The Mistress, Part Two (8 page)

              “Honey, anything you have done – I don’t care. I just want to know the truth so we can figure out what to do from here. I’m on your side no matter what. No matter what you’ve done, these boys had no right to do what they did,” Marissa reassured him, squeezing his hands tighter.

              “It isn’t what I did… it’s about someone else,” he sighed.

              “Who, honey? Sophie, maybe? Are you protecting your sister?” she asked, hoping that wasn’t the case. She couldn’t handle both kids being harmed.

              “No. She’s popular for a fifth grader. It has nothing to do with her…” He shifted awkwardly in his seat. “It’s Dad.”

              Marissa was stunned. What about
Dad?
What was Preston pulling?

              “What do you mean?” she asked, sounding a little angrier than she had meant to. He caught it, too. He suddenly seemed a little more reserved – even more than he was already. He was afraid to tell her. She could see it all over his demeanor. There was something he knew. There was something he wasn’t saying.

              “Darren’s mom worked at Dad’s office…” he began, but she sensed an unease as soon as he spoke.

              “And?” she urged.

              “Darren said she got fired and he overheard both of his parents talking about the reason…” He gulped and tried to continue.

              “What was the reason?” she demanded, not really caring if she sounded harsh, and not really caring if he was scared to finish.

              “Darren said he overheard them say it was because her boss came onto her and she turned him down...” He breathed heavily. “
Dad
was her boss.”

              She couldn’t believe it. Preston had only been covering his own ass the whole time. Lucas talked about the kids calling him the “pervert’s son” at school. The worst of all of it, according to him, was that he actually liked Darren’s sister and was called a “rapist pervert” himself. Marissa didn’t know how she felt about him being romantically interested in a girl related to such a horrible kid, but she paid no mind. Middle school romances were hardly a concern to her.

              She continued to listen to him rattle off all that he knew, and she could tell part of him didn’t want to – but she could also tell part of him was liberated. It was obvious it had been eating him alive.

              It really was no wonder he had been such an asshole lately. He was being completely ridiculed at school because of his father’s disgusting antics. No wonder he was glad to be rid of him. No wonder he was so upset with him. No wonder he didn’t want to see his face. It really
was
no wonder.

              She groaned when she saw him shift in his seat and cough in pain. He was still hurting. It was obvious he needed to go to the doctor. She didn’t care if nothing was seriously wrong; she wanted to have him checked out anyway. His body seemed to be impaling him with pain; she knew it was impaling her. It caused her great strife to see him so injured. He coughed again, and his arms began to shake on his lap. She wondered how emotionally scarring this would be for him. This was traumatic, indeed.

              Lucas was in tears as he finished his story, and Marissa knew what she had to do. She had to develop a plan, just like she had told Haley before everything unraveled. They had been planning to do something about it when Haley blindsided her with the confession. It was time that the deliberated again – because something had to be done, and she knew that she could trust Haley enough to help. She trusted her love for the kids, and even if that was all that she trusted, it was a start.

              She and Lucas both rose from their seats and walked in unison through the kitchen. He leaned against his mother, and her heart soared. It was the first time in a long time that he had leaned on her – for comfort, for support, for anything, really. She smiled. Through all of it, she smiled.

              Gathering up every ounce of courage that she possessed, Marissa took a deep breath and swung open the door to the bakery’s shop. There they all were. Joseph was helping a couple of customers while Rachel and Haley sat, conversing quietly, behind him.

              “Haley,” Marissa called, and Haley’s ears perked up instantly and her attention moved from Rachel to Marissa. Marissa wanted to thank her, she wanted to hug her for protecting her son, but she wasn’t sure she could. She wasn’t sure she could allow herself to be close to the woman again. She just wasn’t sure. Damn it all, she wasn’t sure of anything.

              As she watched Lucas walk slowly and carefully to his aunt, she noticed the customers craning their necks to look around Joseph to behold the boy’s injuries. They were disturbed, she could tell. “Lucas, go with your Aunt Rachel – she’s going to take you to the doctor,” Marissa said sweetly, and quietly. The two customers – who were likely a couple – were older in appearance, and they looked on, eyes wide, before the man spoke.

              “What happened to that young man?” He was concerned, but asked in a non-accusatory tone. She wondered what it might look like to an onlooker. She wondered what she might think had she seen a small child beaten like her son was.

              She looked to Lucas again before she spoke but noticed something that she hadn’t before; she noticed that his face had been cleaned up – likely by Haley before they got there. She could only imagine what it looked like before. But because he was cleaned up it was obvious it hadn’t just happened in the back – in her business’s kitchen.

              “Got into a fight with a couple of older boys,” she heard Joseph announce, just before she was about to respond herself. “The nanny brought him over here about twenty minutes ago so his mom could have a look.”

              He spoke nonchalantly, as if he spoke with all of the customers on a personal level. “I hope you feel better, son,” the man said, before gently accepting his bag of baked goods. “Thanks, Jo. We will see you tomorrow.”

              “Friends of yours?” Marissa asked, a bit confused. She knew they couldn’t have been regulars. She knew their regulars.

              “Not really – my parents. They came into town to see me, and they love sweets, so they thought they’d drop in for a bit,” he said again before ripping up the receipt they had left behind and tossing the remains into the trash.

              “Lucas. Rachel. Go,” Marissa shooed. She knew she should have taken him to the doctor herself, but she wanted to have a discussion with Haley, and that moment may be the only chance she would have. She wasn’t sure she was going to thank her, but she wanted to talk about what Lucas had just told her. It had surprised her, but she wasn’t sure why. All she wanted to know was whether or not it was true, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to figure that out.

~~~

              Haley had listened intently to everything Marissa said. Lucas hadn’t told her anything of the incident, especially what led to it. She couldn’t believe it. Yes, Preston cheated on his wife, but taking it to the workplace was low – even for a simple cheater.

              Perhaps she was naïve for thinking she was the only one he had eyes for, but she thought that they had held something very special for one another. She felt like he loved her. Truly and fully. She thought it, but if anything that had happened lately was any indication of her logic, then obviously it couldn’t be trusted.

              Even the simplest logic could say that Marissa also thought Preston loved her truly and fully. If he could have done what he had done to
her
, then he could have done anything to
anyone
. Haley shouldn’t be surprised, from a logical standpoint. But she was.

              Marissa had spoken so callously about it. She sounded unsurprised and overall just held a demeanor of plain indifference. The matter she was more concerned about was Lucas’s matter. She wanted to discuss a game plan for his bully problem. She was determined. Something was going to be done, and together they concocted a deliberation. They were going to get the school involved, and if the school didn’t settle it, then further action would be taken on some regard or another.

              Since their discussion had ended though, neither spoke. Marissa had told her that she could stay until Rachel returned so that she could see Lucas if she wanted. She did want to see Lucas. She wanted to see how it went at the doctor’s office. She wanted to check on him before she left. But it was awkward – man, was it awkward.

              She prayed for a spurt of customers to come rushing in, and it seemed like decades before they finally did. After that, it was easy breezy. It was all smooth sailing from there because they were no longer watching one another, and neither woman had to possess the ability to force words from her mouth just to make conversation. She tucked herself into the back corner of the seating area to the table right beside the bookshelf, and opened up the first book that looked interesting to her.

              She loved the atmosphere of this bakery. The dining area was such an oasis of relaxation. There were tables strewn about in no organizational order, almost as if to intentionally be chaotic. It flowed nicely, though. There were even two plump blue couches at the opposite end of the seating area, more towards the ordering counter. It was a nice pop of color from the pink theme that seemed to envelope the entire room. It was nice.

              Marissa and Joseph shifted around each other, helping customers, and she smiled at the way they seemed to work in such synchronicity with one another. They laughed, smiled, touched – if Haley hadn’t know them and their friendship so well, she’d swear they were together. She could tell some of the customers thought that way. Especially when she heard an older lady comment to her husband how “cute” they were together.

              She fingered through the pages of her book and read a few lines about love. Not just love, but romantic love. It went on and on about this man loving this woman more than he loved himself or his life. To Haley it was basically an unrealistic scope of what romance and relationships really were. No wonder women were so naïve, and no wonder no one was ever happy in their relationships. The standards were simply unreachable at best.

              Why didn’t she just put the book down, though? Well, because what kind of torture could she inflict on herself if she had? She was enthralled, if she was being honest with herself. The main character was described as a muscular man, powerful in demeanor, with blonde hair and blue eyes, the perfect representation of a certain man that currently held her heart – though she didn’t know why.

              Preston was a liar and a cheater, which was completely the opposite of this man. Maybe that’s why women seemed to lose themselves in these sorts of books. The romance was giving her some satisfaction, where there otherwise wasn’t any. This book was giving her chills – she ached for a romance like that. And though she knew it was unrealistic, it maybe was a good thing that some women’s standards were that high.

              They deserve
this
kind of man. How was it women’s fault that men couldn’t live up to potential expectations? Now, Haley still believed that these books allowed for ill-perceived ideas about what a relationship was, but it didn’t mean that the men shouldn’t strive for this sort of character within themselves. The man she was reading about wasn’t at all on the spectrum of perfection, but he was loving, gentlemanly, honest, and his strength seemed to radiate off the page when he was around the woman he loved. She made him more powerful. She made him more of a man. So, no – don’t give her the unrealistic relationship – but why was the man unrealistic? Did women not deserve a man positive in character?

              Just as she reached a particular steamy scene – not full of lust, but of pure, unadulterated love – Rachel walked in with Lucas. They had returned. The boy looked the same, only a little less scrunched over. He walked in proudly, and most peculiarly, with a smile on his face.

              Rather than saunter over to his mother with his newfound pride, likely due to her increasing busyness, he and Rachel both made their way to Haley’s table. “Hey, honey! You look like you feel better!” she exclaimed, before standing and pulling him into an eager hug.

              “Ow!” he called with a slight laugh. Obviously she hadn’t hurt him too critically. “I do feel better. They gave me a few pain relievers. I have a couple of cracked ribs, so I have a slinky brace thing around me.”

              “They broke a couple of ribs?” she asked in horror. How could she have not known that? She was carting him all over the place, through hell and high water, and he had broken ribs!

              “Fractured, but on the bright side, I took pics of myself in the office with the brace and sent it to a girl I like and she is really worried about me and says I look cute with my shirt off,” he responded, smiling like a goof.

              “Too much information,” Haley scoffed in jest. She tried to feign her best disgusted voice, but in a way that he knew she was joking. She didn’t want to hurt his self-esteem. He smiled.

              “So, who is this girl anyway?” she asked. She wanted to lighten the mood before telling him they were going to the school with the matter. She also wanted to know. She missed him. It had been days since she had been around him – that was the longest she had ever been without him. So she needed to feel connected in his life.

              Rachel stood behind him for only a moment before sinking into the chair across from Haley, obviously ready to sit down. She had been working all day, and then placed in charge of auntie duties. Haley knew she had to have been exhausted.

              “Her name is Katlynn – and she’s so great. She’s the prettiest girl in my grade, and what’s better is she’s also the nicest,” he said with a strong bout of enthusiasm. “There’s only one problem…”

              “What’s that, sweetie?” Haley asked, taking a sip of her coffee. Oh, to be young. There were no problems with junior high romances; she loved the innocence he possessed. She wished it could stay forever. Although he had just been beaten by a pulp, he was still happy – and talking about a girl. She hated that those days were long behind her.

              “She’s Darren’s sister…” he sighed, sinking down beside his aunt to face Haley.

              “The boy that beat you up?” Haley nearly choked on her coffee. She was glad to finally have some. She had stopped downtown earlier in the day to get her caffeine fix, but when she saw Lucas being chased she set aside the need for the fix. She was finally satiating the craving – only to choke on it now. He nodded, and she cringed. She didn’t really know how to respond to that.

              “We’ll be sure to tell your mom that one,” she said, knowing what Marissa’s reaction would have been.

              “She already knows. She didn’t say anything about it,” he responded with an almost girlish giggle.

              She was surprised she hadn’t said anything about it, because as far as Marissa was concerned, Darren’s entire family could go to hell. Not because she thought that Preston wanted Darren’s mother, not like she even cared one way or another. But because they had raised a boy as mean as Darren. Because her son had been hurt. She could understand where that sort of thinking came from, but she didn’t really agree with it necessarily.