THE QUEEN'S GAME

Chapter 11

She'd slept in his guest room—she'd refused his bed. At least she hadn't left, but that was probably coming as soon as she woke. This was probably the worst fight they'd ever had. It was his fault.
He was a complete idiot to think that any of this was okay or that she'd accept what he'd told her. He wouldn't have accepted if it was the other way around. He'd probably find her husband and beat him into signing the papers. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
He'd made breakfast that he was sure he'd be consuming alone. He'd also invited Chyna over because there was just one more thing he needed to get out in the open. Nothing could be worse than where they already were.
The doorbell rang, and he hoped he was able to brief Chyna on the previous night's events before Charlotte appeared. He wasn't ready to face them both, not just yet.
Chyna was in her sweats, he'd known she worked out early most days. She greeted him, but as all best friends should, she picked up on his obvious lackluster response.
"What's wrong?"
"I did it."
"Oh." She knew. Chyna had been one pushing for him to be honest. She loved Charlotte and she also wanted everyone to be happy. "And she left?"
"She's here, but it's only temporary. I don't know how to make her stay," he admitted.
"You can't. She either will or she won't, Hunter. You messed up, but it's not the end of the world. She's going to need some time."
"I don't want to give her time. I want to be there, I want her to be here. We are so close, we could have so much."
"I can't tell you what to do, but you weren't honest."
"Were any of us?"
"That's not fair. I'm sick about it already. You know how much I value all of our friendships."
"You're right, it isn't. You told me the truth where it mattered."
"And I forgave you." Chyna reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "So everything is out, and now you heal."
"Not everything..."
"Hunter... I won't keep doing this. She deserves it all. You have to tell her before it comes to her in a way you can't recover. It was never my place to say it or I would have. She's my friend, but I've known her less than a year. You've known her forever. It will be better from you."
"She's not speaking to me."
"Telling the truth doesn't require a conversation, just a listening ear."
Charlotte appeared in the room, her hair in a bun and her eyes red. She'd been crying.
"Chyna. Come to check on Hunter?"
"You too. How are you?" The uncomfortable silence existed for a few seconds.
"If it's not too much trouble or won't interfere with your Hunter duties I'd like a ride to the airport. I have a flight in a few hours."
"Where are you going?" He couldn't stay silent on this. She was just running away.
"Not your business anymore."
"Charlotte, don't do this."
"I didn't, you did."
"Just stop. Just talk to me."
"I need some space, Hunter. Let me have it."
"You can't just..." The doorbell rang. "Fuck! Just stay here. Don't leave yet."
"How could I possibly if you're blocking the door?" Her sarcasm stung.
Snatching the door open, he wished he could slam it shut. This was not happening.
"Hello, husband."
"Stephanie, it's not a good time. Just leave, I need to handle something and you being here isn't warranted."
She looked past him and into the house. "Why not? Your girlfriend is here, what's the harm in throwing in a wife?"
"Stephanie, I'm seriously not in the mood..."
"Hey, Charley," she called out before he could finish. He turned, Charlotte was there, bag in hand and Chyna was behind her. "How delicious." Stephanie smiled pushing past him, closing the door behind her.
"I have nothing to say to you." Charlotte warned. "No, you know what, why were you even there last night?"
"It's my family's company, sweetheart. We write your checks."
"Don't give me that bullshit. Shane and Vince don't want you involved in that company any more than you want to be." Charlotte dropped her bag. He planted himself in the middle of them hoping Charlotte kept her temper in check. He didn't want to see what would happen if she hit her breaking point.
"Okay, fine. Hunter called and informed me about your little flirtation, and I'm here to tell you it ends now."
"You don't tell me what to do. No one tells me what to do."
"My father and brother do. In just one call I could let them know their little golden boy is married to me and sleeping with you. Imagine the consequences."
"Make the call, I don't care. I didn't know about your little arrangement, but I sure know where you can shove it."
"Morality clauses can be a tricky thing, Charlotte. It's funny how they made you sign one but not Hunter. It's a good thing too, he has a lot of skeletons."
"Don't threaten me."
"It's not a threat. I just don't understand why you're so angry with me. Didn't we use to be close? Was I not like a sister to you? If anyone should be upset here it should be me. I'm the wronged party, he's my husband."
"Does he know he's your husband? Because all this time, I don't think he gave you a second thought. And as far as is being like sisters, I thought so," Charlotte let off a dry laugh. "But as I sat awake all night last night I thought about all the time we spent together. You were always trying to outshine me, your dad never liked you much did he? I remember him always bragging about Shane, he doted on him, but nothing for poor little Stephanie, huh? Does he even know you're in town?"
"You think my dad didn't like me, but at least he didn't try and sink my career before it started."
"What are you talking about?"
Closing his eyes, Hunter dreaded the words about to escape Stephanie's venomous lips. She was purely being evil at this point. There were things Charlotte didn't need to hear, things she didn't deserve to be confronted with.
"Your dad called mine and asked him not to hire you."
"He didn't... he wouldn't..."
"He didn't think you were good enough. He worried about you making a fool of yourself and begged him to let you down easy."
"Stop it. Just stop," Chyna finally interjected. "You're just being hurtful because Hunter doesn't love you. He's so crazy about her. You knew it then and you know it now. I think you did all this because you're jealous."
"He didn't love me? You're one to talk. At least I'm not friends with the woman he left me for. That has to be a special brand of pathetic."
The room went silent. Charlotte looked back and forth and bumped into the nearest wall. "You and Hunter?" She looked at Chyna, awaiting the answer. "Tell me!"
"We were together before, but it's not at all like she's describing it. Charlotte, let's talk in private," Chyna pleaded.
"No, lets do it here. Everyone but me seems to know everything about this sordid past."
"Oh," Stephanie laughed. "You thought he dumped me for you? How cute, Charley. Let me give you the rundown, since everyone around you seems to think you're too fragile to hear the truth. All they do is lie straight to your face. He dated her for years." She pointed at Chyna. "No one knew, either he was too ashamed or just not invested, but your little night with Hunter ended it. They'd realized they didn't fit, and then he came back and confessed about you. She was such a clinger people assumed the breakup she had was Billy and that he'd cheated, he's never been short on bedmates, and they kept the lie going for all this time. I guess they were saving face, or maybe Chyna didn't want people to know he dumped her for you only to turn around and marry me."
"That's not how it went." Hunter couldn't stand by and let her put the final nail in his coffin. "Me and Chyna dated, she realized she didn't want marriage and kids, I did, we were having problems when I fell in love with you, and we mutually agreed to end it. We're best friends, that's all we were supposed to be. I'm in love with you, Charlotte."
"It's exactly like he said." Chyna backed him up. "I didn't come to the funeral because we were falling apart, and when he told me about you I let him go. He didn't love me, not like that, he loved you. He loves you."
"This is adorable. The ex comforting the mistress." Stephanie was getting too much enjoyment from this, and Hunter had seen enough.
"Just get out, Stephanie."
"No." Charlotte stopped him, when he grabbed her arm. "Stay and tell me how you know all this but still wound up married to him."
"He needed a shoulder one night and got much more. I can still feel his hands on me. You how how rough he likes it. Does he pull your hair too? Does he do that little thing with his tongue? Does he whisper he loves you into your ear right before you climax?"
Hunter couldn't diffuse the missile that detonated in his foyer. Charlotte had Stephanie pinned against a wall, her hands wrapped around her throat and a knee pushing into her groin. He was actively trying to pry them apart, but Charlotte wasn't backing down.
"I should beat you senseless." Her voice was laced with all the anger and pain inside her. His heart broke, witnessing the tears on her face. This was it, the moment he knew he'd lost her.
He was able to get them apart long enough for Chyna to usher Stephanie out the door. He'd stood there, not knowing what to say or what to do. She'd started shaking, her whole body was trembling.
"I..." She slapped him. It sounded off and echoed through the room.
"You made a fool of me. You let her stand there and tell me what you should have. How did you think I would react? I'm not a child, I knew you weren't perfect, but I still loved you. I love you, but you don't seem to know what love is. Love isn't letting that witch do what she just did to me. You might as well had let her run me over with her car."
"I was going to tell you everything."
"Because she forced your hand. Not because you trusted me or respected me."
"I love you and I respect you so much. I've never met anyone like you, and I don't know, I was stupid. I was afraid."
"You never had to be afraid of me! I'm not perfect, I don't have much, but I gave you everything. I told you all my fears, all my insecurities and you gave me nothing but lies in return, and don't say you didn't lie. Lies of omission are still lies, Hunter."
"Baby..."
"Don't call me that! Don't ever call me that. I never dreamed you could make me feel worse than I did at the funeral, but here we are. You've successfully ripped my heart out of my chest. Not only did you ruin us, but how am I ever going to hold my head up at work again? How am I going to continue this friendship with Chyna? You let me befriend the woman you betrayed with me. How can I ever face her now? I was wrong, but I never thought I was being this person. Here I was throwing our love in her face, and you let me." She picked up her bag and proceeded to the door. He couldn't let this be it. He couldn't let her go. Not like this.
"Charlotte, please..."
He grabbed her, he held her in place, wrapped his arms around her from behind as she fought. She was using probably every ounce of energy she had to get away from him, and when she started screaming he was caught off guard. He didn't know, he hadn't seen her face but the shock on Chyna's as she walked in said it all.
"Hunter, let go."
Charlotte was standing with her eyes closed. She was rocking with her arms wrapped around herself. He'd made things so much worse. That break he was worried about had become a reality right before his eyes.
"He used to grab me that way. He used to hold me down." She spoke when she finally calmed enough to form words. "Listen to me, and listen well. Don't come near me, Hunter. Don't ever come near me and you better never touch me again."
"I would never hurt you."
"You didn't just hurt me, you destroyed me. It took you one day to make me feel like that scared dumb girl I was years ago. You can have whatever or whoever you want, Hunter, but it will never be me. Not again."
"I can't let you leave."
"I'm already gone." She looked at Chyna and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"You don't owe me anything." Chyna assured her. "We're friends."
"No, we're not. You're his friend, and I'm nothing to any of you."
"You don't mean that." Now Chyna was crying. Hunter hadn't seen her cry since their tearful realization that they needed to end things. She was hurt over all this. He'd not only ruined his relationship, but also their friendship.
"I'm sorry." Charlotte walked past them and out the door.
He'd wanted to follow her, but what would he say? What could he say? He was in the wrong. He deserved her hate. Ten minutes after she walked out he heard a cab pull up. She hopped in and rode away. He'd give her time, but he wouldn't give up. First he had to get out of this marriage. It was costing him everything that mattered. The biggest piece of his heart had just walked out on him. He felt empty inside.
He stood there, frozen, unaware of what he could do to fix any of this when Chyna spoke. "I listened to you, I let you decide what you thought was best because I trusted you. Given everything that happened between us, I still trusted you because you never lied to me. You were always honest about the things you wanted and I respected that, but what you just did, I can't stand behind."
"I know. I..."
"No, you don't know. She was terrified when I walked in that door. She may overcome you not being completely honest, but you grabbed her."
"I would never hurt Charlotte. She knows I love her."
"She knows she was abused and you grabbing her brought it all back. Did you know he grabbed her from behind one day when she threatened to leave and pulled her through their house and broke her ribs?"
"She never..."
"She told me. She trusted me, and now listening to you has ruined that. I look like a liar and one of the only people she trusted has now vanished from her life because I listened to you. The mistakes you made didn't just blow up your life, they blew up all of ours. I'm still paying for mistakes that you made, and I can't do that anymore. Did you even think about me?"
He hadn't. In all this time he was rushing to cover his secret and falling for Charlotte he didn't think about how he'd hurt Chyna.
"I'm sorry."
"You know I forgave you. I did that after realizing that our breakup was meant to happen. No matter how much it hurt I knew I wasn't the woman for you. I thought she was."
"She is the woman."
"She may be the woman for you, but you are most certainly not the man for her. She gives every part of her to the people she loves. I know because I was one of the people she let in. I didn't expect to care for her the way that I do, but it's impossible to not love her. She gives so much and asks for so little. You couldn't even do that."
"I didn't handle it the right..."
"You didn't handle it at all. You sat back and watched as your hateful wife verbally pulverized the woman you claim to love. She deserves better than you, Hunter. I hope she gets it. How could you sit back and let Stephanie tell Charlotte all those intimate details? Was it even true?"
"I said those things, we slept together," he admitted.
"I'm so disappointed."
"I'd called Charlotte's phone, I got the nerve and did it. I wanted to tell her I loved her, and tell her why I'd disappeared."
"And then what?"
"He answered. I could just picture the smile on his face as he practically bragged about them being together again. He wouldn't even put her on the phone. I thought I had turned my life upside down for nothing, so when Stephanie called I just stopped resisting her. I slept with her that night, married her the next day, but I was talking to Charlotte. Those words, those feelings, those touches were for her. We both knew it was a mistake once we sobered up, but instead of going through with an annulment Stephanie disappeared. I got a lawyer, I've served her five times and she won't sign. She's never asked us to live together or even hinted at love, but she won't divorce me. Her family doesn't even know we got married."
"He never told her you called."
"What?"
"She thinks you never reached out. She thinks you ignored her for two years. She didn't go back to him, he showed up at her house. She locked herself in the bathroom and he broke the door down. She fought him off, but he beat her until she passed out. Her neighbor ended up stopping him."
"Why didn't she tell me this?"
"You beat him with a chair when you saw him talking to her. Your temper makes her nervous, but she would never tell you that because she loves you so much."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because once again, it wasn't my place. She trusted me and now I know that's over. Thank you, Hunter."
"For what?"
"She was one of my only friends. She never judged me for anything. As much and she needed me I needed her too. You cost me that."
She left in tears, he felt like an ass. He never thought about how much keeping his secrets would cost everyone. He thought he was doing what was best. He'd become a completely different person and he owed it all to the two women that had just walked out his door and possibly out of his life. He owed one more other person, but he knew that was going to be a conversation he wasn't ready for. How do you tell the man who was like a father to you that you'd messed up so majorly with his daughter?