idea. Marti told me she painted it for you. You’re a very lucky girl.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
* * *
CAMERON SAT AT their table, staring at the envelope from Marti afraid to open it.
“Just open it, Cameron. It’s not going to bite you,” Jenna teased, though it didn’t hold a lot of amusement.
“What’s in the envelope? Who gave it to you?” Shelly asked, confused as ever by everyone’s odd behavior.
Emma went back to giving him the silent treatment, watching Shelly like a hawk from Sam’s lap.
“It’s from Marti.” Cameron held the envelope, stared at his name scrawled in Marti’s flowing script, unable to make himself open it. He didn’t want it to be goodbye, anything but that. He’d been hard on her in the hospital. He hadn’t slept much since. All he thought about was their baby. He didn’t even know if Marti had been upset by the loss. She looked okay tonight. She was in public though, so he couldn’t tell if she was in pain or grieving for their child. Worse, he didn’t know if she wasn’t grieving their child.
That wasn’t the worst. He hadn’t even talked to her about it. He’d yelled at her. She loved him. She must have been devastated to lose their baby, and he hadn’t been there for her, hadn’t sought his own comfort in her arms over their shared loss.
He felt like his brain was in some kind of whirlwind with his thoughts spinning around. He didn’t know what was right or wrong.
Everyone kept telling him to see Marti for who she was. She would be devastated if she lost the baby. He knew that for sure. He needed to get to her and talk to her. If she was feeling as bad as he was, she needed him as much as he needed her.
He knows her. She loves him and Emma. She keeps her promises, never lies. He put her through hell by choosing to be with Shelly because of the baby, and not because he loved Shelly over Marti.
He wanted the baby. He didn’t want Shelly. He wanted Marti.
“Who cares what she has to say. She tried to hurt me. Tomorrow, when we’re married, she won’t be able to come between us ever again. She’ll realize you belong to me.”
Cameron winced. The only people he belonged to, heart and soul, were Emma and Marti. The only thing he wanted from Shelly was his baby, if there was a baby. He wasn’t so sure anymore, he hadn’t been for a while, but hated to admit to such a colossal mistake. Pride be damned, he needed some straight answers.
He looked around the table at his friends, who he considered his family. Emma called them aunt and uncle. They told it like it is. They’d kicked him out of Marti’s hospital room and Sam and Jack had punched him. They considered him their brother, and yet they’d taken Marti’s side after the whole stairs incident. Why would they side with her over him?
“Okay. Enough of all this crap. Tell me what you know, and I keep missing.”
“You’re an idiot,” Jenna said.
“You’re stupid,” Jack said.
“You’re an asshole,” Sam said while he covered Emma’s ears.
Elizabeth offered up something less irritating. “You’re engaged to the wrong person.”
That was the only thing that made sense to him. Yeah, he was being an idiot and stupid for not sorting this mess out sooner. He could even admit he’d been an asshole to them and to Marti. He’d finally had enough. He wanted his life back in order. He wanted his daughter to smile again. He wanted to stop living with this all-encompassing grief over losing George and his baby in a matter of weeks. He couldn’t think straight anymore.
“Tell me the truth.”
“We just did,” Sam said and smiled. “You want the truth about Marti? We’ll tell you, even though you already know. Shelly’s confused you over the last two months by feeding you lies. You believed the lies and refused to accept the truth. The truth is simple. Marti loves you. She isn’t a liar.
“It’s also interesting to note Shelly claims Marti fell forward down the stairs. She doesn’t have a single mark on the front of her, but her back looks like a set of stairs hit her.”
“Those are the marks on her back. You pulled down her wrap when her back was to me, so I’d see the bruises across her shoulders.” They were the perfect image of where she must have hit the stair ledge when she’d fallen.