The Returned

Had it been for the sole purpose of stealing the children? Or was there something else going on? If it was for the children then I was a little reassured that they wouldn’t be harmed, but I couldn’t be sure of anything.

It was obvious the cops still didn’t believe her and time was running out. I’m not about to wait around for them to come up with something else to corner us with.

From my own personal experience I know their only interest is in closing the case regardless of whether they’ve got the right man or not.

As I stood there holding her, my mind went to the call the cops had received. Since we’d all agreed not to let anyone know that she was back, did this mean that the perpetrator had figured it out somehow?

Did he or she know that she was here and was trying to flush her out? Mom and dad wouldn’t have told anyone and the hospital was under strict orders not to.

I didn’t mention it to her but made up my mind to call mom the first chance I got. Instead I kept her distracted for the rest of the afternoon. And when she started stressing again, I took her to the floor of the nursery and fucked her until her mind was no longer on her worries.

Just as I’d hoped, a nice hard fuck knocked her out and I put her down for a nap. I was about to call mom and dad when there was a knock at the door. I got pissed expecting to see the asshole detectives again, but I almost wished it were them instead of my surprise guest.

“Mindy, what are you doing here?” I barely kept myself from looking back at the stairs to see if her knock had awakened Zandi.

“You didn’t return my calls so I came by to see if you were okay.” I was going to close the door and talk to her outside, but how could I do that without raising suspicion?

She took the decision out of my hand anyway when she walked past me into the house. It was only my own guilt that kept me from halting her and dragging her back outside.

I followed her inside, realizing how wrong it felt having her here. I’d never invited her here before, another red flag that I’d overlooked. Shoving my hands in the pockets of my slacks I met her in the living room where is as far as she’d gone.

“Listen I’m sorry I didn’t return your calls, but I’ve been sick as you know…

“It’s okay, as long as you’re okay.” She looked around the room before taking a seat on the couch. She was making herself comfortable and all I could think about was getting her the hell out of here before my woman woke up.

They’d only met a handful of times in the past and there hadn’t been any negative tension between them. But now that she was here, I realized that there was no good way to tell Zandi that I’d almost married her.

Cade

She made small talk while I sweated it out, counting down the minutes in my head. I was being rude as hell, but this shit was the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been in my life.

I thought I heard movement coming from upstairs but when Zandi didn’t appear I relaxed again. “You’re not being very hospitable Cade, is something going on?”

“No, my mind is just not here…” Now I know I heard footsteps heading towards the stairs.

“Oh, I thought you were avoiding me because of the way you broke our engagement. I just came to let you know that there’s no hard feelings….”

There was no way I could miss the loud sigh that came from behind. She didn’t come into the room but I knew she was there, on the stairs, listening. Fuck!

“Listen Mindy, I can’t do this right now. I’ll call you when I have some free time. I already gave you all the reasons why us getting married wasn’t a good idea, I don’t think there’s anything more that needs to be said….”

I saw movement out the side of my eye just seconds before Mindy got to her feet as she looked behind me. “That’s fine. I just wish you hadn’t waited until we became so intimate before telling me.”

“What the fuck did you just do?” There’s no way she hadn’t seen Zandi come into the room. “Intimate?”

“Zandi? You’re back?” There was a note of surprise in her voice but somehow it felt contrived to me.

If I didn’t know better I’d swear this whole thing had been planned. That’s not fair. She’s never been anything but nice to me and I’ve never seen anything even remotely deceitful in her behavior in all the years I’ve known her.

It’s just my own guilt I’m sure, projecting onto her. I reached for Zandi’s hand but she ignored me and just stood there, staring back at Mindy who was looking back and forth between us with a shocked look on her face.