Beautiful Liar

Chapter 21

Zonnique's POV

Zoey showed up at the house a little after one o'clock the day after he had called me at midnight. I honestly didn't think that he was going to actually show up; I was convinced that he had been bluffing. But here he was, standing at the front door. Jayden had answered the door and, despite being so mad at his dad the last time he had seen him, let out a yell of surprise and hugged his dad tightly. Brielle, upon hearing Jayden's excited voice, rushed over to the door to see what was so exciting. "Daddy!" she screamed as she launched herself into his arms.

"Hey, guys. Miss me?" he said as he chuckled and came into the house. I stood by the couch; arms crossed against my chest and watched our kids interact with Zoey. They had missed him so much. And after his late night phone call, admitting that Bahja was nothing but a thot and that he had missed me and wanted to come home, I started to miss him a little bit too. But not much. He had hurt me so badly and I was still licking my wounds from the last time he was home.

"Hey, Nique," he said softly, his hazel eyes full of sincerity as he came over to the couch. The kids backed away for a second, waiting for us to start screaming at each other. Before I realized what was happening, his long arms had wrapped around my waist and were pulling me to closer to him. "I'm sorry, baby..." he mumbled into my ear. I laid my head on his chest and closed my eyes. I had missed him so much. I wiped some tears away from my cheeks that had fallen without me realizing it. "Don't cry, baby. Daddy's home...." he murmured into my ear as he kissed the top of my head. "We'll make this work....I promise...."

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"But, mommy! I don't want to go to Auntie's house! I want to stay here with daddy!" Brielle pouted as my sister tried to convince her that they would have so much fun at her house. My sister looked up at me for help.

"Brielle, mommy and daddy need some time to talk. I promise, I will be here when you get back from Auntie's," Zoey said gently as the pout slowly left Brielle's face. She nodded with a smile and hugged Zoey tightly around the legs. Jayden waved good-bye to his dad and then headed out the door.

A few minutes went by before he moved away from the door and sat down on the couch next to me. "So....we should talk then, huh?" he asked quietly as he reached out for my hand. I looked down at the tattooed fingers touching the back of my hand. I might be a fool for letting him touch me right now; but I'm a fool still in love with my husband.

"Yeah, we should. How did you find out that the baby wasn't yours?" I asked quietly. I wanted to hear the whole story, from beginning to end, and I wanted reassurance that it was really over between him and that ring rat.

"Dakota has hazel eyes; Bahja are brown and mine are brown. My other to kids have brown hair," he said simply. That was it? He was going by eye color?

"Um. Did you get her tested?" I asked carefully, unsure of how stupid my husband really was.

"She's supposed to do that while I'm up here. It doesn't really matter though. She admitted that she was sleeping around with other guys. I always used a rubber with her. I can't believe she lied to me like this....."

"So what happens now? I'm sure you're relieved to learn that she isn't yours, but the fact remains is that you broke our marriage vows, Zoey. I'm not sure I can forgive you for this and just go back to the way things were before," I said quietly as I stroked his hand with my thumb. I wanted to believe him; I wanted him to say that it was all a mistake and that it would never, ever happen again. But it would be foolish of me to just say 'all right, come home' without knowing that it would never happen again.

"You have to forgive me, Nique. I love you. I love the kids. It's supposed to be me and you. This was just a little bump in the road. Please forgive me, baby," he whispered as he leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips. "I promise, on everything, that it won't ever happen again. Let me come home. Let's tear up those papers and try again...."

Those brown eyes; I've never been able to resist them. Yes, I'm a fool. Yes, I'm an idiot for taking him back. But I was a fool and an idiot in love. I took him back.

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Zoey stayed for a day and a half before he had to go back down to kick Bahja out of the house he had bought down there and to start moving his stuff back to Atlanta. He asked me to come with him, but, like always, I had a million things going on right now and I couldn't just up and leave. I waited for him to start a fight with me over this. Surprisingly, he didn't. He promised he would be back in a day or two and then we'd go talk to the lawyer about getting the divorce proceedings stopped.

He called me when he landed in Atlanta, then I didn't hear from him until early the next afternoon. "Baby, I promise I'll be back as soon as I can. When I do get back, we'll have lots of time together, I'm out with a storyline injury for a couple of weeks."

"I miss you...." I said softly, remembering how gentle and tender he had been with me last night when we made love. I believed him when he said that he was serious about being sorry and that he wanted to get back together for good. Why did I believe him? Because when we made love last night, he didn't use protection; that gesture told me that he intended to have another baby with me. And when Zoey is determined to do something....

"I miss you too, baby. I'll be home soon. I've just got to tie up some loose ends down here and then we'll be together again. I love you, Nique...." After I told him that I loved him too, he had to hang up and take care of something.

So here I was again, waiting on my traveling husband to come home and make everything right. I loved him, honestly and truly loved him. And if it came down to it, I wouldn't give him up again without a fight.....Let's just hope it doesn't come down to that.