“So you cheated on him?”
“My friends and Hector showed me how good life can be. Or how good I thought it could be. I thought it had been what I wanted because the life I had with Dean I couldn't handle. That's till he left me for some younger bitch. Someone like you.” Her eyes blacken again with her sneer, and I gulp.
“Then I realized how stupid I had been. That it had to be the new meds I was on that made me confused and fall for a man like Hector. So, I got off the medication and lo and behold the voices and the storm I had been missing let me see how perfect Dean is for me. But you got in the way, taking his attention from me that caused me to lose everything.”
“If you never left with Hector or your friends, Dean would've never looked my way. He did love you.”
I watched him drink himself silly because he loved her and missed his wife. A man doesn't do that when he doesn't give a shit. I just helped him heal. I wasn’t till after the love was gone between them.
“That's bullshit. He would find any excuse to touch you. Laugh at everything you said, and cuddle on the couch with you…” she screeches and squeezes my neck so hard my vision momentarily goes red then black from the lack of oxygen. I try clawing at her so she'll let go.
She has it all wrong.
“Then when I needed Dean the most, you were there. I caught you guys fucking in the shower, on my day of fucking need! I hate you, you stupid bitch, and you will pay for taking him from me.”
I try to tell her sorry, but nothing comes out. I feel as if my neck could snap at any second.
“What the hell is going on?” Dean's angry voice shouts, making Peyton's head snap in his direction, and her grip loosens around my neck. I'm able to catch my breath again.
“Welcome home, darling. I was wondering when you were going to show up,” Peyton says snidely as her hired muscle grabs Dean by surprise. Dean tries to fight out of the behemoth’s hold, but it’s no use, and the beast folds Dean’s arms behind his back.
“Peyton? What are you doing?” Dean struggles in the arms of the burly asshole.
Her hand around my neck tightens, and the blade pokes harder into my stomach breaking the skin. “What does it look like I'm doing? I'm giving your little princess what she deserves—or I guess I should say our little princess.”
Dean’s eyes widen, and he glances at me as if to say ‘what the fuck?’ My eyes close not only from the loss of oxygen but in exasperation, wishing I never said anything too crazy town.
What the hell was I hoping for? Besides maybe driving her to the brink. Maybe I had been hoping she would’ve given a shit.
“Oh, she didn’t tell you? I guess it doesn’t surprise me.”
“Peyton,” he says low and slow, “you need to let her go, and we can talk. You don’t want to hurt her. Think of Georgia.”
Peyton laughs maniacally. “That's the thing, Dean. I am thinking of Georgia. This little accident shouldn’t be around our daughter. She shouldn’t even be alive. It’s why I’m putting an end to her now. It will fix everything.” The cool blade digs deeper into my side and the tears slip down my cheek.
“Dean,” I call to him between my tears, “I’m sorry.” He has to know I never meant to hurt him. Because I fear no matter what, this doesn’t have a good ending.
I just hope the ending isn’t me or my baby.
Dean’s mouth opens, but he’s cut off by Peyton’s shriek.
“Shut up, you stupid little bitch. This is all your fault.”
“Peyton, come on. Stop. If you hurt her, you’ll end up in jail. End this now and we can talk. Get you some help because Georgia needs her mother.”
“You don’t get it, Dean. How do you think Georgia is going to feel when she finds out you slept with her sister?”
“What are you talking about?”
Peyton’s head twists to me, and an evil devilish smile crosses her face, sending more fear down my spine. I was already worried about my life and my baby, but I’m even more worried now. Her grip on my neck loosens. “Do you want to tell him?”
“Dean, I love you…” My head bangs against the wall, and I see stars.
“Peyton, what the fuck!” Dean bellows through the ringing in my ears.
“That’s not what you need to be telling him, young lady. I, for one, know what lies get us into.”
“You lied to him more than I did.” I hiss, through my teeth. “It’s your fault. All of this. And it’s really because you ignored Dean and left him alone.”
“I wish you died. You should’ve never been born.” Her head turns to face Dean. “I would like you to meet my daughter, Dean. You’ve been fucking your step-daughter this whole time. Georgia’s sister. And she KNEW,” she shouts the last part, and through my haze I watch all the color drain from Dean’s face.
Yep, there’s no going back now.
“You’re shitting me,” he whispers looking between us and tries to maneuver away from the goon that’s holding him.
“Oh, I’m not. I’m just as surprised as you are. Guess we really should’ve never moved back to this godforsaken town. Population too damn fucking small and everyone fucking knows everyone. Daughters you fucking deserted end up being neighbors. Some shit, right?” The blade jabs into my side, and I scream in agony and my body slumps.
“NO!” Dean screams.
“You think I’m going to let you bring a child into this world? A child that’s a part of him,” she bellows back at me, and I know she’s not talking about Dean.
“No, please,” I beg her through my labored breathing. Everything hurts so bad. “Please. I’ll go away, please don’t hurt my baby, because it’s a part of you too.”
It was a stupid thing to say, but my side is getting ripped open, and I can feel my warm blood running down my hip. My head pounds, and my throat hurts. This lady gave me life and therefore gave my child life. In my haze, I need her to know she is part of this circle, and I don’t want to hate her.
I never wanted to hate her.
“Please. You have good in you, and I want to carry that on. I’m sorry. I just wanted to get to know you. I didn’t think coming into your life would hurt you like this. Please. I’ll go…Leave Dean and Georgia.” Thick tears now block my vision, and I try to look up at Dean, but he’s hard to see. The last thing I want to do is leave them, but I fear I might not have a choice anyway. I doubt Dean wants me now, but if I want to live and have my baby live, I need to plea with what she wants to hear.
“You’ll just go?”
“Yes. I have some money saved, and I can transfer colleges. Please.” The knife twists, and I scream again. She then pulls it out, and I drop to the floor, gripping my side.
“I don’t believe you for a second. I think I’d rather watch you bleed.”
“Peyton, stop this!” Dean bellows and I curl into a ball.
“Why? Aren’t you pissed Dean?”
“I am, but this isn’t the way to handle it.”
“She lied to us!” she screams.
“Doesn’t mean you stab her, Peyton!” he yells back. “Goddamn.”
“I stabbed her because she stole you from me. She has to go for that because you weren’t letting her go.”
“And you think I want you back now? You need to get her help. Now,” he demands. “I will hate you forever if anything happens to her or my baby, Peyton.”
“Either way I have nothing to lose right? She was never meant to live Dean. She’s the product of the devil. She needs to go.” Peyton’s foot connects with my arm that’s protecting where she stabbed me. I yelp, as pain shoots through me again. Dean is hollering at her to stop, but she doesn’t. She kicks me again, and I do my best to curl further into a ball to protect my baby. So the next time she kicks me, it ends up being a direct kick to my jaw.
“Peyton that’s fucking enough!” Dean yells, and her attack on me stops. Thank god! “What do you want?”
“You know what I want, Dean.”
“Fine. We can be a family again. But
you need to get her help. Let her go.”
“Why? So you can cheat on me behind my back? She’s better off dead.”
“No, Peyton...please, no,” I beg and glance up at her. When she looks down at me, the evil in her eyes hasn’t diminished.
“Mrs. Goodwin!” she snaps. I’m crying so hard now from the pain and the sheer craziness of it all.
“Mrs. Goodwin. Please, I already told you I would leave. I promise. You’re my mom. You might hate me, and I get why, but I want you happy,” I rasp out through the pain and my tears. “I want you happy because no matter what I was born to love you, even if you hate me. Please. Please just let me go. I won't press charges, but you do need help...if you want a good life with Dean and Georgia,” I beg hoping that, goddamn, there's still some rational old Peyton inside of her. The one I knew when I was fifteen. The one who isn't mentally unstable and the one that can be a good person. She's there. She has to be because I'm a breed of her.
“Please, Mrs. Goodwin. I beg you, this isn't the real you. You're not this bad person. You've just been hurt. Please, I'll go, so maybe you don't hurt anymore.”
“You mean that?” she says softly, and I think maybe I did get to her. That maybe my psychology 101 classes and lots of Psychological thriller books were of some use to me.
“Yes, of course,” I groan, as I'm hit with a large cramp through my belly making me curl back into a ball. My vision blurs, and I feel a gush of blood wet my hand. “Ahh, it hurts.”
“Lola?” I hear Dean call for me and then Peyton curse.
There's a loud bang, followed by some shouting around me, but I’m too tired to keep my eyes open. I try to fight the darkness overcoming me, but everything hurts. Finally, I let it take over and close my eyes and find peace. Away from this hell.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LOLA
“She’s nothing but a mistake. She needs to go! She needs to go!”
“Get down on the ground…”
“Lola, Lola, can you hear me?”
“Grab the oxygen mask!”
“She's losing a lot of blood. We need to hurry.”
“Please take care of her. She's pregnant!”
Beep...
Beep...
Beep…
“Lola, I had something I wanted to ask you.” Mrs. Goodwin stops me at the end of English class.
“Yes?”
“Have you ever thought about babysitting?”
“Babysitting?”
“Yes, I need some help around my house with my daughter. Someone to watch her after school, maybe help with dinner. Georgia already knows you, so I’m sure you two would get along great.”
A smile splits across my face. She wants me around after school? Where I’ll be able to bond with my little sister and my “real” mom. How can I say no?
“I would love to.”
“Great. How about you come over this afternoon? Mr. Goodwin would like to talk to you as well.”
Beep...
Beep…
Beep...
“God you’re beautiful,” Dean says, running his hand down my face. I'm straddling him on his lap in his living room. His words make me blush. It doesn’t matter how many times he says it, I still melt inside.
His large hand cups around the back of my neck pulling me into a kiss. The sweet, slow kiss makes my heart beat faster. We’ve been officially together now for about two months.
It’s been perfect.
And I’ve fallen in love with him. I think I’ve been in love with him for months, but I didn’t know what it was till lately.
His lips break away from me, and he rubs his nose against mine, his blue eyes shining.
“Lo, I love you…”
I shake my head, wondering if my imagination had made up those words. “You...what? “
He chuckles, grabbing my chin and kissing me again. “I said I love you.”
My heart flutters and skips a beat. “You do?”
He nods.
“I love you, too.”
Beep…
Beep…
Beep….
“I never wanted you…” Peyton’s dark eyes glare into me. “You’re better off dead. I hate you…”
Tears burn my cheek as I watch the knife raise in her hand. I’m screaming for her not to do it, but nothing comes out.
The room is empty. Nobody is coming to save me. I’m alone with a woman who I only wanted to love me.
I don’t want to be alone.
“I’m sorry…” The words lodge in my throat.
“You should’ve never been born.” Peyton growls again as the knife comes down on me…
Beep Beep Beep…
Beep Beep Beep...
Beep Beep Beep...
My eyes fly open to the sight of white clinical walls and the smell of disinfectant. The annoying beeping sound echoes around the room. I rush to sit up, but my head pounds and my mouth taste of cotton. “Ow…” I wince as pain shoots through my left side and my hand that's attached with the IV drops to my stomach…my baby.
Fuck, Peyton.
The nightmare of being on the floor, telling her I will leave Dean and Georgia just before everything goes black comes back to haunt me more than the knife she jabbed into my side.
I search the white room, looking for Dean, for anyone, and there's nobody here.
I'm alone. All alone.
I cry, clenching my stomach. It hurts so bad. I don't want to be alone. I don't even know if I have this child anymore. I don't know if my boyfriend loves me anymore. How could anyone after all the secrets I kept? My biological mother always wanted me dead, and my biological father was a monster. I should have stayed away from the Goodwin's when I found out the truth.
It all hurts, but I did this to myself because I wanted to know where I came from.
And all because I fell in love.
“Oh, god, Lola.” My mother comes rushing from the side door of the room, gripping a paper towel and I hear the sound the toilet flushing behind her.
I wasn't alone.
“Hey, sweetie. It’s okay. I'm here. I'm here,” my mother's soothing voice coos. My only mother—with her perfect tight bun and her green scrubs and the scent of honeysuckles. She sits down beside me and brushes back my hair. “Take slow, relaxing breaths. Can you do that for me?” I nod and do as I'm told as she comforts me. Something she always did when I was sick. Always the nurse.
Always the mother.
I didn't need to know where I came from, I’ve always had everything I needed here.
My hand touches my belly, realizing that’s not true. There might be something missing. Something really important.
“Do you know if my baby’s okay?”
“Yes. There's a nice strong heartbeat. The doctor promised to come back and show you when you woke up.” She sighs and gently runs her fingers down my cheek. “She missed your uterus, thank god, but she did end up nicking your intestine. It wasn’t too bad and they were able to get in and fix it laparoscopically. So they didn’t have to open up the wound more. You've been out of it for over eighteen hours though. I was getting worried, so it's so good to see you with your eyes open.”
Eighteen hours. Holy shit.
“So, my baby is really okay? Like they’ll survive?”
“Yes, the doctor said that you had a nice layer of thick muscle and that helped the blade from not going as deep. And considering the blade wasn’t too long helped too.”
My eyes close as I breathe in a sigh of relief.
My baby is okay.
I’m okay.
My mom rubs my knee. “You’ll be in some pain for a few weeks, and the doctor is going to want to check on you to make sure the stitches hold. I’ll be taking some days off to help take care of you once you’re released.”
There’s nothing more I want than my mom taking care of me, but there’s someone else I want around who will make me feel so much better. “Where's Dean? Is he okay?”
“He's fine. H
e's with Georgia right now and they're sorting a few things out.”
“Was he here at all? Does he hate me?”
“Hate you? Why would he?” Her eyebrows twist in confusion and it’s then I realize she has no clue about the entire madness of what happened. My heart starts to race and I can feel it thudding against my chest. Drops of sweat form on my forehead, and her eyes flit to the heart machine as it begins to ding obnoxiously behind me. “Baby girl, I need you to relax and take deep breaths.” She cups my face and runs her hand down my cheek, showing proper breathing techniques. “Getting yourself worked up isn't good for anyone right now.”
“Just tell me. Please.” I beg. There is no way I can relax till I know and even then the chances are slim. “I need to know at least where I stand with him.”
She's still looking at me flabbergasted, but nods. “He's been here.” Instantly I release the breath I have been holding. He has been here, that's all that matters. “I didn't get a chance to talk to him, there has been so much going on. He did talk to Jasmine and after dealing with cops and everything, he went to get Georgia and be with her.”
“Georgia…” I whisper and fall back on the bed. The tears overflow my eyes, and I know my little sidekick’s life has been turned upside down. My heart aches for her, knowing it’s all my fault she might have just lost her mother too. Even if she is crazy as fuck.
You can't help who you are born to love.
“What happened to Peyton?”
“Honey,” she sighs, “I wish you would worry about yourself right now.”
“Aren't I though? I need to know she's not out there running loose.”
“That I can assure she's not. Listen, I don't know all of everything going on with her. They can only tell me so much, and I've been most worried about you and at your side, but from what I do know is Peyton is here.”
The machine’s warning beeps go off again, and my mom takes my hand and squeezes it. “She's on the psychiatric floor locked up, under heavy guard. She's not mentally well, Lo. They can't take her in for questioning till she's evaluated. They’ll probably need to take her out of the county anyway because this hospital is not fully qualified for all that, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. But you’re safe. There's even a guard here for you, to make sure.”
Perfect Storm Page 15
