Locked in Marriage 3: Forever After

Chapter Nine

"I know. That is why I did not want to show anyone," Kayla explained handing the loofa over to Colton.

"What about summer? We do live in California," he said smiling at her; obviously she wouldn't be able to hide it in a bikini.

"I hadn't thought about it," Kayla admitted. "What do you want for breakfast?" Kayla was walking out of the shower and grabbed a towel as Colton finished washing his body.

"Just the usual, please," he said politely as she closed the door. He finished in the shower a few minutes later and got out to change into a suit for work. He chose a dark navy one with a navy and black tie and put everything on before going down for breakfast. He could smell the food floating in the air as he made his way down the stairs and swiftly walked to the kitchen for his plate of food. Kayla had just finished putting his food on the plate when he walked in and handed it right to him. He smiled and grabbed a fork, turned the TV on and sat down to eat his breakfast. Kayla had changed into a grey blazer and dark blue skinny jeans with a black and white blouse underneath. She had meetings that day to discuss the foundation and Colton had work as usual. They both sat down at the table and realized none of their children were up.

"Where are they?" Colton asked confused it was already 7:30am and he hadn't heard a sound from them all morning.

"They all left around 7 when I was getting into the shower. You must have missed them," Kayla explained as she ate her eggs. Colton nodded and went back to the TV. "Don't try and ignore this Colton, we need to talk. There is time to do it now or we can wait until later tonight when the kids are here too." Colton rolled his eyes, he did not want to talk about any of it, but it seemed he was not going to win this argument.

"I guess we can do it now if you think we will talk about everything before we both need to go," Colton said hoping her meetings were earlier and she would be the one who would have to leave.

"My meetings start at 12, so there is plenty of time," she said smirking at him knowing what he was trying to do. He rolled his eyes again and finished off his plate.

"Fine then, I guess we will do it now," he said sounding exasperated as he took his suit jacket off and undid his tie a little bit. He sat back down in the same seat and waited for her to begin.

"I need to know where this went wrong," Kayla finally said. Colton stared at her for a long time. Her brown eyes were still the same, she looked older, but in a mature and beautiful type of way. She was still the woman he accidentally married.

"A long time ago, you know that," he said grabbing a glass of water.

"I know, but when? After I became pregnant, when Charlotte was born, after that? Why did it happen?"

"You really want to know?"

"Yes." She was nervous now about what he was going to say. Did he not want to be married to her at all and just stayed because it would cost him billions of dollars to divorce her? Colton sat back down across the table from her and sighed before answering her.

"It's going to be tough to hear."

"I can take it." She was determined to know the reason.

"I did fall in love with you Kayla, I still love you. But it is different now. When you told me you were pregnant I panicked, I knew then I was really stuck in this marriage with you forever. I love being a father, don't get me wrong, but I thought it would be with someone I wanted to be a parent with. You are an amazing mother, like the best mother, but I didn't want us to have children because I didn't want to be married to you forever. There were moments when I could see us being together, there were lots of them. But there were more moments where I looked at you and thought I can't be married to you. I think I stayed more because people expected me to pick up and leave, because your family did not want you to get divorced and because my father didn't want us to get divorced. When Charlotte was born, I really thought we could make it, I really did and I wanted us to. But soon afterwards the feeling went away, it disappeared and the only time I got it back was when you had Ryder, Mikey and Katie. That was how I felt a few days ago, but when you went out with that Clay guy, I wanted to rip his face off. You are my wife and no other man could ever have you except for me. That moment you took off in his car I truly, truly realized that you are the perfect person for me because you challenge me everyday to be better than what I was yesterday. You challenge me to be better than what I believe I can be and what the media thinks I can be. I'm an arrogant and stubborn son of a bitch, and I know that, and I never back down in a fight not for anything. That is why, I think, our relationship has been so cold over the years is because I won't open back up to you anymore because you won't open back up to me." Colton finished and took a big gulp of his water. Kayla sat taken aback from the words that just came out of his mouth. There were tears in her eyes, but she wiped them away and Colton sat there watching her trying to hide her emotions.

"Just tell me one thing, and be honest," she finally said staring intently at him.

"What?"

"Did you cheat on me?" Colton stared at her and they sat there for a few moments without anyone speaking or moving.

"No."

"I still don't believe you." She stood up immediately and walked out of the kitchen. Colton slammed his fists down on the table knocking the glass of water onto the floor.

"You don't care about anything I just said did you?" He roared following her out of the kitchen into one of the sitting rooms connected to the kitchen.

"I'm glad you told me everything, now I finally get some of it, but I still don't believe you when you tell me you didn't cheat on me," she said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her so she was facing him. She pulled her arm out of his grip and took a couple of steps away from him.

"Why don't you believe me? I just told you all that shit and nothing has changed," he said glaring down at her.

"Your reputation proceeds you Colton, it does nothing to help you and does nothing to help the situation we are in," she explained.

"So essentially what you are saying is that you didn't need to hear that whole spiel back there because it still isn't going to help," Colton said sounding confused. He just wanted this coldness between them to end, to go back to little smiles and subtle touches.

"No, it was nice to finally hear how you feel about this marriage and about me and I love you too. I love you with all of my heart and I never want you to be with anyone other than me, but the cheating scandal is against you Colton and I still don't believe you," Kayla said crossing her arms over her chest.

"I didn't cheat on you and I don't know how many times I have to say it to you but I didn't. I am married and believe it or not I wouldn't cheat on you to get you to divorce me. Plus Gabriella is married and she wouldn't do that to her husband," Colton explained trying to state his side of the story.

"I don't need to hear the story and the excuses again. I just need something concrete, something that would make me believe you," Kayla said turning around from him and began to leave the sitting room as Colton fumed with anger. He couldn't believe his ears; his body began to shake with anger and his blood was boiling. He grabbed his wedding ring from his finger and threw it towards the wall Kayla was walking to. It hit the mirror hanging on the wall and the ring stuck in the middle while the glass around it shattered and fell to the floor. Kayla screeched and watched as mirror fell to the floor. She looked at what had caused the mirror to break and saw the ring. She looked back at Colton and then back again at the ring and then walked out of the room. She ran to a bathroom and finally broke down in tears.

"It's your fucking fault Kayla, get over your issues with me and my old reputation and just fucking believe me. I would never cheat on you, and believe me I have had a lot of chances to do so, but I never have. I've always come back. I've always come back to you," he said down the hallway hoping she had heard it. He walked away from the mirror, leaving his ring, and went to work so she could have her space.

Kayla knew he was right.