Million Reasons

Chapter Twenty Nine: Happy Ending

You were everything, everything that I wanted
We were meant to be, supposed to be but we lost it
All of the memories, so close to me, just fade away
All this time you were pretending,
So much for my happy ending.

Avril Lavigne - Happy Ending

Antonio Dawson: You were amazing but what happened between us tonight... Maggie can never know.

Maggie couldn't stop staring at the words on the screen of her phone. They were seared into her brain, going round and round until her stomach churned and her heart ached. Part of her didn't want to believe it but the cop in her couldn't refute the fact the evidence was staring her right in the face. She thought the two of them were happy, what they had was simple and low key, no pressure. That was the way both of them preferred it with their history and it worked for them. She had thought that he was as committed as she was but apparently she was wrong.

Maggie doubled over, that agony stabbing into her like a dull knife, her chestnut hair falling over her pale features. She had walked away the first time so he wouldn't slip, so he wouldn't fall into the trap that so many married people did and now it was a moot point. She wasn't enough for him, she got that now. This text made that abundantly clear.

"Maggie?" Kayla said, standing in the doorway of the bedroom.

Maggie didn't move, her arms were wrapped around herself, her phone resting upon the cream bedspread. She was dressed for bed, a grey tunic falling over black leggings, her hair was shrouding her features from Kayla's view. Something was wrong, Kayla could see it in the other woman's quivering shoulders.

"Maggie?" Kayla prompted, her voice kind and gentle as she tread across the beige carpet. The other woman didn't speak she simply pushed the phone across the sheets towards Kayla.

She dropped down next to Maggie, their hips bumping slightly as she picked up the phone. She wanted Maggie to know that she was here for her, no matter what craziness was going on in her life. Kayla used her finger to tap the screen before bringing up the message that had sent her friend into a tailspin.

It took her a second to process what she was reading and when she did she could feel that raw disbelief rushing through her system. This couldn't be real, Kayla was struggling to get past that in her head. She had known Antonio for a couple of years now and this didn't seem like him. She got that his job forced him to work covert sometimes but that had never applied to his personal life. This was out of character for him, wildly so. She saw the way he looked at Maggie, there was a real tenderness in him when it came to the other woman that she had never seen him display before her.

So for him to throw it all away in one night...

Kayla didn't believe it for a single second. There was more to this story than met the eye and right now Maggie was hurting too much to see it. She knew that the other woman put on a strong front but she was damaged, there was a vulnerability deep inside of Maggie that Kayla recognized in herself. Survivors could usually spot other survivors a mile away. Their circumstances were different but there was still a bond there, they got each other more than they cared to admit.

"This isn't him." Kayla said, her thumb combing through the messages that Maggie and Antonio had been sending last night. "He wouldn't do this to you."

Maggie ran her hand though those chestnut waves of hers, flipping her hair back away from her face as she let out a loud breath. Her hands were pressed together as if in prayer in front of her lips.

"I pushed too hard." Maggie told the other woman. "He wasn't ready. I should have known 's been working a lot of late nights and he doesn't like to talk about his security gig."

"Maggie." Kayla said directing her friend's focus back to the phone in her hands. "I literally mean this isn't him. I don't think he typed this message."

Kayla leaned in to her friend, their sides brushing against each other as Kayla scrolled through a couple of the messages for Maggie to see.

"Since when has Antonio ever used the word amazing?" Kayla said assertively. "He rarely uses it in conversation, let alone texts."

Kayla used her finger to flip back over a few of the best messages between Maggie and Antonio, her cheeks flushing as she read their content.

"Even when the two of you are talking about 'that' and by the way the two of you are very creative." Kayla said with an appreciative nod. "He goes on about how you drive him crazy but he's never said amazing. He doesn't even use it to describe his kids."

Maggie frowned, removing her phone from Kayla's grasp before flicking through the messages herself. Her keen blue eyes were taking in bits and pieces as she studied their texts.

"You need to talk to him." Kayla said, pressing her hands together between her knees. "I guarantee that he didn't send that message, it reads more like something you'd send." Kayla paused before she corrected herself. "I mean not you specifically, but a woman."

Maggie turned her head to look at Kayla, her cornflower blue eyes questioning as her thumb clicked the button on the side to turn off the screen. There was conflict, Kayla could see it and she knew what it was like to be in that weird space. That indecisiveness would kill Maggie, it could push her in the wrong direction the same way it had before and Kayla couldn't risk that. Her friend had already been through too much and Kayla couldn't stand the idea of watching her self-destruct.

"I'll sleep on it." Maggie said despondently before setting the phone down on the nightstand. Her motions were almost mechanical, Kayla stood up her lips clamped together grimly as she watched the other woman climb into bed.

"I'm gonna grab a glass of water from the kitchen." she uttered excusing herself from the room. Maggie didn't respond, she simply rolled onto her side, gathering up the sheets around her.

Kayla slipped out of the bedroom, closing the door lightly behind her before she dug through her black leather hobo bag and dug out her own phone and dialling Antonio.