Married to the Bad Boy (8 page)

I felt Brandon put his hand on top of mine, making me look up at him. “What's wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It’s nothing,” I said, giving him a shy smile. Right then the wedding march song started. I kept still in my seat, trying not to think that the man standing up front was my father.

All I could do was sit there and watch him. Was she the reason he had left me all those years ago? No, that couldn’t be. What kind of a father leaves his daughter just so he can be with another woman?

I’ve always thought that he had left me because of the money my grandmother had left me. It only made sense, since I never saw him after her funeral. It was like one day he was there and the next he was gone. This was all too confusing to think about as I watched him smiling down at that woman.

“What’s wrong?” Brandon whispered into my ear, grabbing hold of my hand and stroking his thumb along it. I know he was trying to calm me down, but it really wasn’t helping at the moment. It was only making me more nervous about having to confront the man who left me to live in that house of hell.

“Nothing,” I told him, tearing my eyes away from my father for the first time in the past fifteen minutes. I just couldn’t tell him that the guy standing there marrying his mother’s best friend was the man who left me to rot in hell. Even though I had grown to despise the man, I wasn’t about to trash his wedding day. I know I would have to tell Brandon eventually, but I would wait till before the reception because if I told him now, there was a chance of him causing a big scene about it.

“Kami, don’t give me that shit. I can tell something’s been bothering you since we sat down,” he said with anger in his voice.

I knew he was distressed because I was not being open with him from the very beginning with the whole bathroom thing and now I was keeping this from him, which would only provoke him more.

I looked over into his brown eyes and I could see the concern within them. What changed from this morning until now that he was concerned about my feelings? “This isn’t really the time or the place to talk about it, but I’ll tell you after the ceremony. I promise.”

He didn’t say anything after that. All he did was grip onto my hand tighter and shake his head.

Looking back at my father, I wondered what was going to happen once he saw me. Would he even notice me? I hope he would just look over me and not try to talk to me. If he did, I didn’t think I could really stand there and listen to him talk to me like I was still his ten-year-old daughter or act like he’s always been there for me. I felt a tear run down my cheek as I thought back on the memory of him leaving me and never caring to see if I turned out alright. 

When I was young, I would lie in bed crying because I wanted to see my father’s smiling face, the way he always did when he picked me up from school on Fridays, or have him take me to get ice cream on Sundays before we went home. I didn’t have a father for the father-daughter dance in school and had to hide away at home. I didn’t have him there to take me away from the abuse I lived through before Brandon stepped in and did something about it.

I turned and found Brandon watching me with sadness in his eyes. Oh, how thankful I was for him coming into my life. Something inside told me I could trust him if I just let him in. When I gave him a lopsided smile, he ran his finger down my cheek to wipe the tears off my face. “Come on, let’s go outside.”

He stood up, and taking my hand in his, pulled me up with him. We walked to the back of the room and told his parents we would be back.

We got out of the room and back in the lobby. Brandon wasted no time in wrapping me in his arms in a bone-crushing hug. I felt safe here and as long as his arms were around me, no one could harm me.

After a while, he pulled away and looked at me. “What happened in there? Why are you and my mom crying? You look sadder, but it’s weird.” I had to laugh at how he was comparing me to his mother just because we were both crying. “Kami, it’s not funny. I never understood why girls cry at weddings. Hell, you didn’t when we got married.”

“Yeah, that’s because our marriage is fake.” I laughed at him now, totally forgetting why I was sad in the first place. Then I remembered how when we first met he was trying everything in his power to make me smile, but all I did was push him away. I noticed that the harder I pushed him away, he would take a step closer to me.

“Fake or not, we’re still married, buttercup.” He winked at me and leaned down and kissed my cheek. I could feel the blood rushing to my face, making me blush. “Now, would you like to tell me why you were crying and looking so sad before I dragged you out here?”

“Well, you see…” I started, but was cut off by the doors opening and my father and his new wife walking out.

“Kami?” He asked.

I went to hide behind Brandon. So he had recognized me. I felt like I was going to break down.

Brandon was acting a little protective over me as his back stiffened up and he wrapped one arm behind him to pull me closer to him. “Who are you? How do you know my wife?”

“Wife? What the hell are you talking about? My daughter can’t be married to you,” my father yelled. I hadn’t even thought about the fact I was married to Brandon and how he would take it if he knew who I was. This wasn’t that great of an outcome with the anger coming from my father’s voice.

 “Honey, calm down. We don’t need to make a scene here in front of the guests. Maybe we can go to a more private room and talk,” his wife told him in a calm voice as I buried my face in Brandon’s back. “Look, you’re scaring her.”

“You’re right, Emily,” I heard my father telling her. “Kami, come here and let your father see how much you’ve grown up.” There he was, acting like the caring father when in reality he was a deadbeat. I let go of Brandon and ran away. When I got closer to the doors, I heard him calling my name, but I didn’t stop. Right before I was outside, I heard my father ask, “What the fuck did you hit me for?”

I ran down the walk away to the beach hoping to get far away from that man as I could until someone grabbed my shoulder and turned me around to face a pair of raging brown eyes. “You need to stop running away from me. How am I going to keep you safe if all you do is run away from me?” he yelled in my face as the tears of heartache ran down my cheeks.

“I understand that bastard who just married my mother’s best friend is your father. For the love of God, don’t run away like that from me again.”

“Brandon, I’m sorry. I wasn’t running away from you. I was running away from him. I wanted him to feel the same pain he put me through when he walked away from me.”

Brandon didn’t say anything else. He just wrapped me back in his embrace until his mother showed up looking madder than hell. “What’s going on? Why did you hit Emily’s husband?” she was questioning him.

“Mom, I promise I did what was needed at the time. We will explain everything once we get home.” Brandon tried to explain as he walked us back to where the wedding reception was being held and sat us down at a table where Mr. Mitchell was sitting, plus a few other guests.

We sat there in silence as we ate our dinner and tried not to think about what was going on between us and the newly married couple. At one pointed I looked up to see my father was watching me with resentment in his eyes. I guess me running away made him feel the pain he had put me through, but that didn’t mean I forgave him for the trouble he gave me.

After dinner and the first dance were over and the bride was dancing with her father, I saw my father walking over to us.

“Brandon, I need to get out of here, now.”

Brandon looked up and saw my father coming to us and stood up and grabbed my hand, but was too late as my father put his hand on his shoulder. “Son, I don’t want any trouble. I just want to dance with my daughter.”

 The way he was talking like he had never left me and was still this loving father was really starting to get on my last nerve. When I stood up and looked at him in the eyes, I just let it all go.

“You lost the right to call me your daughter when you vanished all those years ago. You’re welcome to take that dance you wanted from me and shove it up your ass. I’m also willing to bet that your wife didn’t even know you had a daughter.” I yelled, not caring who overheard me as I poked him with my finger.

Looking around the room, I could see people were watching us now. Even his new bride stopped dancing to see what the commotion was about. Brandon laughing next to me didn’t really help the situation, but it brought a smile to my face to know he didn’t leave me alone.  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think my husband and I were about to dance.” I grabbed Brandon’s hand and pulled him to the dance floor.

“That was great.” Brandon laughed, pulling me to him, leaning down and kissing my cheek. “It’s great seeing you go off on someone else who isn’t me. You need to do that more often and not run away from the problem at hand.”

“Brandon, please don’t start. I just couldn’t stand it how he stood there acting like he has done nothing wrong. I don’t know what came over me, but I felt like I had to put him in his place. So can we please just dance and forget what I did?”

He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Yeah, but I’ll tell you this. That was a big turn on. If only we could do something about it.”

I just stared at him as he leaned back up and turned me in a circle before pulling me closer to him. “Kami,” I heard him speak as I looked back up at him and smiled. He was smiling back at me, and he leaned down and gave me a soft kiss on the lips.

I didn’t know if it was the low romantic lighting or the soft music in the background, but the kiss was everything I imagined a first kiss to be. The butterflies danced in my stomach and electric pulses ran down my arms as I felt him pull me closer to him. When he licked the bottom of my lower lip, I let out a small moan, enjoying the feeling he was putting my body through.

Finally pulling away from one another, he whispered in my ear, “I think I just stole your first kiss.” Which ruined the romantic moment we just had with the laughter in his voice.

I knew he was right though about the kiss, but I couldn’t think of a better way for it to play out. “Well, you are my husband after all. I think you have the right to kiss me when you want,” I replied, giving him my own little smirk which made his laugher stop.

“What happened to this being a fake marriage?” he asked.

“Even though it is, they don’t know that. We’re just showing them we’re a young happy couple.” I laughed.

He then leaned down to give me another small peck with a smile across his face. “Come on. Let’s go take a walk to the beach.” He pulled me away from the dance floor. Before we were out of the room, I turned and took one last look at my father, his head down while Mr. Mitchell patted his back. I knew I had hurt him this evening, but he needed to know I wasn’t that same little ten-year-old girl he left behind.

As we walked down the beach with the stars shining above us, I felt peace come over me. Even though my evening was filled with drama, this was still a magical night. Brandon didn’t say anything as we both walked barefoot in the sand, just enjoy the quietness of the night. Somehow I felt like we had crossed a threshold in our marriage, but I wasn’t going to think too much of it. I looked at the full moon above us, feeling thankful for having Brandon in my life now.

“Well, well, well. Who do we have here?”  I heard someone say. Brandon stopped in our tracks and gripped my hand a little tighter than usual before turning us around. When I saw my stepfather there with an unknown man, I felt my peace wash away into the ocean and brought out the fear that I was trying to escape from. 

I looked over at Brandon to see the rage was back in his eyes as he watched the unknown man standing in front of us. “Hello, Greg.”

“Now is that any way to talk to your father, boy?”

I looked over at Brandon, wondering what this strange man meant by father. Was this man, who was standing next to my step-father, the same person who had shown his mother the same kind of abuse I was given? Brandon didn’t tell me what became of the man, but I just figured he was in jail for putting his mother in the hospital, but it seemed I was wrong.

 Even in the dim lighting coming from the reception, I could make out his dark hair and ice-cold stare he was giving us. When his eyes landed on me, a spiteful grin appeared across his face. “I must say, son, you sure do know how to pick them. Too bad this one isn’t meant for you to keep.”

Brandon pulled me behind him, blocking my view of the two older men. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked with fury in his voice.

“Sorry, son, but that’s classified information,” his father told him laughingly. “How about you hand over the girl and we will be on our merry little way?”

“Or how about you both go to hell?!” Brandon counteracted, suddenly taking a step backwards that had me almost falling onto the sand. I looked up to see Brandon still looking at the two men, who were now watching me as I stood back up and hid behind my husband.

“Look, son, we don’t want any problems,” the man spoke again. “Just hand over the girl, so we can take her and let our master do with her as he pleases.”

“Not going to happen. I know what kind of men you both are, so there’s no telling what kind of person this guy is who wants her.” Brandon wrapped an arm behind me to make sure I was in place as he keep walking backwards to the area the wedding was being held. “What does he want Kami for, anyway?”

“That’s none of your concern,” my stepfather finally spoke up. “I’ve been in charge of that girl for the past ten years and I was about to finish the job when you had to butt in.”