Chapter 0003

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.