One Night Stand With My Husband’s Brother

Richard shook his head like he was trying the untangle his thoughts. He looked back at Chase with an horrified expression,

“This just keeps getting even worse. You mean this has been going on since she was still married? That’s all the more worse! Chase, what are you doing with a woman like that? What are you doing with women who cheat? Is that some kind of twisted preference of yours, son?”

Chase ignored his father’s frantic reaction and responded, “Selene cheated on me with Jeffrey and Mackenzie found out about it. She did not even tell me even when she knew all along. She saw them herself…”

Richard could not listen to any more. The barrage of information he had received in the past ten minutes alone made him feel dizzy. He slowly moved to sit on a chair, shaking his head slowly. Chase sighed, brushing a hand through his hair.

“You should not be hearing all of this right now, dad. Please don’t think about it. Your focus should only be on your treatment and getting better. Besides, you need to be in top shape for your surgery, not needlessly worrying about other things.”

A knock filtered in through the closed door, and Chase told whoever it was to come in. The door swung open, to reveal Eleanor, standing in the doorway.

*********

Mackenzie had finally arrived at the hospital, and she could barely contain her relief as pushed open the door to Mrs Weston’s ward to see Calista and Cameron sitting on a couch, watching TV. More like Calista was watching the kids show on TV, while Cameron messed around with some toys.

“You’re finally here!” Charlotte’s mom said from her bed, “I hope the traffic was not too bad?”

Felicity turned, “She’s here now, and that’s all that matters.”

Mackenzie nodded and went to crouch in front of her kids, instinctively checking them over to make sure they were really okay. Calista gave a bright grin, “Mommy!”

Mackenzie pulled both of them into a hug, pressing soft kisses on their heads. She pulled away and worriedly asked, “Are you okay, sweetie? Hm, Cameron? I told you both not to run off. Don’t run off like that again, okay?”

Cameron nodded, but Mackenzie noticed that Calista was barely even listening, which was unusual since she was the most attentive one of the two.

“Cali? Are you okay? Is something wrong?” She asked.

Calista answered, “No, mommy. I met a good stranger today, he was a very kind person.”

Mackenzie sighed in disapproval. “No, Cali. What did I tell you about talking to strangers?”

“But mommy, he was very nice. He told me about his wife, and I told him about my daddy.” Immediately Calista uttered those last words, the entire room fell silent.

And the silence was filled with sudden tension between the adults in the room. Mackenzie went cold, and just as Cameron registered the word, daddy, he lost interest in his toys and asked Calista,

“What about daddy, Cali?”

Mackenzie cleared her throat and quickly spoke up before the twins could say any more. “Remember I told you he’s coming soon? Don’t worry, sweeties. Just be a little more patient and you’ll meet him. Okay?”

Calista pouted up at Mackenzie, “But mommy, Emily’s daddy comes home everyday!”

Cameron nodded, his blue eyes shining up at Mackenzie. “Jeremy told me his daddy travels a lot, but he comes home once in a week, or sometimes once in a month. But at least he comes home and brings many gifts and toys for Jeremy. But I have not seen our daddy in a very long time, mommy.”

Mackenzie’s cheeks had gone cold and drained. She felt so incapable and helpless, especially when her kids were asking for their father in front of Felicity and Mrs. Weston. What could she do about this situation? Each day, the kids find a new way to ask for their father.

Their curiosity seemed to increase each passing day.

She let out a sigh of frustration, not knowing what else to say to her two babies hopefully looking up at her for answers.

Felicity felt Mackenzie’s discomfort and helplessness, so she stepped forward and smiled at the twins, “You both can continue this conversation with your mom later, I have something important to tell her now, okay?”

“Okay.”

Mackenzie let out a small breath of relief as Felicity led her to another side of the room. “Thanks.”

“Oh, that’s nothing, Kenzie. By the way, I really do have something important to tell you.”

She perked up, “That’s right. That’s why you sounded so elusive on the phone. What’s going on?”

Felicity started, “Remember the nice stranger Cali was talking about? That’s the same man that helped us find her when she got lost. He noticed that Calista has an issue with her eyesight.”

“What?”

“She is shortsighted, Mackenzie. I realized it after the man pointed it out. The good news is, he has offered to foot all the bills and additional expenses involved in getting Calista the eye care she needs here in Axford Medicals.”

Mackenzie’s eyes went round. “What? Wait. This is too much information all at once. What do you mean my baby has an eyesight issue and I didn’t even notice?”

She moved back to Calista and held her hand, leading her off the couch and over to the window. She asked, pointing to a building in the distance, “Can you see that?”

Calista looked in the general direction she was pointing to and squinted, straining for a long time to make sense if the images in her vision, but after a moment, she answered, “I can’t see it, mommy. It’s blurry.”

Mackenzie gave her a soft hug, “Oh my poor baby, I’m sorry I didn’t notice this sooner. We’ll get you better, okay?” She looked at Felicity and Mrs. Weston. “I’ll take her to the eye department right away. Felicity, when you get in touch with the nice man who noticed this, please call me so I can personally give him my thanks.”

“Sure.” Felicity nodded.

*****

Chase excused himself from his father’s ward the moment Eleanor showed up. As he strode down the hallway, he almost felt sorry for his father, wondering how he was going to spin his reason for keeping his illness away from his wife.

If Eleanor could show up unannounced like this, then there are fat chances that she had discovered that Richard had cancer. Chase could not be surprised. He had always known that Eleanor was too cunning to stay put in the house without trying to meddle in everyone’s business.

Brushing off his growing annoyance from thinking about it, he stopped by the door to Mrs. Weston’s ward and knocked.

He had checked the text on his phone from Nora, telling him Mackenzie had left the office to attend to an emergency. He could only think of Mrs. Weston being the cause of the emergency. But if that were truly the case, he should know by now…

He heard the voice of a nurse telling him to come in, and he opened the door. Mrs. Weston was laying on her bed, with a nurse fiddling around with an IV on her wrist.

The nurse spotted Chase first, and was startled and flustered all at once. “Hello, sir!”

That made Mrs. Weston look in his direction. Her eyes lighted up with something Chase could not understand. She was looking at him like she was impressed about something, but he simply ignored it and politely said hello to her.

She smiled. “Hello. Mackenzie was here a while ago, I’m sure you came to see her.”

Chase knew the only times he had seen Mrs. Weston was when she was still unconscious and in a critical state, so there was no way she could know him. Even if Mackenzie and he friends had told her about him, she still should not be able to recognize him at first glance since they had not officially met yet.

But from the look in her eyes, it seemed like she knew exactly who he was.

“Do you know me, ma’am?”

She laughed, “Of course, I do know you! Just from your face I know you’re him.”

Him?

He raised his eyebrow, and she quickly brushed it off with a laugh, “Oh, don’t mind me, senile talk. I must be growing old.”

“Don’t say that, you’re not that old, Mrs. Weston.”

She laughed at that, and he asked, “How are things with you? Was there an emergency?”

“No, I’m getting better just fine. And I have you to thank for everything, of course.”

“Don’t mention it, ma’am. I’ll take my leave now.” He turned back to the door. “Take care!” She called our after him, and he stepped out, shutting the door behind him.

Outside the ward, he paused, wondering what emergency Mackenzie could have told Nora about since Mrs. Weston was obviously doing fine. According to the text, Mackenzie had really been panicking, so what could have happened?

Besides, Mrs. Weston was talking slightly strange, but he did not want to dwell on that when he still had to find Mackenzie.