Mrs. Independent: Part Two

Chapter Seven: Confrontation Of Truth

Chapter Seven: Confrontation Of Truth

He bounces slightly outside.
"Kate, you really don't want to know how shriveled my nuts are right now, dude. Can you like, let me inside of your heated house before they literally turn into actual raisins?" He says.
Emma giggles behind me and I blindly open the door wider to let him into the house, shutting it behind me.
He shivers slightly, his eyes landing on Emma.
"What's up?" He asks her.
"Mama, who is he?"
"My name is Ryan. I'm an old friend of your parents. You must be Emma."
"Yeah, I'm Emma." She says. "If you're a friend of Mama and Daddy, why have I never met you before?"
"It's complicated." He shrugs, looking at me. "Can we talk?"
"Uh." I clear my throat. "Yeah. Emma, it's well past midnight. You should be in bed."
"Alright." She wraps her arms around my waist. "Goodnight Mama."
"Goodnight. I love you."
"I love you too."
She hugs Josh.
"Night Daddy, I love you.
"I love you too, baby girl." He kisses her head.
"Bye Ryan."
"Bye Emma." He waves at her and pushes his glasses further up on his nose.
Emma disappears upstairs.
Ryan turns to Josh.
"What's up man? Haven't seen you in like, what, fifteen years?" He shakes his hand.
"Yeah, it's uh, nice to see you." Josh says.
Ryan nods. "You too." He turns to me. "So can you talk? Josh, feel free to join. I'm sure you can answer my questions about as well as your wife can."
With that, he walks out of the foyer into the living room area.
"Oh my god," I mouth at Josh.
He widens his eyes and nods in agreement, following me to the living room.
Ryan isn't sitting, he's standing.
"Sorry it's so late. I have a daughter, uh, she's six months and she's usually up at this time, but my husband is home with her." He shrugs and looks at me. "Your Mom called and I just, I needed to talk to you." He runs his fingers through his hair. "Your Mom is getting married?"
I shuffle closer to Josh and fold my arms over my chest.
"Uh, yeah, my parents got divorced about six years ago."
"Why?"
I shrug.
"Um, they said it was because they didn't love each other but I think it's because my Mom didn't like the way my Dad handled my past, and then Claire, um, went through the same thing."
"Claire did? You're lying."
"I'm not. That's why I came and dropped off Lucy."
"Who's Lucy?" He asks.
Almost on queue, our beautiful golden retriever comes walking into the room.
"Wait, Lucy? This is Lucy? The puppy I watched for you guys?"
"Yeah." I say awkwardly.
He starts petting her.
"I don't understand. How did Claire get pulled into your past?"
I sigh. "Um, Alex got his cousin to go after Claire to get to me because he wanted to kill me. He made Claire overdose so he could draw me out."
"Katherine found out and went after Alex and vanished for two weeks. I thought she was dead." Josh says quietly.
"And that's why Josh picked up Lucy and I didn't."
Ryan nods slowly.
"Okay, so, you went through your stuff, got married and had, what, two kids? And then you were raising them in this house and you found out your sister overdosed, so you called me, and then you had to go almost die to protect your family? And then your Mom was pissed because your Dad didn't handle it the way she wanted him to, and all of the sudden they're divorced and your Mom is getting married?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Oh, and my Dad is married too and he's helping raise a thirteen year old."
"What the hell." Ryan mutters.
"Yeah, and we have four kids, not two." I add.
"What?" Ryan's eyebrows raise. "I thought you had Caiden and Emma."
"We have Caiden, and then Matthew, and then Bryson, and then Emma." I say.
He nods slowly.
"Okay."
The house falls silent.
"Your Mom invited me to her wedding. She wants me there, and my husband and my daughter. I don't mean to sound rude, but why? I never speak to her."
"That's what we said." Josh says. "Her Mom is going off the charts. I mean, she's been with the guy for two months."
Ryan runs his hands over his face.
"Two months? I don't get it. Why?"
"We don't know." I say, sitting down on the couch.
I hear quiet footsteps in the hallway, but they stop nearby.
"Whoever it is, you can come out of hiding." I say without turning my head.
"How did you know?" Matthew asks, walking further into the living room.
"I heard you walking." I say. He's in sweatpants and no shirt. "What are you doing up?"
"I'm hungry. And Emma said your friend was here, but I guess she's never met him before."
"Caiden?" Ryan guesses.
"No." Matt says.
"Okay, uh, Bryson?"
"No." Matt sighs. "My name is Matthew." He sticks out his hand.
"I'm Ryan."
"Are you the person that Grandma made a huge deal about earlier?" He asks.
"Probably." He says.
Matt turns to Josh.
"I'm hungry."
"Hi hungry, I'm Dad, nice to meet you." Josh sticks out his hand.
Matthew throws his head back and lets out a weird groan that sounds like a cross between a pterodactyl and a kitten.
"Mom!" He says, frustrated. "Tell Dad to stop making Dad jokes!"
I laugh.
"No, I think it's cute."
"But I'm hungry." He says.
"So go find something to eat." I say. "And you better not leave that kitchen with the food."
He looks disappointed and walks into the kitchen.
The cabinets open and close a few times before Bryson comes wandering in.
"You have got to be Caiden." Ryan says.
"I'm Bryson." He says. "Can I get a snack?"
"I don't care." I sigh.
He turns to walk into the kitchen, but Josh loudly clears his throat.
"Bryson, don't be rude." He says.
"Oh, right." Bryson turns to Ryan. "I'm Bryson." He sticks out his hand.
"Ryan."
"It's nice to meet you." Bryson says.
"You too."
With that, Bryson walks to the kitchen and starts digging through the cabinets with Matthew.
Ryan sighs and turns to me.
"Listen, if you don't want me at the wedding, I won't go."
"I really don't mind if you're there." I say.
He nods slowly and he looks like he wants to ask me something, but right when he opens his mouth, Caiden walks into the living room.
"Let me guess, you're hungry." Josh says.
"Yeah. Can we order a pizza?"
His brothers in the kitchen perk up at the thought, making their way into the living room.
"Yeah, can we?"
"Are you guys serious? It's almost one in the morning. No, we're not ordering a pizza." I say.
I look at Ryan and he's looking at Caiden and he just looks...sad.
Josh looks at Caiden with his arms crossed and raises his eyebrows.
Caiden turns to Ryan.
"I'm Caiden. You are?"
"Ryan." He says quietly. He runs his fingers through his hair. "Listen, I'm sorry for coming out here so late, um, I know I woke you guys up."
"You didn't wake me up." Caiden says.
"I woke your Mom up."
"How do you know that?" Bryson asks.
"Because I used to know your Mom better than anybody. I know what she looks like when she's just woken up."
He runs his fingers through his hair. "Listen, I'm gonna go. I'm not going to go to the wedding, um, yeah." He starts to back up. "I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable."
"Who are you going to make uncomfortable?" I ask.
"You." He says. "I mean, you never called me, and it's been a really long time. I shouldn't have even come here. I'm sorry about your parents."
"I never called you because you told me you were going to call me."
He stops backing up.
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did, Ryan."
"No. You were on your honeymoon and I called you and-"
"And you told me that your phone was broken and I wouldn't be able to get ahold of you for a few days. You said you would call me when you got your phone fixed, and you never did."
"Okay, but you didn't call me either." He says. "You didn't even tell me you were pregnant with Caiden. And I didn't even get any pictures of him when he was born. The first time I saw him was that day you had that huge meeting when the power went out in the whole building. That was the first time I saw him. And by the way Katherine, just so you freaking know about it, when you got locked in the elevator and Isabelle was stuck with Caiden? She did give him a bottle. I told her to tell you that she didn't, but she did. Do you want to know how?" He looks upset. "Because when I found out through the work grapevine that you were pregnant, I went out and bought a ton of formula and baby shit because I knew you were going to tell me, because why wouldn't you? But you never did. Isabelle started panicking going down the stairs with Caiden asking everyone on the floors if they had anything to help her. By the time she reached my floor he was screaming so loud, I was convinced you heard him in the elevator. He didn't cry himself to sleep. He had a bottle and he fell asleep. Because I had the stuff for him, because I thought you would reach out. Don't think I'm stupid, Katherine. I know you avoid me. I know you probably check the cameras to make sure you won't run into me. Why? What did I ever do that made you drop me with no explanation?"
Ad my mind is brought back years ago. That day at my townhouse when I told Ryan not to push me. I told him to trust me. To not call Josh. To respect my space.
And he grabbed the phone and tried to force Josh to tell him. He even lied to get him to tell him about my abortion.
And that was it. That severed everything we had since we were ten years old.
It broke every promise. It destroyed every thread of trust.
"Katherine?" Ryan asks. "What is it?
"It was-" I swallow. "It was the day you called Josh when I asked you to respect my space. When you completely ignored me and begged him for information..." I shake my head. "Aside from Josh, you were the one person who always counted on me. You were the one person who believed in me. You were the only person that was there before I was...away from home, and after. You were the only one who I trusted aside from Josh, and when you ignored me, it severed how I felt about you. It made it hard for me to talk to you, and I found myself going straight to Josh and not to you, because I didn't trust you anymore. You had to have known. You knew what that could do, and you did it anyways, and then you didn't try to fix it between then and the wedding, and then you told me you would call and you just...didn't. I figured you were done dealing with me. And you're right, I have been avoiding you. I don't want an awkward elevator ride. I don't want to bring back all those memories."
"Are you seriously still on that, Katherine? Really?" He asks. "It's been sixteen years!"
"I know, and no, I'm not, but it got to the point where it felt like it had been too long to talk to you. I mean, I hardly go to work unless I have to be there. I'm married with four kids, my parents are divorced and my Dad is remarried, my Mom is getting remarried...and you? You have a husband, Josh, and a daughter."
"Kate, the only reason I asked Josh for information is because I was worried you were in danger or doing something stupid."
"Because you didn't trust me."
"Yes I did-"
"If you did, you'd have known I wasn't doing something bad." I whisper. "Josh never once thought I was up to something-"
"Josh wasn't there before." He argues.
"And Liam didn't think I was up to something. Liam was there even more than you were, and he didn't think I was up to something."
"Liam was younger-"
"He was in college, Ryan. He wasn't a child."
"I'm sorry." He says. "It was forever ago, Katherine."
"I know, and I told you that I'm over it. I'm just telling you because you asked me why."
"You should have sat me down. We could have talked it out. You never called."
"You said you would and you didn't either. I'll tell you just like I told my mother. If you want to see me, you have to make an effort, too."
"And so do you. Neither one of us tried."
"Exactly, so why are you acting like it's my fault?"
"Because it is your fault. It's both of our faults." He says. "Neither one of us reached out."
I sigh slowly.
"Well, you know why I didn't reach out. Why didn't you?"
He runs his fingers through his hair.
"I just...you started pushing me away when you met Josh."
That's the same thing that Liam said.
"You were one of those friends that disappeared when you got a boyfriend-"
"I never disappeared." I say. "Why do you think you've gotten so many random raises throughout the years? And when your house got foreclosed on and suddenly your landlord said he calculated how much rent you owed incorrectly and you weren't actually getting kicked out? And he gave you back the extra money? I did that. I've been paying half of your rent for years, Ryan. I gave him the money to get to you. Because I heard  somebody on your work floor talking about how you were getting kicked out because you couldn't pay the bills. I didn't disappear. I just..." I sigh. "Liam said I met Josh and pushed everyone away too, but I didn't. I really didn't. I started talking to him more than you, yes, but it's because he was different, and I knew after sitting in a coffee shop for hours with him on the day we met, I knew I was going to end up with him. So I talked to him about stuff, but that didn't mean I dropped you. I still wanted to be friends with you. I wanted to talk to you, but then you said you would call and you didn't and it just..." I shrug. "I figured if you wanted to talk to me, you would call. I mean, after the honeymoon every time my phone rang I ran to get it. Every single time."
"I didn't know."
"I know you didn't." I whisper. "I made sure of it."

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I'm so sorry the ending is so crappy you guys. I have been working so freaking much, but I finally have a day off for the first time in six days so here you go, thank you guys so much for your patience <3
~Sam