Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
Marilyn sat and thought about it that moment, the clauses she now knew Marrin or her younger self, had put into that divorce; it was because it was something she wanted to know. How it would feel to kiss him, seeing as their marriage contract stated there would be no kissing.
She could also imagine just how emotional one would be, when finally kissing the man you love, for the very first time, but also knowing that it would be the very last time, you ever got to do it as well. It would be a roller coaster of emotions.
Marrin had cried, dashed her own tears away, she had stood staring at Calvin prior to that kiss even. Marilyn
CH.63 rewatched that very moment and, yes, she realised it was very hard for Marrin, and she’d been upset before Calvin had grabbed a hold of her, spoken something to him and that moment, Marilyn rewound and watched several times.
The very moment between the two of them, she saw what looked like anger and then her younger self half laughed. Before speaking to him, she saw herself blink rapidly and realised even at that moment Marrin had been trying not to cry. Marilyn moved it back to watch the words and try to catch them herself, what she was saying to Calvin.
“Is it really so hard Cal, it’s just one kiss. Popped right into her mind in her own voice, and she heard the anger, and the pain of heartbreak in her own tone. Tears were suddenly falling from Marilyn’s eyes as she sat on her own bed as a glimmer of her past, a memory roared into life, and she could see Calvin before her, as if she was standing right there herself before him..
She knew that he did not want to, that one kiss from him was indeed too much for her to ask for. Marilyn felt it, her own heartbreak as the memory of that one moment in Marrin Reeves life crashed into her own, and a hand snapped over her mouth to stifle the sob, as pain racked her chest with the knowledge that Calvin Reeves did not love her at all.
It was her, and she was now remembering the way he had kissed her, and she had kissed him back, remembered shoving at him and turning to walk away from him, and even knew why she’d shoved at him. He’d not only kissed her, but become aroused by it, and it hurt her to feel that, causing her pain to know in that moment he could still want her, when he had another woman. That was what had made her shove him away so roughly.
Marilyn turned it off, not wanting to look at it anymore. She didn’t need to, she could recall that moment now with full clarity. But she’d just seen the footage of him in Italy as well, and now that conflicted with her own actual memory of their last moment together.
Marilyn was so very confused about that, she knew and felt she was not wrong, her thoughts of him having another woman. She’d actually believed in that moment he’d had another, and right this very minute, Marilyn was so very confused by all the information she,had. Nothing added up.
Calvin
Calvin knew that he had to really fight himself on this, because he actually had to try and stay still, and be calm in his approach to resolving this and bringing about what he wanted, them all as a family once more. He had to do this logically, and push down that need inside of him to go right to her now, to be standing right
In front of her.”
He sat at his desk and made himself ignore that obsessive compulsion to hurt and punish her for putting him through all that anguish and grief, because he now knew she’d never actually done that to him on purpose. Wil was right, that one phone call that had twisted his version of who she was inside his mind.
It wasn’t at all what he’d come to believe, it was, in fact, her calling him as Wil suspected, to let him know she wasn’t in that plane crash. But her calling him had caused her to take her eyes off the road, and be involved in a car accident that had wiped him from her own memory. How could he continue to blame her, when she’d done nothing wrong at all?
She had, in all likelihood, been trying to put him at ease, even though she’d left him heartbroken, because she thought he didn’t love her, and he knew that was how she felt; he’d seen it that day. Even leaving him, her love for him had seen her want to reassure him she was fine and that she wasn’t dead.
Everything had just gotten so screwed up because of his stupid need to make a grand gesture to show her he loved her, when he should have just pulled her into his arms, and kissed her properly in their marital bed, and told her he loved her, that he wanted to end their contract marriage, to have a real marriage.
Told her he wanted a family with her. He knew even now if he’d done it that was, she’d have smiled at him, and nodded, told him she loved him back. She’d probably have pulled his mouth right to hers and kissed him herself, to show she loved him. He’d royally screwed everything up.
Now he had to try and fix it, apologise to her, to the boys, and he didn’t even know if they would accept it. Sitting there, he knew he had to start sorting it out, so first on his list of things to do was get the proof of who she was. In his mind, that was easy now that he understood what had happened.
He would get photos of the boys first, and see what the boys actually looked like. He was betting just like him, maybe have her eyes. He didn’t know that yet but he would find out. Though if they had his eyes he could well imagine she might have figured it out by now herself, considering she had amnesia herself. She’d know when that started.
If they looked like him, then he would move to step two and have Phillipe get DNA samples from the twins. That would be all the proof that he needed. Though Marilyn didn’t drive at the moment, and her author page stated that she worked from a home studio, so that could be a problem if he needed Phillipe to do that.
He sent Phillipe the details he had from his tech guy via email even while he was on the phone to him, and asked him to go and get pictures of Marilyn and the twins, stating
“Do not get caught, and do not frighten her or the boys. This woman, Marilyn, I believe is my missing wife of eight years. She has… amnesia.”
He sighed a little on the heavy side.
Phillipe was quiet for a long moment and then stated
“Calvin, I saw what was going on between you and her.”
“I understand, but at the time it was just a theory and I lost control of myself. This is also why you are going, and I’m not. I do not exactly know if I can trust myself around her at the moment. But I need to know with 100% certainty about her. So, you will stay out of sight,”
he stated firmly.
“Alright, it’ll take me a few days,”
had been the response. T’ll get back to you when I have something. You will be staying in Texas, yes? No surprise visits?”
“There will be no interference on my part,”
was Calvin’s answer, and he would stay put, he would sit and wait. He would act as though he was leaving it all alone, so that Wil would stay on as his lawyer, but the moment he had proof. He would put it to his friend and tell him he was not wrong, never had been.
Calvin knew Wil was going to be furious with him for going behind his back, but Calvin wouldn’t go near the woman himself, so technically it was fine, he’d breached nothing. As long as he didn’t go within 500 meters of her or stalk her himself, harass her or harm her, he wasn’t breaking the law. All he’d done was set out to prove who she was, and nothing more.
It was an impossibly long and frustrating four days, before Phillipe emailed him photos of Marilyn and her two sons, who were identical twins. He sat staring at the photos of them on his computer screen. They both had his black hair and his hazel green eyes. It wasn’t just one picture of them either. Phillipe had sent several pictures of them, getting out of a car at their school. Playing in the yard of a house, and from what he could tell one of them was in Marilyn’s office with her. He’d gotten a few real up??lose shots and there had been a note attached to them, Zoom lens used, no contact as per your instructions.
Calvin’s heart ached as he reached out and touched the picture on the screen of them. He had twin sons, to Marrin. He closed his eyes as he comprehended just how badly he had ruined his own life back then, and even now. He’d hurt her emotionally back then made her feel as though he didn’t want her, or love her. Then the here and now, he’d been a full menace and dished out threats and harmed her, making her feel he hated her. Nothing he did was ever right, it seemed, even though he knew now that his judgement was impaired by his dark and twisted obsession. He couldn’t take it back and didn’t know where to start to try and bring his family back together.
There were also pictures of her home, a small??ooking country??tyle cottage. It was quaint and homey and nothing at all like Cliffside manor. Phillipe had walked about the property himself, it seemed, and he’d even taken a panoramic video that showed the house, a barn??tyle building off to the side and then across a short bridge over a creek. There was her writing office, it had an all??lass front, with a full view of her own home. There was commentary about the house: There are three bedrooms in the home, the twins are on the top floor, Marilyn is on the ground floor. The barn appears to be loft??tyle accommodation for visitors, though I have seen none so far. The office, self??xplanatory. The house is well off the road, a long tree??ined driveway. Then he panned to it, so Calvin could see it
“This place was not easy to find Calvin down some very long windy roads in the middle of nowhere pretty much. The nearest large town is 40 minutes away. The house and land itself were bought at a closed private sale.”
He’d read the email that came with the photos and the video footage, which detailed that Phillipe had to do some digging on how the house had been purchased. ‘I had to go to the local county courthouse to access the sale records. He’d also attached a copy of it for Calvin to see, and it showed the seller and the purchaser, the sale price and when it was actually purchased.
Marilyn had put a deposit on the house prior to the divorce settling, and she had paid it in full after the divorce settlement had been paid. All of it done in Marilyn Riddley’s name.
She’d planned to leave him and never get on that flight, just like he’d always thought. He wondered if she knew she was pregnant when she left him. Had she left and taken those children of his with her, trying to punish him, or had she not known at all? Calvin felt his anger rise up at that thought, and had to force It down and away. How could he blame her for what he’d set into motion? She’d tried to call him and tell him she wasn’t in that accident, just like Will had stated.
So, no, he didn’t believe she would have known about the children and never told him, it wasn’t who she was. He had to try and keep his angry, dark, twisted obsession with the woman at bay and remain level??eaded. Stay put and not blame her for the way things had turned out. He had to accept the responsibility of what he’d done to them.
She’d loved him and wanted a baby with him, which meant she hadn’t wanted a divorce, but a real marriage. It was entirely his fault and he had to fight off those horrid thoughts; which had embedded themselves into him over the years, about wanting to punish her, when there was no reason too.
Calvin had to remind himself of that more than a dozen times a day, trying to get over his obsessive behaviour, he’d punished her enough already, hadn’t meant to but had, in the end, hurt her due to his stupid dark and twisted thoughts.
They had twin sons was what he had to focus on now, boys that he couldn’t even go near right this very minute. Boys that both knew Calvin Reeves, Billionaire of Houston, Texas, had assaulted their mother, and she’d wound up in the hospital because of him. His own sons were going to hate him when they found out who he was.
They would only see him as she did right now. A nasty brute of a man, out to hurt their mother. This was not going to be good for him, they may never come around to him at all. He took a call from Phillipe about 30 minutes after he’d received that email, allowing Calvin to go through it, he supposed.
“Calvin?”
It was a simple straight??orward question.
“I want absolute concrete proof. DNA from the boys.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.