Briar's Champion (2 page)

To the readers who make writing an immense pleasure. To the editors for their continual support and education
,
and to my family for sacrificing family time now and then so that I may write.

BRIAR’S CHAMPION

Mahalia Levey

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Disbelief tore through
Briar Thompson
as she read
the fine print in front of her
.
She drank in the text, line by heart crushing line.
The
picture of the couple
put
a ball of emotions in her throat so tight she couldn’t swallow
.

Frantic
, she whipped out her cell phone to
call the
lying, cheating ass. Damn it all,
she got voice mail.
Briar o
pened her mouth to speak when
the beep
for her to leave a message
sounded
, but no words came out.
What could she say on a voice message? How could she possibly respond impersonally to such betrayal?
Pain constricted her chest,
leaving her wind
ed.
The newspaper she’d been holding was strewn about. A breeze was taking various pieces of it across the pavement. Her life in that moment was much like that paper, scattered and floating apart. The muffled ringtone of her cell gradually penetrated the numbing fog in her mind. It wasn’t until it started to vibrate did it snap her out of her trance. Briar pressed redial after taking a moment to clear her thoughts with a deep breath.

“Westly.” She s
aid his name in
cracked syllables
,
unable to maintain composure.

“Briar
,
what can I do for you
?
”
She’d never heard him sound so distant, cold.

“How
could you?”
s
he
cried.

“How could I what?”

“
Did you think the news wouldn’t cover your marriage?
I
…
saw the local paper
.
”
The second she uttered the words, s
he died a little more inside
. She swallowed hard
. “
Y
ou’re married.
I
d-don’t understand.”

“
Damn press.
Fuck
.
We ga
ve orders for a private ceremony
.”
Her heart shattered as his words echoed what was in the
news
paper. He left her, without a word, without a thought
,
for
another woman.

“
How could
you
hurt me
? We have a life, a condo, our friends
,
our families
. This doesn’t make sense
,
”
s
he
said between sobs.

“Quit crying
,
Briar.
You know tears don’t work on me.
I’m sorry
, I guess I should’ve come clean, told you I wanted out.

“You wanted out? Six years later? We’ve been together since high school
.
We
were
plan
ning
to have children
. Their
names picked, the best preschools lined up. How can you
,
out of nowhere
,
do this to
us?
To me?
”
Briar
shrieked
,
through her cell phone at him
causing people to gawk as they passed by on the sidewalk.

“Sometimes couples outgrow each other Briar.
There’s no way around the truth.
I outgrew you.”

“That’s a load of bullshit. Just two
days
ago
,
you
said you
loved me.
You were lying then? Just when did you fall out of love with me?
” She
sobbed into the phone, her hand gripping the tiny
plastic piece
like a
lifeline.

His long drawn-out sigh met her ears, followed by dead air.
“I haven’t been in love with you for a
while.
You let your need to please destroy our relationship, always settling instead of following your own dreams.
I need a woman not afraid to take a chance, one
who uses
her
own min
d. You
tiptoe around doin
g what you want to do instead of going all out
.
Briar
you
aren’t
the
woman
I fell in love with
. You h
ave
n
o
t been for a long time. The attraction is gone.”

“Sweet Jesus.”
His venomous words made
acid churn in her stomach.
She
stumbl
ed backwards
,
until the back of
her knees hi
t
the
edge
of the bus bench
behind her
.
She sat
hard,
staring
blank
ly
at her phone. “I thought we were building a life together.”

How could he have no compassion, no heart for what he’d put into action. Where did the man she fell in love with go
?
M
ore importantly,
why didn’t she see the change
in him
?

“Look, my wife is back. I have to go.”

She heard the rustle of the phone
accompanied by static. In the distance
,
Westly g
ave
his new wife
the
rundown
o
n
the conversation
.
Moans and laughing followed, then a dial tone.

“
Miss, are you okay
?
D
o you need help?”

A horn blared
,
jerked
her back to reality. Headlights blinded her. She froze in horror.
When had she moved off the
bench into
the path of oncoming
traffic?
The car, driven by an angry older woman, honked again
, waving a fist as she zoomed away. Briar put her hand to her head while making her way through the parking lot.
She tearfully found her car, and locked herself inside, before taking a steady breath. Home was the last place she wanted to go. The thought of sleeping in the bed she once shared with Westly turned her stomach. So did the thought of having his scent around her, or looking at the pictures of them on the walls.

Good thing r
ush hour in D
owntown Kansas City
kept her
from venturing on side streets
that would get her there faster
. She caught her reflection in
the
rearview
mirror
and saw blood-red puffy eyes staring back at her
.
T
his can’t be happening to me
.

Her confusion mounted when she
finally
arrived
home
to
discover
a moving truck taking possessions down a temporary ramp.
Briar watched for a few minutes, until clarity dawned on her.
The
possessions
the movers were carting
from the
condo
were hers
. “Hey
!
”
She fumbled with the car door but managed to get out to rush over to the workers. Her tears now dried, left a burning rage in their wake. Her stomach pitched and rolled, when another item of hers was put into the large moving truck.

“Just moving the items on our list, Ma’am
.
”
T
he mover clicked his clipboard
with his pen
.

“I
don’t understand. When could Westly
have made plans to do this?”

“Mr
. Jonston
contacted us weeks ago to
arrange for his personal belongings to be moved
today
,
”
h
e
patiently
explained
.

“
You’re not taking out his
things
. T
hese are all of my belongings.
”