Sorry for the long delay in getting this up. Writing these chapter tales kind of weighs on me so I decided to go ahead and finish this one before moving on to something else. I knew when I started writing this story where it would end, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. The epilogue is meant to hint at a future tale to come.
Yes, this is long at just over 70,000 words. But it's broken up into chapters so it doesn't all have to be read at once.
As always I welcome your comments and criticisms.
Chapter 13
The day Lisa arrived on their doorstep came from out of the blue. There had been no portents, warnings, harbingers, or omens of bad things to come. And it hadn't announced itself with the sounds of trumpets, the blaring of ominous music, or with a bone-chilling battle cry.
It had instead meekly presented with the cry of a baby.
The time since the arrival of Lisa's letter had passed with no further contact from Kaia's former fiance. The silence had seemed to weigh heavily on the eclectic former Marine, with Skyler doing everything that she could to distract her. Despite the auburn-haired beauty's best efforts, though, it was the passage of time and absence of anything new that finally seemed to settle Kaia most.
After some discussion, Kaia had decided not to reply to Lisa, believing that even if she said no, the contact would only encourage her former lover.
But for Skyler, out of sight, out of mind wasn't an acceptable course of action.
On her own time, the younger woman began to scan social media for information on the woman she was starting to see more and more as a threat to her life with Kaia. Seeing knowledge as power, Skyler wanted to know everything she could about Lisa and the life she lived now.
Skyler found very little about Kaia's former lover and fiance under her married name. There were a few wedding shots with a barely smiling Lisa standing next to an attractive man that appeared a few years older than her. He seemed to have an arrogant air about him, something about how he carried himself in the pictures.
Lisa herself was quite beautiful. Her dark hair and piercing eyes were enchanting, and her build was of the voluptuous type society had always found sexy. But behind Lisa's smile, Kaia could see a sadness that spoke volumes.
Every shot in their online wedding album was the same. Lisa, in the arms of her new husband or surrounded by his or her family, that same false smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. The photo's inside reminded Skyler of shots she'd once seen online of proof of life images taken by kidnappers. One taken only to show that their captives were alive and healthy. Lisa's eyes belayed the smile on her face, an almost pleading quality radiating from them.
That led Skyler to believe there was some truth to the letter that Lisa had written. Perhaps she'd found herself in an unwinnable situation, something that she hadn't been mentally or physically capable of overcoming.
Kaia had spoken of her former fiance's bouts with depression in the past, saying how Lisa had suffered debilitating attacks following both of her miscarriages. According to Kaia, it was only through visiting with a therapist that Lisa had gotten past her mental issues.
Losing Kaia to deployment had elicited a similar response from Lisa as the failed pregnancies. Skyler could hardly blame her for that, the thought of even potentially losing the woman she loved making her feel sad.
The more she heard, read, and discovered, the more sorry Skyler found herself feeling for Lisa. She'd obviously led a troubled life, and if her letter was accurate, she had found herself surrounded by controlling people. But that didn't excuse what she had done to Kaia, and it certainly didn't earn her another shot at love with Skyler's incredible, sexy, and loving girlfriend.
It was when Skyler had searched Lisa under her maiden name that she had struck gold. There, she found a plethora of pictures featuring Lisa and her new baby, a little girl named Macey. The shots were sweet and ranged from just after the little girl's birth until a month or so later. Lisa looked tired and obviously carried more weight in her face than usual, but she was still radiantly beautiful, holding on to her daughter.
There were other shots, some more of Lisa and Macey at home, and others of her mother and father proudly holding on to their new granddaughter. But interestingly enough, there were no shots of the child's father, not one.
That led Skyler to peruse Lisa's blog postings, going all the way back to when she was married until the present. She discovered that around the three-month mark of their marriage, Lisa stopped mentioning her husband or marriage. Even before then, the words she'd written about him hadn't been glowing, merely dry and factual. It made Skyler wonder if Lisa had ever had any genuine affection for the man.
Around the six-month mark, Lisa's blog postings stopped on the account under her married name and picked back up under her maiden name. It was around the seven-month mark of her pregnancy, or close to the time that she'd written Kaia, that Lisa had openly announced on her social networking blog that she'd filed for divorce. Skyler noticed that all of the responses seemed positive and supportive, but none were from her family.
Her mother had been a regular responder to her blog posts before then, but the woman's replies had stopped about a week before Lisa's announcement.
That had made things clear to Skyler, enlightening Lisa's motivations further. She had the baby she'd always wanted so desperately, and now she wanted back the one person who'd loved her most in life. Having Kaia and her baby girl would clearly make Lisa's life wholly complete.
Fuck if Skyler was going to let that happen.
Curious about Lisa's ex, Skyler had done a news search on his name and the San Diego metropolitan area. The responses she got back from her query told Skyler a story that totally illuminated the auburn-haired beauty as to what had occurred.
Lawyer Steven M. Harrington had been arrested in connection with helping launder money for a group involved in human trafficking. The ring had apparently been responsible for bringing thousands of young women from Latin America and Eastern Europe. These young women had been sold into prostitution, many becoming addicted to drugs. The story said the majority of tales for the women involved had ended tragically. The more fortunate among them had ended up living on the streets after they'd been used up, with the less fortunate overdosing at a reasonably young age.
Harrington had finally made bail after a month in prison, but by then, Lisa had apparently been gone. The lawyer had then made the biggest mistake of his life, fleeing south of the border in an attempt to escape prison.
Rather than risk trying to cross the border through a checkpoint. Harrington had paid a coyote to traffic him the other way into South America. The human smuggler had simply been paid to deliver the disgraced lawyer over the border at the home of another man who would then traffic Harrington south across the country. A third man would then help him cross the border into Guatemala.
Only things hadn't worked out the way Harrington had imagined. The coyote that the lawyer had chosen was one he was familiar with, meaning he'd also worked for the smugglers in question. Harrington didn't know that his choice of coyote had already contacted the human traffickers. So, he was shocked when the lid was opened, and he found himself inside the Mexican compound the trafficking cartel ran their South American operations out of.
The disgraced barrister was never seen again. But an informant had reported to the Federales that Harrington had been shot in the head. The rumor was that his body had been buried somewhere in the Mexican desert.
The surprising thing was, no posts on Lisa's blog offered their condolences. It was as if it never even happened.
Skyler kept an eye on Lisa's various feeds for the next couple of months, consuming every post and analyzing them for their content. Skyler believed that if the beautiful brunette had any real intention of seeking out Kaia, there would be some mention of her former fiance in one of the threads online.
But as to any mention of Kaia, it had been crickets.
So Skyler had breathed a sigh of relief, honestly feeling as if she'd dodged a bullet. She'd begun to believe that Kaia's decision not to respond had been the right play to make, apparently sending the signal to Lisa that her former love had moved on with her life.
The couple had gone through their first holiday season being nearly inseparable, with Kaia being treated as a part of their family. She'd even been invited to spend the night with them in their guest room. Jonathan Grace liked Kaia a lot, but he was only so flexible despite having to know the couple was regularly having sex.
They'd gone to Atlanta to a club for New Year's Eve, followed by heading over to watch the peach drop. The pair had shared a passionate kiss at the stroke of midnight that left Skyler soaking wet.
The two spent the night in an upscale hotel, reasoning that there were far too many drunks on the busy Atlanta interstate system for them to be on the road.
They'd had what Kaia called sweaty and naughty hotel sex, with the cocoa-skinned beauty fucking Skyler on nearly every piece of furniture in the room, as well as the shower. The auburn-haired beauty had returned the favor, her lips almost chapped from eating Kaia's sweet pussy by the time the pair fell asleep.
The next two months were marked by the pair spending a lot of their free time working on Kaia's house. She had made substantial progress in the fall, finishing the exterior of the home. Now, the former Marine was concentrating on the inside, and it looked worlds different than it did the first time Skyler had been inside. She tried not to think about what might happen once Kaia was done, the two not discussing it yet. Skyler knew that she needed to bring the subject up but hadn't managed to work up the nerve to determine what it meant for their relationship.
Spring had come, the May flowers blooming along the sidewalks as Skyler made her way home from school. Her high school cheerleading career had come to an end today, the auburn-haired beauty's final act being that she needed to oversee the election of next year's new captain. The vote had initially been planned for next week, but then Skyler found out that three returning members of next year's squad would be absent on that date because of a last-minute college visit.
So instead of a practice, there had been a spur of the moment election with Skyler gladly passing the baton to the winner, effectively ending her afternoon an hour earlier than expected.
