I hated that feeling of waking up and wondering if what just happened in my mind had really happened. No matter what time it was, I would get up and check on Bella and even Ty before letting myself go back to sleep.
Sometimes, the dreams would seem so real that I couldn’t even get back to sleep. Here recently, I had been dreaming of Ty having a hot affair with some mystery woman.
We spent all of our free time together. He never hid his phone or even gave the slightest impression that he would ever be interested in being with someone else, but it still made me feel insecure. Several times, he woke up to me crying. At first, I didn’t even have the heart to tell him what they were about, but as they continued, I found myself needing to be reassured of his love and devotion to me.
Ty was the perfect husband. His support and friendship was something I treasured, so telling him that my dreams were haunting me like they were, really seemed to hurt his feelings.
After what happened earlier, I knew the last thing Ty wanted to do was be around our family without knowing what I was so worried about.
He'd passed a couple hints that he was exhausted from the ride and I read into what he was doing. Feeling exhausted from completely unrelated reasons, we headed to the main house, leaving Bella to spend the night with Noah.
Once we got in the car, Ty couldn’t wait any longer. “Baby, please tell me what is going on? I realize seeing that old bitch has stirred up some anxiety, but you are really starting to freak me the fuck out.”
Since we were just traveling down the old dirt road that led to the main house, I wasn’t buckled into my seatbelt. I slid over toward him and rested my head on his shoulder. “I can’t shake the feelin’ that her seein’ us isn’t goin’ to cause some kind of problem for the family.”
“What could she possibly do? I think you were just caught off guard and your hormones are making you crazy. Miranda, you and I both know that Izzy has my name. That woman has no say in anything. She can’t do anything to us, or our daughter.” Ty seemed like he was on edge over it too, even though he wasn’t letting on to it, I could sense he was also concerned.
The only issue was that, in the state of Kentucky, the only way to add a father to the birth certificate after it had been issued was to prove paternity, and we knew Ty could never do that. Changing her name was easy and only I had to sign for that, but it broke Ty’s heart he could never be on that piece of paper. He mentioned one time that one day Bella would ask him about it and he didn’t know what he would tell her. I wanted that to be up to him. Ty was her one and only father. No paper or test could ever change it.
“Maybe, you’re right. Maybe it is just this pregnancy making me crazy. As far as everyone is concerned, Bella is yours. I’m sorry I freaked out so bad.”
He took his hand and ran it up my leg. “Baby, I would die before I let anyone hurt you or Iz. I would never let anything happen to our family. You are my reason for breathing. If you hurt, I hurt. You know this.”
I shook my head, even though he was looking forward, driving us through the dark wooded part of the lane. “You’re right, Babe. I just never wanted to see that woman again.”
“Can you calm down now and enjoy our weekend? Did you see how excited everyone was that we are having twin boys? God, Miranda, I can’t even explain how happy I am. Our life is so fucking perfect.”
He was right. Our life was perfect and it would have been stupid for me to dwell on that woman. She had nothing to do with our life. My daughter was safe and she had the only father she would ever know. Aside from it breaking Ty’s heart, I knew that I would never tell her the truth. Our family was sworn to secrecy, and the only way Bella would ever have to know the truth was if it became a life threatening situation. Still, with her biological father being dead, the chances of other family coming forward was next to none. Our secret was safe and buried and that is where it needed to stay.
The house was dark when we got inside, so we just carried our things up to my old room and started getting settled. Ty stripped down to his boxers and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. I was surprised when I heard the bathtub running, so I walked in to see what was going on. Bubbles were starting to fill up the tub and my husband turned around with a smile. “I know you can’t get a hot bath, so I made the water just warm enough. You don’t have to stay in very long, but I think you need to relax a little bit.”
Candles were lit around the room and I had no idea where he had even found a lighter or pack of matches. The candles had always been in there for decorations and fragrance. The smell of lavender filled my nostrils as I approached Ty’s open arms. “This is really nice.”