Locked in Marriage 3: Forever After

Chapter Three

Colton walked upstairs and saw Charlotte's door cracked open a little. He walked up to it, but instead of walking in or knocking on the door he just stood there. He remembered when she used to run to him everyday when he would come home from work. He would hold out his arms for her and she would jump right into them. She was always so happy to see him, but now when he would come home he would barely even get a hello from her.

She got off her bed and walked over to her desk where her computer sat and Colton backed away from the door. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go in or not and backed away from the door. When he turned around to walk away from the door he looked at the wall and saw a picture of himself, Kayla and Charlotte six months after she was born. Charlotte was laughing in the picture with no teeth, Colton was looking down at her and laughing at her while Kayla was looking at Colton lovingly. The picture was a fake, but it looked so real. It was so convincing.

He turned back around and walked straight into her room. She turned around to look at who walked in and rolled her eyes when she realized who it was. Colton walked over to her bed and sat down on it. It had a white comforter and purple and pink pillows on it. Charlotte didn't say anything to him and continued to look at her computer screen. Her room was a mess as per usual and clothes were all over the place. There were photographs on the wall of her family and of all of her friends. There were boxes all over her room that had previously held clothes sent to her by designers.

There was one photograph across from her bed that caught Colton's eye. It was from the Cannes Film Festival the previous year. Kayla did not want to attend and Colton brought Charlotte so they could spend the week together. They had had a tough time, as they were the most similar: stubborn, narcissistic, malicious, yet kind and loving. The photograph showed Colton holding his hand out for Charlotte as she walked up the stairs in her white gown. Colton looked up at her with pride and sparkle in his eye and Charlotte was smiling at her father and looked as though she was giggling.

"What do you want?" She asked annoyed. Colton looked up from the photograph forgetting why he had even come into her room for.

"Why are you being snippy?" he reiterated back to her. She turned her computer off and turned to look at her father.

"Why are you and mom separating?" she spat back at him. This reminded him of conversations with his sister. They never had 'normal' conversations they would just spit out hurtful words at each other hoping the conversation would come out positively.

"Have you been living in this house for the past couple of months? I think it was about time we did something about it, don't you?" he said staring at her.

"No. You need to work it out or just get divorced and move out. You and mom have always been at each others throats, even when I was little," Charlotte said flipping a piece of her brown hair behind her shoulder.

"I didn't think you would have noticed when you were a kid how bad it was," Colton said quietly. He had thought Kayla and he had been able to keep their fighting at bay, but clearly they didn't do a good enough job.

"Yeah well I did. It was easy, when you and mom would be talking and when I would walk into the room you guys would stop talking and try to force smiles to make it look like you were happy. Mikey and Ryder and Katie and I didn't mind we always had so much stuff. You always gave us so much stuff to distract us from what was really going on that we didn't care whether you and mom fought or not because we always got something out of it," Charlotte explained as a tear began to fill her eye. Colton felt bad that their relationship had been so obvious to their children at such an early age.

"Look, mom and I are trying to work on this and it would really help if you weren't sarcastic all the time," Colton said walking over to her. He looked down and smiled at her and kissed her forehead. She didn't pull her head away and leaned into him. He let her go and walked towards the door. "Believe it or not, your mom and I did love each other once." He then left the room and walked out into the hallway and down to his office. Right when he sat down Kayla walked into the room and sat in the chair opposite his desk and stared at him.

They just stared at each other. The silence had taken over the room and they could hear their children walking around the house, slamming doors, and talking to each other. There were TVs blasting, video games blasting, and either Charlotte or Katie had turned on their stereo.

"Can you believe that the people walking around this house are a part of both of us?" Kayla said quietly as they continued to listen to their children bustling around the house.

"No I can't," Colton finally said. Charlotte began yelling at either Ryder or Mikey for bugging her and both Kayla and Colton looked at each other and smiled.

"I really believe that this separation will help us as long as we work on it," Kayla finally said playing with her wedding ring. Colton knew what she really meant; that he needed to smarten up and help her work on this marriage.

"Believe it or not I actually want our marriage to work, not just because it would be like the most expensive divorce ever, but because we have a life together and I wouldn't want to just throw away twenty years," Colton said standing up and walking around to where she was sitting. He leaned up against the desk across from her and crossed his arms. She stared at him and raised her eyebrows.

"You could have fooled me dear," she said sounding exhausted. She looked down at her gold watch and noticed that it was close to midnight. She knew she had to get up early the next morning and began to leave Colton's office.

"Funny dear. Am I sleeping on a couch somewhere or am I allowed to sleep in my own bed?" Colton asked as looked at Kayla walking to the door.

"Where ever you want," Kayla said walking out of the room. Colton shook his head and followed her out of his office and up to their bedroom.

He remembered when they used to laugh and smile at each other when they would get ready to bed. But now they would change in their opposite closets and get into bed without saying anything to each other. Colton would sit on his iPad while Kayla would be reading a book or magazine. These days Kayla would be on her iPad working on her foundation and Colton would have to listen to her on her phone planning her next gala or her next appearance.

"When is your next gala?" Colton asked as he pulled back the covers. Kayla sighed and pulled the covers back on her side of the bed. Colton got into bed and leaned over on his right side so he was looking right at her.

"This week," she answered. "On Friday and I am expecting you to be there." She looked at him as she got into her side of the bed. She had told him several times already and he still needed to ask.

"I know," he said as he pulled the covers up to his face and rolled over so he wasn't looking at Kayla.

"I will have Macy put it in your schedule so you do not forget. And all of our children must be there," Kayla explained as she turned her light off. Colton rolled his eyes and reached up to shut his light off and closed his eyes.