Chapter 22

Dress five was the one as Marlize stepped out of the dressing room, the dress shimmering with every move she made. It was flower lace, open arms, with an illusion tulle back with pearly buttons. Silver sparkles and lace flowers adorned the A-line skirt, creating a magical, star fall effect and it was absolutely breathtaking. It honestly stole her heart as she slowly turned in a circle in front of the full-length mirror, a genuine smile on her face.

This was it.

This was the dress she would marry Mark in. The sales lady was beside herself, tearing up at how incredible she looked and the underlay material would be ivory, the options beige or blush, and Marlize liked the ivory because it was the closest to white. Gently, carefully, she slipped out of the dress, after taking pictures, and sent them to Linda and Stephanie, letting them both know she had found the one.

"It's gorgeous!" Christopher sighed, clasping his hands together as that dress was taken away for the very few alterations it would need to hug her figure properly. "It's going to look wonderful under the lighting in the evening."

It would be a late afternoon wedding with the reception taking place about an hour before sunset, right after the pictures. He had, of course, already made arrangements for the guests to be entertained and all that during the picture taking, knowing bored guests made for boring weddings. Linda wanted this to be splashed everywhere as THE wedding of the season, the biggest event of the year in Dallas, or as close to possible as she could get on such short notice.

"Now, the shoes…" Christopher gestured at the waiting shop girl. They had picked out several pairs for each other dress, and they were all brought for Marlize to examine. Once she had finally decided, it was the jewelry. "I will say, your fiancé did request we show you some specific pieces with this," He tapped an ocean blue gemstone on a necklace. "Sentimental reasons?"

It reminded her instantly of the ocean and flashbacks of their first time together in that severe thunderstorm, the waves crashing over them, washed over her. "Yeah, we met on the ocean." That wasn't a lie either. It was the truth. Her fingers gently glided over the gemstone and Christopher snapped his fingers as it was placed around her neck, a mirror held up moments later. "It's so beautiful."

It would also go with the old adage of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue to wear on her wedding day. The matches earrings were just as breathtaking too and Marlize couldn't deny how much she loved the pieces. The shoes were shimmery and strapped up her calves, two inches, so Mark would still tower over her while they took their vows. The piece also came with a matching bracelet as well, the same ocean blue gemstones. Mark was a lot more sentimental than she could've imagined and it just made that guilt build more and more inside of her.

Mark…you'll hate me before all is said and done and you'll regret picking this out for the likes of me.

Mark would admit it, he cleaned up nice in this monkey suit. Reflecting on prior weddings and how he had looked, he had NOT made some of those mistakes again. This was his LAST marriage and even if it ended in divorce once she was finally safe, even if he fell in love all over again, he wasn't doing this a fourth time. Any woman in the future who wasn't Marlize would have to settle for a common law marriage because he wasn't putting a ring on it for a fourth time. He had, and maybe he WAS sentimental, picked out a silk linen pocket handkerchief or whatever they were called in the same ocean blue color as her gemstones, not knowing if she would even realize why he had picked them out, but it's what he was going with for himself at least.

"How long for the final fitting?"

"Rushing it? Two days."

"Perfect. I sent in the measurements for my son."

"And we have that suit ready to go." Children were so much easier.

Maren and Aven would be in a crisp ocean blue suit and dress, respectively, which is another thing Marlize had to pick out. Her daughter's dress. No, their daughter. She had to keep reminding herself she wasn't alone in the parenting game anymore. Mark was there now. Mark wanted to be here and wanted to be their father. He could've easily told her to fuck off or demanded a paternity test, but instead, he had believed these were his children, which they were. She hadn't had sex with any other man besides Mark since Bradley. Walking out of the dress shop, Marlize slipped back into the car and a few minutes later, Mark had joined her, neither not knowing what to say to the other.

"I picked out my dress and got Maren taken care of as well. Stephanie is going to be my matron of honor too." The wedding colors, she found out, were ocean blue and silver, so that was why there was so much blue involved. "I need to tell you something, Mark. You may have already known this, but I need to say it anyway." They were on their way to cake testing.

"What is it, Marlize?"

"After the ferry boat incident, I…panicked and I contacted Uncle Vince and told him what happened. I told him I thought it was my ex-husband and he might've found me and…and you were in danger on the island." Marlize could not meet his eyes, staring down at her lap and swallowed hard because, for the first time ever, she was legitimately scared of how Mark was going to react to this. "If I wouldn't have made that call, Uncle Vince wouldn't have demanded you to leave the island to come back on the road so soon. It's my fault this happened, it's all my fault." There was nobody else to blame and, even though Mark hadn't come back for her right away, eventually he had and she was gone by then. "I-I'm sorry…"

The silence that reigned after that confession became very heavy, very tense and the driver upfront hit a button to roll up the privacy window because the way that giant's eyes flashed told him this wasn't going to end well.

"Come with me."

"All right…I'll come with you, but…not right away. I have things here I need to handle first, so…I know you're not going back on the road right away. You're going home for a week, right? Give me a week and then come back to get me before you go back on the road. Will you do that?"

Marlize had KNOWN then that he was leaving, she had known before even he did. So when he was promising to come back to her, asking her to come with him, when she had said she loved him…she had known he was leaving because she had made that call. "It makes a lot of sense now," He responded slowly, unable to keep the words from coming out in a dark growl from between gritted teeth. "Why he wouldn't put me in touch with you." He realized his hand was clenched very tightly in a fist and forced himself to open it up, his palm was dug open from his own nails. "Not. A. Word." He whispered harshly when she opened her mouth. "Not a FUCKING word right now, Marlize." He had to breathe, he had to calm down, he had to…

The driver flinched when a punch against that window threatened to shatter it, really glad it was supposedly shatterproof.

"We are going to finish this day and then go home." His words were eerily calm, like he wasn't now wrapping his bleeding hand in the bandana that had been around his head. "We'll discuss this then."

Marlize had flinched as well when he hit that window and it made her heart jump into her throat, true fear filling her eyes. She didn't want to go home with him. She didn't want to have that discussion and knew they had to pick up the twins before going home first. Maybe he would calm down by then and he wouldn't hurt her. Christ, her hands were trembling and she had to swallow the anxiety threatening to overcome her.

What is he going to do to me? Shit, I shouldn't have told him. I should've kept my damn mouth shut! For once, Marlize obeyed his command and kept silent, the tension between them so thick it couldn't be cut with the sharpest knife.

They arrived at the cake shop and Marlize did not want to try any, her stomach in knots, and forced herself to swallow down the different flavors of cakes. Honestly, she didn't even remember which flavor she picked out, not really caring about the cake and something told her Mark didn't either. Another hour later, they were on the road back to the Austin's to pick the twins up and both had to put smiles on their faces in front of them, not wanting them to know anything was wrong. Marlize put her babies to bed, like she always did, kissing their foreheads and then headed upstairs to the bedroom while Mark gave his own goodnights to the children.

I'm in trouble. I'm in so much fucking trouble right now. Fuck! Whiskey was calling her name again, for the second night in a row, and she poured a tumbler of it before slamming it down, trying like hell to calm her nerves and anxiety down. Nothing was working though. We're secluded out here and he can easily kill me and raise those kids himself. Fuck!

Marlize was working herself up royally and Mark was enjoying it. She had been doing it all night, he knew because he had been watching her like a hawk, PURPOSEFULLY ratcheting it up for her, letting her sit and stew. Given the HELL she had put him through since they had 'reunited', she deserved those gray hairs she was undoubtedly spouting.

"They're already out." He informed her, once he had joined her in the bedroom, slowly closing the door behind him. Apparently, Steve had worn them out. According to Steve's old lady, they had worn Steve out because he had crashed out early. "Pour me a glass." He used one hand, the one he hadn't hit the glass with, to begin undoing his shirt, watching as she did it, her hands trembling. "I honestly felt bad taking away your choices, denying you the right to make your own decisions, you know that?"

That was what Marlize had done to him.

She took away Mark's choice, his decision, when it came to staying with her on the island. Marlize had gone behind his back and called Vince, being sneaky in order to get him off the island after the ferry boat incident. At the time, she felt like she had no other choice and didn't want to see him hurt at her expense. She didn't want his blood on her hands in case it was Bradley coming after her.

Still, Mark had done the same thing to her that she did to him and Marlize deserved everything that was coming to her and more. Not saying a word, she handed the tumbler to him, watching him down it, and then crushed the glass in his hand, the pieces falling to the carpeted floor. What could she say to him to calm him down? Nothing! There was nothing she could say or do to calm this man down and Marlize knew her only shot at survival was keeping silent and a fair amount of distance from him, feeling tears silently spill down her cheeks.

"Dry it the fuck up, I told you years ago I wasn't a woman abuser and that hasn't fucking changed." Mark sneered at her, brushing his bloodied fingers against each other and watched the tiny shards of glass not embedded in his flesh join the rest on the floor. "I felt like a fucking cocksucker, knowing I was hurting you, and in the end, I shouldn't have been because it's the same fucking thing YOU DID TO ME!"

She had taken his choice away, HIS decision. Marlize could have ran with him when he asked her to, but she hadn't. All she had done was basically make it a smart decision on his part NOW to not trust her, to not let her have a say, because now Mark KNEW she would screw him over without blinking twice.

"And then – THEN, you held all that shit against me! Not coming back for you? Not believing me? You threw that all in my face when YOU'RE the one who forced me to leave you in the first place! WHY?!"

"BECAUSE IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!" Marlize shrieked, finally exploding and sank down on the bed, shutting her eyes tightly to try to dry the tears up. She had no right to cry. She had no right to yell at him like that, but damn it, her emotions were overwhelming her. The guilt was crushing her into dust and she had nobody to blame except herself for this. "Uncle Vince wanted you on that island because of your temper issues, Mark. Because you were beating the FUCK out of your coworkers with no remorse and he needed you to calm the hell down. That's why he sent you to the damn island – to me. Because he knew with you being isolated, you would eventually calm down. It was MY responsibility to make sure nothing happened to you…that you were safe! It was my goddamn responsibility!" Uncle Vince had paid her a LOT of money to ensure his top star was taken care of on that island and Marlize was not going to let him down. "When Dirk's ferry blew up, you damn right I panicked because I KNOW it was him! Bradley told me when he found me in Hawaii and beat the hell out of me! He told me what he did to Dirk's boat, so I DID THE RIGHT THING! I got you the hell off that island, far away, back where you were SAFE! I did what I had to do to make sure you didn't either commit murder or end up dead because of ME! You were in danger and I had no choice, I had to tell Uncle Vince what happened! I didn't think I'd fall in love with you, that was not in the plans at all! I didn't think we'd get as close as we did either! It killed me to watch you sail away from me, from the island, but I HAD NO GODDAMN CHOICE!"

That was some pretty horrible reasoning, all things considered, and his eyes narrowed further, storming over to snatch up that bottle of whiskey. He was sleeping in his office again, hardly able to stomach looking at her right now. "There WAS a choice. You could have trusted me to handle myself if he came," And because SHE believed there was NO choice, Marlize had imposed that on him. Mark flashed her a very vicious grin because karma had a way of coming back around and now here she was, with NO choice. "Well, we played it your way, pet, with YOUR choices and look where it got you. Now, we're doing it MY way. Get some sleep, you're going to need it."

Marlize could sit and stew with her anxiety while he stormed out of the room, leaving the broken glass and specks of blood behind him. He didn't care right now. He was going to drink, pass out, and then get through these next few weeks before he married the woman who had driven him down into the dirt while hiding her own lies and secrets. Naturally, that was just how it went. He couldn't fall for someone who was honest and trusted him, he had to fall for someone who…well, was like her.

She didn't mean to blow up at him and stayed there for a while on the bed, covering her face with her hands, crying her heart out. Marlize made a mistake and she had no idea Mark had come back to the island, thinking that was just a half-assed lie to cover up the fact he abandoned her. Vince had stopped him from returning to the island and she knew why. There was no choice, she had to tell Mark the truth or else the old man would be at the end of his very violent temper. Marlize stood up from the bed once the tears dried up and looked down at the broken tumbler on the carpet, beginning to pick them up to toss them in the nearby small trashcan that was by the bed.

Then, she went into the bathroom to grab the cleaner, finding some for carpet and proceeded to get the blood out of the beige carpet before it stained. Once she finished doing that, Marlize put everything away and changed into her pajamas, looking down at the ring on her left ring finger. Sniffling, she turned the diamond inside so she didn't have to look at it and went to crawl into the bed, but instead, she grabbed one of the blankets on the cedar chest and went down to the living room. Sleeping in that bedroom was not an option, so she went into one of the other spare rooms and crashed hard, her face a mess of tears.