Fool Me Once Read online

  Fool

  Me

  Once

  Olivia Marie

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Fool Me Once

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Dedication

  For all the ones who were fooled by someone, they thought they could trust. Don’t give up on everyone because there are good people left in the world. I have a handful in my life that I can trust fully. The ones who tricked me, they taught me so much about how people can be and how I react to them. In many ways, they helped make me who I am. I guess for that, I should be thankful.

  PROLOGUE

  You made us feel sorry for you. Spinning your web of lies, you told the tale you wanted to make us take you in and feel your pain. Making them out to be the monsters, you cost one person a friendship of over three decades and a relationship with family that could never be fixed. Lying and stealing along the way to benefit your needs, you didn’t care who you hurt.

  As much as I hated you for that, nothing compared to what you took from me.

  The only way you would ever feel that pain would be to become a mother yourself, but I pray that never happens. You are too selfish to ever truly love another human being more than you love yourself. Lying is a specialty of yours, and all you see in people is what you can take from them next.

  Someday I really do hope you can change and be the person we thought you were in the beginning. If you can’t, I hope you can see how damaging you are and let him go before he fully turns into someone like you or before you take all you can from him and throw him away like I’ve seen you do to others.

  I wanted to love you and even did in the beginning. You were the daughter I wanted and lost, but time took away your cover and the real you came through. It wasn’t someone I liked.

  You’re a storyteller, and a good one at that, but the reality was, you were the villain in all of them. It wasn’t your parents or even their roommate. It wasn’t the house you had or the car that left you stranded over and over. You made the choices you did and the aftereffects of it, well, that was all on you.

  Coming into our house and playing your little games left a wake of destruction behind you that we are still cleaning up after. My first reaction when I found out about you wasn’t good, but I was told you were different, and I needed to give you another chance. I wished again they were right, and you really weren’t like your mother. In many ways, you weren’t – you were worse.

  Your parents failed you. But you let them. At some point in your life, you had to decide who you were going to be and stop letting the things that happened to you – or didn’t – determine who you were. Until you can do that, you will never be the person you were meant to be.

  And for that I am sad.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The phone rang at just after midnight. We were on our way to bed since we had to get up the next morning for work. Knowing our oldest son was thinking about coming home in the next few days, my husband answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Dad,” Cody said on the other end of the line.

  “Hey, bud. What’s up?”

  “I’m coming home, but I was wondering if Lexi could come with.”

  “I guess,” he said and looked at me while shrugging his shoulders.

  “Cool. See you in the morning then.”

  They hung up, and he turned to me. His lips were pressed together so hard, they were turning white, and the frown was so deep his eyebrows almost touched. Seeing that he was suddenly wide awake had me wondering what was going on.

  “What was that all about?” I asked.

  “Cody is coming home, but he wanted to know if Lexi could come with.”

  “For how long?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m assuming a few weeks maybe.” He shrugged his shoulders again and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

  I was nervous for them to get here because I hadn’t seen Lexi since she was a small child. I always felt sorry for his best friend’s daughter’s. His oldest, Molly, was treated like crap and Lexi, well, she couldn’t do anything wrong. I knew back then nothing good would come of that, and I was right. Molly had abandoned her dad years ago and with it, anyone that reminded her of him. That meant ditching us also and that hurt. Molly was a good girl. Always quiet and polite, but she wasn’t Angie and Pete’s, and Angie had no problem reminding her of that. The part I never understood was how Pete could stand by and let Angie treat his daughter the way she had.

  I thought back to the day almost twenty years ago while I carried my first child in my belly. Lexi was almost one and was taken to a job site with her parents and older half-sister. Molly was in charge of watching her and keeping her safe. She wasn’t that much older than Lexi and being a child herself, she wanted to do something – anything – other than watch her baby sister. Molly took her eyes off her for a minute, and Lexi crawled off a small stairwell. It was only two steps and she landed in the grass, but Angie lost it on her.

  “You are so irresponsible. What if she would’ve gotten hurt? You didn’t even watch her like you were supposed to. Molly, you will never amount to anything if you can’t get your life together,” her stepmom screamed at her as she scooped her daughter into her arms and coddled her. She promised her ice cream and a new toy once they were done working. “You can watch us eat dessert.”

  What I hated was watching Molly shrink into herself and her dad stand there and watch. It wasn’t the only time I heard them scream at her for things they should’ve done and not what they left up to their older daughter. Molly was the real-life Cinderella, and everyone outside of their family saw it.

  “I guess we will see in the morning what they have planned. I need to get some sleep though. All-day meetings tomorrow will bore me to death as it is.”

  “Yeah. At least he’ll be home. The house seems so weird without him.”

  “Maybe we should lock him in his room when he gets here,” Randy joked.

  “Probably not. After a while of him being back, you know we will be wondering when he plans on leaving the house again,” I laughed.

  “True.”

  “Does Pete know she’s coming here?” I asked as Randy reached for the light switch.

  “I have no clue. I’m sure he does. Lexi can’t move without her parents up her ass, and it’s not like we live next door anymore.”

  “Well, we weren’t expecting Cody to stay there for three weeks either,” I reminded him.

  Cody wasn’t much on leaving the house to even do sleepovers when he was little. For him to go three states away and stay in a house he hadn’t seen since he was two was out of character for him. I wasn’t sure if Lexi was the same or not, but I was sure I’d find out soon enough.

  When I first learned about their relationship, shock wasn’t the right word to use. I literally freaked out and told my kid his joke wasn’t funny. I begged him to be lying to me because the thought of him dating Pete and Angie’s kid had me livid.

  Pete was Randy’s best friend, a relationship I always respected even if I didn’t understand it, but the man was weird. I couldn’t tell if he was the poster child for male chauv
inist or if I read him wrong, but the things he would say at times had me thinking it wasn’t the misunderstanding I wanted it to be.

  Then there was Angie.

  As much as I wanted us to get along for Pete and Randy’s sake, there was no making her happy. I would be the submissive one when it came to the friendship we both forced ourselves to be in. She liked me about as much as someone liked a root canal. I liked her about as much as I liked being stung by a mob of angry hornets.

  I couldn’t help but think back to when we first moved to the state, I swore I’d never see again. Pete and Angie let us live with them for a few months until we found a place of our own. Having one baby, a small dog, and two adults in one room was hard, but I spent most of my time in there to stay out of the way of Angie.

  It wasn’t long after we moved in and Cody was about four months old that I found out I was pregnant again. It wasn’t the ideal situation, and me being new at all of this was told if I was nursing, I couldn’t get pregnant. Two positive tests and a trip to the doctor told me otherwise.

  “See that little spot right there?” the ultrasound tech asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s your baby. It looks like you’re about nine weeks along. Congratulations.” She smiled at me and waited for me to do the same.

  “Isn’t it dangerous to be pregnant right now?” I asked. I was still nursing Cody and was carrying my next child.

  “We’ll see what the doctor says, okay? I’m going to take you down the hall so they can draw blood and see how you’re doing that way.”

  When the doctor came into the room, she smiled at me holding Cody in my arms.

  “Well, you’re about to really have your hands full. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks,” was all I could say. I was still in shock.

  “You have a lot going on right now, and since you had complications with Cody, I’m strongly recommending you stop nursing and switch him to a bottle. Your body can only take care of so many people at one time. I don’t want it to reject the baby.”

  I did what they said and stopped immediately. I would’ve done anything for the new baby. After having Cody, I was already in love with the new life growing in my belly.

  But I was too late.

  About four weeks later, I lost my baby. She was perfect in every way. The pain of that was the worst I’d ever felt. Add to it the fact Randy wasn’t around and Angie had nothing nice or helpful to say about it, and I slipped into a big depression.

  So, when I heard my child was dating Lexi, my heart sank. I hoped I was wrong about her daughter Lexi, but no matter how I tried to get it to work in my head, all I could picture was a younger version of her mother.

  I was trying not to throw up.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Cody showed up about ten in the morning with Lexi and about a dozen boxes shoved in the back seat and trunk of his Mustang. Seeing him shuffle box after box into his already crowded room, my heart began to race. He wasn’t bringing her down for a short visit; he was moving her in without asking anyone in the house if it was even alright. I knew Randy and the relationship he had with Cody. I also knew my other son, Sean, and how the change in the house would affect him. It wasn’t going to be a good day. That much I knew.

  “Hey, buddy. How are you?” I asked trying to not freak out on him too much.

  “Tired. We’re going to go to bed for a little bit,” he said and gave me a very weak hug.

  “You just got here. Don’t you want to stay up for a few minutes?”

  “No. I’ll be up in a little bit. For sure when Dad gets home.”

  Lexi had gone to his room already and wasn’t coming back out. I’d seen her for a few seconds and when she walked through the door, I’d had to do a double take. She was almost a splitting image of her mother. My only hope was she didn’t share her same attitude.

  It took everything I had not to call Randy at work and give him the heads up. I knew all the meetings and things he had going on that day and me calling him to tell him about something he couldn’t even address until he got home was pointless. I would have to sit on it and try to calm myself.

  Cody headed into his room, shut the door, and left me there with many mixed feelings. Maybe Randy wouldn’t freak out too bad. He’d seen her more than I had anyway on his trips to see Pete. He told me so many times she wasn’t like Angie and that I had to give her another chance. I would, for them, but something still didn’t feel right.

  It felt like forever for Randy to get home, and Cody and Lexi never came out of their room. Sean had gotten up only an hour after Cody went into hibernation. His reaction was about the same as mine, but he didn’t vocalize it. I knew my child though and when his head hung low and he didn’t say much, I knew it was bothering him that Cody had moved Lexi in.

  “Hey,” Randy said getting out of his car. I was waiting for him in the garage. Unable to get to talk to him all day, I wanted to give him a little warning before he walked into the mess our oldest had tossed us into.

  “Cody got here about ten this morning.”

  “Oh good. Is Lexi with him? Did you get to spend any time with her yet?”

  “She’s here, but I haven’t seen her more than watching her carry boxes into Cody’s room.”

  “Boxes?” he asked and closed his car door.

  “Yeah. I think she just moved in.”

  “Um, I hope not. He didn’t ask any of us if she could.”

  “I know, but it’s Cody. You saying she could come last night was all he needed to hear for that to mean she could stay forever.”

  “When he gets up, we’ll sit them down and figure out what’s going on. How’s Sean doing with all of it?”

  “You know him. He’s been very quiet today and has stayed in his room a lot. He doesn’t like change, and Cody’s been gone for weeks. He was excited for him to come home, but Cody hiding from the second he got here isn’t helping Sean feel any better about what he’s doing. I about had a stroke when Lexi walked into the house. I thought she brought her mother down with her and that was who walked through the door. I really hope she isn’t like her.”

  “She’s not. Trust me on that.”

  “I’m going to give her a chance, but I still don’t like the idea of him dating Randy’s daughter.”

  “I know.”

  It was another three hours before Cody and Lexi came out of hiding. They walked out of their room and to the couch without saying a word. Cody sat first and Lexi sat so close to him, she was practically in his lap. The tension in the house was so bad, the air was suffocating. But that could’ve been only on me.

  Randy seemed pretty calm when he started to talk to Cody. If he was fishing for information, he was doing a great job. If he was trying to calm himself, well, that was still up in the air. I knew I had to keep my mouth shut because if I said what I was feeling, my son would never talk to me again. It wasn’t that it was a girl he brought home; it was because it was Lexi he brought home.

  “How was the drive back?” Randy started.

  “Good. We didn’t hit any traffic until we got closer. But it was fine.”

  “You got here pretty fast. Your mom said you had a lot of boxes you brought in,” Randy said, and Cory’s head snapped in my direction; he just stared.

  “She brought some stuff.” The way he said the short sentence was like he was on an undercover mission, and I’d just blown his cover.

  “Is she bringing more?” Randy pushed.

  “I don’t know what else she’s going to bring here. She has what she needs for now. She keeps telling her parents she doesn’t want to stay by them or in the house they got her. They don’t listen. Yesterday was the worst. They wouldn’t get off her case and had everything planned out for her the whole time I was there. I didn’t even get to see her much because he has her working two jobs,” Cody got out in one breath.

  “Does your dad know you left the state?” Randy dared to ask.

  Lexi looked from the window to the celli
ng to her hands that sat folded in her lap. Her demeanor hadn’t been like her mom’s from what I could tell, but I’d only seen her for a total of ten minutes. Still, there was something sad about her as I watched her try to figure out what to say to Randy. Her silence told us all we needed to know.

  “Great. So, you guys pack up and come here without telling him? Now what? Is it going to be up to me to fix this mess? He’s my best friend, so you better hope he doesn’t blame me or think I had anything to do with his daughter leaving him in the middle of the night.”

  “She’s going to call him in a little bit. She wanted to get some sleep first.”

  I thought about the fact he basically took Lexi from her family, brought her to our house without asking, and then got an attitude with Randy for being the reasonable one and asking them to talk to Lexi’s parents. None of it was going to go well and I had a feeling the fallout was only beginning.

  “So, you left because things were hard at home and your dad was making you work?” I asked. It seemed so dumb to me that she would leave her family and the only place she’d ever known because he was trying to make her responsible. Part of me wished Randy and I had done that with Cody. I loved my kid like mad, but he was lazy and always expected people to take care of him. At least Randy was trying to prepare his daughter for the real world.

  “There’s more to it than just that,” Cody snapped at me. Lexi continued to hang her head.

  I backed off to see how it would all play out.

  It didn’t take long for the text messages to start coming in to Randy’s phone. Like he feared, Pete started to blow him up and was sure Randy had something to do with his daughter moving over a thousand miles away.

  “I knew this was going to happen,” Randy told me when we went outside to get some fresh air.

  Since Cody had left a few weeks earlier, nothing had felt right. Having him home was great, but him bringing Lexi with him to live here had turned everything wrong. I wasn’t sure how we would get it to go back to any kind of normal, and telling her she had to go was a sure-fire way to lose Cody too.