Dalton and Janelle both looked at each other wondering what Victoria meant. Dalton shrugged his shoulder, and looked back at Victoria with a curious look. "Who's a bitch?"
"Danielle... it has to be her. She looked at us funny when we walked in this morning, all day long she kept coming by me asking questions, and instead of handing me a stack of files, she would hand me one at a time. I caught her a couple of times looking at my hand."
"Does Danielle know him?" Janelle asked.
"Not that I know of... but then again, who the hell knows." she sighed.
Stan walked into the room and saw how Dalton, Janelle, and Victoria were in a deep discussion, and walked over to them. "You all look, and sound like you need help with something. Is there anything I can help you out with?"
"Thanks dad, but no... we were just trying to figure out something, and we think we figured it out." Dalton said.
Stand furrowed his eyebrows, and walked over to Victoria, placing his arm around her shoulder. "I don't know... she looks like something is still on her mind." he says, looking at Dalton. "Is it me?"
Dalton laughed "No... not you."
Whew escaped his lips, and looked back at Victoria. "I was only wondering because, your lips are looking pretty lonely, and was curious if you need me to introduce mine to them."
Victoria giggled, and looked at Janelle after hearing a sigh of discuss come out of her. "My lips are fine." she says, giggling as she spoke.
"Wait... which lips are we talking about?" Stan asked, then got pulled off her by Dalton.
"Dad, why?" Dalton asked, shaking his head, hoping his mother wasn't listening in.
Stan looked at Dalton, scratched the back of his head, and chuckled. All he was doing was wanting to get everyone to quit looking so serious, and to laugh. He didn't care what was going on, and only wanted to have a little fun with Victoria. "What? I can't help it, I've had such a bad week, and seeing her just turns me on... can't you ever just let me dream a little?"
"Not when it comes to my wife to be..." Dalton groaned. Now that he knew Janelle didn't say anything to Brayden, he was ready to go home, and spend some quality time with Victoria. Being Christmas was just around the corner, he also wanted to get some Christmas gift ideas out of her, and hopefully get her in a better mood.
He reached for Victoria's hand, and looked at her. "Well, what do you say we go get a bite to eat, and go home and relax?"
"That's fine with me, I'm a little tired anyway, and would like to get to bed early."
Dalton, and Victoria went and said their goodbyes to the girls, and his mother. "I hope your father was behaving in there. I heard you telling him to knock it off."
"He was only being him." he says, hugging her.
Annette released her embrace from Dalton, and smiled as she looked at the two of them. "Congratulations you two, I couldn't be any happier for you both."
"Thank you." they both said in unison.
Victoria left Dalton with Annette, and grabbed her jacket, and as she was about to put it on, she was stopped by Stan. "Allow me to help you with that." he smirked, taking the jacket out of her hand. And began helping her put it on. "I've been trying to think of what the word of the day was, and it finally hit me what it would be."
Dalton looked at Annette after overhearing his father, and shook his head. "I better go see what he's up to now."
Victoria giggled, knowing Stan was up to no good, and looked at Dalton as he was nearing them. "And what would that be?"
"I'm sure you don't want to know..." Dalton sighed, knowing it was most likely going to be something naughty coming out of his mouth.
"Legs." he grinned.
"Legs?" she questioned. Dalton walked closer to her, wrapping his arm around her waist when he approached. "Dad, don't say it."
"Yes, legs... why don't we go back to my place and go spread the word." he winked.
Dalton covered his face, and looked at her not surprised by what came out of his dad's mouth. "Shall we?"
"I also wanted to inform you that there's a sale going on in my bedroom... clothes are one hundred percent off." he snickered, as Dalton opened the door for Victoria. Dalton turned to his dad, and pointed. He was just getting ready to scowl at him, when Annette walked over to him, smacking Stan in the back of the head.
"That's it, I'm locking you up, and throwing away the key."
"Promise?" he chuckled.
On the way home, Victoria was quiet, thinking and wondering how Danielle knew Brayden, or how it came about for her to tell him about her engagement. She wished she had never answered his call, and after hearing his voice on the other end of the line, made her wonder even more, what she was thinking after taking him back the first time they broke up.
Once they got home, she immediately went into the bedroom, changed into a nightgown, and sprawled herself out onto the bed, thinking back to when Danielle started at the clinic, how she's acted worse towards her since Dalton started, the comments she's made to her, and the things Brayden mentioned while she was on the phone with him.
Dalton walked into the bedroom taking off his shirt, and sat down at the edge of the bed. "Hungry?"
"No." she said sounding muffled, as her face was pressed down into the bed. "I've lost my appetite."
Dalton rubbed his face, feeling a little frustrated, and looked over at the wall. "I don't understand why you let her get to you, and who cares if Brayden knows about us." he said quietly.
She sighed, and rolled onto her side, while propping her head up. "I care... he wasted six years of my life, granted it's my fault for taking him back when I shouldn't have... but still. I broke it off with him for a reason, he doesn't need to know anything about my life, and how I plan my future. If he cared about my future, he would have changed years ago. As for Danielle, I've already mentioned to you on how she's been a bitch to me since day one. How can I let it go, when every day she insists on making my life harder?" She laid her face back down into the bed, and sounded muffled as she spoke "I say you fire her..." she demanded.
"I can't just fire her, especially when she hasn't done anything wrong."
"Fire her for being a bitch... especially to me."
He laid down next to her, and wrapped his arm around her. "Sorry Hun, it doesn't work that way. I could be sued, and it wouldn't look good if you were the reason behind the firing. She's never late, never takes a day off, and she does her job right." He could see she was going to be hardheaded about this, and got up, not wanting to argue with her. He put on his sweats, and headed for the door "I'm making myself something to eat, if you're hungry, and you change your mind, come and join me, I'll make sure to make enough for the two of us."
She still wasn't hungry, but got up anyway to go sit in the dining room with him. She knew it wasn't his fault for what happened, and didn't need to be taking it out on him. As she sat at the table, she looked online for wedding venues in the area, and debated on if she wanted a church wedding, or one where you had the wedding and reception all at the same place.
As Dalton was walking into the dining room with food, he saw what she was looking at, and pulled a chair next to her. "Mind if I sit next to you, or are you going to bite my head off?"
She leaned over to him as he sat, and bit onto his neck while giggling. "If I bite, it sure wouldn't be your head, then you wouldn't be able to give me any kids." she winked. She looked back at her laptop, and took a deep breath. "What kind of wedding were you thinking of? I can't decide on what I want to do."
"I'm open to anything... whatever you want to do, I'll be happy with whatever you decide. You're the one who will be the princess, and the star of the show... So, if you want that Cinderella type of wedding, in a ballroom, and with a horse drawn carriage, go for it." he says, dipping his fork into his food, and placing it at her mouth. "Take a bite for me, please?" he begged after she refused the food. "We missed breakfast, and you skipped lunch... please take a bite."
She took a bite, and leaned back in her chair, staring at the laptop as she chewed her food. She wanted a nice wedding, but was afraid of who might show up, and wondered if maybe they should elope, and take a trip somewhere.
"What about eloping?"
He stopped chewing his food, and gave her a strange look. "Elope?" he asked with his mouth full of food. That was one idea he didn't care to do, and wondered why she would want to do that. "Why?'
"I don't know, it was only a suggestion, curious as to what you would think of it... by the look on your face, I can see you don't care for the idea."
He swallowed his food, and wiped his mouth with a napkin before speaking. "I know I just got done telling you, that you can have whatever wedding you wanted, but I wasn't thinking of eloping. We've got family here that I'm sure would want to see us get married, especially my father. With the way he took a liking to you, I'm sure he would feel hurt if he couldn't be a part of it."
"I know, but..."
"No buts. If you're thinking of eloping for what I'm thinking, you can't let one, two, three, or even four knuckleheads ruin your special day. You need to remember this is your day, our day. I'm not going to let anyone ruin it for us. Krista obviously has no heart, in which Tom forgot to replace when he gave her the silicone caulking. So, we don't have to worry about them. And if it's Brayden your worried about, then that's something we can worry about later. I'm sure we can work something out where he won't be able to walk in, and ruin everything."
"I guess you're right."
"I know I'm right." he says. He leaned forward, and looked into her eyes "Have I ever been wrong before?"
"Yes..." she giggled.
"When?" he asked, sitting up. Surprised she said he had been wrong about something before, and tried thinking of what it was.
"When Brayden came to the office claiming he was my boyfriend, and when my brother came to town..."
"Those were completely different issues. Yes, I may have been wrong there, but have I told you that something would be all right, and it wasn't?"
"No."
"See... listen to me, everything will be just fine. Nobody is going to wreck our wedding... I promise."
He finally convinced her to eat, and began asking her for some Christmas gift ideas. Of course, she was being difficult and telling him she didn't need anything special, that all she wanted was him. Being that she wouldn't tell him anything she wanted, he knew who the next person would be to ask, and that was Tiara. He figured the next day at work, he would pull her to the side, and see if he can get any ideas out of her, as well as see if she knew of anything, she had been saying she wanted, or needed.
******
While Victoria was showering and getting ready for work, Dalton saw they had more than enough time to eat before they needed to be at the clinic and was able to whip up some breakfast quick. He already knew that she was going to find a time to corner Danielle, and was hoping it would happen before he opened the doors.
"I hope you're hungry, I just made you an egg sandwich." he tells her when she walked into the kitchen to refill her coffee. He picked up the pot, poured her another cup, and handed the sandwich to her.
"Thanks... I'm actually starving this morning." she says, then gave him a funny look when he took her coffee cup out of her hand, and set it on the counter. "I was going to drink that."
"I know, but I didn't want it spilling on me, while I did this." he says, pulling her in for a kiss. "Promise me you'll behave yourself today."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because, I know you... you're going to confront Danielle, and I don't need our patients seeing the riff in the clinic."
"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm not that psycho and wouldn't do that in front of the patients"
"Good."
Throughout the day, Victoria was anxious to confront Danielle, and was biting her tongue every time she ran into her. Tiara could tell she was getting impatient and wanting to confront Danielle. She too was curious about her, and decided to help Victoria out. "I'll be right back." she tells her. Tiara walked up to the front, and asked Danielle to follow her to the back, that she, and Victoria had some questions for her. "It shouldn't take long."
Tiara opened the door for her, and locked the door after Danielle walked in. "Victoria, did you have some questions for Danielle?"
"Yes, but..." she says turning her chair around, and stopped talking when she saw Danielle standing next to her. "Danielle..."
Danielle sensed something was up, and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Victoria. Victoria stood and walked over to her with her hands on her hips. "Why are you looking at me like you're ready to attack me?" she asked Danielle.
"I was told you and Tiara had some questions for me... but I get the feeling it's about something else." She turned around, and was about to try leaving, but was blocked by Tiara when she stood against the door.
Tiara shook her head no, and pointed for her to look at Victoria. "Danielle... how do you know Brayden?" Victoria asked.
"By you, when you two were together. Why?"
"Wrong answer... I already know that's a lie... I know you've recently talked to him, and I'd like to know why."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." she says crossing her arms. "I don't know what this is you're trying to do, but I need to get back to work."
"Not until you answer my question... I'm going to break this all down for you, and hopefully you'll confess. I received a phone call from Brayden last night, congratulating me on my engagement. Funny thing is, only Dalton's sister Janelle, and Tiara knew about the engagement. They both claimed to not have said something. Then I started thinking, you kept coming in here yesterday for no reason, and kept checking out my hand. I thought some more, and realized some other things the more I thought back. When I broke up with Brayden the first time, you started here at the clinic a couple days later... no experience, no work history, nothing. But the previous owners decided to hire you anyway. There were things that happened throughout the years that Brayden never would have known, but always knew about it after it happened, and it always made me wonder how he knew... he knew more about my job than I did. Then the night Dalton took us all out to dinner. I stayed later and had a couple drinks, a couple too many that I needed a ride home. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but now that I had a night to think about things, I remembered something about that night. When I left that bar, you were still there, sitting off to the side at a table that was in a well darkened area. As I was outside the bar trying to get in my car, you were standing outside watching us argue about me driving home. When we were remodeling the clinic, Brayden showed up and made a scene... I think you were in on that one too."
"You're wrong." Danielle scowled, cutting her off."
"Really? No, I don't think so... you see, for months I kept hearing the employees around here talking about Dalton and I having an affair after work, you yourself even made a comment to me, in front of Dalton about us getting it on in his office. There were days when we did leave here late, and your car was parked in the lot, or across the street. I even saw you standing outside the gas station across the street, staring at the clinic. I also remembered the Christmas party, when Dalton and I left, I noticed you followed us out of the banquet room, and stood there watching us. Again, you were spying on us. You've treated me horrible since the day you started here, and have been a complete bitch to me the entire time. So, basically when I was thinking of everything, it all came to light and started making sense... So once again I'm going to ask, how do you know Brayden?
Danielle turned her head, and took a deep breath, still not wanting to talk.
"That's fine. I'll just make Tiara stand against the door until you talk."
"I have nowhere to be." Tiara said smiling. "I suggest you talk to her if you want to get out of here... and while I'm at it, I might as well call Dalton, and let him know what's going on in here."
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!🤞🤞
Does Danielle know who Brayden is, and if she does, who is she?🤔🤔