When Reality Bites Pt 4

Honey who had moved away in order to heal, met a very nice guy by the name of Tyler Cottinger. He was 29, a year older than she was, he was 6ft tall, had dark brown hair and he adored the ground that Honey walked on. He was an architect, who was very good at designing. He wasn't as handsome as Trip was, but he was kind and gentle with her and he loved Vanilla as if she was his own.
After a year passed Tyler asked her to be his wife, she turned him down but a week later when he asked again she accepted. Vanilla was now almost two and Honey decided to visit her sister Coco and give her the news.
Coco was happy for Honey and Vanilla, it had been so long since she'd seen her little sister so happy.
Vanilla was a beauty to behold, she was the splitting image of her dad. She was still a quiet child but one could see that she was a happy child as well.
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Brooklyn who had decided to throw her husband a surprise birthday party was shocked when she discovered that the money in their shared account was not as much as it ought to be. She was sure something was wrong and so she went to see the bank manager. Mr. Russo, a short fidgety man who made her very nervous by the way he kept pushing up his glasses on to his nose every time it slid down which was every other second. He assured her that the withdrawals from the account were legitimate, in fact an arrangement had been made for the same sum to be withdrawn every month and placed in another account. Suddenly the birthday party was the last thing on her mind.
As she drove slowly home she wondered why, Trip withdrawing money and sending it to another account? Why was he hiding this from her, they had always been very honest and open with each other.

When she finally got home she was glad he was not there, she knew she would have lost her cool. After a lot of thinking she decided to wait and see if he'd come clean. He never did.
After a week of waiting Brooklyn decided to hire a private investigator to see what her husband was up to, it didn't take him long to uncover everything. Brooklyn was devastated, at first she was in shock, she couldn't understand how this could have happened to her. She had heard all the stories before but never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine that this would have happened to her.

That same night she confronted her husband, she had lost a lot of weight worrying over the past week and her clothes hung loosely on her frame, she was surprised he hadn't noticed.
"Trip, our savings is not what it should be."
"Wha..." Trip replied too quickly.
Brooklyn did not miss the way his eyes darted from hers nervously, she didn't miss the way his hand suddenly flew to his mouth and she certainly didn't miss the beads of sweat that appeared on his brow.
"Yes, Is there something that I should know? What's happened to our money Trip?"
"It's not what you think." Trip replied quickly.

Brooklyn smiled and was shocked at how calm she felt, she wanted to hear him say it. Hear him say the words her private investigator had said to her. She knew all about the money he was sending to some woman name Honey, she had heard that name before but couldn't quite remember where.
"I've just been helping out someone." Trip continued. He didn't know how far he'd be able to go with the lie. He kept telling himself that he wasn't really lying, he was helping Honey and Vanilla. He wondered how much she knew.
"I've been to the bank Trip...I know about her, is she your mistress?" Brooklyn asked.
Trip sat down heavily it seemed as if his whole world was about to come crashing down, how could he have been so careless.

"Brook, I'm sorry I ….I never told you this before I just didn't know how to." Trip began.
"Just say it and get over with."
"A long time ago, I did something very very wrong....something that I'm not proud of...I was so afraid that you'd leave me if you found out. You have to believe me Brook, I love you and I never never meant for this to happen."
"So if this happened so long ago why are you still sending her money? Is she blackmailing you?"
Trip realized then that Brooklyn didn't have all the details, he decided to come clean and just deal with whatever happened.
"It's more than that...she got pregnant-"

"What?!" The realization suddenly dawned on her, she felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach, she couldn't breathe. All along she had accepted that he'd had an affair and she was even ready to forgive him, but a baby, that changed everything. A loud and painful sob rose from her throat, she wondered she was having an heart attack. She got up to run, but Trip held on to her, trying to hug her but she fought him.
"Brook please...I'm so so sorry." Trip found himself crying, he couldn't remember the last time he cried.
"I love you and only you."
"Take your hands off me. How can you say you love me? You've been keeping this secret from me for so long. I don't know you, you're not the man I married." Brooklyn shrieked, she didn't care if her neighbors heard, she wanted to scream but only sobs came from her throat.

Trip let his hands drop dejectedly to his side and she walked past him to the bedroom, at the door she turned back, she had just remembered something.
"That woman...who came here looking for a job...her name was also Honey..." she did not have to continue, the look on his face was enough to confirm her suspicions. The laugh that came from her throat was strange to her but she couldn't stop, she laughed until she couldn't stop. Finally when the laughing stopped the tears came again. She started pulling out suitcases and stuffing clothes in wildly.

When she emerged from the room, Trip was still standing where she had left him his head turned downward. She brushed past him toward the front door.
"Where are you going?" Trip asked quietly.
"Away from you..."
"Can't we work this out?"
"Work this out? You have a child with another woman...for months you've kept that secret from me. I knew that something was wrong, I just couldn't put my finger on it. How do you think I feel?...Knowing that some other woman has given you the one thing I couldn't..."
"If I could take it all back...I would...I don't want to loose you" Trip pleaded.
"It can't be taken back....I was prepared to give you another chance if I'd found out that you were having an affair all I wanted was for you to end it....but a baby..."
Brooklyn carried her bags to her car. She hadn't even made up her mind where she was going but she knew she had to get away.

Chapter 5

A year passed and Trip didn't hear from Brooklyn, no one knew where she was. It was like she had vanished from the face of the earth. When the bank account that he was sending money to was closed, he tried to contact Honey, Coco told him that Honey had gotten married and had moved away and she didn't know where she had gone to, Trip knew she was lying but he also knew it was because of his behavior in the past.

Then finally he received his divorce papers from Brooklyn. He longed to speak with her ask for one more chance but she made sure he couldn't find her. She had resigned from the school where she had worked and they didn't have a clue as to where she was either.
In the end Trip became a broken man for he had lost everything. He was never really the same again. He stopped trying to find Brooklyn and Vanilla and lived for his job, it was the only thing that remained the same, the only thing he had left.

The End