Another Easter from Hell

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

“I want a divorce,” Charlie mumbled weakly as she was forced to lie there, watching as her husband slowly destroyed her will to live.

“We talked about this,” Devin said, not bothering to look up as he grabbed a handful of fake grass and tossed it in the blue Easter basket before doing the same for the yellow basket.

“You’re not doing it with love,” Charlie said hollowly, watching as he followed that up with two more handfuls of fake grass before he reached for the bag of Easter goodies that she put together for Abbi and-

“Why are you doing this to me?” Charlie asked, sniffling as she hugged the body pillow that she kept on the couch for moments like this while she watched her husband dump the contents of the bag into the basket, causing half the bag to fall onto the coffee table.

When he grabbed the second bag, Charlie released a whimper as she tightened her hold around the pillow and watched as he did the same with Dustin’s Easter basket. That was followed by grabbing everything that fell onto the table and shoving it randomly into the basket, and for some reason that she couldn’t understand, releasing a satisfied sigh that had a small muscle beneath her right eye twitching.

When he reached for the roll of green cellophane wrap, she dropped the pillow on the floor, shifted awkwardly so that she could push herself up and-

“Don’t even think about it,” Devin said with a look that had her releasing a heartfelt sigh as she dropped back down on the couch, wondering how much more of this she could take before she finally broke.

She was eight and a half months pregnant with twins, ready to pop, and more ready to finally be off bedrest. She’d spent the last five months on bedrest, forced to watch as her husband took over her favorite thing on earth.

Holidays.

For Thanksgiving, she was forced to watch as he mutilated her centerpiece, used leftover Halloween decorations instead of the fall decorations that she’d suggested, bought canned cranberry sauce, devoured the pumpkin pies she’d ordered from Dixon’s Bakery, and forgot to take the turkey out of the freezer in time.

For Christmas, he got a fake Christmas tree, lost half her decorations, refused to let her help decorate the tree, somehow managed to piss the mall Santa Claus off enough to have an elf show up at their house on Christmas Eve and-

She really didn’t want to think about what happened when Devin went outside to shovel the walkway.

“I can help,” Charlie said, absently caressing the large swell of her belly as she watched him use the entire roll to wrap the basket.

“You are helping,” he said, toying with her emotions as he reached for a roll of packing tape and-

Left her with no choice but to look away.

“At least let me hide the eggs,” Charlie said, shifting to get comfortable only to end up biting back a wince when the move caused pain to tear through her back, making it difficult to breathe as the pain radiated to the large swell of her belly before the pain suddenly disappeared.

God, she really hated Braxton Hicks contractions.

“Already done,” Devin said as she opened her eyes and quickly scanned the living room, looking for the brightly colored plastic eggs that she’d filled with candy last month only to end up frowning when she didn’t find any.

“When?” Charlie asked, leaning over to look under the coffee table.

“Last week,” came the absently murmured answer that somehow left her even more confused.

“And, umm, where did you hide them?” she asked, looking back in time to watch as he grabbed another roll of cellophane.

“Where the kids wouldn’t find them,” Devin said, putting the finishing touches on the baskets with-

“Is that painter’s tape?” Charlie found herself asking as she watched her husband wrap what appeared to be blue painter’s tape around the basket.

“Adds color,” Devin said, wrapping the tape haphazardly around Dustin’s basket before shifting his focus to Abbi’s Easter basket.

“How are the kids supposed to find the eggs?” Charlie asked, watching Devin finish off the basket before tossing the roll of tape on the coffee table and stood up.

“We have a system,” Devin said as he stood up.

“And what would that be?” Charlie asked as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers as he placed his hand on her belly.

“You’ll see.”

*-*-*-*

“Why doesn’t the Easter Bunny love us anymore, Daddy?” Dustin asked, his little chin quivering as he stared up at him while Devin stood there trying to figure out how he’d fucked this up so badly.

He just…

“I love the Easter Bunny, Daddy,” Abbi mumbled sadly, following that up with a sniffle as she hugged her empty Easter bucket against her chest that should have been filled with bright Easter eggs by now.

“Were we bad?” Dustin asked, glancing down at the empty bucket in his arms before glancing back up at him.

“No,” Devin said, his expression softening as he leaned down and kissed his little boy’s forehead.

“Is the Easter Bunny mad at Mommy?” Dustin asked, making Devin frown as he glanced at his wife in time to watch her turn her head and bury her face against her pillow as she released a blood-curdling scream that had his stomach dropping.

That was followed by a muffled string of sniffles, pained gasps, and then…

“What did the Easter Bunny bring you?” Charlie asked, slapping a warm smile on her face as she raised her head and focused on the twins.

“What’s wrong with Mommy?” Dustin asked, shifting nervously as they watched Charlie open her mouth to answer only to whimper, turn her head and-

“Looks like the Easter Bunny is about to bring us a surprise.”

The last thing that Devin Bradford needed was for the woman that he couldn’t stop thinking about showing up on his doorstep, but now that she was here, he was going to do whatever it took to resist her in this romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author R.L. Mathewson.

Sometimes life doesn’t go the way that we expected. 

Determined to be there for his children, Devin put his life on hold, putting his children first even if that meant telling himself that he couldn’t have the only woman that he’d ever wanted, only to feel the last thread of his control snap when she did the one thing that he never saw coming.

She fell in love with his children.

After years of putting off taking the next step, Charlie was finally ready, mostly because her best friend threatened to make her life a living hell if she didn’t. Knowing that she couldn’t keep putting this off any longer, Charlie somehow finds herself moving into the in-law apartment of the man that seemed to go out of his way to avoid her and found herself wondering if she was chasing the wrong dream after all.