Page 19 of The Revenge Plan

“No,” I shook my head, “it’s a nail, it will grow back.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. He resumed his task and went to the kit again. He dabbed some disinfectant. I flinched, but he held me down until he finished the application. Then he put a band-aid on it. “Done,” he said as he pressed on the band-aid, making certain it was firm.

Our heads were so close to each other that when I lifted mine, I almost bumped into his. We both stared at each other. The mood between us had shifted, I noticed. He was standing between my legs and his hand had moved up from my foot to my thigh where he was lightly caressing it.

“Thank you.” I choked out.

We were so close we could kiss. I could lean in now and capture his lips with mine and taste them again. The wedding kiss had been fleeting, but it was on my mind and I couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel if we truly kissed. If I kissed him, something told me he wouldn’t refuse. But was I bold enough? No. I couldn’t deal with it if he rebuffed me. I thought of the next best thing that would dispel this unsettling feeling I was having of my husband.

“Kailey and Sophie said something today.”

“About?”

“That I did something to them and I was too drunk to remember, but you’d know.”

I felt him withdraw, and the mood went back to being icy.

“Where do I start? There is so much that you’ve done.”

“Please,” I grabbed his hand, “I need to know.”

He wiggled out of my grasp as if I was diseased. I pressed down the feeling of rejection. “She said you’d tell me. I think it has to do with Sophie’s wedding.”

He frowned, “You really don’t remember?”

I shook my head. “I realize I did something, but what, I can’t recall.”

He sighed. “Of course you can’t. You have a knack of conveniently forgetting the bad things that you do to people you call your friends.”

Why did it feel like he was not referring to Sophie, but to himself? I had given up thinking he didn’t want to tell me and was about to slide down from the counter when he said, “In a nutshell, you ruined her wedding day.” He stared directly at me, “You arrived at the reception late, with a bunch of friends most of whom we didn’t know. You said they were from Europe. Then you tried to get them in, even though they weren’t invited, but because Sophie was your friend, and it was her wedding day, she didn’t want to cause a scene so she let them in.” That part I remember. I had been late, but that was because the flight had been delayed and Marco, a friend of mine, offered use of his private jet, and that took time, which is why I wanted to return the favor by inviting him in. But he had other friends, and they, too, wanted to come…

“God,” disgust flashed over his face, “you were so drunk, I barely recognized you. Clearly you had something else in your system. Anyway, you and your friends, let me see what was first, oh, you high-jacked the microphone, and gave a ‘speech’ where you—”

“Wait, I don’t think—”

“—where you claimed she had been cheating for years with another man. I had to grab the microphone from you after that.”

A foggy memory of me slurring into a microphone and him taking it away from me, flitted in my mind. He had looked as he did now when he had hustled me away, disgusted.

“Then you had your friends destroy her five-tier wedding cake that had cost sixty grand. I took you to my room after that where you promptly passed out. Luckily the cake was in another room and no one saw your antics. I had to play clean-up and get a cake in record time. Some poor baker probably had to work overnight after we bought a ready-made cake that was about to be delivered to another couple.”

I remember waking up in a strange hotel suite that day with cake all over my dress. And Caiden driving me to the airport and told me he never wanted to see me again. “You cleaned up all my mess?”

He shrugged, “Your father was right I guess, I will always be the maid’s son.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For what you did all those years ago.”

“I don’t need your thanks.”

10

“Pack your things.” He said to me one early morning a few weeks after the brunch incident. I was at the breakfast counter eating my cereal in peace when he came rushing in while on a phone call.

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