“Hi Mr. Matthews, is there anything else I can get for you?” I questioned politely as I entered the green room with water and snacks. He smiled back up at me and looked down at his two young girls.
“If you happen to see anything that might keep these two occupied for a little while, I’d be incredibly grateful,” he chuckled. “And please…call me Dave.” He smirked as he opened the cookie packages for his daughters. I beamed. I loved it when celebrities seemed to care so much about their children. Why couldn’t Nick care about Connor like that?
“Absolutely,” I nodded and exited the room. “He’s such a nice guy.” I whispered to Paige.
“And not too shabby looking either,” she raised her eyebrows with a giggle. I went into my personal bag I brought from home and pulled out one of Connor’s coloring books. “Jeez, you’re such a great mom.”
“Ha, never,” I laughed with a sigh. “I’ve just learned over the years that children have no tolerance for subways getting stuck or sitting in a smelly taxi in traffic. So I carry things like this around with me to keep him occupied.” I shrugged. “No biggie. When you have kids, you’ll learn.” I winked.
“I sure hope so. I’m calling you whenever I do have kids,” she chuckled. “You’re so experienced.”
She was right. I was really experienced. Raising Connor all on my own for five years hadn’t been easy. Sure, I had friends and family that were willing to help, but I kind of cancelled all of that out when I up and moved to New York. “Aw, you’ll do fine. You’re great with Connor.” I grinned at her. She was. Connor had called Paige “Aunt Paige” ever since I started working at the station; in his mind, he had known her since he was born since he couldn’t really remember much from when he was one.
“Yeah, well, he’s not my own kid,” she laughed and rolled her eyes. I knocked lightly on Dave Matthew’s door and opened it as she disappeared in the studio.
“Here ya go,” I winked at the two little girls sitting on the floor looking quite bored. “My son loves to color, and it really passes the time.” She encouraged them. “Have fun, okay?”
“Thank you so much, Sarah. I really appreciate it!” Dave looked relieved and I laughed.
“No problem. Trust me, I have a five-year-old at home. I completely understand the attention span of children,” I beamed. “Please, if there’s anything else, feel free to flag one of us down. We’re here to make you comfortable.” It’s what I said to practically every celebrity that waltzed in there.
“You’re Nick Carter’s ex-wife, right?” His question nearly knocked the wind out of me. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to pull the smile back over my face.
“I am,” I nodded with a heavy sigh, trying not to sound too frustrated with his question.
“I met Nick in the studio just a few weeks ago,” Dave beamed as if I really wanted to talk about this. “He was telling me all about your son since he got to meet my girls there.” He explained. I wondered if Nick had made up some bogus lie about how I never let him see our son. Part of me wanted to break out with my side of the story, but I knew that would be completely unprofessional and way out of line.
“That’s nice,” I nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Well, I better get back to work. I’ll be around later to make sure you don’t need anything else.” I said quickly and hurried out the door, closing my eyes on the way out and sucking in a deep breath. I couldn’t help myself and started thinking back to how everything unfolded with Nick and I.
I bit my bottom lip as I heard Leighanne open the front door. It had been three days since I had left. Part of me was glad Nick had stayed behind and let me have my own space. I think he was terrified that if he came for me, I’d run and he’d never see his son. I tried to dry the tears nestling in my eyes as he walked into the living room where I was. No ‘hi’ or ‘hello’, he just sat down across from me and stared at me crazily, as if this was all my fault.
“What do you want, Nick?” I was able to muster as I folded my arms across my big belly.
“I want to know why you’re acting like this, Sarah. I understand you’re experiencing a lot of hormones right now and you’re going through a lot…I’m sorry I don’t have the time to deal with all of it,” he said. I wanted to reach across and slap him myself.
“I’m sorry I pulled you into this mess of a marriage,” I spat. “I should have realized you wouldn’t have had the time to ‘deal’ with it.” I was angry. Hell, I was beyond angry. Here I had been, the perfect little housewife putting up with all of Nick’s shit. And he couldn’t even give a damn about me or what I was going through.
“Jesus Christ, Sarah! You knew when you got involved with me that life was going to be rough! I warned you well in advanced before this all happened,” he motioned towards the little life nestled in my stomach. “But you said it wasn’t a big deal, you could handle it all!” He yelled.
“I didn’t realize ‘handling’ it meant I would have to deal with never seeing you, never talking to you! Nick, I know you’re having an affair. I’ve been shoving it all to the back of my mind ever since I first started getting suspicious!” I was so angry with him I could practically feel my blood boiling.
“Woah, woah, woah!” He cut me off. “Affair?! What the fuck are you talking about?” He stood up and looked down at me, screaming even louder. “How dare you fucking accuse me of having an affair! You know that’s not true.”
“How, Nick? How am I supposed to know?” I yelled back, this time standing up so I could at least be closer to his face. Closer so he could see me angry.
“That’s called trust, Sarah. It’s what marriage is all about,” he calmed down a bit, but continued to stare me square in the face.
I swallowed all my pride, all my love for him and sucked up a bit of courage. This next part would be the hardest thing I would ever have to do in my life, I could only imagine. “I don’t trust you, Nick.” I muttered softly, licking my lips. “So I guess this marriage thing just isn’t working out for us. I want a divorce.”
I felt the warm pools of salty tears forming in my eyes. God damn him for still having such a strong effect over me. Just thinking about the time I ended our marriage (even though it was quite unhappy and nothing I had ever dreamt of) made me sad. I wiped under my eyes and returned to my office area to continue working. I noticed my voicemail was blinking.
I tapped ‘Play’ on the box and prepared a post-it note and pen to write down whatever message someone had written me, hoping to get back to them later. “Hi Miss James, this is Mrs. Lynn from Connor’s kindergarten class. We’ve had a bit of an issue take place. I’ll go ahead and try his father, but I know you said you were the parent with custody. Please call back as soon as you can. Thank you.”
My heart was beating so loudly in my chest I was just sure everyone around me could hear it. I quickly dialed the number I had memorized in case of emergency and tapped my fingers nervously on my desk as I waited. “Hi, this is Mandy with P.S. 130 Hernando Desoto Elementary. How can I help you?” I heard the secretary.
“Yes, this is Sarah James. I received a call from Mrs. Lynn about my son, Connor,” I rattled off quickly. “Is everything alright?”
“Oh, yes Miss James. I’ll connect you to Mrs. Lynn’s office. One moment,” I heard the click and waited for the phone to continue ringing. Had he fallen at the playground? Usually when he went home sick, the nurse would be the one to call me.
“Hi, this is Sharron,” I heard Mrs. Lynn’s voice.
“Hi, Mrs. Lynn. This is Sarah James returning your phone call. Is everything alright with Connor?” I questioned almost immediately, completely worried about his well-being.
“Everything’s fine, Miss James,” she reassured me. “Actually, I was calling about Connor’s behavior.” Behavior? My jaw instantly dropped. Connor had never had issues with his behavior. He was a good kid. “Connor and another student got into an argument today in gym class. I’m not too worried about this; this is the first we’ve seen any aggression from Connor. The other boy has been in trouble before, so we understand this could very well be a one-time occurrence for Connor. But by our school’s rules and standards, I not only have to call you but I have to send Connor home for fighting.”
I closed my eyes and rubbed my temple. This was the time when I blamed Nick. Nick had quite a temper when I knew him, and I just swore he passed it on to our son. “I understand,” I sighed. “I’ll be right over.”
“Oh, it’s not necessary. Mr. Carter came by about five minutes ago and picked him up,” she assured me. My eyes opened. I was more shocked than anything. Nick was never around…so why now? I quickly excused myself from the phone conversation, apologizing for Connor’s behavior and that I’d be sure to talk to him about it, and hung up, dialing Nick’s cell number faster than I ever had before.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Wow! I was completely blown away at all the reviews! Thank you so much!! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story so far :]. Please keep the reviews coming!!
