BAILEE

“You must be out of your mind!” Helen yelled, but I didn’t spare her a glance. This wasn’t between her and me…even though she wanted it to be.

She thought the world revolved around her, the perfect senator’s wife. She loved putting on her over-priced, costume-looking jewelry and acting like she was the queen.

Yet, her favorite pastime was picking fights, throwing little digs at me, and insisting everything I did was wrong.

Much to her dismay, this was between Caleb and me, and I refused to let her be involved this time. He had dragged her into everything else. Mommy’s little boy.

Only, he looked stunned as he stared at me, dumbfounded that I would be so bold as to bring up divorce myself, especially in front of his parents.

“Don’t be foolish, Bailee!” Helen spat. “You have a child together! Divorce is not an option! That’s just lazy. You are lazy!”

I stared at her unbelieving what she said. Since the day he introduced me to his family, Helen Johnson had hated me. She threw little digs at me every chance she could, even referring to me as ‘Fatass’ behind my back when she was telling the rest of the family just how horrible I was.

One could only be civil for so long.

“Says the mother whose son can’t even bother to spend time on his own daughter!” I snapped back before pointedly making eye contact with my husband. He had been neglectful since the day she was born, refusing to cook for her, bathe her, or help me with her when she was sick.

As she got older, he would yell in her face for her to leave him alone when she wanted to play with him. He would shake her little hands off him when she tried to get his attention and go back to whatever he was doing on his phone… probably texting Lorna, now that I think about it.

“You worthless tramp!” Helen said, stepping forward, but George touched her shoulder to stop her. “I knew from the moment he brought you home to meet us that you would be trouble. I said it! I told you back then that she wasn’t worth it!”

Helen had turned to face a stunned Caleb, who continued to stare at me, but my gaze was glued to Lorna, who was wrapped around his arm like a victim.

He hadn’t even pulled away. She smirked at me knowingly. It was a smirk of victory.

Caleb cleared his throat, shaking his head back and forth. I wasn’t sure why I expected him to defend me for a moment. He never had before.

“Bailee,” Caleb let out an uncomfortable laugh. “You can’t be serious. This isn’t time to be dramatic.”

“Oh, I am very serious. Almost as serious as you were about leaving me and your daughter home so you could come here to sleep with your assistant.” I raised my eyebrows at him challengingly.

“Watch your words!” George Johnson snapped, his voice low and deep as he moved to step in front of his wife. He became a senator because he was good with his words in front of the camera and made the people love him, but in private, he was never a loving man. “You shall never defame my son’s image like that again.”

“You’ll see the doctor first thing tomorrow, and then you will come over, and we will put an end to this behavior. You need to learn how to act like a Johnson. You are a disgrace to the Johnson name, and I won’t allow you to damage it anymore than you already have.” Helen said through her teeth.

“I won’t be going to see anyone tomorrow, not the shrink you’re paying to try to manipulate and control me, and certainly not you! Besides, I think your son is a big enough disgrace to the Johnson name on his own. I’m just doing you a favor and giving you one less ‘Johnson’ to worry about.” I said, knowing I was just digging my grave further.

“Enough of this!” George’s eyes darkened, and he gestured with his head for me to follow him down the hallway. “We will have this conversation in private. Send your wife home, Caleb. Now.”

“Everyone,” Caleb said, brushing Lorna off of his arm. “Just calm down. Bailee, I know you wouldn’t be so stupd as to file for divorce. We will work through this together in private. Come on, Bailee.” Caleb moved toward me. I stepped back.

The elevator dinged, and two security guards stepped out as the door opened.

“Senator Johnson,” One of the men said with surprise as he looked around at the five people blocking the hallway. “We didn’t realize you were here. We got a call about a disturbance from Ms. Nichols.”

Lorna gave them an innocent smile, shaking her head. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I thought it would be best to call before coming out here. I was just looking out for Caleb.”

“You called security?” I said, feeling humiliated.

“Ma’am, are you a guest here?” The guard asked me. I shook my head, prepared to tell him that I was just leaving, when he cut me off. “I will have to ask you to leave the premises.”

“I would love to!” I said with exasperation, knowing they could see the tear streaks on my cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

“Now.” He snapped, and my head snapped back as I stared at the angry man with confusion.

“I’m going,” I said before looking back at Caleb once more. Only that second of eye contact was too much for the guard, and he grabbed my arm tightly and yanked me back. “What are you doing? Get off me!”

“If you won’t leave on your own, we will have to remove you by force! We can’t have you harassing our guests.”

“We don’t want any trouble! It was terrifying, having her break into our hotel room, but we don’t want to press charges!” Lorna cried with fake concern, covering her mouth with one hand as she watched them drag me away.

“Let go of me!” I said, trying to pull my arm away from the security guard, but he tightened his hold. “You’re hurting me!”

Helen, George, Lorna, and Caleb all stood together, coupled off like a picture-perfect family, and it made my chest burn with humiliation and anger.

“We will discuss this in the morning,” Caleb said.

I was flooded with disbelief that not only had he just dismissed me and was letting security throw me out of the hotel, but he was going to go back to his evening plans with Lorna?

“You’re going back in the room with her?!”

“Don’t make me call the police for breaking and entering! I said, be quiet!” The guard yelled in my face as I watched Caleb turn his back on me through the closing elevator doors.

BAILEE

I went home alone that night. The backstabbing nanny was already fast asleep like she was deliberately avoiding me, and as much as I wanted to confront her for what she had done, I moved past her room and into mine.

I was hurt, angry, and exhausted.

After a long, hot shower, I had curled up in my empty bed and muffled my sobs with my pillow, so I wouldn’t wake Brinley, until I fell asleep.

The cold sheets sent a chill through me as I rolled over in bed, my head pounding from crying myself to sleep.

I was so angry at myself for letting it get this far, so angry at him for not even trying to make this work, and for throwing away our family like it meant nothing to him. There had been signs and red flags throughout our relationship that should have had me packing up and leaving.

But I was stubborn, refusing to give up on the years we had spent together. I fought to make things better, over and over again, ignoring all the ways Caleb had mistreated me and ran straight toward that woman like a bull.

Suddenly, I heard the floor creak, and then the door opened. Standing before me was the was the very man who was responsible for tonight's farce. Had he really come home like nothing happened after what he had done?

“You have got to be kidding me right now,” I said, my breathing coming out faster as he walked towards our bed.

Before I could stop myself, I grabbed my pillow with both hands and threw it against his face.

“What the heck?” He shouted and threw the pillow aside. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You have some nerve coming back here!” I shouted before lowering my voice. Our daughter didn’t need to hear us fighting, and she definitely didn’t need to wake up to it.

“Oh, get off it already, Bailee,” Caleb said, rolling his eyes. “We’ve all done and said things we aren’t proud of. Let’s just move on. I don’t have the energy to deal with you today.” He sat on his side of the bed, almost making me jump.

“Then why did you come back here?”

“Because I’m an adult, Bailee! This is what people do in relationships. They come back and keep working on it.” Caleb reached up and stretched, but I just stood there with my hands tightly clutching the pillow as I panted, trying to catch my breath.

“This is a joke. What part of I want a divorce, do you not understand?” I hissed, my anger growing as he relaxed and moved to get a pair of shorts, pulling them on as he spoke.

“Oh, please. Don’t be so dramatic. You’ve changed, yet I’m still willing to stay.”

“I’ve changed? That doesn’t give you the right to cheat on me! I’m still your wife!” .

“Well, just look at you. Your hips are wider, your stomach isn’t flat anymore, and your breasts aren’t what they used to be. Heck, Bailee, you don’t even do your hair anymore. You always just throw it up in a bun. It’s like you don’t even care what you look like. I don’t recognize you anymore.”

“I HAD A BABY, CALEB! I grew a human being and then literally tore myself apart, bringing her into this world! Of course, my body has changed!”

“Not just your body, Bailee! You used to be home. Now you’re always either working in your dumb little sketchbook or saying you’re too busy with the kid for anything else!” His upper lip curled in disgust as he looked over and spotted my design book on my nightstand.

“The kid?” I asked, appalled, but he just nodded. “Maybe if I had some help around here, I wouldn’t be so busy! I’ve asked you so many times to help me cook, clean, or help me with Brinley, but you refuse!”

“That’s your job! You’re my wife! ”

I shook my head in disbelief. “No. It’s not. A wife is not a private chef or a maid. I’m not here to serve you, Caleb! I was here because I loved you! We were supposed to build a life together.”

“I am a Johnson, and I think I deserve the good thing. A good wife who dresses well and does her job. Is that too much to ask?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. All the time I went to couples counseling thinking that we could get things right for us, for our kid, turned out to be a joke. How could I have married to such a selfish prick?

“You know what? You are absolutely right. Now go to that good looking, considerate assistant you slept with, won’t you? I quit. Let’s sign the divorce paper already!”

“So, you’re just going to blow up our lives because of one night? Bailee, don’t be such a baby.”

“I don’t care what you call me anymore. I’m not going to keep doing this with you. When I said I was done, Caleb. I meant it.”

“You’ll be left with nothing! Do you really think I'll let you get away with dragging my name through the press in a divorce? I'll make sure you aren't left with a penny to your name!" He shouted after me.

“As long as I’m not stuck with you, I don’t care.” I threw over my shoulder, walking out of our room with my chin held high as tears silently slid down my cheeks.

I had let him bend and break me throughout our relationship, but that was the old me. Never again would I let a man treat me this way.

Caleb had hurt and humiliated me for years, and he didn't even care that he had done it.

“If you do this, I will ruin you, Bailee!”

“You already have. What could be worse?”

ALEXANDER

Caleb Johnson was the bane of my existence.

My assistant trailed behind me as I stormed into my office, pulling off my suit jacket and rolling up my shirt sleeves.

“Sir, we couldn’t have seen this coming.” My assistant, Nathan, said.

“I did.” I spat through clenched teeth as I moved to the glass wall of my office that looked out over the city.

“Sir?”

I knew something like this would happen eventually.

Caleb Johnson had been doing everything within his power to compete against my company. He had been planting moles amongst my employees, releasing fabricated stories to the tabloids, and had even hired a private investigator to tail me.

He had been quiet for the past few months, and I had hoped he was going away, but I should have known better. Pests never left on their own.

Now, he was poaching my clients.

I knew for a fact that one of my client’s, Justin, was already stressing about his upcoming contract with the Rangers. Yet, he was about to pay us millions to break his contract to join a newer competitor, one who wouldn’t be able to negotiate him a penny more than the offered terms.

“Get Caleb Johnson on the phone!” I snapped as I thought about all the work that needed to be done to clean up this mess.

“But, Sir,” Nathan stuttered, but I turned my glare to him as I took a deep breath.

“Now!”

“Yes. Sir.”

I watched as my assistant rushed out of my office to make the calls from his desk. He would patch me in when he had Caleb on the line.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it from my pocket to see one of my best friends’ names on the screen.

Mason: It’s all over the news that Justin McCabe just dropped your company. What the hell happened?

My teeth ground together as I slammed my phone down on the table. I was too angry to respond right now because I wasn’t sure myself.

It didn’t make sense that just before one of the biggest years in Justin’s career, his first year as a starting goalie for the New York Rangers, he would break his contract with my company, Elite, and join that untrustworthy asshole, Caleb Johnson’s company, First Round.

My company provided every service someone in Justin’s position could ever need, from management to the world’s top sports medicine surgical team.

Only the best of the best, or those with the potential to become the best with our help, were accepted as clients. We gave them twenty-four hours service for all their needs: lawyers, drivers, private chefs, physical therapists, a PR team, an agent and so much more.

Yet, he chose to break our contact early, forcing him to pay us millions just to join Caleb Johnson’s one-trick pony.

I had heard he was attempting to expand from being a sports agency to include a team of lawyers, copying my business model. Still, he was so far from our level that all of his attempts to take me down up until this point had been embarrassing.

A knock on my door had me looking up, and I groaned when I saw the look on Nathan’s face.

“What is it?” I asked, knowing his answer already but still glancing at my office phone to confirm the lights were off, showing that Caleb Johnson wasn’t waiting on hold for me.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Nathan said, shaking his head. “I just spoke with his assistant, Lorna. Apparently, he is in court all day for his divorce hearing. She said he wouldn’t be available until tomorrow.”

My head snapped back, and my eyebrows flew up to my hairline. “Divorce?”

“Yes, sir.”

My finger tapped against my desk as I considered this. I hadn’t even known Caleb was married. He had a different woman on his arm at every event I had seen him at, so I had assumed he was single.

“To whom?” I wondered as I began typing away, trying to find anything on his wife.

All the articles had the same few pictures, dated back a few years, and none showed her face.

The only information they gave was that her name was Bailee Johnson.

I had only ever known one Bailee in my life, and just the thought of her made my chest hurt. She was the biggest mistake of my life…

It couldn’t be her, though. Surely, her brother would have told me if she had gotten married. Then again, the last time he had spoken about her, I had threatened him and told him never to mention her around me again.

I ground my teeth together, as I pushed down the memories.

It couldn’t be her. There were probably thousands of Bailee’s in a city this large. Plus, the woman in the photos had significantly lighter hair, almost blonde. My Bailee’s was brown.

My Bailee.

The thought made me want to scoff because she hadn’t been my anything for over seven years. She was nothing but a memory from before I became the man I am today, before I became ‘The Alexander Kingston.’

My phone buzzed again, and I glanced at it, seeing Mason demanding I meet him for a drink. After the day I had, I could use one.

Turning to Nathan. “I want a full report on Bailee Johnson. Everything that can be found needs to be on my desk first thing in the morning.”