Wildflower (Chapter 39)

Chapter 39

 

            Nicolas was in a lot of trouble and he knew it. However he had no idea how that thong got in his pocket, he didn’t remember that. From what he did remember the chick was offering him a good time and he drank a lot. But even drunk he would never hurt Wildflower like that. Or at least he hopped not. Them damn strippers all wanted to have sex with him, he wasn’t that stupid. Or was he? This was why he never really got drunk, he didn’t like that he had loss time in his memory. Wildflower was staring at him waiting for an admission or a denial. There was a thong and he did recognize it as the one Mindy was wearing. What had he done? Thinking was hard he still had a headache and she looked hurt. He was so stupid.

            “I was really drunk last night,” he started. “But you know I would never cheat on you, right?”

            “Maybe you wanted to have a fling before our wedding,” she replied.

            “No, I love you and I don’t need anybody else,” he said. That at least was true, then an idea came to him that was going to save his a*s. “Baby, do you think at a party where all of your brothers were that I could sneak off and have sex with a stripper?”

            “Why do you have her thong then?” She asked but it looked like he was safe, for now anyway.

            “She must have stuck it in my pocket and I didn’t notice, all I could think about was getting home to you,” he told her. He got up from the bed and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have drank so much.”

            “You’re sure you didn’t do anything with her?” She asked staring him in the eyes.

            “I would never hurt you like that, I’m not a cheater, all I need is you,” he said. It sort of danced around the truth; he couldn’t give her an answer that he was a 100% sure about. But what he said was the truth he only wanted and needed her.

            What he wanted to do was ask Jose what happened last night but he was out with his woman. Logically he knew the brothers would never have let him get away with going off with some stripper. They would kill him before they let him hurt their sister. If only he could depend on that to be true, he was sneaky enough to get away with anything he wanted. But why would he want some trashy girl trying to make extra money having sex with him? If he wanted sex then he could have it whenever he wanted. He wished he could say that he was never going to drink again but he knew he would. Later he would find out the truth, for now he was going to back to sleep.

            “Go get in bed and I’ll throw this thing away,” he told her taking the thong. She didn’t argue, just did what he said because she was obviously tired too. He took the thong that could have dieses on it and threw it away in the bathroom and washed his hands.

            “Are you sure you’ll be able to be with just me forever?” Wildflower asked when he got back into bed.

            “Yes, you are my everything,” he told her honestly. He laid down beside her and held her, she fell asleep first. Before he could completely fall asleep he remembered something about going in to the bathroom at the club and being followed by a woman. This was definitely bad. What had he done?

************

 

            “I think you should stay here with me and I’ll buy us a house,” Jose told Jasmine. She smiled and sighed, something was on her mind he could tell. Maybe this was her last visit and she met someone she wanted to be with.

            “You say that every time,” she replied. “Wouldn’t having me around cut into your fun with movie stars and models and singers and random chicks in bars?”

            “Jas, you know I only want to be with you, I’ve only ever loved you,” he said honestly.

            “I know, but I swear I see you with a different woman in a magazine every other week. The last time I was with somebody it was you,” she told him.

            “Is this why I haven’t seen you in awhile?”

            “Um no, but J I have to tell you something,” she said looking uneasy.

            “You can tell me anything, you know that,” he said. They were lying in his bed at the mansion; he knew he should have gotten them a hotel room.

            “The reason I haven’t been able to see you for awhile was because I was pregnant,” she confessed. Time literally seemed to stop when she said that.

            “Pregnant? By who?” He asked afraid of the answer.

            “You,” she whispered avoiding his eyes. “Before you ask I kept him, I named him Joseph after you.”

            “I have a son?” He asked in shock and she nodded. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

            “I wanted to so bad but every time I picked up the phone or started a text or email, I couldn’t do it. You were off having a life and having different women, I knew it wasn’t right for me to try to make you stay with me. When you called I figured I should come and tell you the truth in person.”

            “How could you do this? You’ve know from the start that I’ve wanted to be with you and you keep this from me? None of those other women ever mattered,” he said suddenly angry. He never really thought about having children of his own but now things were different, he had a son.

            “I know I should have told you but I couldn’t do it, I was afraid of what you would say. And let’s face it a child does not fit into your play boy lifestyle.”

            “Where is he?”

            “Home with Taloya,” she admitted. Taloya was her best friend her whole life and he had met her a few times.

            “I want to see him, tell her to bring him here,” he told her.

            “Are you sure?” She asked, that was when he realized she was crying.

            “Yes,” he said. “We are not doing this anymore, I love you and you need to decide what you want. All I’ve wanted for the last four years was you. And here you are still wearing that ring and in bed with me and we have child together that you’ve been keeping from me. How old is he?”

            “About three months old,” she said starting at the comforter and not him. “Could you really just give up your fun and be a father and a husband?”

            “Yes,” he said without any hesitation.

            For years she was the object of his obsession and when she kept turning him down he tried to distract himself. Maybe this was why he was bored so easily with other women, they weren’t her. She leaned over on the nightstand and showed him her cell phone; there was a picture of a bald baby boy smiling a toothless smile. He couldn’t breathe looking at this boy, his boy. Until this moment he mostly didn’t want children, because he got bored with women and he never stayed long enough. All of which could be blamed on Jasmine for refusing to commit to him. They sat in silence and he looked through picture on her cell phone of his son.

            “Jose,” she whispered. “Maybe if you ask me again, I could say yes. I don’t deserve it or you but I do love you.”

            “Jasmine, will you marry me?” He asked and she nodded. This wasn’t what he expected to happen when he called her. “I need to see my son.”

            “I know,” she sighed. “She will bring him tomorrow.”

            “Are you going to stay here? We can uh get a house,” he suggested.

            “Alright, I guess I don’t really get a choice anymore, but I do want be with you,” she said. To prove it she unhooked her necklace and put her ring on. “I call him Joey or Little J, I tell him about you all the time.”

            “Did you think I wouldn’t want him?” He asked her, she was still crying so he put his arms around her.

            “Not really, I just didn’t think we would fit into your life. You are all about fun and I loved that about you since we met. But I was afraid that if I gave myself to you fully that you would hurt me eventually. We both know you have a short attention span when it comes to women. I’ve been living with Taloya and her and her husband love each other so much even if they are always trying to kill each other. They’ve been together for a little over 20 years, I want that love,” she told him.

            “You don’t think I love you enough? I’m never with anybody very long because they aren’t you. Jas, you are the one that refused to date me, refused to live with me and repeatedly refused my proposals. Do you think I just kept bringing that stuff up for fun?”

            “No, I know you meant it every time and I do know you love me. This is just hard for me, ok? All I wanted when I was pregnant was to be with you but I saw you were with somebody else so I decided to leave you alone. And I hadn’t heard from you in awhile so I just figured we were over and it was easier to raise him on my own. I was just afraid of rejection and I know it’s ironic since I’m always rejecting you.”

            “Well I’m not letting you go this time,” he assured her. “Tomorrow I’ll ask Nick if he knows of any available houses and we can get whatever the baby needs.”

            “Sounds good,” she nodded. She still looked uneasy but she buried her face into his chest so he couldn’t see it anymore.

            He had a son and he finally had the woman of his dreams. Suddenly he wondered if he was the guy she thought he was, unable to commit to one person for long. It was her that he wanted and completely by accident or fate or whatever she was his now. She was going to stay and tomorrows he was going to meet his son. Part of him understood why she was concerned and he hated that his behavior made her suffer. Now he really understood Nicolas’ obsession with Wildflower and the possessiveness. From this moment on he was going to devote himself completely to Jasmine and his son. Joseph Capriani Jr. Jose was named after his Aunt Josephina and he had always been called Jose, never Joseph. It seemed to be a common thing in this family to not go by your birth name. Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.

            “Jas, everything will be ok, I’m going to take care of both of you,” he promised. Though since she was living with her friend whose husband’s family was richer than his and their house was twice as big as this one, she was sort of downgrading.

            “I know,” she said looking up into his eyes. “J, are sure you are ready to be a father?” She asked looking worried.

            “Not like I have a choice in that, we never exactly all that careful and you already had him. There is no going back,” he said.

            “I love him so much, he looks like you.”

            “Jas, is he you know like you?”

            “Oh that, um I don’t yet he’s too young.”

            One thing they both had in common was secrets and he could understand why she was reluctant to come move here. She would be away from her family and friends and everything she knew. There wasn’t much he could do about that he had to be here for work, in the past he voluntarily traveled a lot so he could do whatever he wanted in his downtime. Usually what he did was different women but he had a family to take care of now. It was out of the blue and a huge shock but he was going to have do what was best for Jasmine and Joseph, they were his responsibility. His grandparents always taught him that family came first and now he had one of his own.

 

           

            “What is up with you? You’re different,” Jordan said staring at her.

            “Not really,” Sammie replied throwing herself down on her bed.

            “You start drinking because your skanky friends pressured you into it that is different. And what the hell are you doing with Evan?”

            “Jordan do you recall leaving me? You could have stayed right here but no you had to go off to New York. So I’m going to need you to stop trying to judge me for having fun,” she said. In the past it was rare for them to fight, they had always been united in avoiding and dealing with their mother. Now they were like strangers.

            “I had to get away from her and I never thought she would actually let you stay here. Besides I like it in New York, it’s different,” he said. “Are you having sex with him?”

            “Excuse me? That sure the hell is none of your business,” she said. She was annoyed with her twin and had been for months now; he was like a whole different person. Yet he acted like she was the one that changed. Maybe a little but not like him.

            “He’s just using you,” he told her.

            “You don’t know what you are talking about and we aren’t having sex,” she said very annoyed now.

            “Sam, I’m worried about you. I always knew that Sugar or Allie or whatever she wants to call herself, I knew she would influence you. Maybe you should come back with me,” he said seriously.

            “Nobody is influencing me, so what I took a shot, its not like you’ve never drank before. If I want to have fun with my friends I will and I’m not going anywhere. And what I do with my boyfriend is not your business either. You and I use to have a connection and now we don’t. Allie is here with me and here for me, go live your own life,” she told him.

            Maybe that was it, what changed about her was that she was just her. Before she was a twin and she was one of eleven kids. Now she was just Sammie on her own. She was navigating through the world of high school with its diverse people and temptation and she was learning her place in the world. Yes her cousin was a wild child and was a tad bit tamer than she had ever been, but that wasn’t who Sammie was. And she had a boyfriend now but she wasn’t going to do anything that made her uncomfortable and Evan respected that. Her friends were loud and crazy and not afraid to do or say anything, so what if they did less than moral things sometimes. That didn’t mean she had to do whatever they were doing, she took the shots because she was curious. Curiosity was also why she did the things she had with Evan.

            The problem Jordan was having was almost the same as the one she was. They were no longer two halves of a whole they were two separate people living separate lives in separate places. Jordan was looking at her like she was a stranger and maybe she was. They had been growing apart for awhile before he decided to leave. Almost two months apart really severed their bond. And she was embracing this change, Jordan wasn’t. It confused him because it confused her too. It took her some time to realize it but they were just growing up.

            “I feel like I don’t know you anymore,” he said after a while.

            “Join the club, I don’t now me anymore either,” she sighed. Once she would have been happy to see her brother and now not so much. Still she was obviously going through an identity crisis, maybe she needed to be in therapy like her cousin.

 

 

            Jose was nervous; he barely slept because of it. Jasmine gave off a calm façade but he knew she was nervous too.  Today he was going to meet his son for the first time. It wasn’t really like a baby could dislike him, right? Did three month olds have preferences? When he counted back three months he realized that Joseph was born around the time Allie attempted suicide. It made him wonder if that was another reason that she didn’t tell him she was pregnant. There was also the fact that her parents weren’t too fond of him, of course they wouldn’t be with his reputation. They probably thought he didn’t care about his son, but had he known he was certain he would have been there with her everyday. But he had to let go of the past and look to the future where he had a family to look after and provide for.

            Taloya’s family was rich and they had their own plane of course so they were meeting her at a restaurant near the airport. The whole drive there Jasmine told him things about Joseph and he listened silently. It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested, he was he just didn’t trust himself to speak. They managed to get out of the house without anybody noticing, the kids were gone for school and he should have been at work. But if Nicolas the big boss didn’t have to go to work than neither did he, besides this was more important.

            At the restaurant he quickly scanned the room to locate Taloya, she was easy to spot. The woman was unhumanly beautiful and sort of stuck out no matter where she was and she gave of an air of being rich and powerful. Jasmine was her best friend and even though he often had sex with best friends and sister and what not, there were a lot of reasons this wouldn’t happen here. For one thing he loved Jasmine but Taloya’s husband would kill him and get away with it more easily than Nicolas could. He could admit the woman was beautiful but her husband had a reputation for some dark and sinister things, more so than the Capriani family. There she was with her daughter who was holding a baby and making faces at him, he was laughing.

            “Come on J, its time to meet our son,” Jasmine told him. She had to pull him along to guide him because he was in too much shock to move on his own.

            “Hello Jose,” Taloya said politely.

            “Hi,” he said absently, he couldn’t stop staring at the baby.

            “Here, do you want to hold him?” The daughter asked him, her name was Marina or something from what he remembered.

            “Uh sure,” he nodded. She stood and handed Joseph over to him.

            Before he didn’t realize it from the picture but Joseph looked just like he did as a baby. Bald head and all and a little chunky, they both just stared at each other. He wondered what his son was thinking, because his mind was racing. Those little brown eyes just stared at him, like he knew who Jose was. Joseph seemed to resemble him more than Jasmine, his skin tone was sort of olive but Jose was darker than that. Same eyes, same mouth, he ha Jasmine’s nose, he had dimples too. One day he was going to be a heartbreaker, like his father. This was his son and there was definitely no denying that fact, not that he didn’t believe her or anything. But he had pregnancy scares before and he always got lucky, maybe that was another reason she didn’t tell him.

            Now that he was here holding his son, everything in his world changed. Jose was going to get married as soon as possible; he’d already waited way too long for her to accept. Unless she wanted some big wedding they could just do like Isaiah and Christina did and go to the courthouse. His mind started making plans, he had to find somewhere for them to live, buy things for the baby and she was probably going to want to go back home to pack. And he was supposed to be responsible for the company while Nicolas was away.  There were a lot of things to do but nothing else really mattered when he was staring into these little eyes.

 

 

            Nicolas still had a headache when he woke up late Monday morning; he forgot to set the alarm so obviously he wasn’t going to work. If he felt like it he would but he didn’t. Wildflower was not in bed with him when he got up. He hoped she wasn’t still passed at him, he deserved it but he still had no idea what happened that night. And he hated that he couldn’t be certain nothing happened. The fact that a stripper pole was now in his bedroom didn’t help things much. Part of him wanted to see Wildflower give him a little show but he knew she hated it because of her past. There was also a huge mirror in the room now and a clothes rack with a bunch of garment bags, it was everything the wedding party was going to wear. Except Wildflower’s wedding dress that Carmen was hiding in her room and she complained loudly about alterations.

            After taking something a little stronger than Tylenol, he went downstairs. Hopefully Wildflower wasn’t going to nock him over the head with a frying pan or anything to get revenge. Even if he didn’t have sex with the stripper he sort of still deserved it. He had to be responsible for his actions and he knew better than to drink as much as he did. When he reached the kitchen he got a shock. Wildflower was holding a baby, her and Brooke were adoringly looking at the child. He liked the look of her holding a baby. Jose was there too with Jasmine his obsession. Something weird definitely was going on because he was certain none of them knew anybody with a baby.

            “Coffee is made,” Wildflower said without looking up. He didn’t reply just went to get a cup, he needed it badly.

            “It’s nice to see you again, Nicolas,” Jasmine said smiling politely.

            “Yeah you too,” he replied. He didn’t feel like conversing, he wanted to go find a hammer to hit his head with. Maybe he was coming down with something; with his luck it wouldn’t surprise him. And five days to go till the wedding, just perfect. “Who’s kid?” He asked to nobody in particular, he didn’t really care.

            “Mine,” Jose said looking him in the eyes.

            “What?” He asked shocked, he forgot for a moment that he felt crappy because his brother suddenly had a son.

            “Yeah, I found out last night that I have a son ands here he is,” Jose told him.

            “Congratulations on that then,” he said.

What was he really supposed to say to that anyway? And he noticed that Jasmine the commitment-phob was wearing her engagement ring. A ring that Jose bought for her years ago and he was there when his brother purchased the thing. But the fact that she was back and she had a baby that obviously was Jose’s and she was wearing the ring, it meant something. It was sort of amusing to think of Jose as anybody’s father and it was hilarious to think of him as somebody’s husband. At least he was taking responsibility for knocking her up even though he hadn’t known he did. Obviously while sleeping Nicolas fell down a rabbit hole and everything was weird. Maybe it happened days ago, his life was so off track now.

“Yeah,” Jose replied seeming very distracted. “I need to talk to you.”

“Fine,” he shrugged. The women were gushing over the baby so they weren’t paying them any attention, so they went up to his office. “Explain all that to me.”

“Uh she told me last night that the reason I haven’t seen her in awhile was because she got pregnant. And she wasn’t sure how I would react so she kept it to herself. Then she decided to tell me in person about Joseph, her friend brought him in today.” Jose explained.

“And now she’s accepted your proposal?”

“Yeah, so I’m going to need to find a house for us. I figured you could help you are good at real estate,” Jose said.

“Fine, but are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes, I did ask her to marry me years ago and he is my son. I understand that she was concerned because I was publicly dating other women.”

“Her excuse or yours? She had no right to keep this from you or hold that over your head because she wasn’t ready to settle down. You’ve tried, I’ve watched you and it was sad,” Nicolas shook his head. He turned on his computer, looking for real estate would be a good distraction. If he wasn’t so into science, he probably would have liked to go into real estate but he never got the choice.

“Does it matter? The fact is she’s here and wants to stay and I have a son,” Jose said. The way he said it was like he was still having trouble believing it.

“Could be worse, you could have fathered Cheyenne’s baby,” Nicolas said at that he made a face.

“So what did you do to piss the princess off?”

“She found a thong in my pocket,” he replied and his brother stared at him.

“A thong? Where did you get…” Jose trailed off seeming to realize how that happened. “You sneak off with a stripper or something?”

“I have no idea how it got there or what happened most of the night,” he admitted.

“Damn,” Jose shook his head. “You were pretty drunk, at my insistence of course but I wasn’t drunk and I wouldn’t really have let you do that. Besides all your brothers-in-law where there and since they haven’t killed you, then nothing happened.”

“Yeah I wish I could rely on that, I just remember going into the bathroom and her following. Otherwise most of the night is fuzzy and my head is still paying for it.”

“Richard had a video camera; we can get the tape and see what’s up. I know you Nicky and you are not the cheating type, especially not since you found the princess. Hell, I would be afraid to cheat on her, she might cut your balls off,” Jose said seeming amused. None of this was amusing, it was bad.

“You know I expected the Mandrakes or Owen or Alvin to ruin this wedding, I never imagined it would be a damn stripper,” he paused. “Well if she decides not to go through with this then you and Jasmine could take the wedding, it’s all paid for.”

“Sometimes you are really depressing, she’s not going to leave you. Staying gets her more money and if she has your kid that’s even more.”

“She would get everything if she killed me or one of the brothers did.”

“When did you become such a drama queen? A thong is not a reason she should leave, there are about 100 other reasons for her to and she knows a good bit of them and she’s still here,” Jose told him.

“I know, so are you sure you can do the family thing? No more women on the side or messing around with friends and relatives,” Nicolas said changing the subject.

“You know I never really wanted kids and the only woman I ever loved is Jasmine and here I am getting what I want. But I feel like it’s wrong, I want my son here where I can know him and I love her. Is it right to as her to leave her family and the people she loves? And who knows if she’s serious about getting married, she changes her mind way too often,” Jose sighed. “Maybe she should go home and I can just visit Joseph every chance I get.”

“Why should you do that? Maybe she needs to quit being so insecure, you wouldn’t have been with other women if she didn’t reject you every chance she got. It is well pass the time for you to put your foot down and take what you want. If you never invited her to this wedding she would have never told you that you have a son, think about that.”

“Oh I have, and what I want is for her to actually want to be here is that so much to ask? The other women are just an excuse because I’ve always been honest with her about that and I told her I would give it up for her. Maybe you are right, but I worry that I might slip up and then I’m hurting her and my son,” he shook his head.

“This week isn’t going to be boring,” Nicolas said. Jose just nodded looking weary. If they could make it through this week than maybe there was hope for the future.

 

Wildflower was confused. To cover her confusion she focused on baby Joseph. Though that just made her think of how much Nicolas wanted a baby and going down that road of thought, made her think about killing him. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, he just didn’t seem so certain that he hadn’t done anything. She found that when it came to her he was a lot less guarded and he probably didn’t realize it but she could read him like a book, but not always. Yesterday she could see his uncertainty and his fear; he was worried that he had done something. Instead of talking about it she focused on the lovely Jasmine, Jose’s sudden fiancé and baby he never knew he had.

She wasn’t trying to judge Jasmine but that was a cruel thing she did when it was obvious that Jose the man w***e was in love with her. And she understood that Jasmine was afraid that he would be unfaithful. Having known Jose just a few months, Wildflower could just tell that he loved this woman it was really obvious. Maybe this explained why he was such a w***e; he couldn’t have the woman he wanted. Dissecting Jose and Jasmine’s situation was much more appealing than looking deep into hers.

Wildflower was marrying the only man she ever loved in five days. A man she had only been with for eight months. He was a man with a lot of secrets and a sort of criminal past and his family was insane and his brother was a murder/rapist/complete/psychopath. That should have put her off and made her leave, but she was still here. It was almost funny that all that crazy stuff didn’t turn her away but finding a thong in his pocket was making her reconsider. There were a lot of things in this relationship that made no sense, but she loved him. Was love really enough though? Love wasn’t enough to make Carmen marry Camden even though she was currently hiding out in her room with him and neither had been seen since yesterday. Then again that was a different situation.

What if he really was with that stripper? What did that mean? Was he trying to have one last night of freedom before getting married? Or was it something more complex? She’d thought that their sexual relationship was fine, maybe not. Since she never had a relationship she couldn’t say if she could stay with a cheater. All she wanted was to go to sleep and forget any of this every happened. Last night the only reason she got any sleep was because she was exhausted, if it wasn’t for that she wouldn’t have slept at all. Awake she had to wonder if he cheated and if this was the first time and if it would be the last. This was not what she expected to be worrying about days before her wedding, so much for having a stress free week. She had no idea what she was going to do now.

“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked after Jasmine took the baby to take a nap.

            “I think Nick had sex with a stripper,” she admitted.

            “What!? Why do you think that?” Brooke asked in shock.

            “Because I found her thong and her number in the pocket of his jeans and he didn’t really deny it. He likes to dance around the truth and that may work on everybody else but I’m not stupid,” she sighed.

            “He couldn’t have been with some skank not with all your brothers there and Jay didn’t say anything to me about it,” Brooke said.

            “They were all drinking and he is very sneaky, he says he doesn’t remember most of the night.”

            “Honey, he would not cheat on you, he loves you,” Brooke said. She didn’t exactly sound 100% sure either.

            “What am I supposed to do? We are getting married at the end of this week and I just have no idea what I’m going to do. What if he did it? Then what?”

            “We can figure something out,” Brooke said.

            “I’m not one of those girls that forgives this type of thing, I can’t marry him,” she told her. There was just no way she could accept this.

            “You don’t know for sure; don’t do anything that you can’t take back.”

            “That look in his eyes told me enough, he doesn’t know either way.”

            “Why don’t you go lie down and rest a bit before you make any decisions, ok? And I can covertly talk to the guys and see what’s up,” Brooke suggested.

            “Fine, I feel sick anyway,” she replied.

            Maybe she did need to rest a bit before her brain exploded. She wanted to rely on the fact that her brothers were there but Nicolas could get away with anything. What was she supposed to do if she broke up with him? Where would she even go? No job, no home and she had the boys and they went to an expensive school. Even if she wanted to force him out of his own house she could never pay for the upkeep. And she wasn’t so spiteful, this was his family’s house and if they weren’t together she didn’t want to be here. Then there was the house he bought for her mother, nobody was even living there anymore. Van moved in with his girlfriend and Marguerite was staying with her sister. Basically leaving him meant she was really screwed and she was not going to take money from him.

            When she got up to the bedroom she found that she was not going to get any rest. He was there lying in the bed with a pillow over his face. At first she was going to sneak back out but he looked out from under the pillow at her. It would be nice if she could just leave and not have to worry about everything. If only she could go to sleep and wake up with nothing to worry about and be excited for her wedding. None of that was happening because of some s**t named Mindy. And because as it appeared she wasn’t pleasing her man enough. Why else did men cheat? Instead of feeling inadequate she was just pissed. If some unfortunate accident was to happen and he died she would be rich, it was something to think about. But she would give up everything for this not to be true and to marry him on Saturday as planned.

            “You’re still here,” he said watching her.

            “Looks like it,” she replied. Without a better choice she came in and closed the door behind her.

            “Do you want to talk?” He asked still watching her.

            “Talk,” she said sitting down at the foot of the bed.       
            “First I guess I should ask if we are still getting married this weekend?”

            “I don’t know, should we?”

            “I made a mistake but that doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

            “You never denied it; you’re really predictable you know. All that dancing around the truth and drawing attention away doesn’t work on me. So tell me now did you have sex with her?”

            “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I drank a lot and most of the night is a blur. Even if I didn’t do it, I should never be in a situation like this. And I couldn’t tell you the truth with a 100% certainty and I didn’t want to lie.”

            “How can you not know if you had sex with somebody?” She asked in disbelief.

            “Lately I’ve been drinking a lot, well daily is more like it, you aren’t the only one that’s stressed out. I love you and I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you. Wildflower I want to marry you like we planned and I want us to be together,” he paused finally tossing the pillow aside. “If you don’t trust me enough right now I understand and we can postpone until you are ready. I’ll do anything to make this right, but I will not give up on us so don’t ask me to.”

            “You know I realized today that I have nothing, if we aren’t together I have no money and nowhere to live,” she said. It worked out for him, he wanted her to depend on him and she really was completely dependent. If she stayed with him that was going to need to change, she needed to have a back-up plan.

            “This is your home, if you need space I can leave. I would never ask you to leave here and I would take care of you no matter what. All of this is my fault,” he told her. Part of her appreciated that but another part of her didn’t, even so he was really predictable.

            “So is the reason you needed to be with someone else because you are unsatisfied with me?” She asked because her insecure self wouldn’t let it go, she just had to wonder.

            “Are you crazy? You damn well know the answer to that,” he said. This time he sounded angry and offended.

            “Well why else would you have sex with somebody else? It’s not like you can accidentally have sex and being drunk isn’t an excuse.”

            “I wouldn’t cheat on you, all I know is she was offering and I was amused by her. Then you found her thong and that’s it, most of the night I spent drinking.”

            “Why have you been drinking a lot?” She asked changing the subject slightly.

            “Stress, a lot has been going on,” he said. Now that he mentioned it she remembered some things that hadn’t seemed like and issue. “So tell me are we getting married this weekend or not?”

            That was a good question. This man was the love of her life and the only man she ever loved. She wanted to trust him but there was only one way to know for sure what happened and she wasn’t willing to go down that road. Asking the stripper would be a bad idea no matter what the truth was, her experiences with women in that profession weren’t the best. Having done that job and meeting the women that did that for a living, not all but a lot of them were not all that nice of people. Especially the ones she’d met with their sugar daddies and having sex with men for extra money, they would say anything. And Nicolas had money, that w***e wouldn’t care what the truth was if she saw an opportunity. And the fact was that she believed he wouldn’t cheat on her, it wouldn’t make sense.

            Nicolas just wasn’t the type of person that did things like this and he obviously felt horrible about the whole situation. Then there was the fact that her brothers may not all like Nicolas or always want her to be with him, but they would never let him go off with another women. Since there were nine of them even if half of them were drunk there were too many of them to do anything in secret. Ricky and Ivan especially wouldn’t let anything happen. But she couldn’t ask her brothers and risk their suspicion, they would make her leave. If Ricky seriously told her not to stay, she wouldn’t. She hated it but that was the truth, she couldn’t say no to him, never had and never would. Maybe Brooke could find something out that would be useful.

            She didn’t want to admit it but from a financial standpoint she had no choice in leaving him. The fact that money was a factor made her hate herself a little but she had to secure her future. And it wasn’t just her that this affected; there were also her brothers, the girls, Christina who he was paying tuition for. Part of her knew that she could survive with nothing and had been doing that forever and she wouldn’t mind gaining her independence back. Mostly though at that moment while she was sitting there looking into his eyes and he waited patiently the future wasn’t important. Wasn’t the whole reason they were together because they loved each other? Love that was what this was about. Did he love her enough that he wouldn’t touch an easy woman when he was very much under the influence? Not knowing for sure was the hard part. Maybe she should have been asking herself if she loved him enough and if she was ever excited for this wedding in the first place. This was too hard.

            “Nick, I can’t be worrying that you are off with some other woman,” she said.

            “You’ve never had to worry before so don’t start, I love you and only you.”

            “I love you too,” she whispered. He took the opportunity to move across the bed so that he could pull her in his arms and she didn’t fight him.

            “I swear you won’t regret this,” he promised.

            “I hope not,” she replied. The decision wasn’t so hard when she was in his arms, she chose love.

            “I could try to find out, Richard video taped everything,” he told her.

            “No it’s ok, I trust you,” she said staring him straight in the eyes.

            “I don’t deserve you,” he said.

That was definitely true but she didn’t reply. Instead she let him pulled her up to the top of the bed so they could lay together. Nothing else mattered at the moment than being together. They would get pass this, she knew it. And in a few days they would be married and everything would be perfect. Why wasn’t she excited? She wanted this, but maybe she was still a little sick and that was affecting everything else. Laying there with her head resting on his chest she couldn’t exactly imagine a future without him. To ruin the moment someone knocked on the door and then Brooke’s head peeked inside.

“Sorry to interrupt but can I borrow your car?”

“Yeah, my keys are downstairs.”

“So is everything ok?” Brooke asked not too subtly.

“Everything is fine,” Nicolas answered for her.

“Alright, see you later,” Brooke said. Before she left she gave Wildflower a “we-will-talk-later” look and then waved and closed the door behind her.

“You know I think your sickness has finally caught up with me,” he said.

“Better not be too sick to marry me,” she replied.

“Never, I would still marry you even if I was dying or I lost a limb.”

“Good to know,” she said. She closed her eyes and just focused on love.

 

 

Caroline was upset and hurt and confused and she wanted revenge. Tears were a waste of time and energy and she needed her energy. Her sisters had been right about everything. Hadn’t his own family admitted that to her? They were kind to her and concerned for her even though she was a stranger. So her problem wasn’t with them, they didn’t do anything, he did. He lied and told her he loved her and let her believe he was going to marry her. She’d even found a ring. Maybe it was for someone else and maybe she shouldn’t have fallen so hard so fast, but it was hard not to. He wasn’t like any other man she ever knew. However that was the fact that was the problem, she was never supposed to fall in love with him.

The plan had been fairly simple, in theory. There was no way she could have known how this would turn out. In fact she never wanted to do this thing anyway; Tina and Sadie forced her too. “Think of Hannah,” they said. She tried but she barely even remembered Hannah and she didn’t really believe their crazy accusations. Delanoz’s own sister and his brother’s fiancé both made it obvious that he did something awful. He heart did not want to believe that but even his daughters seemed concerned. Two of the daughters were about a year and a half younger than her. Funny that she liked that he was older and more mature, unlike of men she dated. Meanwhile she was the same age as his kids. What was she thinking? If she had married him then she would have been a step mother to eleven children. Her sisters left out exactly how many children he had and until she met Samantha he never mentioned any of his children.

There was a wall where her sisters put up a bunch of cork boards and bulletin boards. They were filled with newspaper articles, pictures, things found online and a bunch of things about the Capriani family. Before she thought it was just suspicion, but it was no coincidence that a lot of these “accidents” had something to do with Delanoz. There were things about Hannah up there too. Eventually the police had given up on ever finding her. Caroline had been young at the time but once Tina start saying Delanoz admitted to killing Hannah, everything in their lives changed. Their parents were different and worry all the time and then they moved them far away. If they only knew what their daughters were up to now, somehow her sisters kept their parents from knowing about this. She hadn’t known until they decided to recruit her. Now she wished she never knew.

“Caroline, are you alright?” Heather asked her, sweet loving quiet Heather.

“Yeah,” she lied. “So um when are we going back home?”

“We aren’t,” Tina said coming into the room.

“Why not? He isn’t going to confess to anything, there is no point,” she said. She did want revenge but she also needed to get away from here for awhile.

“We are here for a reason,” Sadie told her. “And we promised out new friend that we would help her take Nicolas down.”

“He has nothing to do with this,” Caroline said now she was worried.

“Doesn’t he? And what about his poor stupid fiancé? I think she needs a reality check,” Sadie said. There was a twinge of jealousy there because it wasn’t that much of a secret that she once had a thing for him.

“Leave her alone,” Heather said. “She has nothing to do with this and she was kind enough to help us locate Caroline.”

“Let’s not even talk about how stupid Caroline is,” Tina said glaring at her. “You should never have been running off with that murderer and as for the fiancé we’re doing her a favor.”

“No, it isn’t right for you to do this.  Messed up and I fell for him, but you have no right to interfere in these people’s lives. If Delanoz killed Hannah then it’s his fault, his brothers have nothing to do with it,” Caroline said. She never stood up to her sisters but she had to do what was right.

“That whole poisonous family needs to be punished,” Sadie said. That was supposed to be the end of the conversation but it wasn’t for Caroline, she really wanted revenge. Delanoz deserved whatever he got, but it wasn’t everybody else’s fault.

 

 

Brooke needed to find out the truth even though Wildflower had obviously forgiven Nicolas. As best friend and maid of honor she had to figure this out. More than anything else she wanted this not to be true for Wildflower’s sake. Her friend loved this man so much and she had to put up with a lot. So somehow Brooke was going to fix this. First she had called Jay and asked him a few questions and she had Christina ask Isaiah about that night. As far as she could tell nothing had happened, though Jay had gotten drunk. Then as luck would have it Wildflower left her phone in the kitchen, so Brooke read the text Tara sent about a video. Apparently Richard video taped the whole bachelor party and Tara was asking if Wildflower wanted to come laugh and spy on the guys. Brooke decided she would go look at it to spare her friend anymore stress.

“So are you going to tell me why this is supposed to be a secret?” Tara asked when she let her in and led her to the TV.

“Because Nicolas may have done something stupid,” she replied.

“What? You think he cheated or something?” Tara asked looking stunned.

“Maybe,” she sighed.

“I’ve known Nicolas for a long time and he would never do that. He loves Wildflower way too much for that,” Tara said.

“I shouldn’t even say anything, you are his best friend’s wife. But I couldn’t let her see this incase something bad was on their,” Brooke said. This was such a bad idea, she wasn’t thinking at all.

“You think I’m going to tell Richard? I love my husband and all but I do not tell him everything. So what happened to make you suspect he cheated?”

“She found one of there strippers’ thong in the pocket of his jeans with a phone number and he says he doesn’t remember most of the night.”

“Damn, how is she handling this? Is the wedding still on?”

“I guess so, they were together before I left and he said everything was fine.”

“Well let’s watch this and find out the truth,” Tara said and pushed play.

Most of the video was boring, unless you were a guy, though it was a lot tamer than she expected. The first part of interest was Nicolas sitting talking to Delanoz in hushed voices, then a stripper jumped on his lap. Brian had been the one to tell her to go over there, him and Richard had been laughing behind the camera. The conversation seemed to go well, she was whispering in his ear and he laughed. They kept talking intimately and Delanoz was laughing and shaking his head, eventually the little harlot got up. A few minutes later she returned with friends and the three of them managed to get him up so that they could basically feel him up. He laughed and the other guys laughed and he was at least telling the truth about drinking a lot.

Some of it they fast forwarded through. It was looking like all Nicolas was guilty of was drinking way too much. This was good, Brooke was so relieved and she was proud of Jay for being so good. She might have been a little crazy with the male strippers but she had been under the influence of 3 drinks and 3 shots. And she learned how hopelessly Isaiah was in love with Christina, he never once looked at another woman mostly he was texting. That explained why Christina had that phone in her hand all night. Brooke had sort of always thought that relationship would never last because Isaiah was kind of mean. Then they got married and that confused her even more, they made an odd couple because Christina was nice and sweet. Everybody had assumed the only reason they were even together was Ariela, but since they got married Brooke noticed changes with them. She couldn’t help the fact that she was nosey.

Richard put the camera down but had accidentally left it running. That unfortunately was when things went from boring average guy stuff to something more. Delanoz was a gross pig and it looked like he went off to hook up with two of the strippers, big surprise. It also appeared that Brian’s wife needed to see this video. Marcus surprisingly walked off with a stripper. The other guys there she didn’t really know but there were a lot of strippers at this party. Well it appeared that some were just “cocktail waitresses”, but they barely had any clothes on and were eyeing up the men with that hungry gold digger look. She’d seen that look before and that meant trouble. People were hooking up and that fine; it wasn’t her business if they did, unless it was Jay. Nicolas walked pass the camera and went towards the bathroom. Two seconds later two females stepped in front of the camera.

“Are you going to follow?” One of them asked the other.

“Hell yeah, do you know how much money he has? And it wasn’t like he told me no, who cares about his fiancé, I want him,” the other replied. They laughed and then she followed him into the bathroom.

Brooke and Tara stared at each other in shock. The other stripper turned around and picked up the camera and walked off with it. This didn’t prove anything but it didn’t help any either. Now what? Unless someone else was in that bathroom there was no proof that he didn’t have sex with her. She’d been hoping for this to clear all of this up, but it sort of made it worse. Wildflower could not watch this video, she wouldn’t recover from it. With the stalker ex, the Cody drama, the crazy mother, the teenage soap opera in the house, the snobby judgmental in-laws and the thing with Ivan and the underage niece, Wildflower didn’t need more stress. Her family was stressful enough by themselves and adding her in-laws just made to so much worse. So what was she supposed to do?

“Um it doesn’t really prove anything,” Tara offered while fast forwarding. When she stopped it was a shot where the stripper was coming out of the bathroom and sure enough she was missing her panties.

“I’m going to murder him,” Brooke said angrily. If she showed this to any of the brothers they would go off and kill him. Maybe that was exactly what she needed to do.

“Brooke, you love Wildflower, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Don’t do this to her, if they made up then everything is fine and she loves him. None of this proves anything other than them b*****s need to be put in their place, this will hurt her. And it will make her paranoid and she deserves more than anybody else to have the wedding of her dreams and marry the man she loves,” Tara told her.

“So I should keep this a secret? Are you serious? What if he cheated?”

“Its not our place to point things out that aren’t necessarily true. Nicolas loves her and that’s a fact, he would never hurt her on purpose.”

“I know,” she sighed.

Was it really right to keep this a secret? Letting her best friend marry a man that possibly cheated on her was wrong. But maybe Tara was right and it would do more harm than good to show this when it might not mean anything. Nicolas was drunk and that was a fact, which that girl could have slipped something in his pocket and he didn’t remember. So many what ifs and nothing conclusive. For once the truth wasn’t such a black or white easily defined thing. Brooke just didn’t have it in her to ruin Wildflower’s happiness and her dreams for the future and trying to have a baby, it would be wrong.

“Look I have a friend that makes documentaries and I can take it to him and have him take a few things out of the video and nobody beyond us needs to know,” Tara suggested.

“Yeah, I think you’re going to need to do that,” Brooke replied. She said a silent prayer that she was doing the right thing. Wildflower deserved some happiness in her life. But it made her wonder if she would want to know if this was her situation. She hoped to God she never had to find out.

Reviews

[deeps]

Wow! Quite alot going on here. I like this. Full of vivid imagery and wonderful detail. Very enjoyable read!