"Are you sure?" Mason asks, stunned.
I lean against the brick wall, "I don't know. I mean what else could it be? He's cheating on her, Mason." I sigh.
"But, Steve—of all people, Steve." he furrows his brow, his tone strained as he tries to wrap his head around the concept.
"Shh! Open the door and shout it at her why don't you." I roll my eyes.
"We're outside, Amara. She doesn't have supersonic hearing."
"I don't want to believe it, Mase. How the hell could he do this to her? To Isabella. To that unborn baby." my chest aches as I think about it.
"I-" I watch as Mason attempts to think of something to calm my nerves. "I don't know.." he sighs in defeat.
"Yep." I chew the inside of my cheek with nervousness, I called Mason as soon as it became a semi-reasonable time to be awake—he came straight here and we've been outside talking for what feels like forever, I can't face Carol.
The clicking of the front door startles us both, "We should leave soon if we want to avoid traffic, Steve's coming back in a few hours." Carol smiles, poking her head out.
"Okay." I fake a smile in return.
"Mason, what am I going to do? I can't lie to her, I can't pretend I'm okay with this when I'm not—I'll crack as soon as she asks me what's wrong." I ramble, the panic of my annoyingly transparent emotions setting in.
"Don't worry, you can do this—okay? You may be a fucking awful liar; but you know that Carol can't find out you heard her talking on the phone. I'll come with you, be your buffer." he tells me calmly, stroking my arm.
"I can't believe I just offered to be someone's buffer, me—a fucking buffer. Can you believe that?" he chuckles. The idea of Mason being a buffer to... anyone, is horrifying. But I know that if I want to keep things quiet, it's my only hope to avoid me spilling everything out in a hopeless attempt to stay silent.
—————
"What made you want to join us on our boring trip home?" Carol chuckles, eyeing Mason in the back as Izzy continuously attempts to strike conversation with him.
"I just didn't want to leave Amara to drive back home alone." he tells her without hesitation. An amazing liar, I can't tell if that's a good thing.. or a miraculously bad thing.
"That's lovely of you, she's a lucky girl." she smiles warmly.
"So, any plans for tonight you two?"
"Uhm, not- I don't think so—" I begin to stutter.
"Nothing special, we'll probably just watch a movie or something." Mason covers, making me want to sink into my seat. Why the hell am I so awful under pressure?
"Okay..," Carol chuckles, "Are you excited to see daddy, Iz?" she eyes her daughter in the mirror.
"Yes!" she chirps excitedly, kicking her feet.
I look at Mason, as he looks back at me with a sour expression. She's so blissfully unaware—as for Carol, I don't know how she's doing this.
"You guys should come in for dinner, we'd love to have you and I'll never pass up on some extra time with my darling girl." she smiles, nudging my shoulder playfully—I could cry, physically cry. What is going on?
"We don't want to get held up in traffic... but we'll definitely take you up on that offer soon." Mason lies, I feel as though a metaphorical knife has been jammed into my chest cavity, I don't want to avoid Carol. But right now, I have to.
"Oh, alright—no problem." she smiles.
As we finally arrive at Carol's, my heart sinks when Steve's car has re-taken its place in the drive. I turn off the engine and look to Mason, who quickly puts two and two together, his expression matching mine.
"Oh, look—daddy's home, Isabella." Carol announces in her excitable voice. My head is pretty much about to explode.
"Can you get Iz from the car? I'm going to grab my bag." she asks, squeezing my arm lightly.
"Sure." I sigh.
As Carol grabs her small overnight bag, I make my way around to the back seat, unstrapping Izzy and lifting her out of the car. She rests her head on my shoulder as my arms secure around her, "Please stay for dinner, Mara." she mumbles.
"Not tonight, Iz." I kiss the top of her head.
Mason steps out of the car to stand beside me, mouthing 'are you okay?', I nod slowly—I managed to keep my mouth shut the whole way here, that's a plus.
"There's my girls." the voice I dreaded to hear bellows.
I turn to the front door where Steve stands with open arms. I place Izzy down and watch as she runs into her father's arms; it makes my blood boil.
"Go help mommy with her unpacking." he smiles as his daughter skips away happily into their home.
"Mason what do I do?" I whisper under my breath as Steve approaches us.
"Nothing, you smile and wave, Amara." he mumbles with a fake smile on his face.
"Amara," he smiles as he wraps his arms around me, planting a small kiss on the top of my head, "It's so good to see you—we miss you so much when you're not here." he tells me, seemingly sincerely as he holds me at arms length.
"I missed you all, too." I reply calmly.
"Thank you for keeping my girls company over the weekend, I hate having to leave for business." he shrugs. My blood feels like it runs cold, I don't know whether to cry or to punch him, I can't hold myself back any longer.
"I have to go to the bathroom." I stutter, pushing past him and running straight into the house—leaving Mason and Steve to talk.
I close the front door and take a deep breath, I'm so angry. How could he do this to them and then act as though nothing was wrong?
"Amara?" Carol appears in front of me.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." she jokes, furrowing her brow.
"It's nothing," I sigh. "No, you know what? It's not nothing. What happened with Steve, Carol?" I blurt out, my skin crawling.
"What?" her eyes widen.
"I heard your message to him, he wasn't away on business—was he? He cheated on you. How can you just move on from that?" I take a step forward, my voice strained as my heart aches for her, "How can you forgive that?"
"Amara," she sighs, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Steve didn't cheat on me, if he had—I would have burned his beloved motorcycle to a crisp and claimed the insurance money by now." she sniggers under her breath.
"He didn't? Carol I heard the-"
"He was on business, but he was also with some old friends, and those friends are not a good crowd to be involved in. Steve cut all ties with them years ago, before Izzy was born; they were fucking insane, we didn't want them around our child." she explains.
"He failed to mention that they were there this weekend, they have a horrible effect on him; the thought of him giving them the time of day makes me sick. But, he didn't. He left as soon as he got my message. He didn't cheat on me, Amara." she sighs, and I do too, in relief. It was just some meet-up with a bad bunch of old friends, which explains her being worried about their family. God, I didn't think I was one to jump to conclusions—but I guess I am.
"Is that what's been bothering you the whole time?" she raises her brow.
"Yes." I reply reluctantly, the realisation of how insane I sounded becoming painfully more apparent by the second.
"I appreciate you caring, honey. But as annoying as that man can be, he'd never do that." she smiles.
"Thank god." I laugh, nervously and in relief.
"Don't get me wrong, he's going to be cooking the meals and rubbing my feet for at least the next month." she smirks, making us both laugh.
"Call me when you're back and safe?"
"I will." I smile, giving her a tight hug.
"I love you." she tells me softly.
"I love you too." I reply, walking back outside to Steve and my boyfriend who looks as though he may be contemplating smashing his head against the wall.
"Everything alright?" Steve asks.
I stop in front of him, wrapping my arms around him tightly as he confusedly returns the hug, "Yes." I reply.
"What was that for?" he chuckles as I let go.
"Because you're a good husband, and an amazing dad—and uncle." I say in a somewhat apology, an attempt to clear my conscience.
"Well, thank you." he smiles.
I turn to Mason who couldn't look more surprised, or confused if he tried.
"We better go, avoid traffic." I give him a 'just go with it' look as we climb back into the car. As I drive off I feel incredibly lighter than before, thankfully.
"What the hell?" Mason gapes.
"To summarise... Steve didn't cheat, he was on a business trip, he was with some people that are trouble and Carol was worried. And apparently, I jump to extreme conclusions now." I sigh.
"Wow... okay," Mason tries to take in everything I just said. "You didn't jump to conclusions, from what you told me it sounded pretty black and white; at least now you know to get more information before you plot your uncles fucking murder." he grins, making me laugh.
"I mean, it's not the strangest thing that's happened lately." I chuckle.
"What do you mean?" he looks at me inquisitively.
"It's nothing." I roll my eyes, praying I could retract my latter comment.
"Amara, tell me."
"No, Mason. It was stupid I shouldn't have mentioned it." I backtrack as much as possible.
"Amara," he warns, his brows furrowing.
"Fine," I scoff, "I just got a few strange texts, that's all." I mumble, aware of how annoyed he's going to be that it hasn't come up before now.
"Strange? Strange how, Amara?" his tone shifts to annoyed, like I thought.
"It was from an unknown number, they said my name, and so I asked if they were looking for something.." I trail off, the more I say it out loud the worse it sounds.
"And?" he pushes.
"They said 'not yet' and to 'have a good night'. I don't know, it was a prank; some kids trying to get some fun at a slumber party" I say in an attempt to downplay it—hoping it doesn't sound as bad as it does in my head.
"Kids? Then how did they know your name, Amara?" Mason scoffs, adjusting himself in the seat. "And you're just telling me this now, why?"
"It just.. didn't come up." I shrug.
"Didn't come up? How the fuck would that have happened, Amara? What am I supposed to say? 'Oh, hey have you had any strange texts from unknown numbers recently? Yes? Great! What did they say?' he mocks in a facetious tone.
"When was this?" he adds.
"A couple of nights ago."
"Are you serious?" his eyes widen.
"Mason you're being dramatic, I'm telling you now. It wasn't at the top of my priority list." I huff, my own annoyance growing.
"I don't understand you, Amara—how the fuck is that not something that you'd tell me?" he raises his voice.
"Stop it! Climb down off that ego of yours and stop talking to me like I'm a child." I yell, exhaling deeply and focusing my eyes back onto the road.
He looks at me for a few seconds, I can feel his eyes burning into me as I drive—and then, he stops. He slowly turns himself back around, bouncing his right leg up and down; something I've learned that he does to control his anger.