A Life Unplanned (29 page)

"Oh, it's for us alright. It's from Brian and Kelly. They also said not to watch the video around the kids."

"I'm not sure I want to watch that video, given the looks of the other stuff in the basket."

"Well, let's find out how naughty it is," he said with a brow wiggle, leading me into the little living room with the DVD player.

It didn't take long to figure out what was on the DVD. It only listed one segment, and it was called, "
She's the One
."

He hit play, and we watched wide-eyed, as our much younger counterparts entered Trent's room.

"Brian said he put all the recordings on a thumb drive for later use if needed, but he thought we'd like to keep a copy of this on hand for ourselves," Trent explained grinning.

"I see, and he wants me to beat you into submission as well?" I said twirling the riding crop in my hand.

"Well…I…"

He looked nervous…and a little excited, too.

"Have you spoken to Brian about your fantasies? Is that why he sent you all the toys?" I teased.

Trent chuckled nervously, as the sound of our video was getting louder in the background.

"Are you ready to be my stallion, cowboy?" I asked tapping the riding crop in my hand, and then he pounced.

Yeah, he was ready alright, very ready, and I saddled up. I also had a feeling I'd be learning a lot more about the rest of the toys in the basket before the weeks' end.

 Chapter 35 – Epilogue

After our honeymoon, we flew into Waco instead of Houston and picked up the kids. My parents were thrilled to hear we were moving back to Waco and were happy to help us find a place. McKenna was sad to see us leave Livingston, but it became apparent that there was tension in Trent's family, when Maylene tried to visit him at the office a few times.

Ironically, it was Meredith of all people who finally got Trent to soften up toward Roger. Once the facts had all been revealed, he was the lesser of the two evils and also the one who had control over Emily's visits. The little girl had stolen our hearts, and so she was frequently present at birthday parties and holiday gatherings.

Roger had apologized profusely and often to Trent. He'd had no idea that it had been Sabrina's husband who had come after Trent. The time gap and physical distance didn't make sense for it to be him. In order to help his son, Roger had been quick to sacrifice himself and his marriage to get Sabrina to confess that she had lied about being raped. When I spoke to Meredith, she told me Roger had always been one to do everything he could to help his children.

One day, I actually got up the nerve to ask him about the rape trial and why he hadn't come forward then, and he told me that the same day he had confronted Sabrina and had tried to get her to go to the police and recant, Maylene had informed him that she had "found" the four witnesses to prove Sabrina was lying. He had been prepared to go and confess that the whole mess was his fault, and he had actually been sitting outside the police station, when he had received that call from his wife. Unfortunately, what he had thought was his saving grace actually wasn't.

Three months after the trial was over, after they had moved away from Boston, Roger's lawyer had contacted him with the news about Sabrina's pregnancy. Her parents had pushed her to get an abortion, but she had refused and begged Roger to leave his wife to be with her and raise their baby. He confessed that he had seriously considered it, solely for Emily's sake, but he had found a way around it. He had pushed Sabrina to give Emily up for adoption to his sister. It was an open adoption, but Sabrina's parents had kept her on a tight leash and wouldn't let her see her baby.

Her mother pushed her into counseling, still believing Sabrina was showing signs of sexual abuse, which were only confirmed by her psychologist. Of course, the abuse hadn't been done by who she had thought, but by Sabrina's father's business associates.

Somewhere in between giving birth and her downfall into insanity, Sabrina met her husband, Mr. Hamilton. Roger said after they were married, she'd visited with Emily a couple of times with her husband. Emily had only been two at the time and didn't remember it. It wasn't long after that when Sabrina completely snapped and ended up in the mental hospital for good.

Roger swore up and down that if he had ever known that Trent's troubles had been related to Sabrina, he would have come forward much sooner. I couldn't fault him for that. We all had thought Tiffany/Brittney had been behind everything. It turned out that Hamilton was the one who had contacted her in hopes of convicting Trent of something, and in the process, he had given away Trent's whereabouts. Unfortunately for Trent, crazy women seemed to be a theme in his life. I just hoped I'd keep my sanity or at least end up with a twisted happy ending like Hamilton and Sabrina.

The civil suit ended up forcing Hamilton to pay Trent for everything it had cost him to defend himself, including damages to his reputation and lost wages, which turned out to be a huge chunk of money. The criminal charges went a little differently, though. Somehow, Hamilton was declared insane and was sent to the same mental hospital his wife was housed in. From what Kelly told me, they were happy to be together, and his constant presence was actually helping his wife recover. I honestly wasn't sure how I felt about that. It seemed too easy given all the hell they had put Trent through.

As for Sabrina's father and the men he had sold her to, they didn't get a happy ending, and I think we were all glad about that. They all went to jail, and after a couple of months of abuse, her father supposedly committed suicide. The two men she had been sold to were outed as pedophiles and were treated as such. The last time Kelly had updated us on their status, they had both been put in solitary confinement for their own protection. It served the bastards right.

"You had better not be lifting any boxes," I heard Trent call from the next room of our new house.

"I'm not," I lied and set the box down I was holding, before he entered the room. We had found out the week before our scheduled move that I was pregnant. It wasn't a honeymoon baby, but it was still a baby and a welcome addition all the same. We could only conclude that it was stress that had kept me from getting pregnant right away.

He looked at me with his all-knowing glare. "You aren't out of your first trimester. Would you please leave the heavy lifting to me?"

"It was a box of pillows," I confessed. "It weighs less than Katie."

"You shouldn't be picking her up anymore, either."

"I'm not going to stop picking up my child."

"Clara," he said with a sigh. He knew he was losing the battle and sank down on the bare mattress in our new master bedroom. I walked over to him and brushed his hair back from his face. He leaned in and rested his head on my tummy. "I can't wait until you're big, and I can feel the baby move."

"It'll be a while, but I'm sure you won't miss it."

He kissed my tummy and pulled me into his lap to snuggle. With as grouchy and ornery as Trent could be sometimes, you'd never guess he was a cuddler. "Please, take it easy, for me. This is my first time being involved with the first trimester, and as a doctor, I know everything that can go wrong."

"Trent," I whined.

"Instead of lifting Katie, how about you just sit down and hold her in your lap. Please, for me?" he begged with those hazel puppy eyes he knew melted me.

"Fine, I'll try to remember to sit down before I hold her."

"That's all I ask. You're already carrying precious cargo." He kissed my lips and rubbed my tummy to make his point. It wouldn't kill me to take it a little easier.

It had taken us six months to get pregnant, but I thought of it as a blessing that it had taken us so long, since we were finally able to find a house, and Trent was settled into his new job already.

When he started looking for a new position in Waco, he was snatched up pretty quickly. He had excellent references from the current Livingston administration. He ended up having to work the crappy shifts being the new guy, but it didn't last forever. We hadn't planned for him to get hired so quickly, but he was eager to leave Livingston, and they were eager for him to start working.

Our new house was ten minutes from my parents' home, but in a better school district than theirs. Tyler would be starting school in the fall, and I was a bit of a mess about it.

I had gotten so used to staying at home with him. If he wasn't with me, he was with my mom, and now I'd be giving him up to strangers. Well-qualified strangers, Trent pointed out, but Tyler was still my baby.

It was time we put down some good solid roots in a great school district, since we were doing the family thing. We had already talked about how many kids we wanted and thought four would be a good number. With me being pregnant, I already had three down and one to go, after I gave birth to this one. I was truly looking forward to enjoying every moment of this pregnancy with my husband.

Time seemed to fly, and before I knew it, we were welcoming our sweet little Caroline into the world. Trent had chosen our OB/GYN, and the delivery was thankfully uneventful.

I was surprised, when Roger was the first to visit us in the hospital, and he brought me flowers. Trent must've truly forgiven him, because he was one of the first people he had called when I went into labor, and Roger, being the great father he was, left Livingston for Waco, so he could be there for Trent.

He was smart and had left Maylene at home, though. After Maylene's selfishness came to light, Meredith was quick to point out several things Maylene had done over the years that had proved her self-centered nature. It was one of the reasons Meredith and Trevor had moved to Waco instead of Livingston when the family had moved from Boston.

Aunt Katherine still had custody of Emily, but she had retired, and they had moved to Livingston, so Emily could be closer to Roger. Apparently, Emily frequently spent the night at Roger's house and had her own room, and Roger would often spend a large portion of his free time visiting with her. Aunt Katherine, Emily and Roger would come for our family get-togethers, but Maylene kept her distance. I had a feeling that her and Katherine didn't get along well.

It was when I was pregnant with baby number four that we lifted the Maylene ban. We hadn't verbally shunned her for years, but it was just an unspoken sentiment that she wasn't welcome. When Roger asked if Maylene could come to Caroline's second birthday party, I looked over at Trent, and he shrugged, so I said it was fine.

She was happy to be there, and Tyler broke my heart when he asked her where she'd been, because he had missed her. Trent had overheard it as well, and we both felt like crap for it. We decided not to ever cut family out again.

A month later, we went down to visit and stayed at their house. We of course made sure to visit the bridge club and were happy to find all the old ladies were all still alive and kicking. They cooed over our children, happy we had come to visit. I knew we could not stay away for so long again.

Little Katie and Caroline didn't know Maylene, but Tyler was quick to show them she was a fun grandma. They also thought it was cool that they got to sleep at Grampa Roger's house. They knew he lived far away and thought of it as an adventure.

Baby number four was another Trent look-alike. Tyler was happy to have a little brother finally, and he took great pride in being a big brother, at least until he hit high school. Then, it wasn't so much fun having a tag-a-long worshiper who wanted to go everywhere with him. Still, he handled it well, and he made sure his friends didn't pick on Travis too much.

Both of our boys were devastatingly handsome like their father, but I had expended a lot of effort to make sure they were raised as gentleman, and they knew treating women with respect was the only thing acceptable. Of course, that didn't mean they didn't have their fair share of admirers, especially Tyler. When Trent gave him a camcorder as a graduation gift, though, I about lost it. Tyler had no idea why I was so angry, since he thought it was a perfectly wonderful present. If he only knew…

Having kids had made life an adventure in general. It was strange to look back and think that I had wanted to do it on my own. I was truly blessed that things hadn't gone as I had planned. I had my husband, my children and extended family. I never thought I'd be so lucky to have the life I had, even if it was a life unplanned.