Truth and Lies
By Maureen Legara
Edited by: Laura Jaques
Authors note: The story idea is all MINE. However the characters are from Andrew Marlowe's hit television crime/drama series "Castle". I do not own Castle, I own this story.
Sincerely Maureen
Chapter 1
I grabbed all of his clothes in a rage, searching for something to prove that he was cheating on me. We'd been married for almost eight years now, but our relationship had slowly fallen apart. At first, it was like a dream; we had a little girl called April and a son named Finn. Well….Until our daughter died.
I blame myself for it, as does my husband; and the truth is it was my fault. I was the one drove who the car; I was the one who was drunk, and yet I still drove with my daughter in the back seat. I remember that night; I was so drunk I couldn't see straight, yet I still drove. I had a couple of drinks with Lanie, then I picked up April from a friend's place. She asked me if I had been drinking, I said only a glass and I was completely capable of driving. If only I told the truth, she would be alive; if only I never lied about it.
"What are you doing, Kate?" I quickly turned around, it was my husband Richard "Rick" Castle; he was leaning against the door that separated our bedroom from the walk - in wardrobe.
"I…I… was just," I searched around the room; I needed a prop to use in my lie. Then I spotted my car keys next to our wedding photo. "I was looking for my car keys," I quickly snatched them from the table top; looking at the photo right next to it made me think of that day.
The day I married my partner, my soul mate and my best friend. I was wearing my mom's wedding dress which was handed down to me on my 18th birthday; if only my mom was there to see me wearing it. It was an elegant white dress, full of vibrantly – coloured designs from top to bottom; the sleeves ran from my shoulders to my elbow. It was a 70's wedding dress, but I couldn't have cared less because it was my mom's, and it was beautiful. My dad walked me down aisle, and my eldest daughter, Estelle, was my maid of honour. My best friend Lanie, and Rick's daughter Alexis, were the bridesmaids. It was the best day of my life, but now the worst was coming.
"You were looking for your keys?"
"That obvious, huh?"
"What were you actually looking for?"
"I'm not even sure," I explained with a shaky laugh, "Rick, I need to ask you something."
"I think I know what it is Kate…..You think I'm having an affair, don't you?"
He read my mind; I was going to ask him that. I asked over a year ago, but he didn't give me an answer. I knew that he was having an affair; every weekend and Friday he would be gone, somewhere else. I asked him where he went, he said it was something I don't need to know. The way he said it gave me a sign that it was an affair. Every bone in my body was telling me he was sleeping with another woman. I don't know who it is, but I did know why.
Simple; we just haven't connected since April's death, which was 4 years ago. The fact is, he wasn't the only unfaithful one in this marriage; I was as well. I was in an affair that lasted over a year; he knew I was married, and so was he, but we both had big plans to leave our spouses. But I ended the affair two days ago, as I realized that I was still in love with my husband.
"No, that's not what I was going to ask you…"
"Really? That's a surprise."
"Look… its Finn's birthday in one month and I was thinking maybe we should throw him a party…"
"Kate, I already told you; I'm taking him to Italy for his birthday, just the two of us."
"I know, but it would be good if we threw a party for him…" I said. That's when I started to feel lightheaded and dizzy.
"Ugh. I don't feel so good," I muttered, before I ran to the bathroom. When there, I bent down towards the toilet and vomited. I finally stopped; Castle was standing next to me.
"You okay?"
"Yeah…" I said while wiping my face.
"What did you eat?"
"Um... I can't remember…" I said groggily, before I put my face back to the toilet and vomited once more.
"Do you want some water?" He asked. Castle was acting different today; it was like he changed. For the past four years none of our conversations lasted for more than ten minutes.
"Kate, I need to tell you something important."
"If you want a divorce just hand me the papers and leave!" I was sick, I was tired, and all I was thinking right now is that my husband needs to tell me something important. He probably wanted to tell me that he wants a divorce. Or that he was cheating on me, and he wants to work things out. I wanted to tell him that I was having an affair with one of his best friends, Esposito.
Jon Esposito was one of my partners when I was an NYPD detective; Capt. Victoria Gates made me leave the team, due to the careless mistake I made. When I lost my daughter, I lost everything; my family, my husband, my job and even my dad. I stopped working and I've been living off Castle's riches; he never even asked me to get job. When April died, Finn was 3, and the moment he turned five Castle sent him to boarding school. It was that bad; I couldn't raise my son properly, and I was constantly crying. Castle and I had always been fighting about the smallest of things.
"What did you want to tell me?" I asked.
"Kate, I know you're thinking that I've been having an affair for the past two years. But the truth is, I've been seeing a therapist due to our situation. I didn't want to tell you because…"
Holy shit! He wasn't having an affair… I'm the one who is making this marriage fall apart, while my husband was trying to make things better. He has been faithful for the past four years. I haven't; I was sleeping with his best friend, who was also my best friend, Lanie's husband. Rick wants to make this marriage work, and what was I doing? I was sleeping with someone else, whilst Rick continued loving me. He treasured our marriage; he didn't want our son to grow up with divorced parents, just like Alexis had to. He was trying to make things better. But if we planned to make things better, I wouldn't tell him about the affair. I'm not going to tell him, we're going to work everything out.