Chapter 28: CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

KIMBERLY's POV

Maldives was a dream. I meant sultry Arabian nights, endless beach days, random shopping sprees, endless nights of emptying my fucking soul to Craig, and finally getting convinced that he was my soulmate.

The blue of the ocean stretched as far as my eyes could see. Craig had gotten a call about something really important at work yesterday and he had taken an emergency trip. He was due to be back today and I was eagerly awaiting his return.

This trip was exactly what we needed, the time away from everyone was healing and invigorating at the same time. The only sad part was that Jason had to stay back with his nanny in Paris. Oh, I missed him sorely and I couldn't wait to get back to him.

The food here was excellent, the staff courteous and the overall ambiance begged for me to return. In reality, what I wanted was a six-month vacation in the Maldives twice a year.

The sky was bright but not enough to burn the skin. I had taken time earlier to put on a lot of sunscreen. The birds, flew like they were blind and would crash into each other anytime now. I loved the beach sounds, water overlapping water, birds careening, the smell of moist sand, and the clear bright sky.

I had told myself a couple of times that our stay couldn't get any better and it always did. I wanted to go back but I also wanted to stay so bad.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear the sound of Craig's approach. I had almost jumped out of my skin when he gently touched me.

"My angel, come to life," he smiled gently down at me.

I was so excited as I fumbled my way to get up and fly into his arms. He picked me up, swung me around, and gently set me down.

"How are you enjoying the sea breeze?" He teased.

"It's so nice to have you back. I'm really so happy," I gushed.

"Wanna pick your things so we can head back?" I nodded without hesitation. In no time we had everything and trudging back to our hotel room slowly.

"Hey, how was your trip?" I gently prodded. A certain shadow fell over him as if there was something wrong.

"What happened?" I continued, sure something wasn't right.

"How did you meet Nicholas?" He asked with an edge over his voice.

I immediately lost it. What did he mean how we met? That was all in the past plus how does he even know any of that?

A small bead of sweat was slowly forming on my brows. Nicholas and I had met through a dating site that lets you offer money to your date on the first meeting if you want sex. It was only that one time. I had been struggling and was in dire need of money at the time.

After Nicholas, I had sworn it off, closed my account, and got the job with the superstore. Nicholas eventually reached out to me saying he had fallen in love with me. For the longest, I had struggled to accept that someone would love me from meeting that way but eventually, he had proved himself over and over until my guards dropped and I kinda started loving him back.

Now no one else had this information except Nicholas, myself, and the dating website we had hooked up on. At this point, I was stuck between just telling Craig the plain truth or trying to explain how I got myself in that position. Either way, I was going to tell him the truth.

"Why do you want to know anything about Nicholas?" I started trying to test the waters, trying to figure out the best way to answer his question.

Before I could complete my thought, he whipped out a magazine and threw it in my face. At this point, we had already gotten to our room. I was first surprised at his reaction, puzzled as to why he would behave like that, and then angry that he thought he could do that.

The shock that went through my body when I picked up the magazine, saw it was CELEBRITY PARIS, and found out that I was on the cover page almost had me passing out.

I gently lowered myself onto the closest couch and focused on the headlines- "CRAIG's NEW WIFE...SLUT OR SAINT?"

In all my life, I had never felt that level of embarrassment. My entire face was in flames, and I was internally begging the ground to open up so I could hide from Craig's rage.

What game was Nicholas playing? What was he trying to achieve at this time? Oh, crap! How, just how would I convince Craig that was a one-time event that meant nothing?

"Do you want time to be in a better headspace so we could have this conversation?" I was trying to buy time but from the look of things, Craig wasn't having it.

"Kim, I had the whole trip back from Paris to think. The problem here is not my inability to think or a need for it thereof. It's your gross incomprehension and inability to explain simple events that happen to be the problem here."

I had never seen Craig be that serious. I could see a visible struggle to keep his cool.

He was doing a good job of keeping his shit together but I was beginning to be irritated at the assumption that owed him an explanation about how I lived my life before we got married.

When I looked up he was staring at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to spill some very random tea. I honestly didn't want to fight. This honeymoon had been by far our best memories together and I didn't want to ruin it with some mere artifacts from the past.

"Look, it was a one-time thing. I had run into some money problems and I just needed a way out of it. After Nicholas, it stopped, I swear. I didn't hook up with anyone else on there," I explained, gently pleading with my eyes. I did not want to get into the issue further than I already did.

"At the time you met Nicholas, you had just had my child! You could have called me, you could have told me. I was one phone call away. All you needed to do was let me know you needed anything, anything at all and I would have come running," He raged. "Instead you went on a website to sleep with random strangers."

Oh, he wasn't about to let up.

My nerves were bunched, the room was beginning to spin and I knew I would probably pass out soon if I didn't get some air.

I didn't mean to run off but I was already on the patio panting for air before I could think to ask permission to leave.

"Where do you think you're going to? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

At this point, he was just being a menace.

"I told you it was one time. It was a reckless mistake. I'm sorry and it's never going to happen again," I pressed, hoping he would see the light, hoping he would understand, wanting to throttle him so damn bad.

"Get packed. We're flying back to Paris at first light."

That was all. No attempts were made to understand me, no grace given, no fucks given. For the umpteenth time, I wondered if I had married a monster.

All through that night we kept to our ends of the bed. No words were spoken. I would have fought, but I felt like there was nothing to fight for. He had sounded so final in his instructions and I didn't want to hurt my pride so I simply turned to my own end and slept off.

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The air I met on our return to Paris was stiff, cold, and critical. Everyone must have seen the article by now. I wondered what they thought of me. I tried to imagine the thoughts that they had when they first saw the article. In a way, I felt sorry for them.

I had a lot to catch up on, especially my son. He was and will be my number one consolation in everything. He was jumping in glee when I entered. His excitement turned to tears of happiness when he saw me,

"Mommy, mommmmyyyy," he screeched. Jason was literally one of the most excitable kids I knew.

"Hey, munchkin! Mom is back." His tiny little fingers created a small fist at the top of my back as he hugged me hard as if his life depended on it.

"What you you buy?" His gugu gaga baby lingo was getting better. I laughed out loud and hugged him even tighter

"Yes! Mummy bought a bag full of stuff. I hope you were a good boy?"

"Yesssss mummy."

Spending the rest of the day with Jay brought me a lot of respite but the shadows from the previous day haunted me.

Tomorrow was going to be better. It had to be.