Wrong Side of the Bed

This morning had started like any other for the last week. Tim would get up, make a cup of coffee and order room service breakfast for his family. Mia would come in looking as though she hadn't slept even though he had been with her all night, and she would grab a cup of coffee. Room service would arrive and breakfast would be set up in the dining room, Caleb would stumble in and start eating. The twins would run in and either Mia or Angela would give them plates of food.

This was usually the point where Mia would rush out of the room because of the morning sickness. A while later she would come back looking significantly improved and generally drink her coffee and eat a pastry and some fruit. Once the children finished eating Angela would take them to school.

Generally, the three adults would move on to their normal work requirements and spend several hours tied up working. This morning Mia had told him she was going shopping with Jasmine. On the one hand Tim was glad that she would be going out to do something fun. However, things with Dominic were still up in the air and he worried about Mia getting caught out by her brother.

Not wanting to worry Mia any more he simply told her to be careful and that he would see her when she got back. Mia had given him a peck on the cheek and headed out the door. Timothy had noticed this last week that Mia had started to become withdrawn. He knew the cause. She had told him she loved him, and he had said nothing.

The words would not come out of his mouth. Timothy could not manage to tell Mia how he felt. The problem wasn't that he didn't love her, he did, desperately. He just couldn't say the words. He knew he should reassure her, but it was as if he were mute to those words. Every day that passed he saw the toll it was taking on her and still he couldn't say anything.

Back on the sailboat Timothy had realized that his care and need for Mia was so much more. That he loved her, but the next day when Nicholas had proposed, and he thought he might lose Mia, he had realized how deeply in love with her he was. Tim could not bear to be parted from her. Such a life would be his absolute devastation. Without Mia he was just an empty shell. So why couldn't he tell her?

Tim had watched Mia walk out the door this morning thinking that he had lots of time to figure this out. She wasn't going anywhere, and he would get it right if she just gave him a little time. Tim went to work on the marriage contract for Shelly's marriage to Chuck Nolan. Tim didn't like the man but when he had met with him the day before he couldn't find a reason to refuse. He had agreed to the match and was now starting to work out the details.

Tim spent nearly three hours working when he heard a knock at the hotel door. Caleb jumped up to answered the door. He came back a minute later.

"Timothy man, we have a problem." Caleb said in warning.

Tim looked up at his friend with a question in his eyes. "What is it?"

"Come look." Caleb said grimly.

Timothy rose and followed Caleb to the living room. There standing in front of the sofa was Luna. Timothy walked over to stand in front of the sofa so he could see Luna directly.

"I need a private word with Tim, Caleb." Luna demanded sharply. Caleb looked at Tim. After a beat Timothy nodded and Caleb went back into the office.

Timothy looked at Luna trying to figure out what her game was. She was dressed especially trashy even for Luna. She had a tiny, short skirt on and her top that was half off. Timothy couldn't imagine what they thought in the lobby. Luna was holding something tightly in her right hand and was glancing every few seconds at the screen of her phone in her left hand. What was going on here?

"How did you find me?" Timothy asked the sight of Luna unsettling him.

"Does it even matter? You're here playing house with little miss perfect Mia." Luna complained. "I could tell everyone you know."

"Go ahead. I am tired of hiding anyway. You would be doing me a favor." Tim seemed completely unfazed by Luna's words.

Luna looked at her phone staring at it for a couple seconds longer than she had before. She threw what she was holding in her hand on the floor. Was that underwear? Then she charged him knocking Tim back, so he was splayed across the couch. Tim had caught Luna at the waist as she fell. She quickly straddled him her skirt riding up to her waist. Absently, Tim heard a laugh from the hall. Luna grabbed his hand shoving it down onto what he vaguely registered was her bare ass before throwing her arms around his neck and slamming her mouth to his. This all took less than four seconds.

The next second Mia was standing there staring at him in shock, then hurt, and then she was running. Timothy was trying to process what was happening. He heard the elevator ding and Luna climbed off him, slowly. Jasmine was standing there with her mouth open in shock and Caleb was wide eyed having caught the tail end of the show.

Luna laughed happily. "I know that was better for me than it was for you." She said fixing her skirt. She picked up her underwear from the floor and held them out to Timothy. "Souvenir?"

"Disgusting." Tim pushed past her to get closer to the window watching as Mia's car pulled away. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Making sure your wife doesn't want anything to do with you ever again. I always get what I want Timothy. If I can't have what I want, then neither can you. Mia is going to take Ginger and fly far away. My work here is done." Luna promptly turned on her heel and headed toward the door.

"Do you want me to stop her?" Caleb asked.

"I don't have time to deal with Luna if I am going to track my wife." Tim told him and walked over to Jasmine.

"Please tell me exactly what you believed you were seeing when you walked in the door, every detail." Tim questioned Jasmine seriously. He needed to know how bad this was.

"Are you sleeping with Luna, seriously? You have Mia, you're a pig." Jasmine said, finally finding her voice.

"No of course not. You saw..." Tim started.

"I saw you, just like Mia, you were in the middle of sex with Luna. Luna was doing it to hurt Mia. What's your excuse?" Jasmine replied angrily.

Caleb walked over to Jasmine. "That's not possible. She had only been here two minutes when you and Mia walked in."

"I know what I saw. I'm leaving, I don't want to be anywhere near him. Poor Mia." Jasmine shook her head and walked out the door.

"This is bad Caleb." Tim said, grabbing his suit jacket.

Caleb had even questioned the situation for a moment when he saw the position Timothy and Luna were in, but he knew Tim. This wasn't Tim. Luna had orchestrated her trap perfectly. Caleb told Tim his thoughts and Timothy nodded grimly.

The two men headed downstairs and climbed into the car Tim had called for earlier thinking he would be going to see Jason at the Law Firm. Tim told the driver to take them to the school. They arrived to see Angela with the other car and all four of the bodyguards. Timothy climbed out and spoke to Angela. She told him that Mia had pulled the children without explanation twenty-five minutes ago.

Timothy told the other car to follow and climbed back into his car. This was really bad. Mia wasn't just running; she was running with the children. Tim opened the tracking app on his phone that was linked to Ginger. They were at the Research Center. That is where he directed his driver. They pulled up to the Research Center as a little silver sports car cut them off.

Tim and Caleb walked into the reception desk and asked for Nicholas. A few minutes later Rachel came through the door.

Rachel looked at Tim and sighed. "They aren't here. Mia and the children stopped by, but they left a few minutes later. It seemed like they didn't want you to find them."

"Was your brother with them?" Timothy asked as politely as possible.

Rachel was quiet for a moment, her mouth a thin line. "Nick told me he needed to take them somewhere safe, and he would call me when he could." She started to turn and walk away but paused when Tim spoke.

"Where does Nicholas consider safe, Rachel?" Tim asked plaintively.

Rachel hugged her arms to herself. "If he wants to keep Mia and the children safe from you there is only one place he can take them. Niveo." She walked back through the doors without a backward glance.

That was the moment when Timothy started to panic.