CHAPTER22
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After Riley left Niall had stayed sitting in the chair in the living room. The drink in his glass had become watered down and forgotten. His mind was a constant whirl going back and forth with what-ifs. What if he’d done this, what if he’d done that?
He still had no recollection of this other personality, no matter how hard he tried he had no memory of any of the things she’d mentioned in the journal. He read and reread her words so much they became a blur.
He heard the children playing upstairs and his heart broke for them. But at least they didn’t seem to be too affected by their mother’s absence, thank heaven for small mercies. Only Junior knew that his mother was never coming back and he’d spent some time with his son trying to help him through this trying time for the young boy.
It hadn’t quite set in for him either, he hadn’t cried for one thing, but he seemed to have this new look in his eyes. Like he’d grown up overnight. He wished the child would cry; get it out of his system. But he knew he couldn’t control the child’s grief, he could barely get a handle on his own.
It was all so senseless, to think that someone he’d trusted, had let near his wife and kids had done this. When he’d thought that Riley was the one, that had been hard enough, but somehow this seemed even worst; like the worst kind of betrayal.
They’d practically grown up together, Valerie had known Sonya longer than she’d known even Riley. Of the four of them those two had known each other the longest, had been the closest. How had it all gone so wrong?
Bridgette had been tempted to go down the stairs more than once but each time she chickened out and went back to the children. Will this change things? Would he go back to mourning her?
But what about their night together? Can he so easily forget about it, shove her aside? Send her back to being little more than a servant in his home? She felt sick at the thought, how would she face him? Worst yet what if he found someone else?
“No, I have to do something.” She rushed out of the room and down the stairs before she lost her nerve. Niall looked up when she came into the room. “What is it? Is it one of the children?” She shook her head and rung her hands, suddenly unsure of herself in the face of his indifference. It’s as if he was looking right through her. Nothing at all like the man whose bed she’d shared the night before.
“Listen, about last night.” She felt her stomach drop at the tone in his voice, she knew what he was about to say and her mind went in all directions trying to find a lifeline. She couldn’t claim pregnancy it was too soon. “I’m sorry, I know it’s going to feel like I used you. But last night and yesterday I was mad at my wife.”
“You see I was starting to believe the rumors, that she’d been having an affair. Turns out she wasn’t. In the end she didn’t betray me but you and I, what we did, I’m the one who betrayed her. I’ll never be able to forgive myself for taking you to her bed.”
He threw up a little bit in his mouth before going on to explain. Bridgette said nothing as he spoke, going round and round in circles with what amounted to a rejection. “What I’m trying to say is, you can’t stay here.”
He couldn’t stand to see her, to look at her, be in the same room with her. He didn’t want her in his wife’s home, the home he’d shared with Sonya. What had I been thinking? He thought. She could never take Sonya’s place, no one ever could.
“I’ll give you severance pay of course, and pay for your travel back home if you’d like.” She was struck dumb; in that moment she didn’t know what to say. All the arguments she’d prepared left her head and she was left standing there with her world imploding around her.
She’d had such hope after their night together and here they were not even twenty-four hours later and he wanted to send her back, back to what? She’d die before she went back there. “What about the children, who’s going to take care of them?”
“I’ll find someone else, you can’t stay here.” He felt dirty just looking at her, but he couldn’t blame her, it wasn’t her fault. At least he’s man enough to accept responsibility for his own actions.
He got up from the chair and left the room leaving her standing there and went to his office to write her a check. He gave her three months pay and a little extra to cover a plane ticket home.
Since the holiday was tomorrow and there was no way for her to cash the check now, he made reservations at the only Inn in town for her to stay for the next few days and paid in advance.
He was sure that would raise some eyebrows in town but he couldn’t bring himself to care about that now. He just wanted her gone. He needed to escape the shame of what he’d done.
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Nettie had beenthe one listening in where she wasn’t welcomed this time. She’d barely snuck away in time from behind the doorway where she’d been standing listening to what was going on between Mr. Niall and that hussy.
She was glad it hadn’t taken him long to come to his senses, that she wouldn’t have to suffer the girl for much longer. A lot had changed for her in the last few hours. She felt a certain kind of guilt because of her thoughts about poor Mrs. Davis. To find out that the woman had been doing so much to protect her husband while she’d been suspecting her all the while was a hard blow.
She made up her mind that she was going to make it up to the dead woman by looking after her family, it’s the least she could do after all. She went about getting things ready for dinner and didn’t even look up when the younger woman came downstairs hours later with her suitcase.
A horn beeped outside, a cab, the only one in town, was here to pick her up. The house felt different as soon as the girl left the house. She couldn’t quite put it into words, but there was a new lightness about the place. It felt the same as it did before she came.
Nettie could acknowledge now that she’d suspected the girl of having a hand in what had happened to her mistress, and even though it turned out that that wasn’t the case, she was still glad to be rid of her. What would it look like the likes of her being mistress of this home?
That’s what she was after, what she’d been after since she came here Nettie was sure of it, so she was only too glad to see her go. Good riddance she thought as she went up the stairs to check on the children. Poor little tykes, two people lost in a matter of days.
No matter, she’d see things set to rights. Just as soon as she got the family over this hurdle and put a stop to the wagging tongues in town, she’d see about hiring some good help. Someone who was more interested in raising the children than jumping into Mr. Niall’s bed.
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