That One Time by Aja Foxx

Chapter Fifteen

~ Henry ~

 

My hands were shaking as I took the stack of pictures from Frank. I wasn't sure if I wanted to see them. So far, everything Frank had shown me had been easily explained. It was a little harder to do that with pictures.

I smiled as I started going through them. They weren't as bad as I thought. Most of them were of me and Ryan studying or eating at different restaurants around my neighborhood. A few were simply of us walking arm and arm down the street.

While I could understand how someone could misconstrue them as something intimate, they weren't. Ryan was my best friend. He was the godfather to my daughter. I hugged him a lot.

It wasn't until I got to the last few pictures in the stack that I felt the bile rise in my throat. These were not the pictures of two people who were not friends.

"This isn't me," I said simply because I knew I hadn't slept with Ryan.

I wasn't even sure that was Ryan.

"Henry, it doesn't matter. I just—"

"No, I'm serious. It's not me," I said. "And it's not Ryan either."

"What?"

I grabbed the other pictures and started going through them until I found a close up of Ryan's arm. I pointed to his shoulder. "See here? Ryan has a tattoo of a sun god on his left shoulder." I picked up the fake one. "Here, in this picture, there is no tattoo. The picture has to be a fake."

I handed both pictures to Frank and then started looking through the others to see if there were anymore differences. "This one shows his tattoo also." I handed it over.

I'd been able to disprove Ryan. I needed to figure out how to disprove me. I know I hadn't slept with anyone except Frank. I just had to prove it.

I wished I had a microscope.

I went over each picture, looking them over from top to bottom. Most of them did look like me and Ryan, and probably were. It was the more intimate ones that I had an issue with simply because I was positive they were fakes. Three of them were the worst. I laid them all down on the table in front of me, side by side.

"What are you looking for?" Frank asked.

"I know this wasn't me, Frank, but you don't. I'm looking for anything on them that will prove me right."

"I've looked over these pictures a hundred times, Henry. I haven't found anything that would prove to me it wasn't you."

That's what I was afraid of.

"Can you try to look at that objectively for a minute? Instead of insisting that it's me, look for what could prove it's not me."

Frank shot me a look. "I'm not sure that's objective, Henry, but I'll look."

I was carefully looking over one of the pictures when Frank gasped. I quickly looked at him. "What?"

"Your ring," Frank whispered. "Where is your ring?"

I glanced at the picture he was looking at and then winced. It was a picture of me and Ryan, both of us naked. I was sitting behind Ryan with one hand on his chest and the other one wrapped around his dick.

"It's right there."

"No, that's my grandfather's ring. Where is the ring I proposed to you with?" Frank pointed to the ring on my finger, the one I hadn't taken off since the day he put it there. "That ring."

I grabbed the picture out of Frank's hand and brought it up close to my face. I wasn't thrilled about being eye to eye with someone's dick, but I needed a closer look. I could clearly see Frank's grandfather's ring, but he was right. There was no sign of the gold band now gracing my finger.

"I don't think that's my hand, Frank. Your grandfather's ring didn't fit, remember? We never got it resized. We meant to, but it never happened. I kept it in the black bag on my dresser. I was too afraid to lose it because it didn't fit. If someone did break into my apartment like I thought, they could have easily put it on."

Frank pulled the ring off his finger and held it out to me. "Try it on."

I grinned as I slid the ring down my finger. It clanked against the gold band. When I turned my hand upside down, the ring slid right off my finger and dropped on the floor.

"Fuck, Henry!"

"Wow." I stared down at the ring in amazement before picking it up and handing it back to Frank. "Is that the biggest I told you so or what?"

Frank slid the ring back on his finger and then buried his face in his hands. "That fucking son-of-a-bitch!"

"Who?"

Frank raised his head to glare at me. "Stewart."

"Oh no, you can't lay this at Stewart's feet. Yeah, he connived to con you out of your money, but you're the idiot who fell for it. If you'd just told him to go fuck himself, you wouldn't be out five million dollars and none of this would have ever happened."

I didn't realize how angry I was until I found myself standing over the top of Frank, shouting at him.

"I did."

"You did what?"

"When Stewart and Martino first came to me—"

"Martino?"

"Yes, Stewart went to him first and Martino brought Stewart to me."

"Why does your brother hate me so much?" I couldn't figure out what I had done to make the man hate me. I'd always been nice to him and his rat bastard of a husband. I'd never raised my voice or become physical. I just couldn't understand it.

"My brother doesn't hate you."

I flicked one finger at a time. "He believed Stewart and brought him to you instead of telling Stewart to get lost. He called me a well-used whore after trying to buy me off and telling me you never wanted to see me again. He filed the restraining order against me. How does any of this say he doesn't hate me?"

Frank glanced down at the pictures, his shoulders slumping. "I'm not sure what to think anymore."

"Do you still think that I slept with Ryan?"

"No."

At least I had that.

I picked up my old cell phone and typed in my new phone number and then set it down on the table in front of him. I stood up and then reached out to lay my hand on Frank's shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze. "Call me when you're ready to meet Eva."

Frank grabbed my hand. "Please, don't go. Not yet."

"Frank—"

"Do you have any idea how much I loved you?"

Tears flooded my eyes, but I don't know if they were for the heartache I could hear in Frank's voice for what might have been in he'd believed in me. "I loved you, too."

There were tears in Frank's eyes when he glanced up at me. "There's been no one else. I tried a couple of times, but no one lasted more than a couple of weeks."

I smiled sadly. "I never tried. I was always too busy with Eva and I didn't want to bring someone into our lives when I didn't know if they would be sticking around."

"I'm sticking around, Henry."

I had to admit my heart sang with a little bit of joy at Frank's words, but I was worried too much had happened between us for anything more than simple friendship and caring for our daughter.

When Frank pulled on my hand, I couldn't prevent myself from following his lead until I was sitting on his lap. It was stupid—monumentally stupid—but the one thing I hadn't told Frank was that the love I'd had for him wasn't gone. It was just buried really, really deep.

"Say you forgive me, Henry." Frank's lips brushed against my temple, making me shiver. I could feel his uneven breathing blowing against my skin. His hand explored the hollow of my back as he spoke. "Say you'll give me another chance to give you, me, and Eva the life we should have had."

"Frank," I whimpered. "It's not that simple."

"It can be, if you want it to be."

Oh, I did want it. I think I wanted it more than almost anything in the world. But I wasn't the only one affected by my decision. If I fucked this up, Eva would be the one to pay for this.

"Think about what you're saying, Frank."

"I am."

"No, baby, I don't think you are." I turned and pressed my hand to the side of Frank's face. "What happens the next time someone tries to sell you pictures of me? Or one of your family thinks I'm a gold digger?"

Frank winced and glanced away. "That might have been my fault."

My eyebrows lifted. "Sorry?"

"After Stewart dropped off his evidence, I was pissed. Martino was there, and he was pissed."

I snorted. "Oh, I'm sure he was."

"I took all the evidence and went to my father."

Oh, that explained so much.

"You're not endearing me to your family here, Frank."

"No, I imagine not, but try and see it from their point of view. Many times over the years, people have tried to scam us in one way or the other. Some people have tried to sell us stuff, others have simply asked for money or donations to what they called worthy causes, which turned out to be their wallets. And other people have sidled up to us, pretending to be friends when they were not."

"Why is this always about money for you?"

"Because it's about money for other people. My family doesn't care about money beyond keeping a roof over our heads. Yes, it makes the living a little easier, but sitting down to dinner every Sunday evening is much more important to us than our next dollar."

I smiled, which seemed to surprise Frank. "Ryan and I made it a habit to sit down to dinner with the kids every night. We've been doing it since the kids could sit up in their high chairs."

"That's good. Family time is important."

"Go on with what you were saying about your family."

"When Martino was in college, he met a man named Jack. He seemed like the perfect man. He said all the right things, did all the right things, and came from a nice middle class family. My parents loved him. Well, except my grandmother. She wouldn't even speak to him. When Jack proposed, Martino was over the moon. Grandmother said she would give her blessing if Jack agreed to sign a pre-nup."

I groaned. "That fucking pre-nup."

"It's there for a good reason."

"So, what happened?"

"Martino told Jack what Grandmother said and presented him with the pre-nup. Jack went ballistic. He started going on and on about how, if Martino loved him, he would never ask him to sign anything and accusing him of setting them up for divorce by planning for what would happen if they divorced."

I'd had some of those same feelings myself.

"After Jack stormed out, Martino lost it. He started shouting at my grandmother, telling her that it was all her fault that Jack was mad at him. Grandmother simply pulled out a file and handed it to Martino. Apparently, she'd hired a detective to do a deep dive into Jack's life and it turned out that not only did he have a criminal history as long as my arm, but he had no family, and he was flat broke. He wasn't even a college student. He'd lied about everything to get the family money."

Oh man.

"That would explain the pre-nup."

"Martino almost made the same mistake with Stewart when he showed up pregnant, but he made sure the little gold digger signed the pre-nup before they got married, baby or no baby. Stewart conveniently lost the baby right after they were married."

"Conveniently? Crap, Frank, that's a horrible thing to say."

"Maybe, but I have serious doubts that Stewart was ever pregnant. It's nothing I can prove without a doctor's exam, but it seems rather easy that he miscarried right after they got married, when that was the only reason they were getting married in the first place."

"Oh."

"So, yes, my family has issues with money, but not the way you think. We work hard for our money, every single one of us. I didn't start out as CEO of my family's corporation. I started out in the mail room and I had to work my way up the ladder. I wasn't given any special treatment because I was the boss's kid either. The only thing that was ever handed to me was the position of Chief Executive Officer, and that is simply because we want a family member in that position at all times and my father wanted to retire."

"Why didn't Martino get it?"

"Martino works at the company, but he's the Director of Marketing because he leans more toward art than he does business. And he's great at it. Our marketing has gone up two hundred percent since he took over."

"So, basically, you're telling me that your family would be fine if everyone just left them alone?" I think that's what he was saying.

"Look, do you remember when I first brought you home and everyone asked if you'd signed the pre-nup?"

"Vividly."

"And do you remember how they were after that?"

I frowned as I thought back all those years ago, and then I felt a little sick to my stomach. "Yeah, they were pretty friendly after that, but that's what made it so hard when they turned their backs on me. I felt as if they had really accepted me when they didn't."

"No, they did. They adored you. It wasn't until this mess with Stewart happened that they changed. They thought, with the pre-nup, that they had provided for every eventuality, but they missed one."

I frowned. "Which one?"

"A broken heart."