Trigger warning: this chapter contains some mention of domestic violence. Please skip if you are uncomfortable. Take care of yourself.
POV: Alicia
That whisky was much needed after what I just heard from Leslie. I was in shock and needed a minute to gather myself. She looked bad when she walked into the house and on any given day I would have blown a fuse but I froze when I saw the fresh blackeye and fear in her eyes. She looked like someone had put her through a serious beating. I immediately felt sorry for her and wanted to offer some solace.
Harrison looked like he was trying to keep it together but I know he was feeling conflicted, mostly because of his and our history with Leslie. I think he was waiting for me to make a move. I did the only that made sense in that moment, as conflicted as I was. I was not even sure why I did that.
I took her to the guest room on the other side of the house. I let her take a shower while I watched her kid. When she came out of the bathroom she looked better but still scared. I was determined to find out what happened to her.
"So what happened?" I asked her and she sat down on the bed.
"My fiancé happened." She said gesturing to her blackeye. I stay silent trying to imagine what kind of person would do this to someone they claim to love.
"He's the father of my son." She says pointing to the sleeping toddler. "We used to be so in love. I missed all the signs. It started with ugly words and followed by getting slapped around and rewarded with apology jewellery. We got engaged and it got worse. He became a wild animal and more erratic with all his drinking." She says and start crying and I am frozen in my seat.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I thought he was going to kill me. I just took our son and ran." She continues to sob bitterly. It breaks my heart to hear but for some reason I still have not left my seat.
"Why did you stay with him?" I asked and wished I could take it back because it sounded so insensitive, but she chuckled and wiped a tear away.
"He promised to destroy my life and career if I left. He did horrible things to me." She started sobbing again.
"Look you don't have to talk about it if you don't want." I say but she continues and what she tells me, sent chills down my spine.
Her fiancé is also her manager and controls her in every way. He beat her up several times landing her in hospital on some. He raped her and even forced her to have sex with his friends. He threatened their child if she refused any of his abusive and disgusting advances. All this was hard to hear. I helped her into bed and walked out.
That whisky was to calm my nerves. Harrison looked anxious when I walked out of the kitchen. Now I am in the shower crying and wishing I could wash off the cringe I was feeling. I came out of the bathroom with a towel around me and find Harrison sitting on the bed. He lifts his head when he hears me come in the bedroom. I can't read his expression, it's like a mixture of worry and guilt.
I walk to him and sit in his lap and put my hands around his neck with his around my waist. We stay in a hug for a few minutes as I cried softly and he consoled me until I calmed down.
"Are you okay?" He asks softly and I turn to face him and nod.
"Thank you." I say.
"For what?"
"For being an amazing husband, incredible father and wonderful human being." I say and kiss him.
He smiles and kisses me back. I move to straddle him. I take his shirt off and when I try to remove his pants he stops me.
"Alicia, slow down. Easy baby, easy." He says. "Harrison please." I plead against his lips. He looked me in the eye and he gave in. He turned around and laid me on the bed. His lips find mine again and he makes sweet love to me. We fell asleep in each other's arms, my favourite place.
The next morning I woke up still in Harrison's arms and I inhale his scent and smile. I stare at him, taking in his features and admiring him. He's so handsome and I see traces of stubble and I can't help but touch him. He stirs and I lay still not wanting to wake him. I am lucky to have a husband that so fiercely loves and protects his family.
"Stop staring." Harrison says sleepily and pulls me in closer making me giggle. He finally opens his eyes and kisses me. "Hi." He says. "Hi." I say and smile.
"You want to talk about last night?" He says and I sigh.
I sit up and tell him what Leslie told me and it makes me sad again. He is upset as well but he's holding back his emotions. "He's a coward. I hope she's pressing charges and leaving him for good." He says.
"I didn't question her that far. I hope this is the last straw and she's leaving him. If not for her sake, for her child." I say.
"What's her plan? She can't stay here. I sympathize with her but staying here is a bad idea." He says.
"I agree. Look, we can talk about it with her and ask if she has somewhere to go or does she need help with that. We'll take it from there."
We shower and go downstairs and I make us a quick breakfast before Harrison leaves for work. I get the kids and we play around before I put a cartoon show on the TV for them. Leslie has not come out of her room and I'm worried. I leave the kids watching TV and go knock on the guest room door.
"Come in." She says and I open the door to find her sitting on the bed with her child reading.
"You've been in here a while. It's almost lunchtime." I say.
"I know. I didn't want to impose. I've already imposed a lot."
"Nonsense. Come, we'll make sandwiches." I say and she hesitates before picking up her child and following me.
We make sandwiches for us and the kids while they play and laugh. I'm glad to see her kid is not shy. She told me his name is Jack. We didn't talk much as we ate, only small talk about the kids and motherhood. It's not like we are friends with lots to talk about, she is still the woman that tried to ruin my marriage.
After lunch she goes to sit by the pool and I sit on the couch and work on my documentary series proposal. If this takes off, I will need to get serious about getting a fulltime housekeeper and nanny for the kids. Maybe I should ask Sophie for a recommendation, I take out my phone and send her a quick text.
Later that evening after dinner and putting the kids to bed, Harrison said he wanted us to talk about a way forward. This is an uncomfortable situation for all of us but we also want to sensitive to the trauma Leslie has been through.
"Leslie, why did you come here?" He asked.
"I needed help. The people I thought were my friends abandoned me and I had nowhere else to go." She answered but instead of me feeling sorry for her, her answer made me angry.
"Leslie we are not your friends either. Did you suddenly get amnesia and forget what you have done to us?" I said getting a little more angry.
"I'm really sorry about that." She says and the only thing standing between me and kicking her out on her ass right now is her child.
The rest of the talk was mostly Harrison telling her that she'll move to the hotel penthouse next week after the guests that have booked it check out. She also has to press charges and make new living arrangements because she can't live at the penthouse forever. She thanked him but it quickly got awkward when, in excitement, she moved to hug Harrison and he jumped back. I had to hold in my laughter.
"Sorry." She quickly said with a tinge of disappointment and it quickly disappeared to be replaced by embarrassment. This week cannot move fast enough for me.
After taking a shower, Harrison climbs into bed and just stares at the ceiling. I know this situation is stressful for both of us, so I don't want us to fight about it. Neither of us is the enemy.
"I'm sorry baby." He says, taking me by surprise. "About all of this. She'll be out of here soon." He adds.
"You don't have to apologize." I say and we cuddle until I fall asleep. Harrison has been tossing and turning through the night.
In the morning I turned off Harrison's alarm before going to get the kids and making breakfast. Junior is always interested in what I am doing in the kitchen and wants to be my little helper. Luna, who will be turning 1 in 2 months times, is crawling and standing on her own. No first steps just yet but she's getting there. Junior is her cheerleader whenever she stands on her own and she giggles. It's amazing watching them grow up together and more especially lovely when they get along.
An hour later Harrison comes downstairs into the kitchen and instantly smiles when Luna starts speed-crawling to him. He picks her up and kisses me and Junior who is focused on the pancakes.
"What happened to my alarm?"
"I thought you could use an extra hour of rest."
"Thank you." He kisses me. "I'm ready for breakfast. Smells amazing."
I serve us breakfast and I smile as they enjoy it. While I enjoy being able to do all this for my family, I need to get a fulltime housekeeper and nanny before taking the next steps of my career. I am hoping Sophie can come through for me.
~3 days later~
Since the talk we had with Leslie, she has been keeping to herself. Just 3 more days and she will be moving to the penthouse. Out of sight but not quite out of mind. She's still considering pressing charges, but we don't want to force the issue. I have been busy with my team finalizing a plan for the documentary and I am getting more excited by the day. My editor called me to let me know that we got a meeting with Netflix and they are interested in the documentary. I got excited until she mentioned we have to fly out tomorrow.
There's no way in hell I'm leaving Leslie alone with Harrison and my kids. I have called my mom to come and stay over. She asked why I can't just bring the kids to her house and even though it would make more sense, I need a pair of eyes on Leslie.
"Mom, thank you so much. I appreciate you doing this."
"Oh don't be silly. I'm always ready to spend time with my grandbabies." She says and I can see she wants to chuckle but holds it in. It looks and probably sounds silly but in my head all of this makes sense. Mom asked if I was not overreacting but when I reminded her that she nearly cost us our marriage, she quickly understood my position.
Harrison dropped me off at the airport and wished me luck.
"I know it's going to go great. You've worked hard, it's about to pay off." I appreciated his kind words and they made me more confident in my idea and work that we've put into it.
"Thank you baby." I kiss him. He walks me to the private jet where my team is waiting for me. "I'll see you in 2 days."
And it's lift off.
"Hey, are you okay?" Sandra, my editor, asks.
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." I say and she gives me a knowing look. "Okay fine, Luna is almost walking and I don't want to miss such a big milestone. I'm having a little anxiety." I confess.
"You won't miss anything. If the meeting goes well, we may not even be there for the whole two days." She says holding my hand and I smile.
I don't usually leave the kids behind for more than a day, but now it's different because I don't want to miss Luna's first steps. Okay I will admit it, I also don't like the idea of Leslie being alone with Harrison. I mean I trust him implicitly but I don't trust her, not even a little bit. At this point, I'm not even sure if my mom being there is giving me any peace of mind. You know what, maybe I'm being silly and just being in my head too much. Everything will be just fine.
This is going to be a long day and an even longer night.
We landed and our driver took us to the hotel so we could freshen up and make sure we are 100% ready for our meeting. We have the penthouse suite to ourself as it's just us three girls. The joys of having a husband who happens to have hotels around the country. A nap would be really good right now, especially one without toddlers disrupting.
2 hours later we are headed to the producers' office for our meeting. I am hoping this goes really well. We greet each other and everyone is just welcoming and kind. The meeting goes on for a few hours as we went over a lot of details.
I really feel like it went well. We were tired afterwards but because it was already dinner time, we went out. Dinner was fun, it was so good to be out and not thinking about anything else. We will know tomorrow if our trip will be short or if we are staying another night.
After dinner we went back to the hotel suite. I video called my mom and the kids before calling Harrison who was still at the office.
"I miss you." He pouted making me laugh. "I miss you too." I say.
We talked about the meeting but I didn't mention a possibility of coming home early, I wanted to surprise him and the kids.
"What are you wearing?" He asks sitting back in his chair.
"Just this robe." I say.
"Take it off for me." He says and I get an idea. I balance my phone so he can get a full body view as I slowly drop the robe. "Fuck." He growls as he sees my naked body. I let my hands roam my neck, breasts and nipples. "Fuck." He says again as he loosens his tie and unbuttons his shirt. Thank goodness I have headsets in. "You want to go all the way?" I ask him. "So bad. I need to leave for a late meeting in 10minutes, but I want to go all the way." He says.
"Tell me how you would touch me if you were here." I say. I like when he's in charge and describes what he wants. When he mentions where he would kiss me, my hands touch there. His voice is turning me on even more. "Slip inside." He says and I slip a finger in followed by a second on as my moaning increases. "Good girl." He praises. We keep going until I reach orgasm. "That's my girl." He says and he growls as I lick both fingers and taste myself.
"Are you all good?" He asks with a chuckle. "Yes, I can't wait to be back home with you so you can do this over and over and over." I say.
"I'll do so much more." He says. "But for now I have a meeting and I am so hard." He says as he fixes his shirt and tie and we laugh. "Just think about what grasshoppers eat." I say and shrug.
"Will that help my situation?" He asks and I nod laughing. "Well it's not working because I am still looking at your breasts and my mind can't think of anything else." He says and I shrug, not really helping the situation. We talk some more before hanging up so he could get to his meeting.
I can't wait to go home.