Heartful secrets karma b.., p.1
Heartful Secrets (Karma Bakery Book 6), page 1
Table of Contents
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Find A New Series To Love…
About the Author
Other Titles by Erin R Flynn
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It’s a new year, and as much as Arabella Baker wishes that meant a new her, even a goddess can’t make that happen. Her past and family have found her, and while she’s thrilled she’s reconnected with two of her brothers, Zeus and Hera won’t leave things alone.
But that actually takes a back seat to the heartbreak she’s suffered. She would never have thought the man she’d been falling for was lying to her and a complete fraud.
All she wants to do is help people and bring some good to the world. It’s all Arabella has ever wanted to do, but if the cost is so high to her, maybe it’s just not worth it.
Maybe this world isn’t worth saving.
Maybe with Valentine’s Day around the corner, she can soak up the love of cute couples and crazy requests to keep going, keep expanding… Because she’s expanding again. And again. The question is what will the cost be to her this time and is she willing to pay it?
Karma Bakery is a slow-burning romance with multiple interested parties that is full of sugar, spice, and everything nice while trying to find your place in life, doing the best you can, appreciating what you have, and figuring out a way to move beyond a traumatic past.
1
“I want to eat a dick,” an elderly human told me first thing Wednesday morning.
I opened my mouth to say so many things, but her determination struck me and I knew she wasn’t kidding. But clearly, something was off. Then it hit me. “You want to try spotted dick? The custard?”
The woman frowned at me. “Why would I come to a bakery for that?” She waved off whatever I might have said. “No, I want cake. I want a dick cake and to eat it, take pictures of it.”
There really were all kinds of people in the world. I couldn’t even make my mouth work. “Please explain this to me like I’ve had more coffee.”
She chuckled. “Sorry, I was nervous and worried I wouldn’t be able to say it, so I just blurted it out.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I have maybe twenty good years left. If that. I have lived my whole life…” She shook her head. “I made the choices. I made the wrong ones, and I don’t want to care about what people think of me anymore.
“I married my husband because it was what my family wanted. They liked him. I thought love would come but it didn’t. He was abusive.” She chuckled darkly and looked at the wall of cake decorations we used to also decorate the second floor and seemed to get lost in the pretty. “No one believed me. Even my children now, but they’ve witnessed it.
“My oldest said something in school once. He got in trouble for hitting a little girl and said it was fine because daddy did it to me. My husband made a crude joke about slapping my butt and the school laughed it off, my husband a very good actor like that. The funny part was I had to cover a black eye for the meeting. The proof was right in front of them.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said honestly, handing her a few napkins when her eyes were misty.
She stared at them a few moments. “You’re nicer than my children. They called me a liar and more.” She accepted them and dabbed her eyes. “When they were in high school, I decided it was enough and tried to file for a divorce. It was clear they loved him who spoiled them, and I was nothing as I washed their clothes and made their meals.
“He gave them whatever they wanted, but I gave them what they needed. My husband played the victim in front of them and everyone, begging me to stay, and asking what he’d done wrong. Pleading with me to talk.”
“And then he hit you when you were alone,” I murmured, knowing this story well.
She nodded. “I embarrassed him. He wouldn’t let someone say his wife wasn’t happy and be a loser because an ugly, useless woman like me left him. But the kids said they would never speak to me again if I left and would stay with him. So, I stayed. If it would upset my children so much, then it wasn’t the right time and I stayed.”
“But you tried again later?” I pushed when she stopped talking.
She nodded again. “Once they were all out of the house, married or living on their own after college. They were furious at me saying I was a horrible person to abandon my husband after all he’d done for me now that we were older. I didn’t want to lose my children, but everything was so much worse once they weren’t around, especially after he retired.
“But they wouldn’t believe me that he’d hurt me. I have scars I tried to show my daughters, but they tried to put me in therapy that I was losing my memory or making up lies. My husband played on that and said he would put me in a home as that was less embarrassing than my betraying him. So, I stopped saying anything.”
“I don’t blame you.” I didn’t. Women who had grown up living under their father and then their husband… The world was unforgiving, and it was hard for them to adjust. It was hard for them to be on their own after they were so controlled and abused. “I take it he passed.”
She nodded. “Before the holidays. He dropped in the middle of hitting me. I went to the hospital, and still my children explained it away, telling the doctor I fell.” She snorted. “All they ever saw was his spoiling of them. I wasn’t allowed to reprimand them.” She stared at the decorations again. “I regret having given birth to such horrible people.
“I hope my grandchildren don’t turn out the same, I truly do.” She flinched as she realized what she’d just admitted and hurried on. “After the funeral, the will was read.” More tears formed. “I wasn’t in it. He left everything to his children to spoil them once again. They were furious when they couldn’t take it all, not caring it would have left me penniless.”
“If you need a good attorney, I can—”
“No, I have one, thank you. He was a friend of my brother’s. They served together, but my brother died there.” She gave a sad smile. “He would never have let me marry that asshole. He would have beaten my husband within an inch of his life and gotten me out. It’s one of the many reasons I wish he hadn’t died in such a stupid war.”
I wanted to ask which one, but that felt crass given the pain she was in. “So, he helped you?”
She nodded. “He was there that day and made it clear that the will had to have been written thinking I would have already died. That my husband couldn’t actually put things in his will that were ours while I was still alive.” She let out a choked laugh. “He never thought I would outlive him. And it turns out I’m quite the wealthy woman.
“We didn’t live like we had that kind of money. He was such a tightwad for everything unless it was spoiling the kids. I thought we were comfortable because we could pay their college, but my husband—as horrible as he was—was a damn good investor.”
“And your kids want to take it all from you now that they know,” I said with a sigh, my heart hurting for her.
“I gave them life and stayed with an abusive husband for those shits, and now they want to leave me without a penny to my name.” Tears overflowed her eyes as she stared at me. “My life was for nothing. My children are horrible, and I wasted all of these years. Now I’m old and yes, the money is lovely, but I would give it away to do my life over again.”
“Your life wasn’t a waste,” I comforted.
She snorted. “You are young and gorgeous, successful on your own.” She gestured around the bakery as if she needed to prove her point. She let out another long breath. “I want to do what I can while I can.” She seemed to pull herself mentally out of her thoughts and gave me a determined look. “And that means having sex. Pleasurable sex with attractive men.
“I want to be wild and do crazy things like I never did. I want to post eating a dick cake on social media and h
I studied her for several moments, trying to figure out the best way to say that her idea was silly and she would regret it… But I couldn’t. They were her choices to make and clearly, she wanted to stir the pot a bit like she never had before.
However, there was one main problem.
“We don’t sell those kinds of cakes,” I informed her.
She flinched. “Why the heck not? I know they’re popular for bridal showers and fun. I saw some online for people to celebrate their divorces and say they were open for business. Why can’t I do that?”
Now I understood better. Okay, that made way more sense.
I pressed my lips together and thought of how to say it. “Because I’m an equalist. If it was a man wanting a cake of female anatomy, I would shut it down and most would think him crass.”
She shrugged. “It is crass. I want to be crass. I never have been before.”
“Fair enough, but I don’t want that associated with my bakery.” I reached over and patted her arm when she seemed dejected. “We’ll do it. I will match you with my cake designer, and she will absolutely help you as a side thing that has nothing to do with this bakery or our image.”
“I wouldn’t post where I got it from,” she said easily.
Still, I never trusted people and social media. They were busy and forgot things because they were focused on themselves.
Then I had an even better idea. “What would you think about decorating it yourself? We’ll make the cake however you want, but you take pictures of decorating it. We’ll even provide you with the frosting and whatever else you would need. Make it the dick you want.”
“Oh, I like that,” she agreed brightly. “Yes, that would be wonderful. I could—I want to use this as therapy in a way.” She cleared her throat and looked away. “Plus, I want to make public some of this so my children can’t try and put me in a home. I want to air this out to protect myself. I have the proof, they just never cared enough to see it.”
“People see what they want and when they’re selfish, all they see is themselves.”
We spent the next few minutes working out the idea, and I wrote it all down for Cora, including the woman’s information. I honestly felt like I had just finished a session being her therapist when we were done.
“You should bring some treats to your children,” I suggested when we wrapped up. “They still lost their father and the nicer you are to them, the harder it will be later to say you were the jerk. Plus, your grandkids are innocent in all of this.”
“Yes, thank you. That’s smart.”
And it would give those horrible shits the karma they deserved. I felt much, much better about that.
The next few consultations I had were fine, normal and boring even. It wasn’t until the sixth one that anything went awry.
And by that, it was clearly a setup. A reporter or someone looking to use the meeting for other purposes. She was more interested in me and trying to be sly with her phone than anything else.
I used my power to make her hesitate before snatching up her phone and sighing. “It is illegal to record someone without their knowledge.”
“Not when I’m calling someone and the person on the call says I can use the recording.”
“I have to be on that call as well for that circumstance to work,” I drawled.
“What does it matter if you’re not trying to hide anything?” she pushed.
“Who are you to infringe upon my rights and my feeling safe?” I threw right back. “Your selfish goal does not matter more than my self-interest when you came here under false pretenses and lied to us. You’re not a hotshot going undercover to investigate criminal activities. You’re simply harassing me, and I won’t stand for it.”
I used my phone to call Justina and explain the situation, jumping to my feet when the woman lunged for me. “We have video cameras all over. Do not make this worse by getting yourself arrested for assault.”
“I hope you get raped again now that your picture is out there!” she snapped at me.
I was so shocked and appalled that anyone could say that to someone, be so cruel to their face, especially another woman. “You could never understand the horrors I went through, and be able to use that as a weapon. I hope you never know them and continue to be so blissfully ignorant.”
She rolled her eyes at me, and right there I made the decision to be a bit evil.
“I also want to know the rules about posting pictures from our security cameras when you have a chance,” I told Justina. “We are going to start publicly stating why people are banned from our store and property. This has to end, and it never will if we keep handling things privately and quietly.”
“You cannot do that,” the woman seethed. “I will sue you for all you’re worth.”
“And will get nothing,” I purred. “Go make any purchases you want while I finish this call because it will be the last time you ever come near me or my family again.”
Luckily, she did, muttering she would tell everyone how much my stuff was shit. She would try to frame it that I came after her for writing horrible reviews.
Sure, people would believe that. Then again, some people were truly idiots and would believe anything they were told. After all, there was a growing number of people who absolutely believed the world was flat.
I grabbed a bunch of food and brought it up to the roof when I felt my brothers there. I glanced between them and simply sighed.
“Sorry, Kis—Arabella,” Hades said quietly.
“It’s not your fault,” I said, nodding when Poseidon and Hades both gave me disbelieving looks. “I don’t want you to see what happened to me specifically, but I would like to share with you the aftermath. I wish I could tease with you like we used to, but I have been too damaged. I can’t even blame you for thinking my life is a drama show, I simply need…”
“To feel we’re on your side?” Poseidon offered.
“I know you are. I need consideration.” I shook my head, not sure how to say it. I simply showed them. I showed them how people treated me for centuries after I’d left the life I’d known. “I don’t show you this to anger you at Zeus or Hera, but I am—I feel fragile most days. I’m stronger since the curse has been removed, but I will take—healing won’t come quick.”
“No, no, it won’t for any of us,” Hades agreed, his voice having a twinge of sadness in its coldness. “I cannot lose you again, Sister.”
“I don’t want that either. I want you both in my life. I do. Full stop.”
“But leave your dates and time with your suitors alone?” he checked, nodding when I did. “The elite priest makes us nervous.”
“Me too, and we will have to decide to handle that whole situation. I don’t want him in my life either.” I sighed when they both shot me looks not to lie to them. “I don’t know we can recover from the lies and what happened. Yes, I was falling for him. I just—he is Aesop’s descendant. I can’t move past that.”
“I don’t think anyone would blame you for that,” Poseidon muttered. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared out at the city. “I don’t know how to be normal.” He gestured between himself and Hades. “We have barely spent any time together since you left and while I regret that, it happened, and we can’t change the past. I simply don’t know how to go forward.”
“Nor I,” Hades admitted. “I itch to watch over you. I—it kills me what you went through and have suffered since.”
“It kills me what you went through as well,” I whispered, deciding to address that instead of ignoring how he had changed. I let out a slow breath. “I am sorry for how I acted yesterday. Neither of you deserved that.”
“We did,” Poseidon forgave. “I was simply shocked. You gave us popcorn and made a joke but then just left. All of us there were upset and worried.”
“Yes, the fight that broke out between them was…” Hades shook his head. “Aesop’s descendant is powerful. Very powerful and that worries me while you are still weaker.”
