Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 156

Bethany

POV

We packed everything we were taking with us and had the moving van take it all to my storage shed. The house will be refurbished before we move in, so Theo talked me into living with his parents until it is fit to live in. A few suitcases of clothes were all I needed

for the time being.

The wiring needs to be redone, so I suggested we fix the whole house, including the plumbing. That didn't need to be done, but when you said to restore the home, you might as well get it all done. I love the chance to put my own little touches on the place.

I had fun spending the day choosing the kitchen and fittings I wanted, new benchtops, and bathrooms. I could make them earn their money upstairs and down; I am even redoing the granny flat bathroom and kitchen. I am going all out. Hank said we could stay as long as we liked; his home is our home. If the place takes months instead of weeks, we would be fine as far as somewhere to stay. Please visit Jo b nib.com and search the book title to read the entire book for free. I am still determining what I will have to share with Kitty. It is her house, and though she seems to be okay with this, it is still her place, yet I am the intruder. I feel like if I walked into the kitchen and started cooking something for Theo and me, that would be wrong. I feel a little uncomfortable about that and worry about being intimate with him. How soundproof is that place? So many little variables make me think I would be better off in a hotel or maybe Dad's place, but then he now has Pam, and that option might not be viable either. 'What's got that brain of yours working overtime?' Theo asks as he wraps his arms around me and kisses my neck.

'Staying at your parent's place.' I replied honestly.

'What is wrong?' He squeezes me gently.

'I am uncomfortable about us being intimate with your Mum and Dad in the house.' I almost sobbed out in frustration, and I did not really want to be living with his parents.

'We will work it out; they expect us to be intimate. We will be husband and wife, but I understand what you mean. Theo kissed me some more, but I wanted to growl, not get all sweaty. We were in the back of the car on our way to his parent's home with our suitcases. The movers had already left the storage unit, and all was a go. Everything felt like it was going so fast. Tomorrow, I needed to get to the hospital and check on our patients, and I felt so out of sync; I liked my habit of swimming in the morning and doing things at my own pace.

Going to share a house with my in-laws just felt so weird.

The car pulled up. Hank was waiting by the door. When we stopped, he went to the car, assisted Theo in getting the suitcases out, and led the way up to our new bedroom. I followed with a suitcase, too; after arguing that I was still capable of carrying a suitcase, you would think I was sick and not just pregnant.

I sat on the bed, opened the first suitcase, and started to put all my intimate things in the drawers. Then, I headed to the bathroom and put our things in there. Hank gave us a room different from Theo's childhood bedroom, which had an on-suite. He said it would not be right to make me walk down the hallway to use the bathroom and thought we might like a little more privacy. This room was on a different floor than on the second floor. It appears that either Theo had already talked to Hank about sharing his old room and having issues similar to mine, or Hank was a mind reader and thought about how I might feel living under his roof. Either way, it did put my mind at ease being in this larger room and two floors away from Hank and Kitty.

By the time I had put all our clothes away, I was ready for dinner. I headed downstairs and down the hallway and heard Hank and Theo talking. I was going to walk away until I heard they were talking about the syndicate; I knew about these people. Cynthia had bragged about them a number of times to me when we had been alone, how big and tough they were, and they would always protect her. I never understood her need to get her hands on my inheritance when she had a lot of money if half her bragging was true. I waited for a while, listening, and was not happy when Hank mentioned that the only man that Cynthia seemed scared of was coming to town. Why would that man come to our city? Was he looking for Bret and Cynthia?

I knew of this man and how afraid Cynthia was of him, but she would not admit it to me; she liked to make out she was better than I. But I never cared about that. I loved her, and we shared a womb, and I could never be like she was to me. I had heard her on the phone to someone, talking about how he had killed someone right in front of her to teach her a lesson. I do not know who, and it is not like I could ask her.

Having heard enough, I turned and headed to the kitchen, happy to find that Kitty was not there. I needed a moment to get my head around what I had just heard and wondered if Theo would tell me a threat was looming or if they would try and keep me in the dark. I was fuming at that thought and needed to get my game face on before he found me, or I would snap at him.

'Oh, hello, Bethany. Did you need anything?' Kitty walked into the kitchen, and the kettle started to boil before I could respond.

'Care for coffee?' I asked as I opened the fridge, reaching for the milk.

'I came in to start preparing dinner. Is there anything you do not eat?' Here we go. Do you think I should say something now or talk to Theo first?

'No need, Mum. Bethany and I are dining out today! Theo said as he took one of the coffees off the table.

'Why would you do that when I have plenty of food here?' She whined as Hank walked in.

'Because they have a life too, and if I could give them their own kitchen, I would, as Theo stated before he accepted to take the room upstairs, that they still need to live their lives and do not expect us to cook and clean after them. I gave Theo a side look, keeping my face blank.

'But I want to cook for them.' I left the kitchen, taking my coffee with me as they debated whatever they would discuss. I could not see a way around this; I was not here to have her wait on me, and moving here already felt like it was the wrong thing to do; you cannot have two women in the same kitchen.

'Sweetheart. Mum does not mean to be difficult. I turned to look at him and huffed. I was not going to debate this with him. I put my cup down on the small table in the hall and headed out the door. I needed to breathe, or I would be saying something I could never take back/

Theo reached for me and grabbed my arm, stopping me from leaving.'

'What?' I spat at him. He did not deserve that reaction, but it was how I felt.

'Hey, come on, let's get out of here. I will buy you some dinner, and we can talk.' Yeah, what sort of talk does he expect from me?

I let him guide me to the car, and I sat, trying to calm down. Could I blame the baby brain for this? I never let anything get to me like I am now. Had everything reached a c*****, and I needed to explode to get it all out of my system?

We arrived at a little Italian restaurant we had been to once before. I love the food and service here. A very large, round lady, more or less, shuffled her way over to us.

'Theo, how good of you to come and grace us with your appetite and with this charming lady. Bethany wasn't it?' Wow, good memory.

'Yes, Bethany, and I want your spaghetti and meatballs; they were to die for,' I said as she pulled me into her soft, ample bosom and squeezed. She was relatively strong for a woman, and I sank into her chest.

She started to prattle away in Italian, and to my surprise, Theo burst into laughter and answered her in Italian; the more I was around him, the more he surprised me. With all our twenty questions about getting to know you, we had done a number of times: Do you speak more than one language? It was not one of the questions; honestly, until he started talking to the woman in her native language, it never occurred to me to ask.