30
Haven
"Haven, is that you?" a voice calls from the bottom of Mom and Dad’s driveway just as we reach the front door.
I turn, finding Maryanne standing behind us, cowering forward as if she were in pain.
"Bennett told me—"
"Maryanne," I say, releasing an angered breath. "I don't have time for this right now."
"Please," she begs. "I need to apologize."
"No," I bark. "You don't. You did me a favor, trust me. He's all yours if that's what you and your husband decide is best." I know my words are full of rage, and I hope they hurt her as much as she hurt me.
"I told him," she says. "He left me this morning."
"Well, consequences suck," I tell her.
She bobs her head around as tears fill her eyes. "I don't expect forgiveness. I just wanted to say I was sorry." Raine's hand slides up my back, reminding me he's here. "Raine?"
"Hey, Maryanne," Raine responds quickly.
"Glad to see you're out," she says. She knows the truth. She was there for me as a friend would be, which is why we finally became real friends, or so I thought, but friends don't cheat with or steal boyfriends. The one person I let in as a friend…and this is what I get.
"Good luck with everything, Maryanne," I tell her without cracking. This hurts. It hurt when I figured this all out. It hurt admitting it out loud, knowing about their love affair for months. I am so sick of the lies. I just want to put all this behind me.
She raises her hand in front of her chest, offering a silent goodbye. Maybe someday I can forgive her, but not now. Definitely not now.
She leaves without another word and shamefully walks back in the direction of her parents’ house, where I’m sure she’ll be staying now that her husband knows her truth.
Consequences suck. Dad's about to learn that too.
"You okay?" Raine asks.
"I haven't been okay for a very long time, but it is what it is. The people I have been surrounded by are not the most honest—a trait money seems to bring along.”
Raine places a kiss on my temple and squeezes his arm around my shoulders. "Deep breath. You need to stay strong right now."
I do as he suggests and slowly breathe in and out a few times before approaching Mom and Dad's front door. I feel uneasy as I step inside, hearing the same quiet I became too familiar with throughout my life. "Mom, Dad, I'm home."With Raine, the man I never stopped loving, no matter how much you didn't want me to even know him.
I hear Mom's heels click-clacking on the other side of the house, the sound growing louder by the second. My pulse is pounding in my ear, drowning out the sound of her heels as she turns the corner. It takes less than two seconds for recognition to settle in. "Mr. Carson," she says in only a breath.
"Mrs. Leigh," Raine responds curtly.
"Frederick!" Mom shouts for Dad.
I hear the wheels of his chair roll against the hardwood floor in his office, followed by his door opening. The heels of his dress shoes are almost as loud as Mom's as he stomps heavily toward us. "Yes? Is there a problem, Pamela?"
"Yes, there is," she says.
"No, Dad, there is no problem at all, other than whatever problem you have conjured up, of course," I add in.
As Dad turns the corner, it takes very little time for him to identify Raine. "Mr. Carson," Dad addresses him.
"Freddy!" Raine replies. "How's it hangin’, old man?"This isn't the Raine I know.He's trying to piss Dad off, and itwillwork.
"I heard you were released from prison this week," Dad says scratching at his chin.
