Stealing Their Forever

by Lonnie Doris

  “I’m sorry, cousin,” he says softly, fear lacing his words. “We’ll…figure something out.”

  He continues to drive, only stopping once for gas and for me to change my clothes. I apply make-up to cover my birthmark as he drives. He pulls into my driveway and cuts the engine. We told Reginald we were going down to one of Sean’s friend’s houses in San Diego for the day. It’s late by the time we get back, but Reginald has no reason to be suspicious.

  “Do you want me to come in with you?” he asks hesitantly.

  “Yes, I would like that.” I open my door. “You can stay in one of the guest rooms,” I say as we climb out of the car.

  We walk into the house to find Reginald watching TV in the living room.

  “Hello, my love.”

  Reginald gets up from the couch and walks over to me, wrapping his arms around me.

  “Oh, darling. I’m so glad you are home.” He kisses my forehead. “Someone attacked Gabriella Moreitti tonight at the rock festival upstate.”

  “Oh my goodness! That’s awful,” I cry.

  “What has the news said about the incident?” Sean asks, and I shoot him a glare to tell him to shut his fucking mouth.

  “Apparently, someone was trying to kidnap Mia Armstrong, and Gabriella stopped them.”

  “That poor baby girl. Emmie must be beside herself,” I say, doing my best to be as sincere as possible, when in reality, I couldn’t care less. I’m still beyond pissed that Moreitti ruined everything.

  “I’ve spoken to Mira. Shane and Harper’s bus was destroyed again, too,” Reginald continues, shaking his head.

  “That is awful. Have you spoken to Harper?” I ask.

  “Not yet. I’ve left a message for her, but I’m sure right now isn’t the best time to talk to her.”

  “I’m going to head to the guest room. That drive was pretty long,” Sean interrupts, changing the subject.

  “See you in the morning, Sean,” I say as he leaves the living room.

  “Good night, Sean,” Reginald calls out to him.

  I head upstairs to my bathroom to get in the shower and wash the stench of the day off of me. As I am standing under the spray of the hot water, I begin to cry. Sliding down the wall, I just let it all out. Another failed plan. Another night without my Shane.

  Eleven

  I arrive at the restaurant to meet Mira for lunch. As I am being seated, my phone dings, alerting me I have a text message.

  Mira: Running a couple minutes behind. I’ll be there shortly.

  Me: Okay. I’m at the table. Hope everything is okay.

  Mira arrives about twenty minutes after her text. There’s really nothing new she can tell me about Demon’s Wings—or Shane, for that matter.

  Our lunch arrives, and we eat, talking about the meaningless shit she is working on for some of her other clients.

  From lunch, I head to my parents’ house. The items I need for the hell I’m about to bring to Harper are in the secret hiding place I have in my old room. I couldn’t run the risk of Reginald ever finding these things. I really didn’t think about using them to destroy Harper until now. These items are sacred to Shane and me.

  “Hello, sweetie.” My daddy greets me with a kiss on my forehead when I arrive.

  “Hi, Daddy.”

  “I wish I’d known you were coming over. Your mother is out shopping.”

  “It’s okay, Daddy. I just wanted to see you. I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too, sweetheart.”

  I don’t see my daddy as often as I would like to, especially lately with everything I have on my plate trying to get my life with Shane back.

  “Actually, Daddy, I need to pick up a few things I left in my room,” I say as I walk to the staircase.

  “Sure, sweetheart. I’ll be in my study. Come say goodbye before you leave.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  I open the door to my room. Mother hasn’t changed anything; it still looks like it did the day I moved in with Reginald. I walk over to the closet and pull the board from the back of the built-in shoe rack. I created this hiding place when I was a teenager. I reach my hand inside and remove the envelope stored there.

  I sit on the floor and open it, pulling out the pictures I haven’t let myself look at in years. Shane has no clue I even took these. He was so lost in the moment when he was making love to me that he didn’t notice I was snapping pictures on my phone. At the time, I was taking them so we could reminisce about our first time together as we celebrated milestones in our relationship.

  These pictures take me back to that weekend—when we consummated our love. I wipe away a tear as I look through them, remembering each touch, each word he said to me. He must have been so pissed at me to try to hurt me like he did when he told Harper she was his only love. I don’t know how I am going to make it up to him, but I promise I will.

  Then I come across the sonogram that is the last picture in the stack. I sit there for several minutes looking at it.

  I put everything back in the envelope, stand up, and leave my room, shutting the door behind me.

  “I’m leaving, Daddy.” I peek my head in his study. He sits at his desk, busily working away.

  “I love you, sweetheart.”

  “I love you too, Daddy,” I say, shutting his door and heading out of the house.

  I’m sitting in Sean’s apartment when he arrives home from work.

  “Hey, cousin,” he greets me, but I see caution on his face. He’s been acting differently ever since the whole Mia-Gabriella mishap.

  “I need you to make copies of these.” I point to the envelope sitting on his coffee table. Everything but the ultrasound picture is in there. I’m not ready to share my baby with anyone else yet, but I will if Harper makes me.

  He walks over and picks it up, taking the photos out.

  “Good God, Helena!” he gasps. “A little notice before letting me see something like this. Fuck!”

  “Get over it, Sean. It’s not like you’ve never seen porn.”

  “Who is this?” he asks, setting the photos down.

  “It’s Shane and me,” I say with a shrug.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” he exclaims. “You’ve been sitting on these all this time?”

  I shrug again. “Make copies and get them in front of Harper,” I say as I get up from the couch and cross to the front door before turning back to look at him. “Oh, and don’t lose my copies, or you’ll regret it. Let me know when you plant them. I want to be at Rock America when Harper gets them.” I want to watch her reaction in the flesh rather than on the live feed from the camera in her office. This is going to be perfection, and I can’t wait to watch her world fall apart when she realizes Shane is all mine.

  “Of course you would. Give me a few days. I’m going to need to figure out how and where to plant them that doesn’t tie it back to me.”

  “You’re smart. You’ll figure out something.” I pause with my hand on the doorknob. “Oh, and one more thing.”

  “What else would you like me to do for you, cousin?” he asks with a sigh.

  “Don’t screw this up. Like I said, you’re smart. Figure it out. It’s probably best if they calm down a little bit after today’s good news of Harper not being able to conceive. Then once they think they are all clear from drama, they’ll get hit with this.”

  Some time goes by, but Sean does exactly what I asked him to do. The hardest part of these cameras is watching Shane have sex with Harper. The other houses bore me. I don’t give a shit about what they do. I only wanted cameras there to keep tabs on them.

  It’s Monday morning, and Sean just texted me that he has planted the photos in Harper’s office. I make my way to Rock America. I want to be there when she opens the envelope and her world comes crashing down around her. When I arrive, the office is pretty empty. I walk into Reginald’s office, surprising him.

  “Hi, darling. What brings you here?” he asks.

  “I was in t
he neighborhood and wanted to come kiss my husband,” I say, walking over to him.

  He wraps me in a hug, and I kiss him passionately, which takes every bit of strength I have, if I’m being honest.

  “What a nice surprise,” he says as he pulls back from our kiss.

  “I know I’ve been emotional lately and, my love, I am truly sorry.” I pout up at him.

  “We’ll get through it,” he assures me. “All marriages have rough patches.”

  I lean in to kiss him again, when we hear a commotion down the hall.

  “I’ll be right back. Stay here,” he commands.

  Reginald leaves his office, closing the door behind him. I walk over to the window that looks out on the corridor and see that Harper has found her prize. I smile to myself. This will surely end their relationship once and for all, and I will have my Shane back.

  I’m not sure how much time passes, but then I see Emmie coming down the hallway. I can’t hear her, but I can tell that she is barking orders at everyone. Sometime after that, I see the blonde married to Axton arrive. I can’t help but be pleased with my handiwork. Poor Harper is losing her shit. Everyone is coming in to save her.

  I hear him before I see him. Shane has now arrived. I want to walk out of Reginald’s office to wrap my arms around him and let him know I’ve saved him from her and we can finally be together. But Reginald comes back into his office.

  “Darling, it’s kind of crazy around here right now. Let’s get you out of here, and I’ll see you at home later.”

  I want to protest, but instead, I let him lead me down the back hallway to the elevators.

  --

  “What the fuck do you mean, Shane and Harper left together?” I seethe.

  “The cameras were found too,” Sean replies in a meek voice.

  “Are you that incompetent?” I scream in his face.

  “Cousin, stop. Why don’t you just give this up?” he suggests. “Shane and Harper are not going to split up. She’s manipulated him too much at this point.”

  “Yes. They. Will!” I continue yelling at him. “I don’t know what you are doing to fuck this up for me, but you better stop!”

  “Me?” he yells back, suddenly seeming to grow a backbone. “I have done everything you have asked me to do to interfere with these people. I have even been demoted because Harper no longer thinks I am competent enough to be her assistant.”

  “I guess that is one thing she and I have in common, then,” I sneer. “I’m done with you for right now. I can’t even bear to look at you.”

  I walk out of Sean’s apartment and head to my car. I’ll handle this shit myself. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself anyway. I get in my car and pull out into traffic. Now I’m going to have to let this calm down and hit that bitch with the sonogram picture. I’ll show her I can give Shane what she can’t, and that will surely drive her over the edge.

  Twelve

  This is it. Today, I finally get my life back. My forever with Shane will officially start now. After today, Harper will be gone and Emmie will be utterly useless once I’m done with them.

  Sean should have already grabbed Gabriella and Mia. Honestly, I can’t believe Gabriella survived taking two gunshots in the chest. She’s recovered like nothing happened to her at all. This only makes me want to end her more.

  Now for me to get Harper.

  I watch Harper get up from the table she is sitting at, hug Emmie and Dallas, then make her way toward the restrooms. The glow she is displaying today at her baby shower is making me nauseous. She is so dramatic that she had to be put on bed rest. I know it’s so she could hold on to Shane’s attention even more. She is such a manipulative bitch.

  “I’ll be right back. I need to use the ladies’ room.” I stand up from the table.

  “Okay, darling.”

  I walk into the bathroom just as Harper turns from drying her hands. In all the times I have seen her at Rock America, I’ve never given her any indication of how I truly feel about her. It’s been the performance of a lifetime, hiding how much I hate the manipulative cunt who is ruining my life every chance she gets. But that is all over now. I don’t have to pretend anymore.

  Thank fuck.

  “How are you?” Harper asks, looking like she thinks we’re friends. Really? Friends? This bitch has tried to take everything from me. I can’t even stomach looking at her. “You’ve been quiet today.”

  I lift my lips in a half smile. “Oh, you know me. I just like to sit back and take everything in.” I step farther into the bathroom and set my purse on the sink. I don’t look at Harper as I move some items in my purse around to get the gun I have hidden. The same one I shot Gabriella with. The one I’ve been dreaming of using to kill this whore beside me. “Have you enjoyed your day?”

  “It’s been perfect. It’s still hard to believe this is happening. I never thought this day would come. Having a baby was a dream for me for so long that I didn’t even believe the doctor when he first told me I was pregnant.”

  I nod, still shifting things in my purse, waiting for the opportune time to point the gun at her and make her leave with me. “Yes. I didn’t believe it when Sean first told me.”

  But that was when my world turned dark. It was when I realized Shane was slipping through my fingers. Nothing I had done up to this point was splitting them up. It took me a little bit to come up with this plan, but I have Harper in my possession, and now I’m going to end her. Then, finally, I will take back what is mine. Shane will be mine, and we will live our forever.

  Everything I have done, and what I am about to do, is for Shane. I am rescuing him from these crazy women who have hindered his life. I will destroy Emmie, Harper, and Gabriella by the end of this day. Just a little while longer, Shane.

  Wrapping my fingers around the butt of the gun, I turn and point it at her. More specifically, at her belly. That baby is trying to come between Shane and me just as much as her fucking mother is. It has to be destroyed just as Harper does.

  “What are you doing?” she asks as she wraps her hands protectively around her stomach.

  “I’m taking back what was mine to begin with,” I state with calmness.

  “Yours?” she whispers.

  “Yes. Mine,” I reply, smiling at her so sweetly. “Shane was mine first, Harper dear. Didn’t he tell you?”

  “No,” she whispers. “No, he didn’t tell me.”

  I want to be mad at Shane for not telling Harper about me, his first love. His only true love. But I just can’t bring myself to at this moment. I need to get Harper out of here without anyone seeing us.

  “I thought the pictures would be enough to convince you that I’d had him first. But you couldn’t take the hint. Then, you didn’t even pay attention to the ultrasound picture I sent. Did he even show you? Or did he feel too guilty once he found out you were pregnant?”

  “Was there ever a baby?” she demands, anger flashing in her purple eyes.

  I shrug because it really doesn’t matter at this point. “There was, but I didn’t know who the father was. I couldn’t keep it in case it wasn’t his.”

  I’m losing time. If I don’t get us out of here soon, someone is bound to try to stop me. No way is this plan going to be ruined like all the others have been before.

  “Let’s go,” I snap, stepping forward, causing Harper to retreat until her back hits the door and it pushes outward.

  We step out into the hallway, the gun still pointed at her protruding belly. I don’t understand why any woman would want to put herself through all of that for a crying monster. I can hear everyone still having a good time. Harper opens her mouth like she is about to scream for help.

  “Do it. See what happens,” I dare.

  She quickly snaps her mouth shut. I press the gun against her belly and guide her to the exit. Harper cowers back as I open the door and the rain hits her. “Keep moving,” I bite out and push her forward.

  Harper stumbles a few times, and whe
n I stop suddenly, she falls against the car. It is pouring rain, and we are both drenched.

  “Helena…p-please don’t do this. Shane will never forgive you if something happens to me,” she pleads.

  “What Shane doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” I laugh at her.

  I pop open the trunk and push Harper forward. She stumbles and falls into the trunk with a frightened cry. I push her legs the rest of the way in and shut the trunk.

  Walking around to the driver’s side, I open the door and get inside. After shaking off some of the water, I start the car and drive out of the parking lot.

  It takes a little over thirty minutes for me to get to the farmhouse. I call Sean on the way. He’s already secured that bratty kid of Emmie’s and the bitch who ruined everything. I will take out the whole lot of them to get Shane back so we can finally start our life together.

  The life that should have been ours to begin with.

  The farmhouse I’m using to destroy them belonged to Sean’s aunt on his father’s side. She passed away about a year ago, and it’s been abandoned ever since. It’s out in the middle of nowhere.

  Once I arrive, I step out of the car and open the trunk to get Harper out. I hold the gun on her, but the rain is making it hard for me to see.

  “Get out,” I command.

  Harper manages to get herself out of the trunk after struggling for a few moments with her huge stomach—the cow. I hold the gun on her the entire time, refusing to help her as she grunts and pants for breath.

  “Walk to that barn.” When she hesitates, I push the gun into her big belly—hard—to show her I’m not playing around. She quickly begins walking in the direction of the barn.

  I push her into an old stall filled with dried-up hay. I had a new door with steel bars installed. The previous door wouldn’t have held a child, it was so rotten. I slam the door shut, locking it, and walk out of the barn. Sean is waiting for me outside.

  “Light it up,” I demand of him.

  He walks around the side of the barn where he has put the gasoline. The only person missing from inside this barn is Emmie. But her daughter will have to do. Emmie losing Mia will bring her a lifetime of agony. She’ll be destroyed, I’ll get Shane back, and then I’ll add to her misery by kicking her out of Shane’s life. The way I see it, she loses her child and she loses her brother, and I take what’s mine and live happily ever after.