torture or punish me when I did.

“So you were getting raped by not only Drew but his business partner as well.”

He didn’t say it like a question. He knew what it was.

“Not for long with Derik. I got up enough nerve one night and told Drew that I thought Rebecca should go along the next time I was going to the library. I told him that I didn’t think it looked good to be running around the city with him so much alone. The bastard agreed. He made sure that Rebecca was with me from that point on.”

Our deep conversation was interrupted by none other than my annoying neighbor.

“I’m making coffee. You guys going to sleep all day?” Lauren called from the kitchen.

We both laughed.

“Why don’t you have any leftovers in here?” she asked as I made my way out to meet her.

“We had pizza at the shop last night, remember?”

“Yeah, but what happened to that lasagna?”

“You ate that yesterday.”

“Great, now I’m going to starve,” she pouted.

“Or you could go home and cook. Hey, I know. How about you cook once and let me come over and eat your leftovers?”

Lauren laughed. “Nah, I kind of hate that idea. What are you guys doing today? Wanna go hangout at the mall?”

“No. We’re staying in today,” Dawson said, joining us. I knew then that our conversation wasn’t over.

“You guys are pathetic. You act like you’re forty or something,” she stated.

“I am forty,” Dawson said. I laughed. He wasn’t forty. He was only thirty.

I made us all breakfast and noticed how Dawson kept staring at me. It wasn’t his sexy, I want you stare. It was more of a trying to determine whether or not I was okay kind of stare. I wasn’t okay, and was beginning to wonder if I ever would be. Some days I did think I was okay, and couldn’t be better. Other days, like that day, made me question that.

I smiled a warm smile at him. He returned it.

After Lauren left we got dressed and walked down the path to the beach. It was chilly but not too bad for October in Maine. Dawson held my hand as we walked. He was quiet, and I didn’t quite know what to say. We spoke to John, out for his daily walk with his dog, and then sat in the sand. The sand was warm from the sun. It felt nice, therapeutic.

“I want to know how you got here, Ry.”

I knew it was just a matter of time before the questions continued. I picked up a handful of warm sand and let it funnel through the bottom of my hand. I looked up to him, and he leaned in and kissed me.

“Please talk to me,” he begged. “I think maybe getting it off your chest will help.”

“It doesn’t help, Daw. It makes me relive it.”

“I need to know, Ry.”

“Because you need to decide whether or not you should marry me?” It wasn’t actually a question. I was just stating a fact.

“I am marrying you, Riley Murphy. I love you. But we have been together for over a year, and I know that there is so much that you haven’t disclosed. Why won’t you tell me?”

“Why did I ever get involved with a cop? I should have gone out with Levi. He probably wouldn’t care about my past. But nooo. I had to go fall in love with someone with investigating training.”

“Investigating training?” Dawson said light heartily with a smile. I smiled back. I couldn’t help it. He was just too darn cute.

I took a deep breath. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know everything, but right now I just want you to tell me how you left. What made you decide to leave?”

“Remember that I told you that Rebecca started to go everywhere with Derik and me?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Well, after a few times. Derik stopped stalking me in the library. He was pissed that he couldn’t get me alone anymore, and pretty much pretended that I didn’t exist.”

“Did Derik always drive you?”

“Mostly, I think he was the only one that Drew trusted. Drew gave me a cellphone so that he could track my whereabouts and call when he wanted.”

“Did you drive?”

I snorted. “No. I did get my driver’s license when I turned twenty one. I’m not sure why. I was never allowed to leave without Derik, Rebecca and sometimes Jena, but if I was with Jena, either Derik or Drew himself followed.”

“And Rebecca?” he asked.

“We were in the library right after Drew had agreed to keep her on for one more year. I was looking for a book that I had been waiting to come out. It was the third in a series.”

I smiled, when I noticed that Dawson wasn’t the least bit interested in the book that I had been so excited about.

“Anyway, I looked up, and Rebecca was giving me some sort of strange look. We were never close, like in talking about anything personal. We talked, but she would mostly just listen. I think she was afraid of what Drew would hear.”

“What, Rebecca,” I asked.

“You need to leave, Morgan,” she stated, and for some reason I knew that she wasn’t talking about leaving the library. I feigned ignorance anyway.

“I have twenty more minutes,” I stated.

“You need to leave Drew, Morgan. I am going to help you. We have nine months to get you out of there, and I will be gone. I don’t think I would ever forgive myself if I left and didn’t at least try. I may end up dead, but at least I would die without a guilty conscious.”

“Rebecca, you know that I can’t just leave. I can’t even leave the house without a babysitter. I have nowhere to go. I wouldn’t go back to where I came from. He would just find me.”

“We are going to figure it out. I promise, Morgan.”

I kept looking to Dawson, trying to read his face. Every time that I did, he leaned in and kissed me.

“So, how did you two scheme up your disappearance?”

“We never talked about it again for a month. Drew had beaten me pretty good one evening, and the next day she brought it up again while she brought me food.”

“Why did he beat you up?”

“I thought you wanted to know how I got out.”

“I want to know it all,” he insisted.

I turned my gaze back to my little mountain that I had been forming from funneling sand through my hand.

“I had to go to another one of his events,” I started with a heavy sigh. I hated Drew’s events, dinner parties, and prospect meetings. I knew what it meant. I was never going to make it through one of his engagements without messing up. He knew it. He thrived on it. He knew that we would come home, and he would play his sick games with me. That was really the only time that he raised a hand to me. It was inevitable. I would screw up somehow.

“I was having my hair and makeup done when he came into to check on my progress. He was rushing me, or the stylists, I guess. I wasn’t intended to go to this particular event. I overheard him telling someone that I wasn’t feeling well, and I wasn’t going to be able to make it. He then went on to suck up to whoever was insisting that I be there.”

“I’m actually looking forward to this night,” he whispered close to my ear, holding his hand around my throat while he glared at me through the mirror with a warning.

I took my normal lecture in the back of the limo. Don’t talk to anyone, but Jena. Don’t look at anyone, don’t answer questions, and the most important one of all that night. I was in no way allowed to talk to Mr. Callaway alone, and if he asked, I was to tell him that I rather my husband stay. I wondered who Mr. Callaway was. I knew that Drew said that he was his father. I wasn’t sure that I believed that. He called him Mr. Callaway. Why would anyone call their father by Mr.? Even for a fucked up family like that, it seemed off to me. This would be at least a dozen times that I would have the pleasure of being beaten because he insisted, every time that I talk to him in private. Drew never helped. He walked away with his tail between his legs.

Jena never showed, only Derik. He said that she had come down with something and wasn’t feeling well. I really wanted Jena to be there.

I saw Mr. Callaway being pushed around in his wheelchair. Drew looked over and told me not to look at him.

What the fuck?

I turned my gaze away from him. I knew that I was going to be in trouble regardless, so I asked.

“What’s wrong with him, Drew?”

He shot me a death glare. “Don’t ask questions that don’t pertain to you. That’s one,” he warned, holding up one finger. One what, I didn’t know. It could mean anything with him.

My dress had an open back and Drew kept his hand there. It made me sick that he made all of these people think what a wonderful husband he was. He never kissed me unless it was in public around people that he was trying to impress.

Mr. Callaway of course made his way over to me. I couldn’t figure out what his interest was in me. Why did he always insist that I be pulled to the side with him?

“Leave us Drew,” he boldly stated as soon as he was wheeled by his caretaker to us.

“With all due respect, Mr. Callaway, I would like for Drew to stay,” I tried. I did want him to stay. This guy was just going to ask about my happiness like he cared about my wellbeing.

“Nonsense, leave!” he demanded. Drew walked away. I looked past Mr. Callaway and Drew held up two fingers. I almost rolled my eyes at him, but caught myself, knowing that I would get the third finger.

Mr. Callaway gently took my hand, beckoning me to sit. “You look absolutely gorgeous, as always.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“How are you doing? I missed you last month for our grand opening.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. Drew didn’t tell me things that pertained to his business.

“Drew said you weren’t feeling well. Is everything okay?”

No. You old moron, I am married to a monster. I don’t feel so well at all.

“Yes. I’m fine. Thank you for asking. It was just a little bug,” I lied.

“How is Drew treating you? Everything okay at home?”

What the hell? Who the hell are you, and why do you care?

“Yes, everything is wonderful.”

I had no idea what this guy’s deal was, but for some reason he felt the need to go on and on about his son. Michael. I mean, I’m not cold hearted or anything. I did have compassion for the guy losing his only son. I just couldn’t understand why he felt the need to tell me, especially with my obstinate husband glaring scalpels at me.