With the blinds pulled up as high as they could go, Emma stood on the couch and leaned on the back of the living room couch to look out the big bay window.

"Why it takin' Uncle Wick so long?" she frowned.

Jules could hear her talking to herself in the next room. She was waiting for her uncle who told her he would be coming over to see her. Emma adored Warrick and he felt the same way about her. In fact, Jules always told him he needed to stop spoiling her; he never listened.

Trista yelled out from the kitchen to Emma. "Hey Kiddo, is Uncle Warrick here yet?" she asked.

"NO! No he not!" she said angrily with her elbows propped up on the back of the couch and her hands holding up her cheeks.

"Let me know, okay?" Trista yelled back.

Trista wanted Warrick to hurry up and get there because he would be watching Emma while she and Jules spent some girl time alone and hit the boutiques on the strip. It was long over due Trista informed Jules. Jules agreed and so when Warrick said he wanted to see his "Tiny Girl", as he called her, she asked if he minded if they left her with him . He never minded, in fact once he was his niece he didn't care who else was there. Warrick was as good an uncle to Emma as he was a brother to Jules.

Suddenly Warrick's truck pulled in front of their home and Emma squealed with excitement.

"Uncle Wick is here!" she said hopping up and down on the cushions.

Trista looked over at Jules and smirked.

"I love the way she says 'here'…I love the way she says anything with an 'R' sound," she told Jules.

Trista always said Emma sounded like she had a New York accent when she talked; it struck her funny and she loved it.

"Emma stop jumping on my couch!" Jules yelled to her daughter.

Warrick walked up the walkway and headed up the stairs to the big front door. He had no time to even knock because Emma flung open the door and grinned.

"Hey, is Emma home?" Warrick asked in a serious tone.

"Me is Emma! That me!" she told him.

"No, no, I am looking for my niece Emma, she is a little girl, not this big girl in front of me!" he told her as he began walking inside.

"Uncle Wick, me is Emma! I is big now!" she argued.

Once she began to get upset, Warrick scooped her up in his arms and growled into her neck.

"I know, I know, Tiny! I will know you forever, don't you know that?" he told her.

"You was teasin' me!" she grinned and laughed.

"Yes, Tiny, yes I was," he laughed.

Trista walked into the foyer.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, get a move on, Big Man…we got some serious shopping therapy to do and you have been holding us up!" she said.

"Get away from me," he slung Emma onto his hip and walked past her making sure he bumped her shoulder with his as he walked by.

Trista and Warrick have always gotten a cheap thrill out of bickering. It was just their way and Jules was used to it.

"Yaw not bein' very nice, Uncle Wick," Emma scolded him in her New York accent.

Warrick just laughed and walked into the kitchen with her. Trista followed behind grumbling something Jules couldn't hear.

"Will you two ever play nice?" Jules said smiling as her brother placed Emma on the countertop.

"In her dreams," he scoffed.

"He wishes," Trista yelled at the same time.

Jules grabbed her purse off the desk and kissed her brother as she walked by.

"You don't mind us leaving you?" she asked before she walked out the door.

"Would you stop! Get out of here! Goodbye!" he yelled.

By the time Trista and Jules got home Warrick was watching the game on TV and Emma was curled up asleep with her head on his leg.

He looked over at them and shook his head.

Trista looked at him shaking his head and began shaking her own.

"What the hell is that look for?" she growled at Warrick.

"What the hell could you possibly have bought to fill up all those bags?" he asked.

"Therapy, Rick. It's called therapy! The girl needs to be set free!" Trista said back to him.

"Yeah, yeah, you buy things to set yourself free, Trist?" he mocked her.

"Go set your ass free out the front door, would ya?" she said throwing a couple of bags on the chair in the corner.

"Shut up, both of you already!" Jules said kicking off her shoes and heading for the bags Trista put on the couch.

"Tell HER that," Warrick smirked knowing it would continue their bickering.

"Hey Warrick?" Trista said sweetly to him.

"What?" he frowned at her.

"How about you…I don't know..um…SHUT THE FUCK UP? Yeah, that's it," she tried to keep a serious face when she said it.

"TRISTA!" Jules yelled and smacked her arm.

"See how she talks to me, Baby Girl?" Warrick whined.

"I can't take either one of ya! Do you two ever NOT fight? AHHH!" she groaned.

The two women grabbed their packages and headed up to Jules bedroom.

Trista looked over at Warrick as she passed and gave him the finger all the way out of the room.

"Nice, nice…girl's got class," Warrick chuckled at her.

Once upstairs, Jules and Trista sprawled everything out on the bed. Jules bought a dress she swore she had no place to wear it to but just had to have it. She almost put it back but Trista refused to allow it.

"Okay, but I'm trying it on again and if I hate the way it fits it's going back," she told Trista.

"Fine, fine, but it's nice, I swear, it's perfect!" her best friend defended.

Jules threw off her shirt and jeans and stepped into the dress. Trista zipped the back and they both looked at Jules' reflection in the mirror.

"Well?" Jules asked.

"Honestly? It's a little too long," Trista answered, "I'm gonna pin it and have Natalie hem it up later. Nat hems all my shit for me…she's good at it!"

"I thought Brett does it," Jules said and twisted her lips unsure if that was accurate or not.

"NO! Nevvver! Ohhhh, God forbid! Brett? Oh no, he takes it all to the tailors!" she laughed and grabbed the straight pins out of the top drawer, and knelt in front of Jules with some pins dangling from her mouth.

She was on her knees and an elbow when the phone rang.

"Don't even think about moving!" she mumbled with a few pins sticking out of her mouth.

When it rang a third time, Trista groaned.

"Your asshole brother can't get that?" she said from the floor.

"Easy, easy, Killer, he probably dozed off," she said, "I can reach the speaker on the base if you just let me lean!"

"Do you have to answer it?" she asked as it rang the fourth time.

"I can't stand a ringing phone!" she grumbled and leaned over and hit the speaker button.

Trista looked up from the floor frowning.

"Hello?" Jules answered.

"Um, hi, is this Jules?" a southern, feminine voice asked.

"Yes, yes it is," Jules answered.

"Hi Jules, it's me…it's Brooke Latham."

Jules whipped her head to look at the speaker as if she would be standing there.

Trista jerked up upright on her knees with her mouth open too.

"Brooke? Are you kidding me?" she asked, "Wait, Brooke Latttthhhhammm?" she said dragging her name out in disbelief.

"Uh huh, yes, listen, I just…just hear me out, okay?" she said, "I, I want to apologize for allowing it to go so far with Nicky. I um, well, you seem like a really nice girl and I would never…"

"Whoa, whoa, why are you calling me Brooke? To apologize?" she said and her throat tightened.

Trista jumped up from the floor and tore off down the stairs to find Warrick half asleep on the couch next to his little niece.

She slapped him hard in the shoulder and he gave her a nasty look.

"What the hell is wrrronnnng with youuu?" he said startled.

"Get the fuck upstairs! You gotta hear this! Brooke Latham just called your sister. It's on speaker phone!"

The two of them ran so fast up the staircase they were in the room within seconds, just in time to hear Brooke answer Jules.

"Yes, yes, I guess that is why I am calling. I feel terrible and well Nicky told me how upset you are and well we talked about this and …" Brooke said in a deep southern accent.

Her accent reminded Jules of Nick's. It made her sick. What she was saying was making Jules sick. The thought of Nick and Brooke even conversing about their marriage was sickening. The thought of them talking at all was making her sick. Everything about this conversation was making her feel sick and her head began to pound.

"You two talked about this? Wait…STOP, stop right now," she said with her voice shaking," I don't need to hear this. This is between me and my husband."

"Yes but, well, I don't want you two to divorce because he and I had one night that we foolishly gave in to our attraction. It just wouldn't be right," she explained.

"Brooke, I will not discuss this with you. You knew Nick was married and you had no respect for me when you …when you…" Jules paused realizing she wasn't ever sure what Nick did with her.

From the pictures there wasn't any sex going on, so she was pretty sure that wasn't it but none the less it was bad, she knew that for sure. She had a flash of her bare beasts in Nick's hands.

"Brooke? What…what…did you do with my husband?" she stuttered the question.

"Aw Honey, Nicky didn't tell you? Well, well then maybe I should just leave that alone. I don't want to say anything if he didn't confide in you," she said sweetly.

"Confide? Excuse me? He is my husband, Brooke. We confide in each other!" she yelled.

"Wow, gee, look, um, I didn't mean to upset you…"

Warrick and Trista looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

Warrick looked over at his sister and mouthed "HANG UP ON HER!"

Brooke continued, "…I didn't mean to upset you. I just meant …well, if he confides in you then you would know we slept together," she said coyly.

Jules felt her knees go out. She stumbled to her bed….The bed she has shared with Nick for over six years. She hung onto the thick, cherry wood bedpost.

Warrick took a step toward but stopped knowing it would make it worse if he went to her.

"No you didn't. You fooled around. But there was no sex, Brooke. I know Nick. I know him and he wouldn't do that!" she yelled out with her voice shaking and her hand gripping the comforter.

"Jules, Honey, it was just a one night thing…I…"

"DO NOT call me HONEY, you nasty bitch!" she screamed as she felt the blood boiling inside her.

"I'm a nasty bitch? Hey! Look I was calling to say I am sorry and to tell you that I will not answer Nick's calls anymore because I feel really bad about breaking someone's marriage up. But ya know what? Nick was right, you can get 'ghetto bitch' and be a snob at the same time! No wonder he wanted something new. No wonder why he fucked me for hours that night. And Jules? I do mean he ROCKED MY WORLD FOR HOURS! Did you even wonder why he stumbled in at 5 am? That man can go on like a machine!" she said with attitude.

"You BITCH! You are a horrible human being! We have a baby that adores us both and you call me up and want to say you are sorry for ruining our lives?" she said with her voice cracking in pain at the revelation that Nick had sex with her…for hours.

"Whoa, whoa, I didn't act alone. He had a choice. I am sorry but NICK came on to ME. He is the one responsible for keeping his dick in his pants and should have been thinking about his family first. He chose not to do that. He also chooses to continuously call me. He also…"

"I can't. I can't do this! I do not believe you. You are a liar!" she said and stormed from her bedroom and into the spare room.

She slammed the door, threw herself on the bed and sobbed.

Warrick went after her.

Trista went to the speaker phone.

"Brooke?"

"Yes?"

"Let me tell you this. If you ever call Jules again I promise you…with every breath I take…I will make it my business to find you…I WILL find you and beat you down so badly you will need surgery just to reconstruct your face!" she pounded her fist on the dresser, "I have nothing to lose, Brooke. I have no babies to worry about. I have nothing to lose, Bitch. Just try me!" Trista spat with pure venom.

Brooke hung up; she was startled because by the tone of that girl's voice. She didn't know who that girl was but she unnerved her a bit because she was pretty damned sure that that sick bitch wasn't making idle threats.

Although Brooke may have been startled and hung up fast, she still smirked devilishly because she knew, without even a tinge of doubt, that the damage had already been done.