One Night Stand With My Husband’s Brother

That question jarred Mackenzie, because she was not remotely expecting that question. She jolted, then abruptly looked around the living room. She was looking for Cameron, hoping he had not heard what Felicity just said.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Felicity spoke up. “He is in the bedroom, watching TV and singing along to his favorite show. He can’t hear us.”

Truly, Mackenzie could hear his excited voice filtering into the living room and out through the bedroom door.

Charlotte was staring at Mackenzie as if she just realized it now that Felicity mentioned it. She slowly looked back at Chase on the magazine cover, then even more slowly, looked back at Mackenzie with shock.

“Chase and Jeffery are half-brothers, not related by blood at all,” Charlotte started like she was thinking aloud, “But when you look at Cameron…. He has blue eyes, which no one in your family has. Jeffery has dark eyes. But he looks just like…” She trailed off.

Felicity added. “Cali used to look like you as a baby, but the older she grows, the lighter her hair gets and the looser her curls are getting. She’s looking less like you, Kenzie.”

“That’s some really strong genes.” Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “Please talk to us, Kenzie. I feel that they’re something huge you aren’t telling us about.”

Mackenzie gave them both a guarded look.

“No, don’t give us that face, Kenzie.” Charlotte protested. “It’s been four years. We want to know what fully happened to you in Greensville before you returned to North Dakota.”

“We want to know. Something must have happened, but we know you’d never cheat on Jeffery…” Felicity sounded confused.

Mackenzie let out a huge sigh, then stared at her friends silently for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was resigned. “I’ll tell you guys everything in a moment. I have to go tuck Cali in.”

She turned around and walked out of the living room. In the bedroom, she told Cameron not to make too much noise so he doesn’t wake his sister. She changed Calista’s clothes into comfy sleep wear and tucks her into her small bed at the corner of the bedroom.

It felt like her punishment for cheating on Jeffery was never-ending. Now she had to face her best friends and explain her forbidden secret and infidelity. Felicity had even said she was sure she would never have cheated on Jeffery.

Would they be disappointed?

Mackenzie wondered if Jeffrey was truly living his best life, right now. He had truly hurt her, but she sometimes wondered how her life would have been if her first love didn’t turn out to be such bad luck.

Shaking her head lightly, she cleared those unnecessary thoughts and walked out of the bedroom.

****************

There was so much water all around him.

Chase knew he was drowning, but no matter how hard he paddled his arms and legs, he never moved forward. All he ever did, was move further down.

There was so much panic in his mind, the more he tried to express it by screaming, the more water he swallowed. The pain hit different. The terror, was of a unique tier.

Desperately he glanced at his arms, wondering why, after all these years, he still could not swim. He still could not move from that cursed spot. But then, he saw that his arms were that of a tiny boy.

He was trapped in the body of a little boy, while the water around him got larger. More terrifying.

He heard a familiar scream, “Chase!!!”

He wished he could reverse time so he didn’t hear it. But it was too late, someone pulled him, and he found himself on a dry surface.

But all of a sudden, the water was red. Blood red.

And there was someone’s floating in it. Lifelessly.

With a strong jolt, Chase woke up from his nightmare, his blue eyes wild and haunted by the memories he had locked deep within. But these days, he was failing to keep them at bay.

The recent stressors in his life only made them rise up to the surface.

Now, he was revisiting those traumatic memories, even during the day. With a deep exhale, he straightened up from his office chair, wondering how he had even fallen asleep. That was something he never did.

His heart was still pounding erratically when he noticed that his phone had been ringing all along. He reached out to pick it up and glanced at the caller ID.

It was his father.

He brushed his hair back with a deep sigh and answered. “Hello, father?”

“Chase. We’re having our monthly family dinner tonight. You should be here.”

“I’m too busy.” Chase said without even a thought. He would rather not face any of them tonight.

Richard’s voice was unusually quiet when he responded.

“You have to come home this time around, son. Put work on hold for tonight and come for dinner.”

Chase found that calm, quiet response unsettling. He was used to his father yelling or threatening him when he refused to do something his way, but here he was being so quiet. Almost pleading.

It was a cause for concern.

Chase had the faint hunch that something was wrong, so he gave in, “I’ll be there, father.” And he ended the call.

He had not visited home for a long while, because he had never liked going there from the start. Now, his feelings of detest towards family dinners had multiplied due to various reasons.

One, his father was just too fond of Selene to hold a conversation with him without somehow talking about her. He definitely didn’t want to hear about that annoying ex-wife of his. To him, they were already divorced. It didn’t matter if it was still in the works.

Two, it was nauseating to even think about seeing Jeffrey’s fucking face. Being within a hundred feet of his step brother had always irritated Chase, but now, he hated the slightest thought of him.

Those were just the top two reasons. His other reasons for avoiding his “family” were all one big blur that he didn’t even bother to pick apart, because it would make him end up pissed off, worked up and with a migraine.

~***********~

The family dinner was more quiet than usual. On normal occasions, Richard would be curiously prodding into everyone’s personal lives and asking questions. Eleanor, his wife, would encourage the conversation with her fake laughter and patronizing words.

Jeffrey, of course, would blabber on about some shit Chase had zero interest in. While Chase only participated if the questions were directed at him in particular.

Not of that was happening now.

It was silent, broken only by the clink of cutlery against glass.

As Chase picked around at his plate with zero interest, and subzero appetite, he glanced at Eleanor. She was in her usual designer clothes and sleek bob cut. She was currently helping Jeffrey to pick up the salt shaker across the table.

Chase’s eyes lowered.

Of course, that’s how she always babied him. Covered his nasty tracks and encouraged his idiotic behavior.

He had gone through Jeffrey work records. Jeffrey had been leaving all his fucking work to his assistant, being extremely irresponsible. He obviously gives zero shits about his job and responsibilities.

Not only is he a shitty person to keep in the business world, he is also a shitty person to keep in a marriage. That’s probably why Mackenzie left him. He had always been a hopeless cheat, not just with Selene, but every skirt he could get.

Eleanor was a hypocrite, fully aware of Jeffery’s actions, but she kept covering and hiding everything he did. She didn’t even bother to clean his messes. She just covered them up.

Eleanor took a sip of her sparkling champagne, and her eyes accidentally met Chase’s . She paused, wondering why he was staring at her.

It was probably one of the few times her step son even glanced her way.

She gave him a warm smile, and faced her food again. She detested that arrogant, cold light in his eyes. He was a huge boulder in the way of her achieving her goals.

She needed to keep Jeffrey on the right track, so he would get ten percent control of the Axford Conglomerate from Richard. But Chase was such a shining competition, that the world noticed first, before even glancing in her son’s direction.

If only Jeffrey was as ambitious, the they would have been so close to succeeding and getting the major control over the company. But if course, Chase was there. And he would never let the sweat and hard work of his father, his father’s father and his great grandfather get into Eleanor’s hands.

The Axford money and power was old money. Aristocratic wealth. It wasn’t some newly acquired wealth that could vanish so easily.

It was expansive, unending. If only something so powerful could get into Eleanor’s hands, managed by her own son, then that would be all she had ever dreamed of.