Risking Fate (Mitchell Family #4)(46)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Yes, it was his shirt, but it meant nothing. Don’t doubt him. He didn’t cheat on you. He promised he would never do that.

When Heather didn’t get the response she wanted, she pulled out a zip lock bag and held onto it. “Having doubts?”

“No! Cut the shit now. There is nothing you can say or do to make me believe that Ty was with you that night. He came home without the paternity test papers and he was a wreck because he couldn’t fool you. Yeah, he was there to trick you the whole time. He never wanted your skank ass.” Heather just stared at me smiling. “I think you need to leave.”

“Oh, Honey, it’s just getting good. You see, I figured you would be so far up Ty’s ass that you wouldn’t believe me. I knew you would have to see it with your own eyes.” She took the zip lock bag and slid it across the table toward me. “Go ahead. Take a look at the man in those pictures. As you will find, he was exactly where he wanted to be.”

They were face down in the plastic and I swallowed the lump in my throat, preparing to see pictures from college, or some wild night they had in the past, but as I flipped the bag over and looked at the first one, my heart dropped.

The first thing I noticed was Ty’s short hair. He was sprawled out on a couch that I’d never seen and he was smiling.

Heather sat back and watched my reaction. “Why do you have theses? What are you trying to prove?”

She leaned forward. “Honey, I am just showing you the lying, cheating man that you’re married to.”

I clenched my jaw and tossed the pictures down on the table, ready to defend Ty’s faithfulness to me, but as I did, they spread out on the table and I saw something that stopped my heart.

Ty’s shirt was being pulled off by Heather. She was licking his nipple and I could see his Izzy tattoo over his heart. I grabbed the picture and put my hand up to my face to hide my shock. “Get out of my house,” I whispered, trying to hold back the tears.

At least ten more pictures sat there on the table, but I refused to look down. Heather remained sitting. “You still think your hubby is the best thing in the world? I don’t know why you’re so surprised. I mean, you’ve known him your whole life. Surely, you know he likes a variety of pu**y. Let me just tell you, he was so worth the wait this time.” Before I could respond, she reached down and pulled out a certain picture. I don’t know how she managed to extend her arm out, but Ty was laying down and she was sitting on his face, naked. “He got so much better at this.”

Tears poured out of my eyes as the images burned into my brain. How could he lie to me like that? All this time had passed and I trusted that nothing happened between them. How could I have been such a f**king idiot? “Please get out of my house.”

She reached down and spread all of the  p**n ographic pictures of my husband over the table, so I could see everyone. Each was worse than the first. When I finally looked back up at her she was smiling. “One day you will thank me for this. Ty needs to be free, not tied down to this superficial life. He needs to take what he wants when he wants it. The man you think you’re married to, is nothing but a con artist. You’d be wise to take those babies and get as far away from him as you can. It’s only going to get worse.” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door. “Once a cheater, always a cheater. Oh, I almost forgot, here’s the paternity test. It’s totally legit, but you may want to re-think who the bigger monster is in your daughter’s life. I mean, I know I wouldn’t want any child of mine calling someone like him ‘Daddy’.”

She left me there, staring at the coffee table. Looking at my husband doing things he only did to me. Touching her. Kissing her. Worse.

I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Everything about our love was a lie. How could that be? How could he do this? Why didn’t anyone see this coming?

My babies.

My daughter.

He was such a good dad to Bella. How could he have been living this secret life?

I wanted to say the photos were doctored, to give him the benefit of the doubt, but as I looked at them over and over again, I knew they were very real.

Before I knew what was happening, I started packing bags. It was two in the afternoon so I needed to hurry. I popped the trunk and started filling it with mine and Bella’s clothes, as well as enough clothes and baby items for the boys.

Oh my God, I am having his twins. Their father is a liar.

When I had the car jam-packed, I went back into the house. My cell phone was still on the bedside table, so I went in to retrieve it. I stopped and looked at my bed and around my room. So many beautiful memories were made in this room. How could they have all been lies? I felt our connection, the way he loved me like nobody ever had before.

They couldn’t be lies.

My heart shattered in a million pieces and I collapsed onto the bed. I let the crying overwhelm me and soon I found it had been a hour’s time I lost. Without wasting another second, I walked into the kitchen and wrote a note.

It was hard to write the words; to finalize a relationship that I thought would last for the rest of our lives. As I cried through each one of them, the emotions rolled through me. I was hurt and I was lost. He’d betrayed me and that was the one thing I could never forgive. There was no way to get back what we’d had. We were over.

The ride to Bella’s school was full of more tears, but I got myself together enough to go in and sign her out early. Her father would go there to pick her up, but we’d already be long gone. I had a whole hour on him and he wouldn’t catch me. Once I was back at the ranch, Colt would keep us safe.

Ty was a fighter. He wasn’t just going to let me and the kids walk out of his life. He was going to make this ugly and as much as I was suffering, I knew it was going to kill Bella.

We no sooner got in the car, when she started asking questions. “Mommy, how come I had to leave school early? You know I have art in the afternoons and I didn’t get to finish my picture.”

“I’m sorry baby. I planned a surprise visit to see Noah.”

I could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn’t mad at me anymore, at least not at the moment. “Really? Are we picking Daddy up next?”

I didn’t look in the rearview mirror, on account of her seeing the tears pouring down my face. “Daddy isn’t comin’ this time, Sweetie.”

“Well, can I call him to tell him I love him and I will miss him?”

“Why don’t you wait until he’s off of work. You know Daddy leaves his phone in the Jeep.” I wonder if that was really the truth. Maybe he had a separate phone that he used to make booty calls, maybe there were other girls like Heather.