Underestimated Too by Jettie Woodruff
Drew laughed at my last comment and continued. “Derik drove us right downtown to the front door of Cascadence, an elaborate, maybe a little too extreme dwelling for the richest of the rich. My plan was to make an appearance and get the fuck out of there as soon as I could. Maybe Morgan would fall ill or something. I wasn’t staying. I walked in front of Morgan, and Derik walked behind her. Jena met him at the door. I shot him a dirty look when he introduced Morgan as my wife.
‘What? She knows what’s going on,’ Derik argued.
‘Keep your mouth shut,’ I warned both him and Morgan, shifting my eyes from one to the other.”
“You were with Skyler that night,” I said, sitting up straight. It dawned on me while thinking about that night. Drew left the room and went with Skyler that night.
“I was, but nothing happened,” Drew answered.
“Yeah, sure. I have got to be the stupidest woman on this planet. Can you fix that, Deidra?”
“Morgan, we didn’t really like each other then. What is your deal? Will you let me finish? You’re the one that wanted me to talk, remember?”
“You know why, Drew? Because I have nothing to talk about during that time. I wasn’t out fucking anyone else. I wasn’t jumping on a plane every week. I wasn’t chasing every short skirt in Vegas. I wasn’t fucking doing anything because you wouldn’t let me,” I accused, raising my voice. Deidra never said a word. What the hell were we even paying her for?
“I want to talk about that, Morgan, but not yet. Okay?” Drew calmly said, wrapping his fingers around my wrist.
I jerked it away, and crossed my arms, waiting to see what else Skyler and Drew did that night. I would get up and walk out if he talked about fucking her.
Drew continued with the rest of his story, “I shot Morgan a stern look. ‘I’m going to step out for a second, but I have Derik watching you. You don’t talk to Mr. Callaway or anyone else while I am away from the table, understand?’
Morgan obediently replied, ‘Yes.’
I excused myself after returning Morgan to our table. I didn’t have to look far.
Skyler was just through the doors, pacing the floor, wrathfully. ‘That’s why you told me not to hurry back. You wanted me out of town, didn’t you, Drew?’
‘Shhh, come here, Sky. It’s not what you think.’
‘Then what is it, Drew? Who the hell is she?’ Taking a deep breath, I spilled.
‘I should have told you about this months ago. I should have let you know why you couldn’t come to the mansion and why I had to keep you hidden.’
Skyler was obviously confused. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
Hesitantly, I confessed, ‘Morgan is my wife.’
Skyler’s eyes widened in shock, her expression was disoriented like she couldn’t respond. ‘Morgan? Your wife?’
‘Yes, I didn’t think she’d still be here. Callaway changed his will. He left it all to his granddaughter, Morgan.’
‘Drew, you’re making no sense. How can Callaway have a granddaughter? Michael was his only child.’
‘Michael is her father. He told Callaway about her the day he died. Callaway insisted that I either marry her and take care of her, or pack up and move on without a dime. I didn’t have a choice, Sky. I was hoping he’d be dead by now. It wasn’t supposed to be for this long. I thought for sure he’d be dead by now. She was supposed to be out of the picture by now.’
‘You have a fucking wife?’
‘Skyler, it’s not like that.’
‘Do you have sex with her?’
‘Of course not. We don’t even see each other. She lives upstairs in her own room. I didn’t even want to bring her to this thing. Randal made me.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I told you, I didn’t think she’d still be here. Callaway is supposed to be dead.’
‘So what, Drew? Am I supposed to just be the other woman? You know I’m not going to do that. I can’t believe this. What? Is this like some sort of joke? Are there hidden cameras around here? This is absurd,’ Skyler blurted going from one sentence to another.
‘Skyler, come here,’ I demanded, pulling her into my arms. I couldn’t lose Skyler. I loved Skyler. I’d been in love with Skyler since the first time I saw her almost three years ago. ‘Just let it ride for a little while. I’ll figure something out,’ I promised her, and then pulled away from her when the door opened. Callaway was running his mouth about my new wife. I couldn’t be seen with her.
Skyler shook her head, knowing exactly what had just happened, why I pulled away. ‘You look me up when you’re ready for me. I’m not playing second best to you or anyone else. You should know that about me, if you know nothing else. Do you really think you’re the only guy that wants me?’ she asked, looking at me with pure disgust. I knew Skyler was right. Skyler was beautiful. She’d have another man on her arm before the night was out. That infuriated me even more. I wasn’t sure I could handle seeing that. I watched Skyler walk through the swinging doors and right out of my life.”
“And I was once again the cause of all your problems,” I stated, looking to Drew. “I don’t want to hear the rest. I know the rest. I know what happened that night, every last detail, and I don’t think we need to discuss it,” I assured him.
“How about we just talk about how you were feeling that night, Drew, leave out the specifics?” Deidra offered.
“Okay, well, you remember what happened in the—”
“Clearly,” I assured Drew.
But Drew, again, kept on talking. “I ordered Morgan to go to her room as soon as we were in the door. ‘Retire for the night,’ I said, seeing Rebecca. She scurried off to her quarters behind the kitchen. I noticed the look of encouragement she transmitted to Morgan as they dashed in different directions. I went up the stairs and headed down the cold, dim lit hall. Glancing up, I reminded myself to get rid of the ugly paintings lining the wall to Michael’s room. Paintings of dead safari animals that the two Callaway men had shot over the years. That was one thing I never did want from either of them. I hated the thought of shooting an innocent animal for pleasure. The air was heavy and thicker than smoke before I ever reached his door.”
Door? Whose door.
“I felt a surge of nervous energy when I placed my hand on the handle of his bedroom door, another room I wanted to burn to the ground. I hadn’t been in that room in years, never felt the need to ever go back in there until now. I wouldn’t even go in there when Michael was dying and my mother begged me to come and say hi. I wanted him dead, I was only there to console my mother, not him. I knew Michael had a toy box. I’d seen it and I wanted to find it. His daughter was going to play and entertain me.”
I sucked in an unnoticeable long breath of air. That was a bad night, a really bad night, and hearing Drew describe things I knew nothing about, left me feeling helpless. He blamed me.
“I pushed open the door to the dark room, feeling death linger from Michael’s absence. Nobody had touched it since he’d passed. Pill bottles aplenty, a half bottle of water, and needles decorated the night stand. The hospital bed had been stripped and flattened. The chill in that room left my skin feeling like ice, and I shuddered from the unwanted sensation. Strolling over to the adjacent door, I peaked in but didn’t walk all the way through. The empty mirrored room was just as I remembered. Michael’s grandfather had built the room for his daughter, Randal Callaway’s sister. It had one of those stationary dance bars running across the mirror, a small bath, and an apartment sized refrigerator. I wouldn’t wish that torture on anyone. You can’t even begin to know what spending days in a locked room with nothing but darkness does to your sanity. I eventually learned, or tried to anyway, to do what Michael wanted me to do. Some things still landed me in that room and I’d end up doing them anyway.”
“Drew? You were locked in the gym?” I asked shocked.
“I was, and you want to know what I thought about as I stood there?”
“What??
“I thought about you. I wondered if you were always so wet because you secretly liked the things that I did to you.”
“Drew,” I warned with a look. Why the hell did he freely say whatever was on his mind in front of this woman? Was he right? Had I always liked it? “I didn’t like that night,” I assured him thinking about it. Well, not all of it anyway.
“Let’s stop here,” Deidra requested, looking at the ticking clock over our heads. She probably had the next screwed up couple to get to. I wondered if there was anyway another couple could be as screwed up as we were. Nah, not likely.
Chapter 20
I spent the next couple weeks with Alicia, trying to get them ready to move into Callaway’s estate. Celeste had men working in the kitchen, redoing the ugly tile, having new carpet laid in the baby’s and Vincent’s room, new carpet in the master and living room, and having a wall knocked out to open up the dining room to the living room. Alicia wasn’t happy about any of it. She was fine with it the way it was, but like me, she did what Celeste wanted.
“Alicia, how can I get a copy of Michael’s death certificate?” I asked, holding the tiny baby while she painted pink trees. Nicholas played with an unused paintbrush, banging it on the paint pan Alicia had given him. He could care less about the diaper-bag full of toys. He had something new.
“What do you mean? Doesn’t Drew have that someplace?” she asked, not turning to look at me while meticulously outlining the pink with a darker pink on a branch.
“I can’t ask him. You should know that by now.”
“What do you want it for?”
“I found a key to a deposit box. That’s where I went when Drew called you that day. They wouldn’t give me access without identification.”
“What do you think is in the box? Why not just give the key to Drew and tell him?”
“I don’t know. I want to see it before he does. I think he forgot about it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because he was here a couple weeks ago, tearing the office apart, looking for a key.”
“He was? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know it was important, and I didn’t know you had it. You should probably just give it to him.”
“I can’t now. He’d be furious because I didn’t tell him.”
“Tell him you found it today, cleaning or something.”
“No, just don’t say anything to Celeste about it. I’ll wait. I need to get in his office, do some investigating.”
“Like that’s going to happen. You’re watched in every room of your house. You can’t even get out of the man’s sight.”
“He just worries about, uh, Nicky,” I said, pulling the bristles from Nicholas’s mouth for the tenth time. He squealed, kicked his little legs, and resumed the drumming to the tin pan. “This house is full of cameras too, by the way,” I reminded Alicia.
“Oh no, it’s not. I had them all taken out except for the ones needed for security.”
“Drew just worries, it’s who he is.”
“He does more than that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. It’s none of my business and my wifey has already warned me to keep my big mouth shut. It’s your life.”
“You think he controls me too much,” I stated more than asked.
“No. I think he’s a dictator.”
“He is not. I make my own decisions,” I argued, telling a complete lie.
“Sure you do. Just like the other night when I wanted to help you set up a Facebook page. I thought he was going to have heart failure.”
“Why do I need that? I didn’t want that anyway.”
“Because everyone has a Facebook account. Because you should be posting baby pics of Nicholas growing up and bragging your ass off at how cute he is. Because it’s a social networking site. You know how many book recommendations you can get from there?”
“You give me plenty of those. Have you finished reading Plentiful yet?” I asked changing the subject.
“No, Celeste had other things on her mind last night. I didn’t read and don’t tell me. I’ll finish it tonight. Did it have a happy ever after?”
“I’m not telling you, but the killer is going to surprise the hell out of you.”
***
“Happy Birthday to you,” I softly sang to my big boy, happily waiting for someone to come and get him out of his crib. Pulling himself up by the rail, he bounced up and down, happy to see me.
“He can’t be one yet,” Drew protested, wrapping his arms around me and taking Nicky from his crib. I’m not sure how this baby thing works. Maybe it was a male bonding thing. I don’t know, but when I entered the room I got a happy smile, which by the way I loved, I just didn’t understand it. Drew walked into the room and got a crazy excited baby that couldn’t get to his daddy fast enough. I was the one that did everything for him. I spent the hours playing and reading with him while his daddy stayed locked in his office with Celeste, graphs, charts, conference calls, and figures. Why didn’t I get that response?
Squeezing from between my two boys, I picked up Nicky’s new outfit. “Drew, look isn’t this adorable?”
“Um, no. What’s that for?”
“His party on Saturday. What do you think it’s for, and what do you mean no?” I pouted. I loved his new outfit.
“It looks like something a gay baby would wear. Powder blue? Really, Morgan? He’s not wearing that.”
“Yes, he is. How can you not love this?”
I smiled at my hands-on husband, tossing Nicholas in the air and dropping him to the changing table for a diaper change. “Gay baby? You’re so stupid sometimes. He’s wearing this for his party.”
“Oh, no, I’m not, Mommy,” Drew said, coming after me with a squealing Nicholas. He laughed loudly, screeching with excitement as Drew tossed him to me. “I’ll get him something while I’m out of town.”
“Out of town? You never told me you were going out of town,” I accused, taking Nicky only to have him turn and reach for his daddy again. What the hell?
“That’s because Celeste just called. We have to go to New York to finish up with the transfer.”
“We’re not seeing Deidra today? When are you going to be home? We have the birthday party Saturday.”
“Yes, we’re seeing Deidra. I’m leaving right after that, and I will be home Saturday morning. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“I don’t want you to leave,” I whined.
“I’m leaving so I don’t have to leave anymore. After this we won’t have to go back to New York.”
“I don’t want to see Deidra today. Let’s cancel,” I tried. Drew and I had been doing great and had the most amazing sex before getting out of bed. I didn’t want to ruin that. It seemed like one of us always left her office pissed off.
“Get ready, we’re going,” Drew dictated.
***
“Okay, so we’re half way into the marriage. Drew pretty much mostly works and only talks to you when he wants sex? Is that correct?” Deidra asked me.
“Yep, that pretty much sums it up.”
“And Drew, it was only you and Morgan at this point? No more Skyler or Valerie?”
“Well, sort of. I mean no more Valerie. I did see Skyler one more time.”
I shot Drew a dirty look. Three years of being at his beck and call and he was still fucking Skyler.
“Tell me about that.”
“Yeah, Drew. Tell us about that,” I smartly mimicked.
“I guess that’s when I knew I didn’t want Skyler. I wanted Morgan,” Drew began, walking towards the window.
Oh boy. This was going to be good. He walked to the window when he was about to talk about something and couldn’t look at me.
“I was watching Morgan on the camera read a recipe with her finger on the page from California one evening when my phone rang,” Drew began his hab
I smiled too, surprised that I amused him with my cooking endeavors. I actually remember that day. He was gone for over a week that time, and I knew he was in Los Angeles. I was making chocolate chip cookies.
“I was pleasant to her, asking Skyler, ‘Hi, how are you?’
‘I’m doing well. I just got off the phone with Jena. She told me you were in Los Angeles.’
‘Yes, been here for almost nine days now, leading daily negotiations for this store here,’ I replied, wondering where she was going with this. It was kind of random for her to just call. I’d seen her around a few times over the past year, but we barely spoke. It was best that way. I seemed to always go home and take it out on Morgan when I talked to her.
‘I’m in LA too. Meet me,’ she requested.
I looked back to Morgan, stirring chocolate chips into the bowl that I was now sure were cookies. I hadn’t been with anyone but Morgan in almost two years. I wasn’t really sure I needed to. Jesus. What was I thinking? Of course I needed to. ‘Okay, where?’ I replied. We set up a neutral location at a place she’d recommended to eat.
I smiled, entering the restaurant, and seeing Skyler in red. She did that for me, I was sure. Her lips didn’t feel the way I’d remembered when she stood on the tips of her toes and kissed me. It felt, awkward kissing her, foreign, not Morgan’s lips maybe? I don’t know, it was just different.”
Good, stupid little tramp.
“We sat at a dark corner table and discussed our lives and what we’d been doing.
She looked disappointed when I told her that I was still married and Callaway was doing well. She had been living in France for the past couple years, almost got married, she explained with a sad smile. ‘Seems like somebody else always wants my man,’ she stated, sipping her wine.
I wasn’t really sure how to respond. I felt bad for her and didn’t want her to feel rejected or second best, but Morgan didn’t really choose me. Morgan would have never chosen me.”