"Again," he says, tears welding in his eyes. His cheeks stained with leftover tears streaming down his face. I suppose I didn't have the right to cry with him because this entire situation was my doing, and yet somehow the tears continued falling from my eyes as well.
"We were at the coffee shop trying to come up with a new name for the business. He and I both knew we wanted something personalized and meaningful so I started playing around with the letters in our kid's name. We both lost a child and it somehow connected us on a different level."
"How did you know he had a kid? Let alone a kid that passed away?"
"He told me about him and his wife before," I sighed. "I knew that their names would be as personal as we could get. I don't know how it happened but one minute we were talking about the name and then we were crying together. Him crying made me feel extremely guilty. All of that sadness bottled up like that combined with the lack of closure still eating him up on the inside. And as much as it kills me to admit, it felt good to be able and talk to someone who felt the same pain as me. In a way it comforted the bits of myself I pushed away for everyone else's sake. I never got to properly grieve Aria. I treated her death as a fleeting moment and shrugged it off when deep down even deciding to breathe after she died was a challenge."
"Why didn't you tell me you were still hurting, Brooke? I could've made a difference. We could've worked through your emotions together," he huffs out in anger.
It wasn't his fault. I never faulted him on his inability to feel as devastated as I was. He wasn't her dad, but to choke that type of loss away as a blip in time was the stupidest thing I've ever witnessed—though I'd never tell him that. He did the best he knew how to do.
"It wouldn't have made a difference, Justin. I'm not saying it's your fault, because it's not. You just couldn't feel the pain I felt because she wasn't your daughter. You didn't spend months getting attached to a baby growing inside your belly. You didn't have to cover your mouth at night to hide the sobbing. It was me. I did, and I did it alone. I was okay with that though because she was my daughter. You couldn't have made a difference."
Justin wipes away a tear before it had a chance to fall on his face. He stands from the bed and starts pacing the room until a knock on the door caught the both of our attention.
Immediately I felt even more guilty. Pattie's opinion of me was something that I always held near and dear to my heart. She'd hate me if she knew what I had done to her son.
"Come in," Justin says, frantically wiping any evidence of emotions.
"Hey," she smiles, walking over to us and giving the both of us firm kisses on the cheek. "Scooter called me and told me you guys came home from your vacation early. Is everything okay?"
Justin wasn't the type to tell people when we were having problems if it were never brought up besides his outburst to Scooter earlier. Though his mother was a different story. He told her everything and I didn't expect less of that. My actions would have whatever consequences they had. I turned to look at him, trying to give him a nod of approval on the situation but instead of speaking, he shook his head and turned to me for confirmation.
If there was one thing I absolutely loved about Pattie, it was her undying ability to assist a situation from the outside perspective. Justin was her son—her only son, but even she'd be on my side when it came down to a baby. My infidelity wouldn't smooth over with her, but neither would Justin's extracurriculars on tour.
There was a brief moment after Aria died where Pattie would come over to my parents house and consul me as best she could. She'd somehow had the strength or power to convince me out of bed and into a shower after weeks had passed without one. She was there for me when I got out of that awful relationship with Dylan. Pattie was always there for me and Justin knew it. Maybe that's why he decided to keep quiet. An attempt to savor the relationship between his mom and I.
"Okay, well I'm going to set us up with a reservation for dinner tonight. I'm so excited you guys are back and I want to know everything about Barbados."
Pattie exchanged a few more words to us and then disappeared behind the door. She wouldn't buy his story about everything being alright because the devastation spread on his face was the clear give away. He looked like he'd been hit with a semi truck.
"I want to talk to him. Man to man. Without you being there," he demands. Talking him out of that wasn't even possible because I already knew that he wouldn't just let it go. I guess that would be a good thing if the situation weren't so tragic.
"Justin, I don't think that's a good idea. You shouldn't do it. He already feels bad enough as it is. He's grieving the loss of his son and his wife. Me deciding to partner with him and buy Balzac's was the only thing that stopped his father's legacy from crashing and burning. That was the last piece of him he had. What I'm getting at is he doesn't need his business partner's husband coming up there and beating the shit out of him for a choice that lies fully on me. My commitments were to you and only you."
"So you except me to just pretend that the guy didn't fuck my wife?" He questions, standing from the bed again. His breathing was almost as potent as a freight train. "That doesn't sound right, Brooklynn and you know it. Confrontation might not sit well with you, but I'm not sweeping this under the rug. It's not happening."
Justin grabbed my phone from his bed and unlocked it. I didn't try to reach for it because he was going to do whatever he wanted to do.
"No, it's Justin. Her husband," he said sternly. "I want to invite you out to dinner tonight. Brooke and I just got home from our trip and my mother made us reservations at the finest restaurant in town and I want you to join us. Wear something nice and I'll shoot you the details. Yes. Ok, I'll see you there," he ended, tossing the phone down on the bed.
The room filled with silence a while longer until Justin's attention shifted back to me. His eyes filling with tears once again. I hated seeing him like this.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the vasectomy," a cry falls from his mouth before he wipes the tears away again and clears the lump from his throat. "I'm sorry that it took you sleeping with one guy to get pregnant and you could never with me. All of this is my fault. I forgive you for your infidelities and I mean that. I won't use it against you or hold it over your head in future arguments. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you the way I should've been when Aria died. It was me who made the pledge to be there for her as a father and still I somehow managed to fuck that up too."
He doesn't give me a chance to say much before he walks over to his room door.
"I'm gonna go shower and get changed for dinner. We'll take my car and mom can take hers in case she wants to leave before us. Be ready in an hour," he finalized, walking out of his bedroom.
The lump of emotions still lingered in the back of my throat, almost choking me. This night would most likely be the end of my marriage and the end of whatever could've come out of this new coffee shop and I had to face that reality. I stood from his bed and made my way home to get myself changed into something acceptable for the restaurant.
>>>
"So Jacob, my daughter here tells me that she adores your coffee shop. Before they moved away, they spent every weekend at that place," Pattie excites, looking to me with a big smile on her face. "When I found out she had decided to invest in the property, I immediately knew that it would be in good hands. I promise you that choosing to partner up with her is going to pay off."
"Yeah, I've noticed that. Before my father passed, it really was the local hotspot. I wish things would've stayed that way but everything good must come to an end one way or another. I'm just glad she decided to walk in there when she did. I was moments away from completely giving up on it."
Justin clears his throat before taking a sip of his water. Our server hadn't yet come back to our table to bring the appetizers and Pattie was trying to start us off with some meaningless chatter until the food arrived. I just wish she hadn't been quoting things I said about him in front of Justin.
"If you'll excuse us, I want to talk to Jacob about something. It won't be too long." Justin got up and signaled Jacob in the direction of the men's room before they both headed off.
I watched as Pattie furrowed her brows before glancing over to me. If there was something Justin hated more, it was people excusing themselves from the dinner table for side conversations and Patricia knew that about her son.
"What's going on? First the noticeable tension at home and now the awkwardness at dinner. What am I missing?"
"I'm pregnant," I whispered to her.
Her eyes lit up and with one hand she squeezed mines and the other she covered her mouth to quiet her excitement. That was how you reacted to news about a baby.
"But—I mean I don't think times have changed that much since I was younger but aren't people supposed to be in good moods when a baby is announced? You and Justin both have looked clammed up since earlier. Something's still off."
I suppose if anyone was going to ruin my relationship with her, it might as well have been me.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you when we leave from dinner tonight."
Before Pattie had a chance to object, we both spotted Justin and Jacob heading back to the dinner table. They both were in pristine condition so the fight I imagined in my head must've been a dramatization.
The rest of dinner was played out the opposite of what I imagined. Justin had found some type of will in him to contain his frustration from us all. He even had me convinced everything was okay between the two of us. When the night faded away, we said our goodbyes to each other and we went our separate ways.
"I don't think you should continue working with Jacob on the coffee shop. That's my opinion and I stand firm on it," Justin said, opening the passenger side door of the car for me. I waited until he got in the to say something in response to him.
"Is that an order or a suggestion?"
"It's a suggestion that I hope you agree too. It's clear that this has brought no one any joy. The moment you started with that place things have gone to shit. I need you to understand that this is me your friend giving you advice, not your husband. I meant what I said about the forgiveness thing."
"And what if I decide to do it anyways?" I questioned, keeping my eyes forward. His attention stayed on me for a few moments until the light changed green.
"Look. The only reason I'm suggesting this is because of the talk I had with Jacob. As much as I hate to admit it, I know that he didn't do it out of spite. I asked him about the shops progression and he may have given me some information you haven't heard yet. Information that could be harmful to you and it seems silly to ignore that."
What was he going on about? If he didn't want me working with Jacob, all he had to say was that precisely. Not beat around the bush trying to almost scare me out of working with him. Guilt fell heavy on me and if he wanted to, Justin knew that he had the power to guilt trip me completely out of it, but this didn't feel like that.
"Okay, I'll bite. What is it? What did Jacob tell you?"
"It's the renovators, Brooke. Apparently they've been working with him getting everything settled. He wanted to keep it a secret so you'd come back to a fully remodeled coffee shop. Anyways. It's them. It's Jennifer and David. They're the renovators. They're here in town and I want you staying far away from them."
The car fell silent before coming to a complete halt. We were in front of my house already. Justin put the car in park and shifted in his seat.
"I don't believe you," it came out harsher than I intended it to. The last thing I heard about them was their death. No way they'd be back in Canada still working the same business as if none of their pass meant anything. As if I meant nothing. "They'd be idiotic to show up here after faking their deaths. After kidnapping me from my parents with the help of your uncle. It doesn't make sense. I'm sorry but I don't believe you."
Justin pulled out his phone from the jacket pocket of his suit. He was pulling up proof for me. When he handed me the phone, a picture displayed on the screen. It was of a newly demolished Balzac's, with Jacob, Jennifer, and David smiling together, posing for a group picture.
No words could describe the sucker punch that hit me in the gut after seeing the photo. Without it, I still wouldn't have believed him. My once brunette mother had hair almost blonder than mines now. It hung just above her collar bone, patterned with curls that looked almost effortless. David looked almost unrecognizable. His once dad bod had been traded in for a more toned and fit body. His face covered in facial hair—something of which he expressed pure hatred for when I was growing up.
"They changed their names. Laurie and Michael Bennett."
——-
Hello 😁😬
I want to apologize for taking so long to update this story. Honestly for a time, I completely forgot about it.
Anyways—they're officially back.
But don't worry. The reunions are far from over.
Don't forget to vote and comment.