AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She wasn’t sure if she did, but she said, “Um ... sure.”
Ben turned his head toward her, but she couldn’t make out his eyes. “The day Katelyn was taken, I was relieved.”
Rae didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t know if he was about to confess something horrifying, and she now regretted coming outside.
“I was terrified, too, of course,” he continued. “But it meant I didn’t have to make a decision I had dreaded for a long time.”
Then he told Rae the rest of his secret. The day Katelyn was taken was the day he was going to drop the D-word on Marilyn. He told Rae he had fallen in love with the former youth pastor at their church. Former because when Mare discovered Ben was having an affair with a man, she threatened to lie and say the pastor had molested Katelyn. The pastor ended up resigning and moving to the East Coast to avoid an inevitable controversy.
That was almost a year before, and the trip to California was supposed to be a last-ditch effort to bond as a family and rebuild the marriage that had never been built to begin with, according to Ben. He told Rae he’d always known he was attracted to both men and women, buthe grew up in the church and believed he was an abomination because it was what he was taught. So, he only dated women. He met Marilyn in college, and they became good friends and were part of the same denomination, so it made sense to get married. It was expected, and he loved her enough.
But then their communication began to suffer, and their sex life slowed down to almost nothing, and the IVF treatments started when Marilyn became obsessed with getting pregnant. He started to see Marilyn for who she truly was—insecure and manipulative—and he lost his love for her. He fell into a depression until he started helping the youth pastor with Sunday services, their easy conversations turning into much more.
“After Katelyn was kidnapped, Mare fell apart,” Ben said. “I couldn’t leave her like that. But then you happened, and we had Katelyn back. And nothing has changed. Mare and I are basically roommates.”
Rae bounced her legs to keep warm. “Why are you telling me all this?”
“I honestly don’t know.” He let out a small laugh. “I guess because you seem like an open person, and I’ve never told anyone. Feels kind of good to say it.”
“Why don’t you just divorce her now?”
“What kind of father would I be to put my daughter through more trauma after what she’s been through? I don’t know if I can do that to my little girl.”
Rae thought of her mother. “Getting divorced doesn’t mean you’re abandoning Katelyn. She probably won’t understand now, but when she sees you happier, she’ll know it was the right thing to do.” A shiver passed through her body. “I wish my parents would’ve gotten divorced before they got so messed up.” She was glad it was dark out and Ben couldn’t see her tears forming. “They kinda messed me up, too, you know.”
Ben was quiet for several moments. “Rae, I’m going to give you money for the deposit on the apartment. I can’t help you with the birth costs, but I have a friend who works at DHS who can help you get set up with SoonerCare.”
“Why would you do that for me?”
“Because of Mare. If you stay here until after Lily’s born, she’ll find a way to have her taken from you and placed in her care as a foster parent. It’s what she wanted to do as soon as you contacted us. She got it into her head it was God’s way of giving her another child.” He paused. “And I think I’m finally done playing pretend with her.”
CHAPTER 56
RAE
2024
Ever since Rae’s attacker had found a way to bypass her client vetting, she was even more hypervigilant, especially with Angel gone on her Bahamas trip. And now she had no security system until the company came out to fix the cut wires later on in the week. All she could do was double-check the entrances, making sure the doors were locked whenever she was with a client.
She’d thought about canceling her sessions for the rest of the week, but she couldn’t afford the loss in income. She told herself they wouldn’t come for her again since it was Dayton they wanted, but then she’d perseverate on what could happen to him and his family.
“Mistress? Do you want me to get dressed now?”
Rae pulled herself back into the moment. She blinked and looked down at Nancy Cress, an HR executive for Arkana Oil and Gas, the same company Thomas Highsmith had worked for. She avoided having clients who worked for the same place, and it typically wasn’t an issue she had to worry about, but she had made an exception with Thomas.They had no way to know they were both her clients unless they spoke with each other about it, which she doubted would happen. Nancy was an attractive middle-aged woman married to a deeply religious man who thought doggie-style was a perversion. She was a sporadic client, scheduling sessions every two months or so, and she loved rope suspension, something Rae enjoyed doing for her, although only a few of her clients were into it. She scanned the woman’s body, how the impressions of the rope crisscrossed her fair skin, and she wondered why Nancy stayed married to someone who didn’t allow her to be herself. In some ways, she reminded Rae of Ben.
“Yes, Nancy. You can get dressed now,” she said, trying to keep her focus.
After Nancy got dressed in her tailored suit and silk blouse, she seemed hesitant to leave the dungeon space.
“Mistress, I ... I need to discuss something with you before I leave.”
Rae hoped she wasn’t about to drop out as a client. The business had hemorrhaged enough money after the article. “What is it?”
Nancy’s expression turned serious as she pushed her dark auburn hair behind her ear. “I knew Thomas Highsmith before he died—not well but in passing since we worked in the same building. You know, small talk at the coffee station. And ... well, I saw the article in theCrimson Chroniclebefore his body was found.”
Rae crossed her arms. “Then you know he was a client and that I had nothing to do with his death.”
“Oh, I know.” Nancy flashed a nervous smile. “I felt weird not addressing it with you since I learned he was also a client of yours.” A sadness crossed Nancy’s face. “Sometimes I worry I helped contribute to his overdose.”
