A few hours after Leighanne was gone, I suddenly remembered her threat to me, I doubt you want the world knowing the truth about your precious husband. She couldn’t mean what I thought she did, could she? How would she have even found out? What if she DID tell someone about John’s secret? I had to tell him that she knew and she was threatening to tell. I was torn on what to do beyond that, though. John had been nothing but good to me. He had been there for me when no one else was. He helped me through a time I never could have gotten through alone. Could I really let him take the fall for Brian and I? After all he had done for us, could we really let his darkest secret be revealed?

“Hey honey. How’s the tour?” John answered after a mere two rings.

“It’s good. It’s nice to be back in the arms of the man I love,” I smiled, thinking about how John was on the other end, most likely getting ready for a late date. I knew he would take advantage of the time I was gone to be with David, his boyfriend, since he didn’t get to see him as much as he would like while I was home.

“Sounds wonderful,” he told me through the phone. “Now what’s wrong?” he asked, reading my mind again.

“John, Leighanne caught Brian and I together last night,” I sighed into the phone. “She threatened to tell the world about you. I don’t know how she could have even found out, but she told me, ‘I doubt you would want the world knowing the truth about your precious husband’,” I told him. The line was silent for a while, leaving me to wonder whether he had hung up or not. “John?” I asked.

“Yeah…” he whispered so softly I had to strain to hear it.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. It was my fault that John was in this situation. I knew that, and it tore at my soul. Yet, no matter what I did, I ended up the one losing.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart. Did she tell you how she found out?” he asked.

“No. She didn’t say anything else,” I sighed in frustration. “Maybe I should just give up and walk away. I’m just making everyone’s life miserable. Baylee is going to get caught in the middle of a war that he never should have been involved in. Brian’s name and image is going to be dragged through the mud. If Leighanne carries out on her threat, your reputation will be destroyed. The Boys are going to have to fight to defend their name. Who am I kidding, John? I’m ruining everyone’s life just by being here. Brian doesn’t need me in his life. He was doing just fine before I came into it.” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I couldn’t pretend I was fine when I wasn’t. I hated that I was hurting the people I loved just by trying to find my own happiness. I didn’t want to be the cause of their unhappiness, even if it meant spending the rest of my life alone and miserable.

“Honey that…” John started to say, but before he could finish, the phone was torn out of my hand and I was staring into the pain-filled eyes of the man I loved.

“John, she’ll have to call you back. We have some things to discuss,” Brian said into the phone, causing me to look down at my feet in shame of being caught. I knew he was upset, but I didn’t know about what. Does he agree with me? Does he think I’m ruining his life? Is he going to turn his back on me again? Despite having said what I’d said to John, I knew that I needed Brian in my life. I didn’t want to think about being without him again. He may not have needed me, but I needed him.

I heard Brian hang up the phone, but I refused to look at him. If he was going to tell me to leave, I didn’t want to see his face when he did it. I was trying to gather my strength to walk out before he broke my heart again, but I couldn’t. I wanted to yell at him, tell him that I needed him. I wanted to cry, begging him to reconsider. I wanted to take everything back, telling him that I didn’t mean it. Instead, I just sat there, looking at my feet.

Before I knew what was happening, Brian was in front of me, kneeling down so that he could see my face. I chanced a look at his face, afraid of what I would find, but not expecting to find him crying. He looked at me, his eyes pleading silently for me to stay. He leaned in, pulling my face down to his own, kissing me deeply and with more passion than I had ever felt before.

When we pulled away, Brian held my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him while he spoke. “I can’t believe you would even think that I don’t need you in my life. You’re everything to me. I don’t even want to think about what my life would be like without you. You’re the reason I wake up every morning with a smile on my face. You’re the reason I know that everything will be alright no matter what’s going on in my life at that moment. I know I haven’t showed it in the past, but I promise you, we’re in this together until the end.”

By the time he was finished, I had tears streaming down my face. I was so choked up that I couldn’t even speak. I looked him in the eyes, trying to convey my message before pulling his face to mine and kissing him with all the love I had in me.

“I love you, so much, Brian,” I cried, finally able to speak what was in my heart.

“I love you, too, Mel. Nothing will ever change that,” he told me, pulling me into his arms as he maneuvered himself beside me on the bed.

“She’s still going to tell the world about us and about John,” I sighed, my relief short-lived.

“We’ll find a way to get through it,” he soothed, kissing my hair in a comforting gesture, trying to ease my worries.

I wanted to believe him, but I was worried about what the outcome of our war with Leighanne would be. Leighanne, according to all legal documentation, was Baylee’s mother. Most courts tended to side with the mother in custody battles. I knew that Leighanne didn’t really care about getting Baylee or wanting to be with him, she just wanted to hurt Brian and I. The best way to do that was to go after our son. I also knew, though, that Brian could easily make a case against her proving that she had spent a limited amount of time with Baylee, not providing the type of care a mother should. But where did I fit into all this? As far as the court was concerned, Leighanne was Baylee’s legal guardian. I had no rights what-so-ever, and Leighanne was not about to give up her rights so that I could have my son back. The court proceedings would take months, and all of our names would be dragged through the mud.

“We need to call a lawyer,” I mentioned, sighing at the difficult situation we were now it.

“I know. We’re going to have to start working on the case right away because I know Leighanne won’t waste time. When she sets her mind on something, she follows through, and right now, she has her mind set on destroying me,” Brian sighed as well, still holding me in his arms.

“I know a great lawyer from New York. He’s a friend of mine, and I know he’d be willing to take on this case. Plus, he has only lost one case in his 10-year career so far,” I offered.

“Get me his number and I will call him in the morning,” Brian told me, pulling me even closer to him. “I’m scared, Mel,” he admitted quietly.

“Me too. I don’t want to lose our son,” I told him, my eyes welling with tears at the thought.

“That won’t happen. I won’t let it,” he declared, his jaw set with determination.

“How can you be so sure? She won’t stop until she destroys us both, and she knows the best way to do that is by using our son against us,” I rationalized.

“We will NOT let her take our son. She may have some tricks up her sleeve, but I have some dirt on her too. I am pretty sure she’s been having an affair since before we were married. I didn’t find out about it until after Baylee was born, but I’m pretty sure it started long before the wedding and all the drama between us exploded,” he told me. I simply nodded, not really having anything to say in response to that. “Baby, look at me,” he requested. When I did look at him, he kissed me lightly before speaking again. “We will get through this… you, me, and Baylee. We’ll find a way to get through this; we just have to have faith. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep our family safe. You and Baylee mean everything to me, and I won’t let you suffer because I made a mistake in my past. And when all this is done, I’m going to marry you because I don’t want to spend one more moment without you as my wife.”

I couldn’t stop the tears this time as his words reached directly to my heart. We had always talked about being together forever, but he had never mentioned marriage before. A part of me thought that maybe he wanted to stay married to Leighanne. But as I looked into his eyes, shining with unshed tears, I knew that he meant every word. “I love you so much,” I sighed into his mouth as his lips met mine in a tender kiss. There was no rush this time. There was no need for it. We simply sat there, kissing one another, using our lips as a way to communicate what our hearts were feeling at that moment.

Finally, after our lungs started screaming for air, we pulled away and Brian pulled me into the safety of his arms. I had never felt more loved than I did when he held me so close to him that I could feel his heart beat against my back. I felt him maneuvering behind us as he reached for something, stopping once he found what he was looking for. To my surprise, Brian held a box in front of me, urging me to take it from his hand. “Brian…” I whispered, at a loss for words.

“Open it,” he instructed, looking down into my eyes as I turned my head to gaze at him. As I slowly opened the box, I felt my stomach flutter with excitement. Deep down, I knew what was in the box, but that didn’t the gasp from escaping my lips when I finally saw the ring shining up at me. “I meant it when I said I want to marry you,” he told me, taking the box from my hand and pulling the ring from its safe confines. He gently turned me around to face him as he slid the ring on my ring finger. “A perfect fit,” he smiled, kissing my hand before letting it go.

http://www.tiffany.com/Engagement/Item.aspx?sku=22852914

“Oh Brian, it’s gorgeous,” I said in amazement.

“It’s the Tiffany’s Jean Schlumberger Two Bees Ring,” he explained, proudly, as I admired the ring. It was a platinum ring with a center stone and several smaller diamonds on each side with 18K gold intertwined. It was elegant and breathtaking, just the way I had always envisioned my dream engagement ring to be.

“It’s beautiful. It’s exactly what I would have picked out if I had done it myself,” I smiled, still not tearing my eyes from the beautiful diamonds.

“I wanted it to be perfect because you deserve only the best in life,” he smiled. I finally tore my eyes away from the ring, looking at a much more beautiful sight… my future husband.

“It is perfect. Just like you,” I smiled, placing my hand on his cheek to pull him in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Nothing more needed to be said.

Later, we joined the rest of the Boys in the hallway so we could have a group dinner, and Brian spoke up before any of them could ask us about Leighanne. “Guys, tonight is just a fun night for us to relax and enjoy our day off. I will answer your questions later, but as of right now… we are not going to talk about it.” I smiled gratefully at Brian, and watched as all the Boys nodded their understanding.

That night was spent being a family and having fun. As always, Alex and Nick spent the night hitting on the waitresses and letting loose, not caring about image, even if it was just for a few hours. Howie just sat there watching the two younger men’s antics while Brian and I got lost in our own world together, not even flinching when we heard Alex’s loud “Larger Than Life” howl emanate throughout the back room of the restaurant. That’s probably why we also didn’t realize that Howie was taking pictures of us with his camera until the flash hit my eyes directly on one picture.

To me, it was the perfect evening. I had never felt more at ease and more blissfully happy than I did at that moment. Deep down, I knew we were going to need this night because the following months were going to drain us all of our energy as we fought to save mine and Brian’s relationship. I knew the guys would never let us stand alone no matter how much we told them not to interfere, which we were going to do anyway, despite how useless it seemed. I also knew that Leighanne would try to destroy us in any way possible, even if it meant using every dirty trick she knew. The next few months would be hell, but they would also be the ultimate test. If Brian and I got through this together, we could get through anything. If we didn’t… well, I didn’t want to think about that right now. I knew that I just had to have faith that our love would persevere until the end.