Success Is the Best Revenge {Book 1} **Watty Awards 2012**

Chapter 19: Breaking Point

"I'm sorry." He said, swallowing his pride.

"For?" I answered, without looking at him.

"Being mean."

I turned a page in my bible. "Apology accepted."

He waited for another response from me, but started to get up when there wasn't one.

Just as he was about to proceed down the hallway, I called him. "Ryan."

He turned around slowly. "Yes?"

I was going to give him this whole speech on respect and gratitude, but I was way too tired too. "Get some rest. We're going to see your mother again tomorrow."

He nodded, and continued down the hallway into his room. The door closed a few seconds later. I felt my phone vibrating next to me on the couch. I picked it up and saw it was Sean. My anxiety came back and the familiar nauseous feeling seemed to be forming in my stomach.

I knew I couldn't avoid him forever. I answered it. "Hello."

"Alea, I was so worried about you. Are you OK? Where have you been? I went by your place earlier but you weren't there."

"Yeah..I've been at Bridget's apartment."

"Bridget's apartment!?" I had to move the phone away from my hear because of how loud he was.

"Yeah. I've been taking care of her kids. She's in the hospital."

"The hospital?!" I moved the phone once again.

"Yeah. She fell a few days ago. Tyler wasn't here so I volunteered to care for them."

"Why wold you dare do a thing like that? Didn't Bridget and Carson betray you?"

"I believe in forgiveness, Sean."

He laughed sarcastically. "I can't believe this. You're lying right?"

"No, I'm telling you the truth. Something I wish you would do more often." I thought back to what he said about Bridget.

"Alea, look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. But I thought you would leave me if I told you. You didn't let me explain what happened between us."

I sighed. "Fine Sean. Explain then."

"OK, Bridget and I dated last year, before I met you. We only dated for about 2 months because I saw what she was doing to herself and her kids. She was messing her life up, Alea. She's done so many drugs, it's a shock that she's even still able to walk or think for herself. I couldn't be with someone like that. I'd even heard stories about her and her 'performances'. The woman practically is a walking whorehouse. She even tried to commit suicide while I was with her."

I gasped. "What happened?"

"She was in the bathroom for an extremely long time so I went in to check on her. Would you believe she was trying to slit her throat with a razor blade?"

"You're kidding." I said in shock.

"I am not. If I had walked in a few seconds later, there would have been a crime scene in the bathroom."

"Wow." I shook my head in disbelief. "That's terrible."

"It is. That's when I knew that I wouldn't be able to put up with her much longer. I told her she needed help. You wanna' know what she said to me? She said the drugs were help and that God would bring her out of her depression when He felt she was ready to come out."

"I thought the woman was crazy. She's got a lot of demons, Alea."

"I can tell. It must be tough for her." I glanced at her Bible.