A/N - Sorry for being a sucky updater. I'll endeavor to do better in November. Although I always endeavor to do better and it never really turns out so don't hold your breath lol.


"Mommy!"

Stephanie smiled at her daughter as she walked through the front door of her house. She dropped her bag on the table and leaned down to pull Jenny into a hug. "Hey sweetheart."

"I just got into my pyjamas. Daddy was just about to read my story but now you both can do it!" she yelled excitedly, tugging on her mother's hand and trying to pull her in the direction of the stairs. "Come on!"

"Ok, ok!" Stephanie could only chuckle as she let herself be pulled along to her daughter's bedroom. Robert was already inside. She managed to smile brightly at him. "Hey. What were you doing up here?"

Robert saw his wife walk into the room and smiled at her, grateful to have her home. She was getting in later and later. He was really thankful that they had hired Rosa as their nanny. "Hey. Jenny was just getting something to drink, weren't you sweetheart."

"Uh-huh," the young girl replied simply as she hopped up onto the bed and pulled the covers around her. "I want this book tonight," she stated, her finger pointing to the skinny red backed book on her bedside table. "Mommy's going to read to."

"Really?" he asked in surprise. He couldn't remember the last time they had read her a story together. Maybe things really were getting back on track. He delighted when she nodded her head and got comfortable on the edge of the bed beside him. "Well then, let's get this thing going!"

"Once up on at time, there was a Princess called...Jenny!" Robert began to read to the delighted squeal of his daughter.

As her husband started the story, Stephanie's mind drifted to the peculiar events of her day. For starters, not one thing occurred out of place. There was no traffic, the deli wasn't out of her favourite sandwich at lunch and she received no aggressive text messages from a certain someone. Regarding the latter the opposite actually occurred. She had been sitting at her desk early this morning, just about to open up a new account and get started when her phone beeped. Her earlier confusion at his message returned. Just want to let you know that I'm free to meet today if you are. I'd really like to see you. Paul. Since when did he start being nice to her? Probably since they almost made lo...since they fucked in his shower and things quickly became very different between them. That was his first message. And when she replied, they quickly fell into an overly flirtatious and if she was being honest, wonderful and exciting texting conversation. She never expected him to be so...human, most likely because most times they met he was either only interested in getting in her pants or acting like a total jackass, a total jackass who still managed to get into her pants regardless. She couldn't help but shake her head at that thought. He had a hold over her. God help her but she just couldn't refuse him, not when she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her.

"Mommy?"

Jenny's impatient cry caught her off guard. She tried her best to focus on what was going on at that moment but unfortunately she was drawing a blank. "I'm sorry sweetie. I just spaced out. What's up?"

"Did you hear any of the story?"

She shook her head no and grimaced at the annoyed little frown that appeared on Jenny's face.

"You have to listen Mommy!" Jenny sighed dramatically causing both parents to laugh. "OK, so there is a Princess called Jenny who is old enough to be married and her daddy, the king, wants her to marry Prince David from the nearby kingdom. But, she doesn't want to because she is in love with a famous knight called Edward and she wants to be with him but her daddy won't let her. Now she is sad and upset because she doesn't know what to do and her daddy is getting evil and Edward is getting hurt. OK?"

Stephanie tried to stop her face from turning white. She felt physically sick as the details of the fairytale were explained. What the hell was going on? Was fate trying to slap her in the face with a story like this? A Princess torn between the Prince she's forced to be with and the man she actually wants to be with? Was somebody trying to tell her something?

Robert noticed the strange, almost frightened expression on his wife's face and nudged her gently. "Honey, are you alright?"

"Oh...oh, I'm fine. I just...nothing." She smiled at them both and motioned with her hand. "Go on then, let's hear the rest of it, Jenny." Although she didn't need to nor want to. In her mind, she was the Princess, Robert was Prince David and Paul was Edward. There she was, trapped in her own fairytale between her husband and her lover. And how did all fairytales end? Growing up on Disney movies would lead her to believe that happily ever after was the right answer. But this was no fairytale, not by a long shot. Somebody was going to get hurt and hurt bad. She had no idea who that was going to be. Could she really take off with Paul and hurt Robert like that, not to mention the impact on her daughter? And why was she even thinking like that anyways? She owed nothing to Paul. So what if he got hurt? At the end of the day he still got what he wanted, a hot fuck, regardless of whether there were feelings involved or not. She pushed away the images in her head of the change in his voice the last time they were together, how it had softened as he asked her to look him in the eyes. Who was she kidding? They were more than that now, they went deeper. But she had to keep telling herself the opposite because if it was just about sex then nobody would get hurt, not her, not Robert and not...not Paul. So that's the way it had to be.

"MOMMY! You're not listening again!"

She snapped out of her inner battle and sighed apologetically. "Oh Jenny, I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm just tired that's all. I think I'm going to go get ready for bed OK? I'll come see you in a few minutes." She leaned over and kissed her soft brown hair before turning and heading to her bedroom.

Jenny watched her mother leave then turned to her father who looked equally as confused. "What's wrong with mommy, daddy? She's acting weird."

"She's just tired, pumpkin," Robert soothed with his best smile, reaching out to smooth her hair although inside he was thinking anything but. There was something going on with his wife. No matter what had been troubling her before, she had never neglected their daughter like that. Steph had completely spaced out and then almost turned white as a ghost and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. Was she sick? All sorts of possibilities began to run through his mind until he felt a soft tugging on his arm.

"Now you're going all weird too," Jenny said quietly. She had never seen her parents act so strange before.

"Hey! I thought you said I was weird already, huh?" Robert smiled, reaching out to tickle under her chin. She giggled until they settled in to finish reading the story. He'd deal with his wife later; right now he had to read his little girl her story.


Stephanie anxiously bit her nail as she sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her phone. She had already typed in her reply. All she had to do was hit send. She stared for a few seconds longer until her hand slowly made its way to the little green button. With a quick intake of breath she pushed the button and shut her eyes. It was done now. No turning back. Almost instantly the phone buzzed in her hand. She opened the message and felt a shiver down her back.

"Great. C U 2moro."