I can’t stop any of this, so I might as well move on. What choice do I have?
Chapter Twenty
Bryant
“Shaina, open up.” I knocked on my daughter’s door—I didn’t know if she was inside, but I was going to break the door down if I had to.
“Who’s there?” A rather gruff voice answered.
“Open the fucking door.” I knocked louder.
“Dad? Dad is that you? Hold on!” I heard Shaina’s hurried voice on the other side of the door.
I had been in town for a couple of hours, but Shaina’s apartment wasn’t my first stop. I went to the university and spoke with the dean first—he was hesitant to tell me anything until he realized my name was on all of the tuition checks he was cashing—he got real friendly after that. Shaina was barely scraping by academically. She was attending most of her classes, but there had been a clear downward spiral over the last year. He introduced me to a few of her professors who confirmed the same thing.
I didn’t tell them that my daughter was using drugs, but I got the impression that they knew something was wrong. They had noticed a personality shift—and she wasn’t hanging around the same people she had called friends for a couple of years. She had become quite a loner inside the classroom—but I knew that wasn’t the case outside of it. The guy in the video didn’t look like a student at any school, much less an Ivy League one.
“Open the door—now!” I was two seconds away from putting my boot through it.
“What are you doing here?” Shaina cracked the door—she had large, dilated pupils that confirmed she was high as a fucking kite.
“Figuring out what the hell is going on.” I pushed the door open and barged into her apartment.
“Hey, what the fuck?” The guy she was with was the one from the video—and he was a lot bigger than I realized.
“I’m going to have a talk with my daughter—alone.” I narrowed my eyes. “Get the hell out of here.”
“You’re the one that needs to go, old man,” he growled and took a step forward.
I didn’t see the punch coming until my ears were ringing and my head was spinning—he hit me so damn hard that I was pretty sure I had a concussion the second his enormous fist slammed into my skull. It had been a long damn time since I took a punch—but he didn’t hit me hard enough to knock me out completely, and that was the last mistake he got to make. I managed to duck his next punch, drive my shoulder into his midsection, and deliver an uppercut that staggered him. Somewhere in the midst of it all, Shaina screamed—and tried to get in the middle of us.
The mother fucker that hit me pushed her so hard she went tumbling over the coffee table and hit her head on the way down. I saw blood on the floor—which meant I had to end the fight and take care of her—but her boyfriend, or whatever the hell he was, didn’t seem to give a damn about the fact that he hurt her. He swung at me—I ducked. He tried to hit me with a knee on the way up—I barely dodged that one, but I caught his leg and got him down to the floor. He landed hard—and a few punches to his face kept him down.
“Shaina are you okay? Oh god…” I scrambled to her side and saw a gash that was pouring blood. “We need help! Anyone!?”
The fight brought some other residents from their apartments to see what the commotion was—there were several witnesses in the hallway. One of them called 911. I did my best to contain the bleeding and keep her awake as we waited on the paramedics to arrive. The sirens brought her behemoth of a boyfriend back to life, and when he realized the cops were in the building, he took off. The cops had me in handcuffs the second they entered the apartment—it obviously looked like I was the one who was responsible for the bleeding girl on the floor and the carnage. I was taken to a squad car—my daughter was taken to an ambulance. I sat there stewing for nearly twenty minutes before someone finally opened the back door.
“Okay, Mr. Benson.” The cop reached in and pulled me out and turned me around so he could remove the handcuffs. “We talked to some of the witnesses in the apartment building—you’re free to go.”
“I’m glad to see that defending my daughter isn’t a crime.” I rubbed my wrists and glared at him.
“If the guy decides to press charges, you might be hearing from us again.” He put his hands on his hips.
“I don’t think you’re going to be hearing from him,” I growled under my breath and started walking towards my car.
There was no mention of drugs. Either they got hidden when they realized I was at the door, or the guy took them when he fled. That was something of a blessing. I drove straight to the hospital and found out that Shaina was still being checked out by the doctor—and they would probably keep her overnight for observation. They definitely noticed she was high, so that was an obvious concern. The doctor came to see me after they did a CT scan and said she had a nasty cut that required a few stitches but, she didn’t have a skull fracture or a brain injury. Keeping her overnight was just a formality. That was a relief—if there was one in that situation.
The doctor said I would be able to see her in a couple of hours, so I called Sarah while I waited. Sarah told me that she was going to fly out immediately, and while I didn’t think that was entirely necessary, I couldn’t tell the mother of my child that she shouldn’t come—not when her daughter was in the hospital. I waited until Shaina was moved to a room, and then the ER nurse gave me a pass so I could go up to her floor. Seeing my daughter in a hospital bed with blood on the bandage they had put on her head made me want to break down in tears, but I did my best to fight them.
“Dad…” Shaina’s face got red, and she started crying the minute she saw me at her door. “I’m so sorry.”
“You shouldn’t try to talk—just rest for now.” I walked into the room and sat down beside her bed.
“That’s going to leave a mark.” She reached out and touched the spot on the side of my face—I could already tell I was going to have a black eye and bruising halfway down my face. “Did the doctor’s look at it?”
“Please…” I pushed her hand away. “Don’t worry about me. Just rest…”
I wasn’t sure if the doctors had given Shaina something for the pain or opted not to since she was high when the paramedics brought her in, but she was definitely out of it. That could have been the result of losing blood. She was stable—that was all that mattered. She tried to talk for a couple of minutes before she finally closed her eyes. The smart thing would have been for me to go back to the ER and have them check me out—my vision was a little blurry and head was throbbing. I got a couple of concussions on the football field when I was younger, and I definitely had one, but it was pretty mild. I didn’t lose consciousness, and I wasn’t throwing up—I had done both when I got knocked for a loop in high school, and they didn’t do anything but put some smelling salts under my nose before they put me back in the game.
I can add getting my skull smashed by a coke head to the list of accomplishments I thought I’d never have.
“Is she resting?” The door to Shaina’s room opened, and a nurse walked in.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Is it safe for her to sleep with a head injury?”
“The doctor said it would be fine—we did give her something to help her rest after he gave the okay.” She picked up Shaina’s chart, flipped through it, and checked the monitors. “Did the doctor tell you what showed up in her blood test?”
“He did,” I sighed.
Cocaine…
“I’ll check back in a couple of hours.” She walked around the bed and patted my shoulder. “I’ve been through this with my own daughter. I know it’s hard.”
“Yeah…” I sighed again.
“You should really get that looked at.” She motioned to the side of my face. “You may have a fracture hiding under all of that bruising.”
“I’ll be okay.” I looked up at her and forced a smile.
I stayed by Shaina’s side until Sarah arrived—and there was a whole lot of crying when she
saw her daughter—followed by concern for the way my face looked. Sarah wouldn’t let me brush off her concern, and I learned a long time ago that her stubbornness was worse than mine. I ended up back in the ER, waiting to see a doctor, while she sat with our daughter. My injury wasn’t serious, and nothing was broken, but it was pretty clear that I had a concussion. I got a lot of literature about what I should do when I got home and a prescription for pain pills I would never get filled. Sarah met me in the emergency room as soon as I was released.
“There, they confirmed I’m not going to die.” I walked up to her and sighed.
“How did we screw this up so badly?” Sarah’s eyes filled with tears, and she grabbed me for a hug.
I didn’t return her hug at first—it was a little painful to have her arms wrapped around me after she walked out on our marriage. I finally succumbed and hugged her while she cried on my shoulder. I tried to reassure her, but I had too many concerns of my own to ease hers. We decided to spend the night in Shaina’s room so we would be there when she woke up. At some point, we had to have a very serious conversation, but I wasn’t sure when that would be. I wasn’t sure if the drugs had a grip on her or if she was just in the recreational stage—but it was clear that she needed help. If she didn’t want to be a lawyer, then she didn’t have to be—I had to be the one to tell her that I was proud of her no matter what she did with her life—as long as she got off the drugs. The next few days were going to be trying for our family.
Hopefully I can convince her to move back to Carson Cove, and take some time to recuperate before she decides what she wants to do next.
* * *
A few days later
Shaina was released from the hospital and after a long discussion, she agreed that she should spend thirty days in rehab just to be safe. She wasn’t having withdrawals or showing any serious signs of addiction, but she needed a fresh start. We got her set up with a facility in the city, and Sarah said she would check on her daily. We talked with Victoria and Dylan to let them know what was going on. Dylan said he would check in with Shaina as often as he could, and Victoria was ready to book a flight home, but I convinced her to wait—it wasn’t like she could do anything if she was there, and she needed to focus on school. I stayed behind for an additional day to handle things at the university and pack up her apartment.
After that, it was time for me to return to Carson Cove—and the next chapter of my fucked up life. I did my best to handle things remotely when I could while I was away, but there was one problem I would have to handle face-to-face—the biggest problem of all. I had to figure out what the fuck I was going to do about Alexis, but she wasn’t the woman I started texting when I boarded the plane—there was someone else on my mind that I just didn’t know how to stop thinking about.
Bryant: I know you don’t want to hear from me right now, but I miss you…
Taylor: Please don’t say that.
Bryant: Why? Do you miss me too?
Taylor: It’s over, Bryant. What we had was special, but—we knew it wasn’t going to last.
Bryant: Why?
Taylor: It was too complicated.
Bryant: We knew the risk. We decided to take it. I don’t regret a single second, and neither should you.
Taylor: I’m sorry. Please don’t contact me again. That will make it easier for both of us…
Bryant: If that’s what you really want.
Taylor didn’t respond—that was her answer. It truly was over. There was no way to repair whatever had torn us apart, and I still didn’t understand what that was. Alexis was waiting on me when I arrived at Benson Enterprises, and my willpower was shattered. I didn’t have an ounce of fight left in me. I agreed to marry her in order to protect my daughter, even though I had no idea if the video would actually harm her—I just wanted it to go away. The faster I married Alexis, the faster we could get divorced, but I had a lot of shit to figure out before she got her claws in the money she was after.
“Hey, Cassie.” I walked to the door after Alexis was gone.
“Yes sir?” Cassie looked up at me.
“I need you to set up a meeting for me—Addison Regan. This one doesn’t need to go on my calendar. Just text me the information…” I exhaled sharply.
“Sir? She’s not one of your clients—or one of our attorneys.” Cassie tilted her head in confusion.
“I know.” I closed my door and walked back to my desk.
That’s the fucking point.
Chapter Twenty-One
Taylor
Several days later
“It looks like you might get to see Victoria soon.” My mother looked up from the table as I walked into the kitchen.
“What do you mean?” I tensed up immediately.
“Her father is getting remarried.” She pushed the newspaper to the edge of the table. “Alexis Devereaux—I never thought those two would end up together.”
If you only knew half of it…
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Victoria told me they were getting married…”
That’s true, but I knew long before I got that frantic text message from my best friend—and I still didn’t know how I was going to explain why I was the Maid of Honor.
Victoria wasn’t going to wait until the wedding to return to Carson Cove. She was probably already at the airport waiting for her plane to take off. She had tried to talk some sense into her father over the phone, and after that didn’t work, she decided that she was going to pay him a personal visit. I knew it was as losing fight—even if I didn’t know why. Alexis had something on him—and it was probably similar to what she did to me in order to end our relationship. There was no way he would have ever agreed to marry her on his own.
I was just stumbling around an inferno, and my clothes were already on fire—eventually it was going to consume me entirely. Even if Victoria never found out about my relationship with her dad, she would see my willingness to be the Maid of Honor as a betrayal—and she would demand answers—and I couldn’t even come up with a lie that made sense.
One final nail through my heart, courtesy of Alexis Devereaux…
It was Saturday, so I had nowhere to be—I would have much rather been at school. At least that would have given me a distraction from everything. Things were better at home after my mother got her job back—and it came with a sizable raise, just like Alexis said. In fact, my mother was talking about buying Anna a car—which made her ecstatic. Everyone in the Abernathy household was happy except me. I was dying a slow death with each passing day.
“I’ve got a few errands to run. Do you want to come with me?” My mother leaned back in her chair.
“I—I think I’m just going to stay here today,” I sighed. “I’ve got some school stuff to catch up on.”
I’d rather wallow in my misery than pretend to be happy…
“Okay.” She nodded. “I won’t even bother to ask Anna. I know she won’t go.”
My mother left, and I sat down to have a cup of coffee. I couldn’t even imagine what Bryant was going through, and it tore me up that I couldn’t be there to support him. During one of my conversations with Victoria, she told me about her sister, which added another horrible gash to my gushing heart. That probably shredded Bryant worse than the end of our relationship and his impending married to Alexis. I didn’t know if he had figured out that Alexis was responsible for what happened between us, but something happened—or he would have never agreed to marry the bitch.
“I fucking hate you…” I muttered under my breath, picked up the wedding announcement, and started tearing it to pieces.
“Me?” Anna walked into the kitchen and seemed startled by what she heard—and what she saw.
“No.” I stood up and dumped my coffee in my sink.
I ran upstairs before Anna could ask another question. I didn’t mean for her to see how upset I was—and I definitely didn’t intend for her to walk in on me destroying the wedding announcement. My emotions just got the best of me
. I needed an outlet and screaming wasn’t an option with her in the house, so I put a canvas up and started attacking it with my brush. I a few crimson slashes, outlined those in black, and used the brightest red I could find to draw a heart around them. I was just about to start filling it in when I heard my door open—I knew it was Anna—the footsteps were too soft to belong to my mother.
“You’re painting again…” Anna walked in and closed the door.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I don’t even know why.”
“Do you want to talk about it.” She walked up beside me and put her hand on my arm.
“I—no…” I felt tears welling up in my eyes.
“We used to be so close—I know I’m still a kid, but I do have an ear.” He put her head against my shoulder. “You’re going to through something—something bad…”
Tears started streaming down my face, and Anna hugged me. An emotional valve just turned on—and kept turning until it was wide open. I started telling Anna everything. It was foolish—those secrets should have gone to the grave with me—but they wanted to be let out in a mixture of tears and sobs. Anna listened, hugged me, and listened some more—until she was all caught up on her big sister’s mistakes. I couldn’t believe I was spilling my darkest secrets to a sixteen-year-old girl, but she just happened to have the right ear at the right time.
“We can’t let her do this to you.” Anna squeezed my hand. “Alexis Devereaux has to be stopped…”
“Did you miss the part about you being the next one to get one of her horrible gifts?” I wiped away my tears. “She’s cruel and heartless—I don’t even want to think about what lengths she would really go to.”
Forbidden Kiss: Carson Cove Scandals Page 16
