Bound to Him (Story 2)✔

~Chapter 4~

~Caroline~

Kendall Jane Barrington plopped into the cafe's seat in front of me as a long and exhausting sigh left her. She was in the middle of her pregnancy and in the last couple weeks her belly had grown considerably. Honestly that was about the only thing I envied about my older sister.

About eighty percent of our shopping trip had consisted of Kendall peeing and grouching about her aching back. I could only imagine what she was going to be like mere weeks before the baby came.

"Tell me what's been going on with you?" I asked as after the waiter took our orders. Herbal tea for the both of us and I threw in a Biscotti for the pregnant lady. Her eyes had lit up like a runway at night.

Kendall was adorable. She had short ebony hair that waved and olive colored skin. Her features were soft and patient. She'd always been the oddball, getting tattoos and piercings, going to rock concerts with her boyfriends. But in the last couple of years she had mellowed out a lot, married and bought a home with her husband that neither of them lived  in now. Actually the property was still on the market.

"Still extremely stressful. I've had to miss some work, mostly from being sick." Kendall was in interior design. She had a small but cozy shop in the shopping district of the city. She'd just recently returned from Paris after picking up several pieces for a Billionaire. The later she got in her pregnancy, the less traveling she was going to do. "But I do have some good news." The waitress came back with our refreshments then and Ken waited until we were alone to go on. "So you know how I was considering adoption for the baby?"

My spine straightened at the question. That was really the main reason my sister and I hadn't talked much lately. She was afraid to love an 'evil' baby. All of this stemmed from being married to her husband, Jackson Barrington. He was kinda of a psychotic, abusive, cheating asshole. The baby had been a drunken accident and Kendall was mortified when she found out about the pregnancy. "Yes. And?"

"I've been thinking about it for weeks and I've come to the realization that my son won't be anything like his father." As Kendall confessed, she rubbed her hand over her budding belly and a small smile played at her lips. "I should give him a chance, right? I mean I don't know anything about babies but..." I could see the obvious worry in her voice and it made my chest tighten up. I reached across the table and placed my hand over hers.

"You know I will be here if you need me, Ken. Plus Mom, of course. And listen, I'm sorry I haven't been around a whole lot lately but you know I got you big sis." I gave her a reassuring smile when her eyes met mine again.

"No apologies. I mean look at you. You're glowing. Who wouldn't be if they were newly married to a hot millionaire who happened to be a little freaky leach?" Her eyebrow arched at the statement and it made my cheeks warm. She was so right. It made me think of Jessi Andrews this morning, finding out our secret life. I hadn't known what to say with her and the whole ordeal did have me feeling embarrassed but I would never shame our lifestyle.

"So I have a nosy neighbor..."

I went on to tell her about Mrs. Andrews.

~Unknown~

I'd been following her for weeks...memorizing her schedule down to a T. Every morning before nine she went to university; afterwards she would go to a small coffee shop a few  blocks from the campus. The fact that I didn't know what she ordered bothered me. Soon my sweet Caroline.

  There was only a matter of time before I knew every single personal and private thing about her life. Sometimes she would stop by the thirteen stories of building that made up her Inconvenient Husbands Insurance business. He needs to be out of my way. He could be a stall in my operation that I'd been organizing for months now. Patience was virtue, however.