Torn [SHAWN MENDES]

~53~

Shawn held Piper's hand as they walked through the house looking for the Easter eggs she'd dyed with Rosie on Friday. "Do you think there could be one under that chair?" he asked her.

She giggled as she tugged him over to look. Sure enough there was a pretty blue egg hidden behind the leg. She bent down and picked it up with her tiny hand. "Look!" she exclaimed as she held it up to him.

"You found it! Let's see where else the Easter Bunny hid eggs, but we should count how many you've found so far. Can I look in your basket?"

She put the egg in it and then gave it to him. "Eggs!"

He looked inside the pretty yellow basket that Caroline had given her along with the pink and yellow checked smocked dress she was wearing for the occasion. The Chesterfields flew to Bermuda for a week, so the Mendes-Fields family was celebrating on their own.

"One, two, three, four, five eggs." Shawn turned to his wife who was filming the egg hunt on her phone so that the grandparents could watch later. "How many eggs did the bunny hide?"

"Half a dozen. There's one more. If you need a hint, the Easter Bunny told me where they are."

Yasmin woke up early that morning to hide the eggs, primarily because she was worried the vibrant dye might bleed on all her white decor. She'd carefully placed each one on a surface that could be wiped off, if needed.

Shawn and Piper walked through the living room looking everywhere and could not find the final egg. "Babe, that egg is going to stink if we don't get it. I think a hint is needed."

"Egg?" Piper asked holding her hands out in a questioning gesture.

"Well..." Yaz started with a smile. "The last egg might not be in this room."

"That's not much help."

"You need a bigger hint?" she asked.

"Please," he said with a grin.

"Okay. Piper, maybe you can figure this out. The last egg is where we keep the car. Where is the car?"

The toddler ran towards the door to the garage and pointed to it.

"That's our smart girl," Yasmin said as she followed her, still filming.

"The Easter Bunny hid an egg in our garage?" Shawn asked skeptically.

"Don't question the ways of the magical rabbit!" she laughed.

Together they walked through the door into the large garage which housed their two vehicles, except the cars weren't there. Instead, in the middle of the floor there was a large lidless box wrapped in pastel pink paper with an egg drawn on one side.

Shawn heard what was inside before he saw it and was momentarily frozen. "Holy shit!"

"Language!" his wife reminded him.

A tiny bark came from the box, so he scooped Piper up and hurried over to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. As soon as the adorable puppy saw their faces, it started scrambling to get out.

"Dog!" Piper squealed.

"I don't believe this," Shawn said as he set his daughter down so that he could take the pup out. "What breed is he? Or is it a she?"

"She is a mini Bernedoodle. They are known to be hypoallergenic and they don't shed much, and since the poodle dad was the tiny kind, she'll only be around twenty pounds."

"She's so cute!" he enthused as he squatted down so that Piper could pet him. "Look at our puppy, honey!"

"Mine?"

"Yep, she's yours. Or rather ours. She'll be a part of the family," he explained.

Yasmin stopped filming and set her phone down so that she could kneel beside her husband. "I got everything we need with the help of the breeder. She dropped her off this morning, which cost a little extra but was worth it."

"I'm shocked." He held the puppy up and kissed its face. "I never thought you'd agree to a dog, let alone be the one to pick it out."

She looked at him and smiled, though there were tears in her eyes. "Just trying to be a better wife."

His heart sank despite his happy mood. She really was working hard at their marriage, and he was doing his best, too, but it wasn't always easy.

When they'd returned to Montecito after the New Year, Yaz found a counselor who they were seeing every other week. Therapy was grueling since so much of the focus was on his infidelity and how Yasmin was going to have trust issues for a long time. Their therapist, Vera, reminded him a little of Patricia and had the same straightforward demeanor.

There were three tenets Vera was having them focus on. The first thing was that he had to show remorse for being unfaithful. This one wasn't hard because he felt horrible and hated that he'd hurt Yasmin so badly.

During their first few sessions, Yaz tried to excuse what he'd done by saying she'd left him after saying she wanted a divorce. Vera was having none of that and told her that she was not to try to carry any of the blame just to make Shawn feel better. This was all on him, and no matter what she'd said or done, having sex with another woman was not excusable.

He knew this, of course. He'd known it while he was making love to Taryn, but his love for her overshadowed that because it made everything feel right. Part of his remorse was for letting himself look past how horrible his actions had been. The rest was for causing Yaz pain.

This segued into the second thing Vera had them focusing on: they had to be honest about why it happened. It was really difficult to sit in the therapist's office and say that he'd cheated because he'd never stopped loving his first wife. Yasmin cried every time it came up, and Vera couldn't hide her disdain. Most of their joint sessions focused on how to make their marriage work when he still had feelings for Taryn. He'd also had some individual therapy with Vera so he could talk more about the issue without hurting Yasmin more than he had already. Yaz was also in solo therapy to work through the process of forgiving him.

The final tenet was that he had to remove the temptation to reengage in the affair. This was by far the easiest. Taryn was in Toronto, and he'd promised Yasmin that he'd refrain from going home for at least a year. His family was eager to help him heal his marriage and agreed to visit him so that he wouldn't go too long without seeing them.

Here they were, four months after Christmas, trying hard to rebuild what he'd "taken a sledgehammer to," which was one of Vera's favorite quotes.

"I skimmed through a puppy care book, but I really don't know anything about owning one," Yaz said after they'd moved into the living room. She had Piper on her lap while Shawn held the tiny pup.

"It's been awhile, but I remember the basics. House-training can be tough, so we might want to pull up all the rugs. You said you got supplies. Are they in the garage?"

"They are in the trunk of my car. Will she pee everywhere?"

"She's going to have accidents, but I'll handle them when I'm home. I'm sure Rosie won't mind letting her out frequently when she's here. She's always asking for more to do."

"Dog!" Piper said happily before gently touching the puppy. "Nice! Me nice!"

"Very good, Pippy! You are so nice! How long did your other dog take to train?" she asked Shawn.

"Maybe two months? Hen was pretty easy. I bet this one will be, too," he nuzzled the soft fur on the back of the puppy's neck.

Yasmin smiled as she observed them, knowing she'd made a good decision.