HOLDING ON Read online

  After I grab the bag filled with stuff for the girls, I lock my car and head into the house.

  Mikael has set up a playpen in the living room. My best friend knows me so well that he knew we were going to need a place to sleep, temporarily at least.

  I called him as I left the house and told him I needed to come over. He didn’t ask any questions, he just said he’d get everything ready for when I got there. I guess he realized this day was coming sooner than I did and prepared for it.

  I wish I had been more prepared. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel like my heart had just been run over by a Mack truck over and over again.

  I gently lay Sofia in the pen with Isabella and Felicia and they immediately start talking to each other in that baby babble they use. They seem to understand each other well and continue their conversation, leaving me in the dust.

  I walk over to the kitchen table, where Mikael is seated in front of a laptop. He’s steadily tapping away on it, lost in whatever he’s doing.

  “Hey, man,” I say, “thanks for letting me and the girls come over and crash. I may need to stay a little while, I hope that’s okay.”

  Mikael looks up at me then flips his laptop around for me to see.

  “I already knew,” he says. “Take a look.”

  I look down at the computer and see my house on the screen. When did he put cameras up? I had never noticed them.

  “When Maggie was pregnant with the girls, I came over to see you one day,” he begins. “I didn’t realize you had run to the office. When I came in, Maggie was sitting on the couch conspicuously close to that trainer of hers. Her friend, Haley, suddenly came out of the back room, half naked and hadn’t realized I was there. She licked her lips and looked at Maggie and told her it was her turn. I didn’t know what they were talking about and they didn’t know I was there. When I looked back to the direction Haley was coming from, I saw Felicia in the doorway making out with some dude. I was confused as to why Haley was telling Maggie it was her turn. She was with you, having your babies, and living in your home, after all.

  “When Maggie turned around and saw me standing there, she got up off the couch and sauntered over to me. I don’t know what she was thinking, but she strode over to me and immediately grabbed my crotch. She asked me if I wanted to play with her and her friends. That there were only two men and I was the perfect third.”

  Mikael continues to look me in the eye as he’s telling me this. Why hadn’t he told me before? He’s my best friend, my brother, why wouldn’t he have told me? Instead of interrupting him, I let him continue.

  “I pulled her hand off my dick and asked her what the fuck she was doing. She said she was horny and needed to get laid and that I was the perfect candidate. I thought she was fucking joking but she was deadly serious. I told her that she better get those people out of your house and that she needed to get her shit together and get out. I told her I was going to call you and tell you what she was doing and that you were going to throw her ass to the curb just as fast as you moved her in.”

  He starts shaking his head, as though to clear it of something. When he looks back at me, I see he has tears in his eyes.

  “She told me… she told me that if I wanted to keep my best friend happy, that I’d never tell you. She told me that the babies weren’t yours and that if I told you what she had done, that she would just leave and disappear with the children. I knew how much you already loved those babies and I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  I know he means what he says, he would never lie to me and I see how much this is hurting him. How much it must’ve been killing him living with this secret all this time. Just to protect me.

  That cunt made my best friend lie to me for months and I had no idea. He was trying to protect me, but in the end, I still got hurt.

  “Mikael, it’s not your fault,” I tell him. I mean it. I could be mad at him for not telling me, but I can’t honestly say if I was in that situation that I wouldn’t have done the same.

  “After that day, I couldn’t go back to your house and face her again. I started gathering evidence I would need to help you if you ever found out, and for you to be able to stay here with the kids if you needed to.”

  That’s why he has all this baby stuff. I look around and see box after box of baby items that I didn’t even notice when I walked through the door.

  “I went there one day when you two went for one of your appointments. I placed some hidden cameras around the property, so I could gather any evidence you needed when the time came.” He points to the laptop in front of me.

  “You have everything you need, right there in living color to help you win those girls if she even tries to fight you. You have every indiscretion she’s had since that day all on video. There was a video camera in the workout room as well, since I thought it odd that she suddenly needed more than one trainer. Be careful though. If you do decide to watch those, you’re not going to like what you see. There’s some sick shit in there.

  “I know you and I have had some sexual exploits and fantasies, but the things that woman has done even turns my stomach.”

  Wow, and the hits just keep on coming.

  “I’ve also contacted a lawyer for you and paid him a retainer for when the time came. Here’s his number,” he says as he hands me a business card.

  “I don’t know what to say, man,” I reply, honestly.

  Because I truly don’t know what to say. All these months, he’s had to live with knowing that she was cheating, that she would try to take my babies if he told me. That she even lied about the babies being mine. I can’t imagine how much it hurt him to have to keep this from me all this time. It would kill me inside and I likely would have snapped and told him everything a long time ago had the shoe been on the other foot.

  “Don’t thank me, dude,” he says solemnly. “I should’ve told you sooner, I’m as much to blame as she is, for hiding it from you for so long.

  No fucking way am I letting him take the blame for any of this.

  “No, Mikael,” I tell him. “None of this is your fault. You were trying to protect me. I get it man, I truly do. And I thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  And I mean every word I say. This man has been my rock through everything I’ve had to deal with in my life.

  He gets up and goes to the refrigerator. He pulls out two beers, hands me one and walks out of the room.

  I know what he’s doing. He’s trying to give me time to figure shit out. I look at the computer screen and notice the time stamp at the bottom. This is actually live feed of my house right now.

  There’s a moving truck in front of it. What the fuck is that about?

  Suddenly, I see three guys coming out of the house carrying my sofa. Why are they touching my shit? Then, I see her. She’s standing there all sweet, dressed in practically nothing. She’s pointing inside the house at something or someone. Then, that fuck Marco walks out, grabs her ass and kisses her. She pushes him away and laughs. I move the screen and see the workout room. There are people in there taking all the equipment apart. What the fuck is this woman doing?

  You know what, I don’t care. She can take every-fucking-thing. I was going to get rid of it all anyway. Payback is a motherfucker and that mother fucker’s name is Carter Montgomery. She’ll regret the day she fucked with me and my family, that’s a promise I vow to keep.

  I close the laptop and look at the card in my hand. I flip it over a few times then decide it’s time to make this phone call.

  Two hours later, I walk into the living room to see my best friend lying on the floor with the girls. He has them giggling away and my heart feels better than it has all day. Hearing the girls laugh makes so much of the bad go away.

  “How’d it go?” Mikael asks without even looking at me. He has Sofia on top of his chest while he’s lying there. She doesn’t look like she’s wanting to move any time soon.

  “She robbed me blind as soon as I left,” I answer.
Not sure which subject he’s asking me about.

  “Fuck her,” he says. “I’m talking about Robert. How’d the call go?”

  Ah, he wants to know about the lawyer. He’s not going to be happy with me when I tell him what I decided but I know he’ll stand by my side as he always has.

  “Well, he’s going to draw up an agreement for me.”

  “An agreement? What the fuck are you talking about?” he asks as removes Sofia from his chest and puts her down next to her sisters.

  “I’m giving her a million, making her sign away her rights and selling the house,” I tell him. I wait for his reaction.

  He stands and points to the kitchen then walks away. I follow him. I know he’s trying to protect the girls from hearing what he has to say but it’s not like they would understand or remember anyway.

  I walk into the kitchen and Mikael is standing in front of the stove looking like he’s ready to break something.

  “What the fuck do you mean you’re giving her a million?” he asks in a deadly low voice. Yeah, he’s mad. He’s pissed actually. I get it, but this is what I have to do to ensure I keep my girls. I’ll do anything not to lose them.

  “I’m not losing my girls, Mikael,” I start to explain. “I’m going to give her whatever she wants to make her go away. I don’t want her to do anything to try and take my girls away from me. I don’t care what she told you. Those are my babies and I will not lose them.”

  He shakes his head, likely trying to keep calm and not blow up. He knows what my girls mean to me. He knows I’d do anything to protect them.

  “You know you have to take the test, right Carter?” he asks, as gently as he can muster.

  “I know,” I say, resigned to the fact that I need to know if my girls really belong to me or not. They’ll always be my girls and I’ll always be their dad, but the need to know if my blood is the blood that actually flows through their veins is heightening. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t know the truth, and I don’t want to regret anything when it comes to my babies.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CARTER

  CONTRACTS AND DNA TESTS

  TODAY, I’m on my way to see Robert Pinto, the lawyer that Mikael found for my case. He is supposedly one of the best family lawyers in the state. I could’ve fished around for other lawyers but believe that my best friend found the one that he knew would suit my needs. He did all the legwork, even before the shit hit the proverbial fan.

  Mikael stayed home with the nanny and the girls. Mikael not only had a playpen for the girls, he had his own nursery for them with a spare bed inside for me. Freyda has been a blessing, even more now than she was when I first brought her on. She clearly loves my girls, the way a mother, or grandmother is supposed to.

  I sure wish my mom was still with us. I know she would have spoiled my girls to no end. She probably would’ve moved in with me just to take care of them. That’s what kind of woman she was. I’m sure if I have Freyda the option, she’d do the same.

  From the time I was twelve years old, my mom raised me on her own. My father died of a sudden heart attack from a drug overdose. Neither my mother nor I even knew he was using drugs; he kept that well hidden from us. Apparently, he never wanted us to see his pain and hid behind drugs to get him through. I don’t blame him, nor do I understand his choices, unfortunately, I’ll never get the chance to find out what hurt him so much he made the choice to turn to drugs.

  My mother was an amazing woman. She took such great care of me and never let me want for anything. Her parents had invested a small fortune for her when she was young and her parents gifted it to her when my father passed.

  She was never a big spender. Sure, she had the means, but we lived a pretty frugal life. She always told me that money can’t buy happiness. I wish someone would have taught Maggie that.

  When she passed away from cancer two years ago, I found out exactly how much money my mother had. Let me tell you, with the money she reinvested, my daughters’ daughters will never have to work. Though I plan on following my mother’s footsteps and teaching my daughters that hard work pays off.

  I choose to live my life a little like my mother, but a lot less like her at the same time. I don’t spend unnecessarily, yet I don’t want for anything either. If I see something I want, I usually get it.

  I forgot about that lifestyle when I was trying to convince Maggie to stay with me. It was like I was desperate to start a family instead of being patient and waiting for the right woman to come along. To say Maggie had me pussy whipped is an understatement. That woman had me wrapped around her finger the moment she let me put my cock in her pussy.

  There’s a lot I look back on, now that I’ve had a moment to think, that shows all the signs I never noticed. The excuses, the times I called her, and she was out of breath. The so-called bruises she had from working out. Now, I know they were fucking hickeys. Her workouts were just fuck sessions, not real workouts.

  Pulling into the driveway of the address Robert gave me when we spoke on the phone, I note that it’s a private residence instead of a normal business office. I understand the lure of working at home, so it doesn’t make me concerned.

  I knock on the door and a man I’m assuming is Robert opens it up.

  “Hello, Carter, I’m Robert,” he says making my presumption correct. “Glad you found your way here without issue. Let’s get started.”

  “Hi,” I reply and follow him into the house.

  We walk past a living room and down a hall. He opens the door in front of him and I see it’s his office. He walks in and sits in a chair behind his desk. There’s nothing on his desk but a stack of papers. There’s no computer or anything to be seen. I note immediately the man is a neat freak, which means that everything he’s done for me, will be written to perfection.

  “Take a seat,” he states as he waves to the chair I’m standing in front of. “I’ve taken the liberty of writing up all the contracts. Take a look at everything. I’ve also contacted Miss Lucia and asked her to meet us here in an hour. She will be required to provide her DNA as well as sign all of these documents. This page here terminates her rights as a mother to the children in question and gives you the right to have a DNA test performed to discover the children’s paternity. This contract here states that you will pay Miss Lucia the total sum of one million dollars, paid to her in installments, to cover the previously discussed plastic surgery, and the balance to be used however she sees fit. She will have no contact with you or the children. If she does contact you, she will forfeit her right to the money and have to return everything she’s received.”

  I look up at the man astounded, he’s very thorough, that’s for sure.

  “Thank you,” I say. “I didn’t realize that we’d do everything this quickly.”

  “Why waste time?” He shrugs.

  “You’re right.” I hand him the first cashier’s check that I had made out for Maggie in the amount of five hundred thousand. I decided to give her half up front and the rest of the money in installments, just to be a dick. I know she won’t fight me. She’s getting everything she’s ever wanted.

  Robert hands me the stack of papers and tells me to read through them. That if I want anything changed to let him know right way. He walks out of his office and closes the door behind him.

  I look down at the papers in my hands and can’t believe this is really happening. I’m numb right now and can’t believe this is my life.

  I read through each page slowly and carefully. Any mistake in these papers could cause me to lose my children and I’m not taking any chances. I’m sure Robert was thorough but it’s not his children’s lives at stake, it’s mine. So, I have to make sure all the i’s are dotted, and all the t’s are crossed. Satisfied with all I’ve read, I put the papers down on the desk in front of me. I look at the time and see I have less than five minutes before that bitch arrives.

  I stand up and stretch a little, trying to prepare myself for having to sit next to her wh
ile she sign these papers. I’ll do what I have to do to get this woman out of our lives for good.

  I startle at a knock on the door. Robert opens the door, sees that I’m no longer reading, and leads Maggie into the room.

  Maggie looks at me and smiles.

  I just glare at her and turn toward my attorney.

  “Have a seat Miss Lucia,” Robert instructs her.

  She struts over to the chair next to me and sits down.

  “Hi, Carter, how are my girls?” she asks. I know she’s trying to get a rise out of me, but I won’t let her. I just ignore her and wait for my attorney to speak again.

  “Miss Lucia, here is a copy of the contract I drew up.” He hands her the copy I just read through. “This was reviewed thoroughly by my client and myself. As I told you when I spoke to you on the phone yesterday, Mr. Montgomery has set up a stipend for you as the two of you agreed upon. Mr. Montgomery has brought in a cashier’s check in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars that is in my possession and I will give it to you as soon as all the papers are signed, and a sample of your DNA is taken. I have a nurse waiting just outside who will come in and take the sample as soon as you give your okay. You will receive the first check today, and every month for the next eight months, you will receive fifty thousand dollars. At the end of the eight months, you will receive a final payment of one hundred thousand dollars to complete the one million dollars Mr. Montgomery has promised you. Do you have any questions?”

  “I didn’t agree to payments, Carter, you know this, what are you trying to do here?” Maggie asks me. I don’t look at her, I’m letting my attorney handle it all.

  “Miss Lucia, I assure you, it is in your best interest to take the money as Mr. Montgomery and I have worked out. Mr. Montgomery needs time to have the DNA tests run and to move his family into a safer environment. You have no worries that you’ll receive the money. It’s already been set up to transfer immediately into your bank account and you can see on the last page, your bank has already confirmed those receipts.”