9. Steph

CHAPTER 9

Steph

“I’m sorry, what?” I asked Principal James as he grabbed my arm and spun me around gently.

“You can’t be here.”

“I work here and I’m dropping off Denmark.” My son stared up at me with concern in his eyes. There was no way to hide that I had been crying all night or that his father hadn’t come home again. It was something I promised to talk to him about that evening, once we were done with school for the day.

“I think both you and Denmark should take today and Monday off. His teachers have already excused him from class.”

“Excuse me?” I questioned again. “We didn’t authorize him missing school.”

“No, but I did. It is a safety concern right now, Stephanie. I’m sure you understand that we cannot have the press, strange adults with cameras, try to sneak onto our campus for the purpose of harassing our students and staff.” His eyebrows rose, as if their movement alone could proclaim his words true.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t argue with him, considering I’d almost hit two of those photographers while pulling into the parking lot, which was why Den and I were late getting into the school.

“Are you sure this is just a couple days off?” I asked with real fear in my voice. “I didn’t do what she’s claiming. We didn’t even meet until…”

Principal James waved my concern away. “It’s nothing like that, I promise. We value you here at the school and none of us thought that was the case. I wish the press weren’t a problem or it would be business as usual. Your private affairs should remain as such.” I noticed he flinched at his own use of the word affairs, even though that wasn’t how he meant it.

“Fine.” I turned back to Den who wore a scowl on his face. “Let’s go, buddy. Seems we earned a few days off.”

“Why? Because those men jumped in front of your car and you almost hit them?”

“Honestly, Denny-boy, I deserve an award for not hitting them, considering the week I’ve had.”

Principal James nodded and offered me an awkward smile before he reached out and fluffed Den’s hair.

The minute he was out of range, Den complained. “I hate when he does that. What’s the point in combing it just for him to come along and mess it all up?”

I chuckled at his sound reasoning as we carefully made our way back out to the parking lot.

“Mrs. Burton, Mr. James asked that I escort you out to make sure no one gave you any trouble.” I rolled my eyes. “I promise that it is your best interest that is at heart.”

“That may be, Tommy, but the press is going to throw a speculative headline up about me being escorted off campus for an entirely different reason. That seems to be how everything has been twisted recently – to make me the villain in my own horror story.”

“Sorry, ma’am. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to either of you on my watch for the sake of those jerks not being able to twist things around on you.”

Once Denmark and I were tucked safely away in the car, and Tommy created a diversion for us, we were able to get away smoothly. Thankfully, our neighborhood kept us relatively isolated and Den waited until we got back to start asking questions.

“Momma Steph, what’s going on? Why were those men taking our pictures and asking about Dad and that lady?”

“That lady is your mother,” I pointed out to Den.

“No, she’s not. I don’t know her and she’s never been here for me. I don’t care what Dad says. That lady isn’t my mom. You are.”

I hugged my boy fiercely because I needed someone to choose me for once, and he was the one stepping up to the plate, even though he had the biggest reason to choose her over me. I should have pushed him to do just that, since she was clearly aiming for a family reunion with the boys she left behind.

Once we were locked safely inside the house, I moved to the living room and patted the sofa next to where I plopped down. “Come here, buddy.” After Den sat beside me and snuggled into my side, I finally released the frustration I had carried around in a drawn-out exhalation. Then, there was no turning back. I needed to lay things out in a way that would be easy for my boy to understand without bogging him down in adult stuff he shouldn’t have to hear about.

“Some things happened not too long ago. Your dad and mom met up and I guess they decided that they wanted to get back together.”

“What about us?” Den asked in a panicked tone.

“Well, Ollie and Jia are your biological parents. You’re supposed to be with them. I am working with your grandma to make sure that I will be able to see you as often as possible. For now, you’re staying here with me where it is safe from all the bad men with cameras.” There were probably a few crazies in the mix who wanted to harm me because their favorite craptastic actress stirred up all this drama with her lies. I refused to tell Den that part though. One of us not being able to sleep in the house, for fear of what people might do to lash out, was more than enough.

“Why would he do this? Doesn’t he love you anymore? Does he hate me?”

“Buddy, this has nothing to do with you, I promise. Your dad still loves you very much and I think you’re the best person on the planet – remember?”

“Then why would he take me away from you? He hasn’t even been here to talk to me. You’re the only one. He’s just like her. He wants to ruin everything. They both hate me. I don’t want to go.” He threw his arms around my waist and held on for dear life as my heart broke.

“If they let me, I would keep you with me forever, baby. You will always be my boy, no matter what.”

“Even if your baby is another boy?” Den asked. I pulled back to stare down into his eyes. Before I could ask how he knew, he spoke again. “I heard Uncle Steve say something on the phone. It doesn’t look like you have a baby in your belly.”

“Not yet, but it will.” Shoot. I couldn’t ask him to keep it a secret from his dad. “I could have ten more babies and it would never make me love you less, Den. Never doubt that.”

“My dad doesn’t know, does he?” I shook my head. “I’m not going to tell him. That way, if they take me away from you, you’ll still have my little brother or sister to be all yours and keep you company until I’m old enough to run away and be yours again.”

I couldn’t have held my sobs back if I tried. I hated Jia for coming back into their lives and tearing us all apart. I hated Ollie for allowing it to happen. Any woman who would lie the way she did was not going to be good for Denmark. Damn the laws that meant I would have no say about it.

If I was a wealthy woman, I’d pack my boy up and take him far away where they’d never find any of us. It might not seem fair, since he wasn’t biologically mine, but they hadn’t been fair to me and Den with their actions. It made me wonder why the good people always came in last. I did everything right, but I was left to suffer the bulk of the consequences from everyone else’s actions.

Once I got Denmark settled, I started to look through my texts. If it wasn’t someone I spoke to regularly, the messages were deleted. It hurt to hear what people thought I was capable of, or to feel their pity through their words when they knew better. All of them, no matter the sentiment, just wanted the details. They were fishing for a story that was too personal to me to give. It sucked that a perverted version of the not even close to being true story was already out there for public consumption.

I studiously ignored Ollie’s texts, though I couldn’t bring myself to delete them just yet. It was still up in the air whether it would be best to throw his platitudes away or read what he had to say. Part of me didn’t care. It wasn’t lip service I had been paying to my mother-in-law the other day when I’d said it didn’t matter. His explanations truly didn’t hold any weight when the outcome of those actions meant my world was the one shattered.

As I sat there contemplating life, injustices, and whether or not to read his text messages, my brother called me.

“Hey, I’m not really in-”

Steve cut me off. “Turn on the TV to Channel 12.”

“Why?”

“Just do it, now!” Steve sounded panicked, so I flicked the TV on and was immediately bombarded with video of me and Den being walked to my car by Tommy, the school’s resource officer.

I hung up on Steve and turned the volume up loud enough to hear it but low enough that it wouldn’t wake up Denmark who had fallen asleep twenty minutes ago after crying his poor little eyes out.

“That was the scene earlier today when both Stephanie Burton and her stepson, Denmark Burton, were escorted out of the local elementary school. Stephanie works there as a preschool teacher while Denmark is a student. Tammy Blanchett, of News 12, got the scoop earlier as Principal Damon James explained that the Burtons were sent home for their safety.”

“If they could not mention my minor son’s name while standing in front of his elementary school, that would be great,” I grumbled. I sent a message to Hutch to get in touch with both the news channel and the school board about the violation of privacy concerning a minor child and the fact that his name was used in conjunction with the school he attended, making him a target.

As the broadcast continued with speculation surrounding the statement Jia had her agent put out, a breaking news banner ran across the bottom of the screen. Suddenly, Tammy Blanchett was back on screen, but this time it was from in front of Caleb’s law firm.

“This is Tammy Blanchett of News 12, and we’re outside Gardner and Phelps Legal Offices where we had a tip that Jia was in a meeting with Oliver Burton. Burton and Jia were once in a relationship that resulted in them having a son together. Burton appears to have been raising his son with his wife of three years, Stephanie Burton, until news broke that Burton and Jia were having an affair.”

“That’s a lot to take in, Tammy,” the male anchor back in the studio cut in like an idiot. Tammy didn’t hide her irritation at being cut off in her summation of my life.

“It gets deeper as we keep digging into this, Ben. A couple days ago, Jia’s representatives released a statement on her behalf claiming that Oliver Burton’s wife was the other woman in the scenario and that she split them up more than seven years ago when Jia first made her way to Hollywood. If her story was to be believed, That would have made Mrs. Burton only 19 to 20 years old at the time and in the early years of university life at Blue Ridge University in nearby Parksville, Virginia. This is where Jia’s story appears to flounder because Mr. Burton and his son were living in Richmond, Virginia at the time.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem very feasible unless it was a bit of a long distance relationship.”

“Indeed, our investigative reporters were unable to find any relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Burton prior to four years ago when they started to date. In fact, the timeline of their relationship is chronicled over those four years via Mrs. Burton’s social media accounts.”

An explosion of noise broke out behind the reporter as Ollie exited the building looking absolutely frustrated. He quickly pulled himself together and moved toward the reporters who were lying in wait, rather than shying away from them.

“Mr. Burton, do you have anything to say about Jia’s accusations that your wife broke up your relationship?” Tammy yelled to him. Ollie’s eyes tracked the sound and it appeared as though he was looking directly at me for a few minutes.

“That was a poorly fabricated lie on the part of Julianna Hightower, otherwise known as Jia professionally.” Ollie sneered as he tacked on the “professionally” part. “I met my wife for the first time four years ago and married her a year later. She is, and has always been, a beautiful, kind, caring, and compassionate woman who does not deserve to have Jia’s lies hurled upon her to disrupt her life.”

“Did she deserve to have her husband cheat on her and carry on a three-month long affair with Jia?” One of the male reporters in the crowd asked.

“She did not deserve what I am currently putting her through and if I could take back my one action that led to this tragic mess, I would in a heartbeat.”

“You regret your affair?” Tammy asked.

“Absolutely, but let me be clear here. There was never an affair. I had a one-night stand with Jia three months ago after she sent me a text that she was in town and wanted to discuss our son. As it turned out, Jia targeted me that night with a plan in mind. In my inebriated state, I allowed nostalgia for a former flame to cloud my judgement and I slept with her.

“Julia-Jia recorded that event and used it to blackmail me. When I refused to sleep with her again, she used it so that I would help her find a doctor who could perform facial reconstruction surgery to repair the damage her accident did to her face and neck. If she had asked for the money outright, I would have given it to her with no strings attached. Jia wanted to be the one to pull strings though. She used her blackmail tape to coerce me into traveling with her to find the right doctor.”

“Why didn’t you go to the authorities if you were being blackmailed into an on-going affair?” The male reporter asked again, only the camera caught him rolling his eyes as if he didn’t believe that line at all.

“When you accuse a moderately well-known, D-list actress of blackmail, it helps to have proof. I was gathering that while also trying to get Jia to see reason. Unfortunately, she hatched a plan to get back the family she abandoned for Hollywood to earn sympathy points from her supposed fan base. That is when she decided to lie about my wife having broken us up. I will reiterate once more that I did not meet my wife until four years ago. Jia broke up with me in a letter that she left on my porch, along with my infant son, seven years ago. I have security video footage of her doing this to back up my claims as well.” Ollie took a moment to glare at every single camera aimed at him.

“You people have been vilifying the wrong woman. Stephanie has already endured enough hurt because of my bad decisions, she doesn’t deserve the vitriol you all have slung her way, or to have her life placed under a microscope as a result.”

“It’s your word against Jia’s,” the male reporter snapped.

“It’s my word, along with a whole lot of evidence of Jia’s lies, for anyone who cares to do any real reporting. She will have her own statement available for you soon. Jia is angry because I got the proof of her blackmail and stopped kowtowing to her every whim. She had some grand scheme that marrying me and pretending to be a happy family with our son would earn her credibility along with sympathy over her accident and the scars that were left behind.

“Let me be the first to announce, since no one bothered to do any investigating back then either, that I have Jia on a recording admitting the accident was her fault because she was trying to snort some blow off a producer’s genitalia and he lost control of the vehicle.” Ollie shook his head and stared into the camera from Station 12 News.

“I love my wife. Stephanie is the best kind of person. She put up with my moods, took my son under her wing from the very beginning, and he flourished there. If you asked my boy who his favorite parent is, he would tell you Steph and I would be okay with that because he would be right. She’s been the one to make his world brighter, to cheer him on in every aspect of his life, and to teach him how to be a good man one day. He’ll know how to treat a woman because she’ll have taught him. I’m thankful for that because the lesson I have for him is what it looks like when you’re a weak man who made the wrong decision. What I’ve shown him is what it looks like to throw your whole life into a tailspin when you should have appreciated what you already had.”

“You said: ‘What you already had’, is Stephanie divorcing you?” Tammy asked.

“She’s certainly trying to, and while that isn’t what I want, I certainly don’t blame her for that decision.”

Ollie didn’t wait around to answer any further questions. Instead, he walked off, got in his car, and left. I had a feeling we were his destination.

Thankfully, there was a knock on my door before I could work myself into a tizzy about that. I didn’t even make it to the door before Steve was there and had me wrapped up in his arms.

“You didn’t have to come,” I told my brother.

“I was already on my way to deliver a message from Hutch when the story broke.

“Did you hear it?”

“Yeah, Hutch was on the line with me and turned it up so I could hear as I drove.”

“What did you think?”

“I think it was a whole lot of drama you should have never been a part of. He talks a big game for a man who fucked up all on his own. I admit, it sounds like he was knee deep in it with that bitch. The fact remains, he still went there willingly at least once for her to have any blackmail to hang over his head.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking too. Besides, you were right all along about him just wanting me to be his nanny.”

“Did he tell you that?” My brother’s eyes bulged with anger at the thought.

“No. It just makes sense.” I shrugged my shoulders and then moved away from my twin. “I never even realized, until it shocked me to see him text it the other day, that he’s never once said, “I love you” to me. He’s never said it directly to me in all the time we’ve been together. Now that he’s been caught cheating on me and turned me into a laughing stock for the entire world, he can’t seem to stop declaring his feelings.”

I laughed as my brother stood there looking shell shocked. “My dad does love you,” Denmark said. That knocked me right out of my tangent as I only spoke openly about it because I thought he was still napping upstairs.

“Den, I didn’t…”

“No, Steph. I know he loves you because he tells me all the time.” His little face scrunched up before he added, “He used to tell me all the time before. When he used to come home like normal.”

“You’re not wrong, Den.” All three of us turned to see Ollie standing there in the doorway. I couldn’t even yell and shout that he wasn’t supposed to be there because his son was in the mix and I wouldn’t do anything to traumatize him any further than he already had been.

“Why did you and that lady do bad things to my mom?” Denmark asked his father in such an angry tone that even I was shocked by it.

“Your mom is the one who did bad things, Den,” Ollie explained quietly. I knew exactly what he meant and it was a stab to my damn heart that he still had the audacity to call that bitch Denmark’s mom.

“What did you do that was bad, Momma Steph?”

My mouth opened and closed a couple times because I didn’t know how to address this situation properly.

“Wait,” Ollie back peddled. “When I said ‘your mom’ I was talking about your real mom.” Ollie’s explanation drove those little daggers of betrayal deeper into my heart and offered a little twist while he was there tearing me apart.

“Steph is my real mom!” Denmark screamed at his father before running to me. “Steph is my mom ! Only Steph!” As his arms wrapped around my midsection I leaned in and wrapped my boy in my love as best I could.

“I… Shit…” Ollie groaned as he swiped his hands through his hair in frustration.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” My brother asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That freaking woman who set you up, blackmailed you, and threw my sister under a bus of her lies… You know, the same one who hauled ass seven and a half years ago without an ounce of remorse for who she left behind? That bitch is the one you keep giving the “mom” title to. Meanwhile, my sister has been in your son’s life, feeding him, wiping his nose, taking care of him when he’s sick, teaching him shit, and being the best fucking mother possible and still you can’t even allow him to bestow that title on her. You just keep beating my sister’s heart to pieces with that bullshit and now you’re doing it to your son as well.”

“Julianna is Denmark’s biological mother, whether she’s a horrible human or not.”

“Then call it like it is – like anyone else in your situation would – she’s his bio-mom. Steph is the mom that counts.” Steve pointed to where Denmark was still huddled into me. “Obviously. Maybe you should take some social cues from your boy. He’s not stupid. Can’t say the same for you.”

“Steve!” I called in warning. Not because I didn’t agree with him but because Denmark didn’t need to hear his uncle call his father names.

“Sorry, Den, but sometimes adults act dumb and we need to call them out on their crap so they can see the problems and fix them.”

“You’re right, Uncle Steve. My dad is dumb. I keep telling him that Steph is my mom and he won’t let me call her that.” Denmark glared at Ollie as his dad sank down onto the couch with a defeated sigh.

“You’re right. I got so caught up trying to make sure he knew the difference, I forgot the difference was staring us all in the face. My boy was smart enough to know it all along. He understood that Julia wasn’t here and Steph always was. I got stuck on thinking she’d come back and be a mom to him at some point.”

“Why the hell would you wish that on your kid?” Steve asked. I wanted to know the answer to that as well. “You think your son doesn’t realize that woman has never been around, never said happy birthday to him once in his life. Damn man, why would you even want a woman that could so easily remove herself from your kid’s life to come back to it?”

“I don’t know. I said the idea has just been stuck there in my mind since the day she left. When I found him on the porch, I honestly expected her to pop out of the fucking bushes and tell me she would never leave him alone like that. I kept thinking that she would be back, she would make up for it somehow. And I told myself that so many fucking times, because I didn’t want to disappoint my son with the truth that his mother didn’t give a shit about anyone but herself.”

“The truth is sometimes easier to digest than the lies,” I said. “You’ve been doing more harm than good. All this time, you’ve had him waiting for some miracle where she was concerned. Whether he wants to admit it or not, your son has waited for Julia to come back because you kept promising it would happen. She’s been back in your life for months now. Has she even asked to see him in all that time? Has she even bothered to ask how he's doing?”

Ollie shook his head and cried. “I knew that night. The night I first ran into her. After…” He choked on the words, cutting off what ‘after’ meant. “I asked if she wanted to come see him and she laughed and asked why she would do that when I went and found him a mom to do all that shit with him.” Ollie winced as his eyes moved to his son’s. “I’m so sorry buddy. I’m sorry your mom isn’t a better person.”

“She’s NOT MY MOM!” Denmark shouted at him again.

“No, you’re right. She never has been. You’re right about that and I should have admitted to that a long time ago. The only good thing she did was bring you into this world so that I could have you in my life.”

I didn’t say a word, even as Ollie looked up at me. There was no doubt in my mind that he was about to make things difficult for me.

“Can we talk?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” I explained as tactfully as possible considering his son was standing there.

“I want to live with Momma Steph.” We both turned to see Denmark stubbornly cross his arms over his chest as he issued that demand to his father.

“Hey bud, why don’t we leave them alone to talk out the logistics of where you’ll be sleeping and we can go grab an ice cream.”

I turned accusing eyes toward my brother then because it seemed an awful lot like he was helping my soon-to-be ex-husband out by leaving him alone with me. Steve glanced down at my belly that was pooched out even more today than it had been before. He wasn’t helping Ollie out. He wanted me to do the right thing and tell the man he was about to be a father again amidst the horrific drama he had caused by cheating on me.

Great.

I would never deny my child the right to know their father, but I wished that it was something I could keep from Ollie because he didn’t deserve to know. Ollie hadn’t missed the pointed glance my brother threw toward me, or what specific part of my body it landed on. He stared as Steve helped Denmark get his shoes back on.

“Don’t make my mom upset or angry,” Den warned his father.

“I promise to keep her calm, Den.”

His son nodded once, ran to give me a quick hug, and then followed my brother out the door. Once they were gone and the door shut behind them, I reluctantly turned my attention back to Ollie.