by Mia Kayla
Kate joined Ben in laughter, but I had no energy to laugh.
“I’ll take it,” Kate said, her cold eyes turning to me.
I gaped at her. I’d already given her three thousand, and she was going to get another twenty-three more?
“That’s too much,” I said, my voice firm but wobbly.
“I don’t think it is. It’s a steal, right, Ben?” She flipped to face him. “How much is this really worth?”
He pursed his lips and shrugged. “It’s probably worth thirty. If you can find a buyer. I mean, it’s internally flawless. The woman just wanted to get rid of it.”
“It’s too much,” I said, my voice louder and bordering on hysteria.
This woman was pushing it, and I was about to break.
She turned to face me, both hands on her hips. “Too much? All right then.” She waved her hand, and her voice was hoarse with frustration. “Do you have smaller jewelry that I can buy? I guess this is too much for my daughter’s blood.” She drawled out the words with distinct mockery.
And because my mother was immature and petty and all the things a mother should not be, she had him take out all the small chains and rings and made him charge them separately with separate receipts.
It was an hour later when my mother had a bag of jewelry. I was thoroughly annoyed and spent and sick of this woman.
After I showed the guy my ID, I charged the lot of jewelry. My mother was surveying the jewelry that she’d just bought, and I took the opportunity to pluck a piece of paper and pen from the pile when Ben turned to help my mother wrap up her belongings.
My fingers shook as I made out the words.
Need help.
Please call the cops.
I printed her license plate number in neat, legible letters and numbers underneath my dire plea. Then, I turned to leave with her.
When we were in the parking lot, it hit me.
I was leaving.
For good.
I had nothing on me other than the clothes on my back. I did have some savings, but all my physical belongings were at the Briskens’ house, and there was no way I was going back.
“I guess this is where we say our good-byes and I say thank you.”
Kate had the audacity to smile after that statement, and I wanted to throat-punch her.
“Take care, honey. I’m sure I’ll see you around.” She about-faced and walked toward the car.
And with every step she took away from me, you’d think that relief would flood me. Instead, her words lit me on fire like a house sprinkled with gasoline. My blood began to boil. Then, my arms and legs were on fire, then my hair and my face, and then all of me was freaking. On. Fire.
“Stop!” I ordered, forcing her to turn. My hands fisted at my sides, and I was visibly shaking. “You are never to contact me again. And don’t worry about the Briskens because I won’t be under their employment after today. So, you and me? We’re done. You hear me?”
Her face was hard, like stone, a statue, unmoving. “I was desperate this time.” She said it as though I should understand, as though I should forgive her for everything she’d put Mary, the Briskens, and me through.
I threw up both hands. “You’re desperate all the time. You live in despair and desperation. That’s your middle name.” I took a step forward, meeting green eyes so similar to mine. “You want to live that life? You go ahead. But I’ve lived my whole life trying to not turn out like you. And I was doing fine until you came along.”
“Becky!” The voice wasn’t my mother’s. It was male and enraged, just like I felt at the moment.
My eyes shot to my left, and I squinted to see someone approaching closer.
No. No. No.
“Stay right there,” Kate shouted. “Don’t you dare come closer.” She had her gun out.
The scene played out in slow motion. The flicker of the lights from the lamppost highlighted the dimly lit parking lot, accenting his approaching figure.
My mother erased the gap between us, standing directly beside me.
She had both hands on the gun.
It was cocked, ready, loaded.
And directly pointed at Charles.
Might as well have been straight at my heart. Because he was my heart. Those girls and Charles owned my heart.
Watching my mother point that gun at him, at my heart, I knew I was done. I wasn’t playing nice anymore. I went apeshit crazy.
Charles
Shit.
This had to be the stupidest move I’d made to date. Coming here and not telling anyone.
I hadn’t known what to expect or what I’d find. The cops were out, looking for Becky, and my brothers were home with the kids. But when I received notification that there was a big withdrawal from the bank, I drove to that location. Then, I had my credit card company notify me when there was another transaction.
It was farfetched that I would find her. I mean, by the time I got to the bank, they were gone. But I was on high alert and jetting to the pawn shop when I got another notice.
And then I had seen Becky and couldn’t stay quiet. Now, her mother was pointing a gun at me. My pulse pounded hard in my ears, and I raised both hands up. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I approached. I wasn’t being held back, not anymore.
“Stop.” The woman shook the gun in my direction, her eyes wild and dangerous.
“Kate. Just put the gun down,” Becky said, her face a state of hysteria.
I gulped, wanting to hold her, wanting to take her home. I’d give this woman whatever she wanted just to have Becky right beside me.
“What do you need? What is it you want?” I tipped my chin in Kate’s direction. “More money?” Because that was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Not when Kate could obliterate my world with a shot of her gun.
“It’s yours,” I said, my voice firm and confident, bred and learned from years of negotiation from being Brisken Printing Corporation’s CEO.
She smiled then, her eyes crinkling at the sides. Besides the color of her eyes, there was no resemblance between Becky and her mother.
“Well, since you offered and all.”
“No!” Becky snapped, forcing Kate to tighten the hold on her weapon. “You’re going to leave. That’s what you’re going to do.”
“But”—she shrugged, unaffected—“since your boyfriend here is offering to give me a little cushion, then it would be rude not to take him up on his offer, no?”
“No!” Becky repeated, advancing toward Kate. “You are not involving them anymore. I refuse to let you take more from them. You’ve already taken too much.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose because Becky was undeterred by the gun that Kate held in her hands. Reading her, how she was positioned in front of Kate and the look in her eye, I knew she had one goal in mind—to protect me.
And that scared me shitless.
“Becky, stop!” Before I knew what I was doing, I erased the gap between us.
And the next few seconds happened in slow motion.
Kate pointed the gun in my direction. Becky reached for the gun and forced it upward. They struggled, fighting for it.
I couldn’t get to them fast enough.
A shot rang out.
And then silence.
Chapter 43
Becky
The sound was deafening. Ear-splitting.
All I could hear was the ringing in my ears. All I could feel was the pain in my side as I tumbled to the ground.
But for the first time all day, relief flooded me.
Because I had the gun.
It was a toy, which I now had in my hand. It had never been real. The fear of this inanimate object was almost comical—almost because it wasn’t real.
The ear-splitting gunshot had come from Ben. He’d emerged from the store, seen us struggling, and shot his gun into the air to stop our fight.
My head fell to the right, to the cold concrete rough against my back. For a brief second, my focus was
on the clear night sky and the stars twinkling above me. I took a breath and exhaled slowly. The grandeur of the expansive sky could almost give off the feeling as though this were a normal night, but it was far from it as I sat up and witnessed Ben and Charles pinning a struggling Kate to the ground.
They’d used rope to tie her hands, and once Ben had her pinned against the wall, Charles ran toward me.
In the next second, I was in Charles’s arms. He’d dropped to the ground and pulled me into his lap and buried his head into my neck, shuddering as though the adrenaline was dying down at a rapid rate and he couldn’t control his emotions.
“I’m sorry.” My tears flowed like a river down my face. I was saying sorry for so many things. I was sorry for putting his children’s lives in danger. First, the pool incident and now with Kate. I was sorry for putting him in this situation, almost putting his life in danger too.
My life had been a string of unfortunate events, and now, those events had trickled into Charles’s life.
A wetness touched my neck, and I knew he was sobbing too. And it broke me because he was so strong and brave, and now, he was breaking down because of me.
I’d caused his pain and misery.
I needed to leave. Leave and never come back. That was the only way to ensure that Charles would live the full and happy life that he was meant to have.
“I-I hate that I put you in this situation.” I’d never loathed myself more than I did right now in his arms. “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault,” I repeated on a loop, in an utter state of shock. Because here he was, comforting me, grateful that I was alive. “When I think of what could have happened …” I shook my head and breathed in and out to calm myself. I couldn’t go there.
Everything was fine now, and everything would be in the future because I would ensure it.
He held me in silence, as the world around us erupted in chaos. The cops had been called in, and within minutes, the parking lot was filled with police vehicles and flashing red and blue lights.
Full-body shakes took over me as it all sank in, and Charles lifted his head, his eyes lined with tears. And then he kissed me. Hard and desperate.
I didn’t deserve any of this. His affection. His love. None of it. But I melted into his kiss anyway because if this was the last time I was ever going to kiss this man, I would greedily take it and savor it and commit it to memory.
When he pulled back, his hand cupped my cheek, and he stared deeply into my eyes and uttered the words I was unworthy of, “I love you, Becky Summers.”
The tears gushed out harder, his figure a blur behind the waterfall trailing down my cheeks. “You can’t.”
“What do you mean, I can’t? It’s too late. I already do.”
The smile that surfaced should have made me feel better, but it did the opposite.
“I hate myself, Charles. I hate what I did to you, to Mary, for putting you in this situation.”
He rested his forehead against mine. “It’s not your fault.”
“How can you possibly say that?” I pulled his hand down, giving me space to breathe and think clearly. “It is my fault. All of it. I’m bad luck. I’m jinxed. Everyone who comes in contact with me—”
He kissed me again to stop the words from flowing. Then, he pulled back, such gentleness in his eyes as he continuously swiped at my endless tears. “Everyone who comes in contact with you falls in love with you.”
I shook my head, but the sincerity in his eyes stilled me.
“It’s true. My brothers. The girls … me. I thought I’d never love again, and”—his voice hitched—“you changed that. You changed me.”
He cupped my chin, bringing me even closer, and I couldn’t look away this time. I was transfixed.
“I lived my life by going through the motions, living for others, not myself. But for the first time since Nat died, I feel like I can finally live for myself, be in love, be loved without the guilt. Growing up, seeing how my parents were, I thought there was only one person for everyone. You would spend eternity with them, and that one person for me was Nat. And when she died”—he shuddered—“I thought I would never find a love like that, but I was wrong. So wrong. Because I love you, Becky Summers, and for once, I’m going to do what my brothers and Sarah and everyone else have told me to do. They want me to be happy, and I’m the happiest with you.”
“I don’t deserve you,” I croaked out. Because I didn’t.
He was everything good in the world—provider, light—and my past dimmed in his presence.
“Says who?” he asked, his voice tender.
“Me!” I crumpled against him, my eyes downturned as all the emotions from the day rained down on me like a tsunami.
He let out a slow breath and lifted my chin with the lightness of his fingertips. “If you feel like you don’t deserve me, then I most definitely don’t deserve you—your kindness, your patience.” He stood then, taking me with him. “We’re done.”
“Where are we going?”
“Home,” he said, pulling me to his side. “You don’t think you deserve me. I don’t think I deserve you. We can both live undeserving lives … but together.”
“Charles …”
Charles’s take-charge attitude was coming out. “Becky, I’m not taking any more of this nonsense. You’ve been through a lot. And I’m going to do what I know—I’m going to take care of you, okay? I’m going to run you a bath, feed you a good meal, and tuck you in next to me so that you can’t leave. Ever,” he added at the end like he was reading my mind.
There was a fierce determination in his eyes, the same look I’d witnessed so many times before.
“I mean, if you really hate me and don’t want to stay, that’s another story, but you’re not going to leave us because you’re scared or you feel guilty because that’s all bullshit. Everything is going to be okay.” He paused then, his fingers tightly intertwined with mine.
“I know how that sounds. After Nat died, after my parents died, everyone told me that it was going to be okay. It was repeated over and over again like a broken record. I never believed them because that’s what people said when something tragic happened in someone’s life. But for the first time, I believe them. Life might throw other curveballs, but I’ll be able to handle them because I have another person on my team who’s playing catcher.” Playing for cute, he tapped the tip of my nose with his fingertip. “We’re on the same team, Becky—Team Brisken. And you’re going to be okay. Maybe you won’t feel like it tomorrow or the day after that, but once everything turns back to normal and you’re not worrying about the stress of the past, you’re going to be okay.”
The cops had my mother handcuffed and were ushering her into the back of the cop car. There was no doubt I’d spend hours being questioned. I watched the car pull away until it was a blurry figure down the street.
Finally.
She would spend her time in jail, away from me, away from the people that I was close to. And not only for a few months, but because of what she’d done today, it would be years. She was no longer a threat to Charles and his family, and Kate could never use them for money ever again.
Charles’s tender hand brushed against my cheek. Peering up into his chestnut-brown eyes, I believed him. It was in the strength behind his voice, the intense look in his stare. That hope bloomed in my chest because I believed him, believed that everything would be okay.
So, for once, I gave in to him, in to his light. I went on my toes and framed his face with both of my hands. “I love you, Charles.” Then, I erased the gap between us and kissed his lips. “Forever, until you won’t have me anymore, I’m Team Brisken.”
Chapter 44
Charles
Eight Months Later
As I held Becky’s hand and we watched our girls run to the park ahead of us, I wondered how I’d gotten so damn lucky.
I would never have predicted that I would get a second chance at love. I’d thought the love that Nat and I had was a on
ce-in-a-lifetime love, but love had struck me twice and in the best, unpredictable way. Not only had it struck me, but it’d also struck my girls.
Becky loved them like they were her own flesh and blood, and the girls—our girls now—adored Becky.
Tragedy could teach you things, and one thing it had taught me was to never take things for granted, to enjoy every moment, to live your life to the fullest. And that was what I did day in and day out—with the girls and with Becky.
Every Friday, after work, we went to the park to have a picnic. I planned this event like I planned my meetings, putting it in the calendar and making sure I set the time to go.
Becky stopped mid-step and turned around, peering at something behind her. My eyes followed her line of sight.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
She squinted and narrowed her eyes at something in the far vicinity.
“What is it?”
The inclination to give in to panic was still there, even after all these months. Even though we knew Paul was dead and her mother would be in jail for a long while. I had hired the best lawyers who were relentless in their pursuit in making Kate serve the maximum time in jail for her crimes. She’d gotten twenty years for aggravated kidnapping.
Becky released my hand and took two steps toward where she was focused, which was away from the park. “It’s crazy, but I feel like we’re being watched.” She pointed to someone past the trees.
I squinted against the sun. I couldn’t make out who it was, only that the person was tall, broad, and male. I reached for her hand, shoving that panic back down. “He’s just taking a walk.”
She didn’t budge. “He isn’t. He’s been watching us walk here for the last ten minutes. Look, he’s right by that black SUV. It’s the same one that followed us here.”
Then, realization hit. “Shit,” I said under my breath, rolling my eyes. Seriously? Not again. I plucked my phone from my back pocket and dialed my brother. “Mason,” I shot out, “are you having someone tail us?”
