Deceived 6 - Ultimate Deception (10 page)

I pulled a clean diaper out of the package sitting on the dresser and held it up in the air. It looked so big, even though it was newborn size. I handed it to Chloe and let her do the honors. I was still “all thumbs” when it came to maneuvering a diaper onto such a small person.

I watched in amazement as Chloe whipped through the process like an expert. Chloe was a natural at being a good mom. I smiled and exhaled. How did I get so lucky?

Victoria yawned, and some funny little giggling noises came out of her mouth.

“Is she supposed to do that?”

Chloe crooned to her, “Are you sleepy, honey?” And then turned to me and said, “Let’s see if she’ll go back to sleep now.”

I carefully took Victoria and lowered her into the crib, waiting to see if she’d fuss. She squirmed a bit, but then relaxed, almost as if even she knew this was it, this was home. I turned on the baby monitor as Chloe ducked under my arm. I pulled her tight against me and she wrapped her arms around my waist. We were both drained and tired, the tension and adrenaline that had kept us strung tight taking its toll, but for the moment, we were content to stand there and watch our daughter sleep. Home safe at last.

Chapter 11

Chloe

The drive from Miami had been exhausting, but I didn’t regret doing it at all. Then, to come home to such an amazing welcome from our friends—our family, really – it had all been perfect. So many horrible things had happened that it was almost strange to be in a place where the most strenuous thing was waking up for two a.m. feedings and remembering whose turn it was to change the dirty diaper. Patrick had taken the bull by the horns and mastered the task of diaper changes in a day. He’d even perfected the baby wipe technique followed by powder. I was so proud of him.

We took two whole days to ourselves. Even though we’d spent a lot of time together at Nina’s, this was different. This was just the two of us in our place with our daughter. We needed the time to let things soak in. While I’d finally remembered all of the time I’d lost, it and the time at Nina’s had a surreal quality to it, almost like it was a dream. None of it seemed entirely real.

I grimaced. That wasn’t completely true. There was one moment that was seared into my mind with such ferocity that thinking about even now made my stomach hurt. Those few seconds where Patrick had fallen and I’d thought I’d lost him. That didn’t feel like a nightmare. It was worse.

Patrick told me how he’d felt when he’d seen me at the bottom of the stairs and when I’d been in a coma, but I hadn’t truly understood it until that moment. There had been times in our relationship’s past where I’d thought I’d lost him. The time with the Baroness and then that crazy Stephanie who’d tried to stop our marriage, but all of those paled in comparison to those few terrifying moments. I loved him so much. I couldn’t imagine a life without Patrick and the thought of raising our daughter alone made me shiver.

A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts. Today was the first day Patrick and I were having visitors. My parents were scheduled to fly in from Iowa and would be here for the weekend. Ryan had been over earlier this morning, and then he and Patrick had gone out for lunch while I waited for Elyse to come over.

I adjusted the volume on the baby monitor and set it on the coffee table where we could easily hear it. I had to admit that I was a bit anxious. I hadn’t talked to Elyse very much during this whole ordeal, and I hadn’t been very lucid during most of our conversations. Patrick had told me how guilty she felt and I had my own forgiveness to ask for—hence the reason why the two guys went out for lunch. I knew that the next several minutes would determine if our friendship could go back to the way it had been or if there’d been too much damage done.

I swung the door open with a big smile and there was Elyse, her arms so full of gifts that I wasn’t entirely sure how she’d managed to knock.

The minute I saw her face, I knew everything would be okay. “Elyse!” I squealed, and tried to put my arms around her for a hug, packages and all.

Elyse smiled back with the same enthusiasm and said, “Chloe, I’m so glad you’re back and you all are okay. I can’t believe what horrible things you guys had to go through. It’s really quite unbelievable.”

“I know,” I said, rolling my eyes as I took some of the bags. She followed me into the living room where we deposited the gifts on the floor next to the ones Ryan had brought earlier, all of them wrapped in various shades of pink.

A squeaking sound from the bassinette I had wheeled into the living room prevented us from having to delve into our apologies right away.

“Oh, Chloe, she’s beautiful!” Elyse gushed as she bent down. “Can I hold her?”

“Of course.”

Elyse scooped Victoria up, cradling her in the crook of her elbow. Her eyes were shining with tears. “She’s perfect.”

I smiled, a lump forming in my throat. This was what I’d been missing when we were in Florida. These were the things I was longing for. Sharing moments like this with the people I loved.

The tears in Elyse’s eyes spilled over. “I’m so sorry, Chloe.”

Before I could assure her that it was okay, she continued.

“I was jealous of Nina and how much time you were spending with her, even though I was busy with Ricky. I thought it should be me doing all those things with you but I wasn’t willing to focus on you. I was thinking about myself...”

I put my hand on Elyse’s arm, stopping the flow of words. “No, hon. I’m the one who should apologize. I’m sorry, Elyse. I was spending so much time with Nina that I didn’t realize how it was affecting our relationship.”

“But then in Miami,” she pushed forward and I could see she was determined to say it all. “I was a horrible friend and it’s my fault you had to go upstairs to find a bathroom in the first place. If I hadn’t drank so much...”

“Nina still would’ve found a way to hurt me,” I said firmly.

And it was true. It wasn’t clear to me if, in our struggle, Nina had intentionally shoved me down the stairs. It all happened so fast. Nina was reaching for the photograph and my weight was already unbalanced due to pregnancy. It would have been logical to surmise that any pregnant woman wearing high heels could easily have fallen in a struggle like that one. All right, the poor choice of shoes was probably my fault, but I didn’t have any doubt that Nina’d had a plan. Based on the fact that she’d drugged Patrick and tried to seduce him, I was guessing she would’ve planned something a lot more brutal than a single, quick shove.

“But it’s my fault she got to you guys in the first place.” Elyse gently laid Victoria back down in the bassinette. Her expression was pained as she straightened. “I’m the one who brought Ricky into our lives and that’s how Nina found you.”

I shook my head. “Nina knew who Patrick and I were before you and Ricky even met. You think her sister hadn’t told her every single detail about us? Ricky just happened to be one way in. Nina would’ve found another if she had to.”

Elyse stepped into my embrace and I hugged her tightly. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed her until now.

“What do you say we just forgive everything having to do with Nina and move on? I don’t ever want to hear that vile woman’s name again,” I said.

Elyse nodded and smiled as she pulled out of my embrace. “I’d like that.”

We were both wiping our eyes when we stepped back and I felt like the last little bit of tension I’d been holding onto had finally melted away. I rolled the bassinette over to the couch so we could sit down and still watch Victoria and enjoy the waving arms and her big, blue eyes. I knew there was a chance they’d change color as she got older, but I was hoping they’d end up the same shade as her father’s.

“Listen, about Ricky,” Elyse said. “He feels horrible about what his cousins did. He really hadn’t seen either of them in years and had no clue that Anna and you knew each other. He didn’t know there was any connection between them and you and Patrick.” She took a deep breath and I knew that she was getting ready to say something that was hard for her, but that she’d rehearsed before coming. “If you want me to break up with him because you don’t think you can trust him, I will.”

“Elyse.” I reached across and wrapped my hand around my friend’s.

She gave me a shaky smile. “You’re more important to me than anyone else, but I really hope you believe Ricky because I do, and I really care about him.” Her bottom lip trembled. “A lot.”

“I believe him.” I squeezed her hand.

I was being honest. She didn’t know it, and I wasn’t about to tell her, but Patrick had asked Ryan to look into Ricky’s past. The private investigator Ryan had hired had confirmed that there hadn’t been any contact between Ricky and his cousins for years. In fact, the only thing that could’ve been considered dirt was an arrest for a bar brawl a couple years back, but that wasn’t exactly a secret, especially since it had come out in the press that while Ricky had started the fight, it had been in defense of a waitress who’d been getting some unwanted attention from a drunk patron. As it turned out, Ricky really was a good guy.

The look of relief that washed over her face told me that her feelings for Ricky were a lot stronger than I’d realized.

“Elyse, are you in love with him?”

The smile that curved her lips was almost shy and completely unlike my friend’s usual cocky, sultry grin. “I think I might be.”

I leaned over and grabbed Elyse in a hug that nearly knocked her off the couch. “I’m so happy for you. You deserve this.”

The sound of the door opening broke us apart and I turned to see Patrick walking towards us, a huge smile on his face. He held up a creamy, white envelope with elegant black cursive writing and answered my unasked question. “They’ve set a date.”

Chapter 12

Chloe

Being asked to be a bridesmaid for Ryan and Liam’s wedding was a great motivator to work at shedding that extra baby weight. While a little more than two months had elapsed since giving birth to my daughter, I wasn’t quite back to my pre-baby body. Most of that extra weight was being carried in my breasts, something that my husband had lamented more than once he hadn’t had the time to enjoy. However, my real joy was being asked by Ryan and Liam to be part of their special day of happiness.

We loved our daughter, but between taking care of her, Patrick having to get caught up at work and juggle things while I finished out my maternity leave, and helping Ryan and Liam plan their wedding, it hadn’t left much time for just the two of us. We weren’t about to complain, though, not really. Everything in our lives was going beautifully. I had a loving husband, a beautiful daughter born with ten fingers and ten toes, and I could work my accounts from home until I felt ready to go back to the office–everything was wonderful. I couldn’t complain except that the police hadn’t caught Nina, but no one had heard from her, either. All of her accounts had been frozen and her stores closed. She’d basically vanished. Her picture was still out there and the police were monitoring all contact with her sister, so if Nina did resurface, she’d be caught.

I pushed all of that out of my mind as a tug on my arm from Patrick drew my attention away from the small crowd of wedding guests hovering near the wedding cake.

After the tug, Patrick leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Put your drink down and come with me.”

I raised my eyebrows, wondering what he was up to as we made our way down the narrow hallway that lead to the bathrooms. The hallway was empty. We were alone for the first time in what seemed like forever and we were both thinking about how we had a good fifteen minutes before Patrick’s best man speech. Victoria was at home with the babysitter and I knew a window of opportunity when I saw one.

“Have I told you how hot you look in that dress?” Patrick asked as he pulled me after him into the men’s restroom.

“I thought the bridesmaid’s dress was supposed to be ridiculous looking.” I laughed as I locked the door behind us. “Guess this is what happens when you have a gay man picking them out.” I gestured to the crimson and black gown Ryan had selected for the women in the wedding party to wear. I’d had a couple minor alterations done last week to accommodate my increased breast size and now it fit like a glove, showing off my figure perfectly.

Patrick stepped into me, crowding me back against the door until there wasn’t any space left between us. His eyes were blazing as he leaned down and covered my mouth with his. My pulse quickened, turning all of my thoughts to hot desire as his tongue thrust between my lips. I moaned and wrapped my arms around his neck. His hips ground against mine and I could feel that he was as desperate as I was.

We’d only had sex once since Victoria had been born and beyond that, we’d managed only to pleasure each other with our hands a couple times. More often, we’d fall asleep before we’d done much more than foreplay. Considering how frequent our sexual encounters had been before the birth, this was torture.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Patrick said as he pulled back.

I gave his chest a gentle push. “Then we’d better make this worthwhile.” I reached over to my side and pulled down my zipper. Patrick gave me a puzzled look and I replied, “I’m not risking messing up the dress.”

I folded it and draped it over the door to the stall. Before I’d finished, Patrick’s arms were around me again and he was lifting me onto the counter.

“So fucking hot,” he murmured as he ran his hands along my body. When he caressed my breasts through my crimson bra, I moaned. Then he pushed the cups down and lowered his head. I bit my bottom lip to stifle a cry. I knew he was going for my nipple but I had to stop him. I was still breast-feeding. I wanted nothing more than to spend hours with him sucking on that dark flesh, circling his tongue around my hardened nipple but that would just lead to a mouth full of breast milk. Not the sexiest thing I could think of right now.

“Patrick.” I managed to gasp his name. “Nipples...leakage…”

I held his face in my hands to and he looked up then said, “Oh, right.”