Page 49 of No Regrets

“What the hell is going on?”

Bethany jumped as if she’d been shot at. “Brianna, um, hey. What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

“I needed a place to stay since my boyfriend kicked me out, and Kaden was kind enough to lend me his spare bed.” She looked over at Kaden, then down at herself. “Oh, shit. This isn’t what it looks like.”

Brianna narrowed her eyes. “It never is.”

She walked over to the bed to wake Kaden, who mumbled something rolling over to his back. He opened his eyes to Bethany in a towel them moved them to Brianna’s.

Fed up with him and her, Brianna screamed, “What the hell is going on?”

“Jeez, dammit. Stop yelling.” He covered his ears, stuffing his face underneath a pillow.

Brianna huffed. “Fine. You want him. You can have him. I’m done.”

She turned on her heel and left the room with what little dignity she had left. She didn’t give a rat’s ass if he drowned in his liquor. She was through caring about him when obviously he didn’t care about her.

* * * *

Around nine o’clock, she finally got Shiloh settled for bed. She didn’t know if it was because Kaden wasn’t around or what, but Shiloh was restless and whiny. Brianna knew the feeling. She flipped off all the lights making her way to the kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes.

She hadn’t been scrubbing on the pots too long before Kaden walked in. He looked like a mess with his clothes disorderly and his hair sticking out everywhere. She still smelled the whiskey on him so that meant he didn’t bathe.

“You’re making me nauseous,” she said and meant it.

“Bethany told me what happened. Nothing happened, I swear.”

Brianna huffed flicking the water on to rinse the pot. “Yeah, well, I’m tired of you swearing nothing happened. You didn’t feel the need to tell me you were having a houseguest all those nights when you stayed at the apartment ‘working.’ What the hell am I suppose to think?”

He thumped his forehead against the counter. “You’re supposed to trust me.”

“You do not get to turn this around on me, Kaden.” She threw the pot across the room. It clanged loudly on the tiled floor as it rolled away. “Your father called me at work worried about you. You didn’t have the decency to tell your family where you’d be or who the hell you’d be with. I was scared to death something had happened to you. He told me you lost your case, and I knew how much it meant to you.”

She shook her head. “But you obviously didn’t give a shit about your family. You know I was supportive while you worked on this looking hard to find something to help that family out. I’ve been nothing but supportive of you throughout our whole relationship, and what have I got for it? A drunk husband banging his ex. Wow!”

He now sat up, his eyes still glazed over. “I wasn’t banging Bethany. I came home, locked myself in my room, and went to sleep or studied my ass off. I haven’t had sex since New Year’s and that was with you. As far as what happened today, I started drinking, she joined me, and we cleaned up the place together. I didn’t have anything to eat all day, and the alcohol went straight to my head. I passed out before I even finished the second glass, and Bethany helped me to bed. I didn’t sleep with her, and the only reason she was in a towel was because she too got drunk and threw up all over herself.”

“Yeah, well, call your father and tell him you’re okay. Then go take a shower, and sleep it off.” She went back to washing the dishes, wondering if what he said was the way it happened. The last time he got drunk like that was with her, and they made a baby. How could she trust him around Bethany? After all, he hadn’t been forced to marry her. He had chosen her of his own free will. That had to account for something.

“Brianna, you’ve got to believe me.”

“I don’t have to do anything. This relationship is clearly not working, and I think it’d be best to end things now. Save us a year’s worth of ups and downs.” She slung water onto the dish drainer. “Tell your father that while you’re at it.”

He stood, pushing himself up using the counter. “Fine. I love you, Brianna. Nothing will ever change that.”

She had held it together at the apartment. She had held it together on the drive home. She had held it together in front of Shiloh, and she had held it together while confronting him. Now with him saying those three words, she couldn’t do it anymore. She picked up the pots from the soapy water and flung them across the room at him.

“You don’t know what love is!” she screamed at him, sobs overcoming her. She slid to the floor, her body shaking as the tears started flowing down her cheeks.

He didn’t know and didn’t care. Instead of replying, he simply turned and left the room, with his wife crying as she leaned against the kitchen cabinets. He didn’t even try to move when she threw stuff at him. He simply stared, tears rolling down his cheeks, each one ripping at her heart as it fell. She hated hurting people, but most of all she hated hurting inside.

* * * *

Kaden showered and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He still felt like shit, though supposed without Brianna in his life, he always would. He screwed up big time, though he didn’t really know what he did. Keeping Bethany’s presence in his life had definitely been a wrong. The look on Brianna’s face New Year’s Eve should have told him that much, but he couldn’t bear to tell her the truth. Maybe he didn’t feel guilty, though they really didn’t do anything.

He called his dad and told him what an ass he’d been. And Greg’s only advice was to do whatever it took to fix it. Right now, Brianna wanted him gone, and the only thing he could do was grant her, her wish.

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