With These Four Rings(8)
“No wonder you could wish Bridget well in her marriage and her new practice in D.C. I thought you were crazy when you let Erik attend her wedding alone.”
“I didn’t have a choice. I was eight and a half weeks pregnant with Tiffany. I wasn’t about to travel and put my baby’s and my health at risk just to prove a point. Bridget isn’t a bad person. She was just in love with a man who was in love with someone else. She found the right man for her, one who can love her the way she deserves to be loved. But we all learned a valuable lesson from that entire fiasco.”
“Which is?” Kaya asked.
“You can have trust without love, but you can’t have love without trust. And since love is what we all want most, we have to trust those we claim to love.”
“Oh my God, you’re so right.”
Michelle placed her hand over Kaya’s. “Bryce and Erik share a similar past when it comes to their late wives, so their demons are comparable in nature. My so-called father was the catalyst for Erik’s demons, and the Summerses are Bryce’s.”
Her fingers curled around her water glass. “Erik was an uptight mess when I met him, but I loved him anyway. I guess my heart saw potential in him, despite his faults. I couldn’t control it. He’s such a better man now that he has confronted and slayed his demons. He’s more relaxed, and he’s genuinely happy because he’s not holding grudges against anyone.” She smiled again. “The wise King Solomon wrote, ‘Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit.’ Our marriages, our relationships with our spouses, and our children are our fig trees. We have to tend them daily, constantly weed around the roots if we want them to continue bearing sweet fruits for our enjoyment.”
“I know what you mean,” Kaya said. “I had to deal with my issues of abandonment and neglect from both my parents so that I could be a better woman, a better wife, and mother.” My demons were shadows compared to Bryce’s, though, she thought.
Michelle pulled Kaya into a sisterly hug. “Exactly. And I had to slay mine of physical and mental abuse from Timmy Gleason. Both Erik and I had to see him for the unstable monster that he was, and forgive him.” Michelle paused for a moment as if she needed affirmation that her demons were indeed slayed.
“Like I said earlier,” she continued, “I believe that Bryce has buried Pilar’s ghost, but he hasn’t dealt with the demons associated with them. He has to journey backward into his past to eliminate them once and for all. He has to deal with the Summers family. He has to forgive them, just like you forgave your parents. I know you’re scared about what that would do to him, but you have to trust him, trust your love to see him through it and bring him back a better man. Before you two can enjoy ultimate bliss, not only in your marriage, but in every area of your lives as well, Bryce needs to let it all go, Kaya.”
Kaya knew Michelle was right-on, because every time Bryce ran into a member of the Summers family, he would tense up, and his demon of anger would resurface and keep him in a somber mood, sometimes for days. Granite Falls was a small town, so he tensed up a lot. And those were only the times she witnessed. The situation was complex, and seducing Bryce was not the appropriate way to solve it. It would be demeaning to even try.
The chime of the elevator brought Kaya’s awareness back to her surroundings and the change in her day’s schedule. Henry and Lillian had taken the twins to the petting zoo for grandparents bonding time. Jason wasn’t expected back from a two-week-long martial arts summer camp until tomorrow, and since Haley, the nanny, had the afternoon off, Kaya had planned to take Alyssa and Anastasia to the LaCrosse estate to play with Little Erik and Tiffany. To avoid disappointing the kids, Michelle had picked up the girls on her way home, leaving Kaya free to perform her daunting task.
“Good day, Mrs. Fontaine,” the armed guard near the elevator said as she stepped off onto the tenth floor.
Kaya nodded on a forced smile and made her way along a sky blue hallway with doors that led to numerous empty conference and training rooms on both sides. She’d taken the elevator farthest away from Bryce’s office to give herself time to rehearse the speech she planned to deliver to him. The place was deserted, since apart from Bryce’s, only two other offices occupied this floor—Elaine’s, his personal assistant, and…
“Libby,” she called out as she turned a corner and spotted a young woman in a dark business suit and high heels hurrying ahead of her. Libby was the manager of the accounting division of Fontaine Enterprises.
Libby stopped and turned, a big smile on her freckled face as she shifted a pile of folders from one hand to the other. “Kaya, what are you doing here?”