Deceitful | Book 3

| T W E L V E |

P R E S E N T
TERENY
I was in my old room, in bed, holding Britten as he slept in my arms, trying to drift back off to sleep myself. Since my parents had turned my old room into a guest bedroom, I felt a little out of place and a bit uncomfortable. Bruce had been calling me nonstop all week. Part of me was starting to lighten up to the situation, but it still didn't change the fact that I was upset about it and felt played.

    As bad as I wanted to stay away from Bruce, I had to realize that our son was involved and I had to think logically about the situation. It happened in the past, but I just wasn't ready to forgive him for what he had done to me. Sure, he did me a favor by shushing me away from Tray, but it's the way that he did it. He didn't have to lie to me about anything. And Cheri...

    My phone started ringing. Looking it over, I saw that it was Bruce for just about the millionth time this morning. Rolling my eyes, I cradled Britten even tighter once he started to stir in his sleep. Yawning, I close my eyes again, wanting to get a little bit more sleep before I had to get up from bed to get ready for work.

    But there was a problem. My father gets up extra early in the morning for work. He forgets that me and the kids are there and makes the most noise. Smelling coffee, I opened my eyes and looked around the room at the barely lit room. The sun was barely up and I was feeling miserable.

    Slowly, I eased Britten onto the bed on his back and pulled a pillow to his side so that he didn't roll out of the bed while I was gone. Britney was asleep on the other side of me with a pillow to her right. She held onto her sippy cup with her eyes closed tight. Her chest was heaving up and down slowly as she let out really light snores. I smiled at how much she reminded me of Bruce and the way that he slept when he was really tired, despite him not being her real father. She did a lot of the things that he did.

    Easing out of the bed, I slid on my house shoes and walked out of the room. Walking into the kitchen, I found my dad standing at the counter creaming up his coffee and staring out of the kitchen window. He slowly looked my way and gave me a little smile with his tired eyes. I smiled back and walked over to the cabinet to grab a coffee mug.

    "Good morning, daddy." I greet him.

    "Good morning, baby girl. How are you feeling?" He asked before taking a sip of his coffee and setting the coffee cup onto the counter.

    "Better." I say as I poured coffee in the mug, watching the steam flow from outside of the cup. He nodded and took another sip of his coffee before pouring the little bit that he had left out into the sink. I watched as he cleaned the cup out and set it aside to dry.

    "You talked to your husband?" I sighed and looked down at the tiles on the kitchen floor before I looked back at him to see his face. He had been talking with me about communicating with Bruce about what happened between us. Honestly, I didn't want to talk to him about anything. I felt stupid. "You need to talk with him. You have kids to think about. You're not the only one effected, you know?"

    "I know, daddy. But...I don't think I'm ready to talk to him. He really hurt my feelings. I feel like charity." I explain, almost in tears. My father looked at me with sadness in his eyes.

    "Tereny, you're not charity to anybody. And you're damn sure not charity to Bruce. Sure he made a dumb mistake, but I'm gonna tell it to you like it is." He said to me, turning to give me all of his attention. I looked him in his eyes. "Before he married you, his loyalty stood with his sister. He did what he did out of loyalty for her. The same way your loyalty was to that Montreal mothafucka-"

    "Martray, dad." I corrected him.

    "I don't care what his name is, he ain't important to me." He smiled it off but then got serious again. "But what I want you to see that is most important is where your loyalty stood with each other before the two of you became husband and wife. Sure, he did stupid things to you. But has he done anything else to prove to you that his loyalty isn't with you?"