Chapter 21

That night was like a dream come true for Sophie, but a nightmare for Jake. Sophie had waited for so long to be with Zander, and Jake had dreaded this moment for so long and trying to avoid it. Now that they were together, they made love all night long, Zander made the most of it, while Sophie really enjoyed it. It was just as Sophie had dreamed it would be magical, the only thing missing from her dream was the fireplace. She had the rest, she had Jake.

“I really wish we could stay this way forever, I love you so much, and I never want to let you go.”

“We can be this way forever; we can be this way for a long time to come. All you have to do is accept to marry me. Sophie, I love you, please say yes. Will you marry me?” Oh my god, that was not easy, I think I almost vomited right then, I do not care one way or another, but of course Sophie does need to say yes in order for this whole plan Jewel and I have made up to work out.

“Yes, Jake I will marry you, but not until you come home in June. That will give me more time to make the arrangements that need to be made. I do not want a big wedding; I just want a small intimate one, with just family and a few friends.”

I really need to do this now, I need to get my kids now, but what are a few more months. “That is fine whatever you want. I am not going to argue with you. All that matters to me is that you will be my wife. Not to change the subject, but it is morning and the kids should be up soon, how are they going to react to waking up to me being here?” Not that I care how they react. Things are about to get really rough for them. Jewel has to keep my plan quiet and cannot interfere or I will tell about the affair she is having with her dear brother-in-law. This is becoming too much fun.

“Honestly yes, I have told Kay-Leah and Jared about us, they are fine with it, and what we plan to do. Heather now, well I have not told her, she has been dealing with too much lately. My plan was to tell her at a better time. I thought I had until June. The two older ones has a suspicion that you were the reason for my leaving their father, not to mention Alex intercepted all of your letters, read them and left them with Kay-Leah while I was at work. So of course there was not much to tell the two of them. Heather is going to be the one who will be rough to tell.”

“You know I can stay at my mom’s until you have a chance to tell her, or I can stay here it is up to you.” Tell me to leave; once we are married getting away will be rough to do, for now I can get by with it. “I drove over here myself, I can always go to moms, and come back tomorrow night.”

“No, I do not want you to leave; at least stay until I go to work, then you can come back tonight, not tomorrow night.”

“Are you sure? I do not want to cause any more problems than you are already having with Heather.” Like I care, that brat whining little kid gets on my nerves, damn Jewel what have you done to me? I hope that you are enjoying time with your husband’s brother, because I really need you to mess up, I need out of this.

“I am positive, we won’t have much time together the way it is, and she will be just fine. She knows sooner or later I will find another man, I told her that. Not to take her daddy’s place but someone who would love and care for her, Jared and Kay-Leah like their daddy does. She seemed to be okay with that.”

That being said Sophie and Jake fell asleep in each other’s arms.

“Mommy, daddy, I knew daddy would come home, he finally came back to us?” Heather ran excitedly and jumped on the bed. “I love you daddy, I knew you would be back.”

“No honey, I am so sorry, that is not your daddy. I will be up in a minute, you go downstairs, and then we can talk okay. Go on.” Sophie was afraid that would happen but knew that she had to tell Heather now about Jake.

“I guess now is as good a time as any to explain this to Heather. I am going to have to tell her now; she is going to be full of questions.”

“I will stay up here, I will wait for you. At least until the coast is clear and I know I will not be walking into a war zone. Good Luck.”

“Oh no you don’t whim, I need you to be with me, we are in this one together, and we will explain it together. Come on get your ass out of the bed, let’s go.”

“If you are sure that is what you want to do well then let’s get this over with.”

Sophie and Jake got up and put their robes on and went downstairs to the kitchen to make coffee, and fix the breakfast for the kids. The kids were sitting at the table with Heather, and looked up at Jake and Sophie then at each other.

“This is Zander; you met him at Aunt Jewels over the summer. Do you remember?”

“Yes, of course we remember him, we are still mad at Aunt Jewel for introducing him to you and ruining our family? Why are you here now? I thought you were coming in June?” Kay-Leah was angry and outspoken trying to comfort Heather.

“He was not….

“Shut up mom I am talking to him.” Yelled Kay-Leah.

“Kay-Leah, watch your mouth. He was supposed to come in June; he surprised me last night, just when I needed him most. Would you and Jared go get ready for school so we can talk to Heather?”

“Whatever, nice to see you Jake, only not in our house, the one my parents put together, and you tore apart?” Kay-Leah was still angry.

“Mommy, why was he in the bed with you? Is that the guy that daddy was calling a home wrecking bastard, and calling you a lying cheating bitch for? Is he the reason you and daddy fought so much? Why did you do that mommy? Why did you let him ruin our family?” Heather was full of questions and crying.

“Maybe I just better go, I will come back tonight, she does not seem to like me very much. My car is out front, I promise to come back tonight. When you come home from work I will be right here waiting for you. As a matter of fact I may be brave and order pizza, grab a few movies, and come back to try to get to know the kids while you are at work. Of course that is if it is okay with you.”

“Sure, why not, they have to get used to you sooner or later.” Sophie replied, then glared at Heather, “As for you young lady, that language is not proper coming from you, I do not care how many times you heard it, and now you are grounded.” Looking at the other two children Sophie asked, “Do you want Jake to come back with pizza and movies?”

“Do we have a choice?” Replied Jared, “He is going to do it anyway, may as well let him.”

“Won’t that be too late for us to be up watching movies, and eating pizza? We go to bed at nine on school nights.” Replied Heather.

“Shut up Heather, you are too young to be making choices for us. Mom is going to push Jake on us whether we want him here or not. Jake, I guess we may as well spend time with you. We have to get used to you somehow.” Replied Kay-Leah with a rude tone of voice.

“He means earlier kids, while I am at work, like about six or seven, then he will stay with you until I get home. Right Zander?”

“This is going to be fun.” Jake sounded sarcastic. “I will just run home, visit with my family for a bit, grab a change of clothes, then be back here at six. Sophie, I love you, this will all work out; see you when you get home. Oh, and by the way, good luck with Heather, and her mouth, if she were mine I would beat her ass and send her to her room.”

After Jake left Sophie took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then walked back into the living room to face Heather.

“Heather, we have to talk about your fucking attitude. You have no right what so ever to speak to Jake or anyone for that matter the way that you did. That was just downright rude on your part. Jake is trying to be nice to you, you three need to get used to him, and he will be around for a while.”

“No, I do not like him, daddy said I do not have to like him, or be nice to him. If you marry Jake I will not call him daddy, I hate him, he made my daddy go away, and he made you and my daddy fight. My daddy will not even come to see me, and it is all Jake’s fault.”

“Alright, Heather, that is enough, you will just have to learn to accept that your daddy is not coming back home to live. We could not get along, now I have someone else, you will have to try to get along with him and deal with it.”

“No, I won’t, I won’t, I hate him, and I hate him.” Heather screamed.

“Heather stop, remember what we talked about the night before last? Do you remember when I told you that mommy has a life other than just with us and work? No one said that mommy would leave us out of her life like daddy has chosen to do. No one even said that you have to call Jake daddy, but, you could at least try to be nice to him. He may in turn be nice to you. We have to try to at least have respect for him no matter how much we hate him and we do not want to. If he tells you no then it means no. Do you understand? Heather we talked about this a few nights ago. So mom can be happy, just try to be nice. He is bringing pizza over for us while mommy is at work.” Kay-Leah hoped that Heather had understood what she had explained to her.

“No, why should I like him, he broke our family up? Now daddy hates us.” Cried Heather.

“No, Heather, you are wrong daddy does not hate us, he just works a lot. Someone else could have come a long and made mommy do the same thing. Jake just happened to make her see that she could do better.” Kay-Leah knew she was lying to Heather but she had to do something, she had to make her stop crying, and being mean. “No one is the blame here Heather, daddy messed up, he was mean to mommy, you know that, you used to cry over how mean he was to mommy. You now need to act like a big girl and accept the choice that mommy made. She has a life too, just like we do, she does not try to pick our friends, so we cannot try to pick hers.”

“Okay, Kay-Leah, I will try, but I still do not like him. I still hate him.”

“All that matters is that you try.”

“Thank you Kay-Leah, I can see that you have grown up into a nice responsible young lady. You really handled that pretty well. I guess I just do not give you enough credit. You seem as though you have grown up overnight. I just cannot believe how well you handled her. It was like she was your child. You will make one hell of a good mother.”

“No mom, you have it all wrong, someone has to be there for Heather and Jared, and you are too wrapped up in your own life. Trying to act like a teenager in love, trying to recapture what you lost years ago. No offense, I love you mom, but you need to grow up.” Kay-Leah was waiting for her mom to slap her, or to yell at her, but instead she just stared at her. Kay-Leah had realized that she could not judge Jake or blame him for what had happened between her parents; she also realized that she could not judge her mom either. Her mom had lived in hell for a long time, she had seen her mom cry a lot of times, and her dad had abused her mom on a number of occasions, which would never change no matter how much she wished it would. Even the kids were abused, maybe this guy would treat them all with respect and love that they deserve. After all Kay-Leah knew she had made a big mistake of her own, and her mom and Jake were standing by her, maybe they would have a better life.

“I am sorry mommy, I just miss daddy. I will try harder, I promise.”

“It is okay, I understand how you feel. Thank you though for being willing to try. Jake knows he will never be able to take your daddy’s place, he is not trying to, and he does at least want to try to be a part of the family. He is willing to treat you as he does his own children. You three just need to give him a chance. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes, mommy I think I can.”

“Kay-Leah, Jake and I are planning to get married in June. He will be home for thirty days. Then when he goes back to California he is taking us with him, but, only for two weeks. What do you think about that?”

Kay-Leah thought to herself, free vacation to somewhere I have never been, I hate the idea of being with Jake, and him being married to my mom, but I guess I have to accept it. “Sounds great mom, I have never been there obviously, guess it would be okay.”

“At least for the first time ever we will all be going somewhere for summer vacation.” Sophie’s thoughts and conversation were interrupted by a knock at the door. “Jared, see who that is.”

“It is dad. Should I let him in?”

“Shit, oh well, go ahead let him in. Jake had left just in time. You dad has been trying to meet Jake.” Sophie began to shake, she was afraid that Heather would open her mouth about what had just happened.

“Mom, why is dad here? H has not been here in months.”

“I am not too sure. Let’s just hope Heather does not open her mouth about Jake being here or coming back later.”

“Hi daddy,” Squealed Heather, “Guess what, Mommy is getting married to Jake in June, just like she got married to you. He was here earlier; he is bringing us a pizza and movies later while mommy is at work.”

Sophie was beside herself. She knew Heather would say something. Damn kids just do not know when to shut the hell up. “Heather, go play. Alex, how nice to see you. What do we owe this pleasure to?” Damn what bad timing you have, of course that is always something you had in the past too.

“Oh, I do not know, I thought we had three children together, they are the reason I am here, sure the hell not to see you. I know you had a visitor last night, a friend of mine said that he drove by here and there was a strange car out front, and it was still here this morning. Who might that have been?”

“Alex, really, we are not married anymore, I do not have to answer to you, what I do is none of your damn business.”

“You are so stupid, I already know who was here, and Heather told me. Right before you told her to go play. I guess I will just sit here and wait until he comes back, I have been wanting to meet this asshole, now is as good a time as any.”

“Alex, you bastard, let it go, grow the fuck up. We are done, we are over, and there is no turning back for us. Leave my personal life the fuck alone.”

Alex ignored Sophie, and tried to catch up on what the kids had been doing, and then he left. He left the whole conversation alone. He had secretly planned to come back once Sophie left for work, then just sit in the car and wait for Jake to arrive, then jump out of the car and go at him. He had to confront him.

Jake was unprepared for what was about to happen to him. He had the pizza, and the movies as promised. He knocked on the door, and the kids let him in, then a knock came to the door. Everyone just looked at each other hoping that it was not who they thought it was.

“Well, well we finally meet. You are the asshole who ruined my marriage to Sophie. You mother fucker, you better make sure that you treat my kids right or you will live to regret the day that you met Sophie. That you home wrecking son- of- a- bitch is not a threat that is a promise. I will get even with you for what you have done one way or another.”

“Dad, please stop it, do not do this in front of Heather. If you came to see us, then visit with us. You really need to leave him alone. Of course seeing us is not what you are here for; you are here to make threats on Jake. Come on Jared and Heather; let’s go get plates for the pizza and soda to drink.”

“I am telling you right now you asshole, you ruined my whole life with my wife and kids, I hope that you know what you have gotten yourself into. Sophie is a lying bitch; she will screw you over the same way that she did to me. If you in fact care about her, or those kids, you will back off; stay the fuck out of their lives. Let them get their normal life back with me. That is where she belongs, after you are with her for a while she will realize that she made a big mistake, and then it will be your turn to go through hell. If what Heather said is true, that you two plan to get married in June, you better think again, it will never happen, I will see to it, I will show up and I will stop it. Take that as a fair warning. She is mine; I plan to win her back in one or the other shape or form.”

Jake was listening thinking to him, is this joker for real? I am the one who can make a woman believe anything, and get anything I want, I am the one who is going to hurt Sophie, and then you two can be together once I get what the fuck I want. “Alex, please stop this. Can we discuss this somewhere else? The kids do not need to hear this, why don’t you just leave, I can meet you somewhere, and we can talk about this. You just have to tell me when and where, I will be there.”

“Fine, meet me down the street at the restaurant around midnight. Then we will discuss this further. Hey, Kay-Leah, your mother is being a real bitch; I cannot believe she actually left me for that pretty boy. He is no better than I am. He cannot be much if his wife left him. Your mom thinks that it is over between her and me, what a joke, she is so wrong, I can win her back. This asshole will never marry her.”

“Alright Alex, enough is enough, I am sorry kids, I just cannot stand here and listen to him run your mom down like this, especially not in front of the three of you. If you were any kind of man Alex, you would have never lost Sophie to begin with, a real man knows how to hold a woman down, a real man knows when to come home to his wife, and to treat her with tender loving care, you must have done something to make her roam, look in the mirror, that is the person who should get the blame.”

“No, you asshole. I would not have to look in the mirror if you would not have shown up at Jewel's. Sophie and I would still be together, all you had to do is just visit Jewel, and leave my wife alone. Did you do that? Hell no, you just had to tell Jewel that you were interested in Sophie, so of course Jewel being the bitch that she is and always will be, she had to tell Sophie. Just know this mother fucker, Jewel will suffer as much as Sophie for this one, setting you two up was the biggest mistake that Jewel has ever made."

"Wait a minute, you have no right to make threats against Jewel, nor do you have the right to blame her for this. She did not set us up. Sophie and I managed that on all on our own. If anyone is to blame for this one, it is you. You should have been there for Sophie when she needed you, not out drinking until the wee morning hours with your buddies, you should have treated her as though she mattered, not like a piece of furniture you can use when you feel like it. The two of you may have still been together by just taking those extra few steps. Apparently you did not think of that, nor did you try or we would not be having this conversation. Obviously, no you did not, so tell me, who is the blame here? Of course we all know it is you. You are pushing it off on everyone else, when the real blame is you, and you of course just cannot seem to face that. Of course it is always so much easier to blame everyone else for your faults than accepting them for yourself. My wife did leave me, but my situation was way different from yours, that is none of your business, so I feel no need to explain that to you."

"Who even asked for your opinion to begin with? I happen to have been talking to my daughter, not to you, so just stay out of it."

"Sorry, I cannot do that. You are talking about their mother, the woman they love, the woman who is raising them, the woman they look up to, not to mention the woman that I happen to love. No, asshole, I will not stay out of it. Why don't you just leave, we will talk this out later man to man. Do not keep putting these children through that."

"No, we will not talk later like men, I do not want to mess up that whores midnight love affair, she may end up taking it out on you, then you will be trying to find another woman to love. She cheated on me with you, think about that, you are the other guy, when the going gets tough, she will cheat on you and you will be having this conversation all over again, only you will be fighting to hold on to her. Let me tell you I may be trying to hold on to her, but she is not worth it."

"Enough you two, dad just leave, please. Come back later, like when Jake is not here, he is going back to California tomorrow, then of course, you really did not come to see us to begin with, you wanted to see what you are up against. You just wanted to fight with him, well you got to see him, are you happy, now leave." Kay-Leah was never that rude to her father, but Heather was upset, and she was getting angry with her father.

"I am leaving, as for you asshole, I hate you, this is not over yet. I will get even with you for ruining my family, you just wait, and I am not just making a threat to you that is a promise."

Alex turned and walked out the door, slamming it behind him. Any hope he had of trying to get Sophie back was now totally lost, he realized now that once and for all he had lost Sophie for good. Alex knew he had no choice now but to get on with his life. As hard as that would be to do, he had no choice at this point. Was it still possible for him to stay close to his children? Of course, they probably hate him now for what he just pulled in front of them with Jake, and the way he talked about their mother.

When Sophie came home that night Jake told her all about what had happened after she had left for work. He told her about what Alex had said and to make matters worse what he said in front of the children.

"Jake, I am so sorry, I really had no idea he would come back here like that. He had threatened to but I did not take it seriously. Are you alright?"

"Sophie, I am fine, I can handle my own, the way he ran you down in front of those children, that was totally wrong. I offered to meet him somewhere to talk like two men should, he just kept going on and on about how Jewel and I split the two of you up. Then he tells the children that you are a rotten mother and a rotten person. I finally got him to leave. No, really I have to give Kay-Leah credit for that one; she stepped in and told him to leave. Of course then he left peacefully. Sophie I really did not think that he was all that vicious, how did you stay with him for as long as you did? I know I would have never been able to take that sort of treatment no matter how much I loved a person."

"Jake, really the truth it was not easy, our marriage was over before you even came along; you just made it easier for me to see that and to get out while I could. That does not matter now, I have you, and I do not worry about him. Thank you for standing up for me and for my children. He is the kind that just does not know when to stop. Then he wonders why I left him."

"He said it is not over between you two, he says he will not allow us to get married, not if he can help it. I love you Sophie, please watch yourself and the children when I go back tomorrow." Oh well, if he does do something stupid, I guess that is my out, but, hopefully it will not happen until after we are married and the will is changed so he gets nothing. "I really do not trust him, there is just something about him that makes me think he is sneaky and will cause a whole lot of problems. If he ever does hurt you or those children he will live to regret it."

"He knows better than to hurt me, or the kids for that matter. Josh would go after him before he ever knows what the fuck hit him. He is just talking shit, he will calm down, believe me, and we will be just fine. Alex will not come around for a long time. At least not until the next time that he knows that you are home."

"Oh, thank a lot that really makes me feel good, think about it, he said he would do whatever he has to do to stop us from getting married. That could be killing one of us, or arranging something else bad to happen." Jake was laughing to himself, wishing something would happen so he would get out of marrying the fat bitch, then again he needed this for his boys, and he had to get them away from their mother before she ruined them and scarred them for life.

"I know Alex, he is all talk, and he has never followed through on a threat. He will act like he will but, never does."