Tainted Perfection

Chapter 21: Truth Revealed

Sitting alongside Greyson in the car, I busied myself by staring out the window as we rode in silence. Each of us consumed by our own thoughts as he drove me back to Brett's. Greyson offered to come and be my form of 'moral support'. He probably felt sorry for me, I'm pretty sure the look of dread on my face said it all.

"I think its time we told them the truth, Kam." Greyson stated glancing over at me with a hopeful expression. "The longer we let this go on, the worse it'll get." How much worse can this possibly get?!? Their son cheated on me and in return I left him, married his best friend the very same day, and now I conveniently happen to be in love with said best friend!

Unable to think of anything remotely intelligent to respond with, I just simply and stiffly nodded my head. Greyson's eyes softened as he reached over and grabbed my hand. He brought it up to his lips and placed a gentle kiss. "Don't look so worried, it'll be fine. You'll see." His words brought me no comfort, the sick feeling in the pit of my belly told me otherwise.

We sat parked outside Brett's place staring at the building, neither of us making the first move to depart the safety of Greyson's car. A tapping sound on my window startled me so bad I wretched my hand out of Greyson's and covered my mouth in preparation to let out a scream. My heart drummed heavily against my chest as I tried to steady my breathing. Thank god, it was only my ex-neighbor.

I quickly shuffled out the car and greeted him with a hug. "Joe, how have you been?" Joe lived across the hall with his younger brother Matt. I guess you can say he's friends with Brett, he's more of an acquaintance of mine. They often joined each other on Sunday afternoons to watch sports.

"Hey Kam, long time no see. I've been good, no complaints." Joe greeted. By the sound of his tone, he was obviously aware of what transpired between Brett and I. The sound of Greyson's door opening and shutting told me he got out of the car. "Hey DJ, listen guys I'm sorry to hear about Brett. I hope he's doing alright, me and Matt are planning to go up and visit him tomorrow morning. Brett's a strong guy, he'll get through this."

I stood off to the side giving myself a mini pep talk as Greyson stood and chatted with Joe. They probably became buddies in the short time Greyson was staying with us. Smoothing out my sweaty palms on my shirt, I exhaled deeply before glancing at them over my shoulder. "I'm heading in." I called out, if I didn't move my feet now I'm positive I'll go running the opposite way. "It was nice seeing you Joe, tell Matt I said hi."

"Same here. Will do Kam." Joe called out shaking Greyson's hand, bidding him goodbye. Within a few steps Greyson caught up to me resting his hand on the small of my back. "Ready?" Greyson breathed from beside me as I gave him a timid smile. We knocked on the door since neither of us had the key anymore. Both of us having mailed our copies back to Brett when we moved into our place.

"Kam, DJ did the two of you forget your keys?" Mrs. Mitchell asked opening the door. Instead of responding I just produced a small smile and entered the apartment as if it were still my own. Allowing Greyson to be the one to answer that, I made a beeline for the kitchen. It'd be a good idea to put on a pot of coffee. Seems like we're going to be in for a long night.

Surprisingly everything in the apartment was in its place...exactly the way I left it. "You needed to talk to me?" I asked walking into the living room where Mrs. Mitchell was on the love seat with Mr. Mitchell. Greyson sat across from them on the sofa, where I opted to take a seat next to him. "There's some things we'd like to talk to you about also." I added hesitantly.

With a tenative look Mrs. Mitchell took a hold of Mr. Mitchell's hand and began tearing up. "We've always thought of you like a daughter Kammie." She sniffled dabbing at her eyes with the corner of a tissue. "Even though Brett is making progress, the doctor said he'll never be a hundred percent again. We just wanted to make sure you're prepared to handle this. He won't be the same healthy Brett. You're still young and we know you love our son, you agreed to marry him after all but is it enough to take care of Brett for the rest of his life?"