The Meant to Be Collection

by Claire Highton-Stevenson

  There was a comfortable-looking brown couch and a chair that didn’t quite match, her daughters sleeping on them, taking up all the seats available. The twins stretched out on the couch like they did at home in their bed, and Storm was dozing with her book rested on her chest, in the chair. From the way in which Lucy was stretching her back, she guessed she must have been sitting on the floor.

  “Thank you so much for this, it was a lifesaver. I really can’t afford to turn down the extra hours right now.” Nicole honestly was grateful; every extra cent she could make meant her kids could have a better life, and that was all she wanted right now.

  When Nicole had arrived at the store without the children, Rita had been concerned about them being left alone, so when Nicole explained that Lucy was looking after them, she almost passed out. “Lucy?” Rita had restated as she got her things together, ready to go home and climb into bed to try and shift this bug she had picked up. There had been a moment of panic when Nicole actually thought about it. She hardly knew the woman, and what she did know of her made her seem a little weird. Had she been wrong to leave her kids with her?

  “No problem.” Lucy said, bringing her from her thoughts. “They were as good as gold.”

  “Well, thank you again, I’ll take them home now and leave you in peace.” she said, looking down at two sleeping 4-year-olds and wondering just how she was going to get them all home.

  “It’s okay, I can carry one.” Lucy smiled shyly, swooping down and picking up Rain, who was closest to her. Nicole watched as this strange woman held her daughter with such care. Her arms gently wrapped around the small warm body as she held her close to her chest and cradled her with such tenderness. She picked up a small blanket and wrapped it around her; it wasn’t cold, but she didn’t want to risk waking her.

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to put you out any further.” She waited for Lucy to nod in agreement.

  “I’ve already got her, I’ll be fine.”

  She gently shook her oldest child awake as she picked up her book and placed it into her bag. “Okay, Storm have you got all your things?”

  “Yeah, I’m awake,” said a sleepy voice as she pushed herself up from the chair and began to walk to the door.

  Nicole looked around the room once more, checking to make sure her kids didn’t leave any mess behind them, and then she picked up Summer just like Lucy had done with Rain. “Let’s go then.”

  The walk back to the Grangers’ cabin was quick and quiet. Storm opened the door and they all piled through. Lucy waited to be told where to take Rain.

  “Just through here.” Nicole pointed, speaking quietly as she walked towards a door to the right. Inside was a double bed and not much else. She placed Rain gently on the side of the bed nearest the door and covered her with a blanket, while Nicole placed Summer on the other side and covered her too. For a moment they both stood and watched the children wriggle and get comfortable before they left the room.

  As she was about to leave and return to her own cabin, Nicole stopped her at the door.

  “Would you like to stay and have a coffee or something?”

  Lucy looked around, gathering her thoughts before turning her attention to Nicole. It was the first time she had really looked at her. She had charcoal eyes, not brown like she had assumed. They were darker, smouldering and sexy. And they were looking directly at her, studying her too. They were warm and deep and, in that moment, Lucy wasn’t sure if she would be able to look away. She didn’t feel any of the usual anxiety when someone new looked at her full in the face like that.

  “No, thank you for the offer but I—” she pointed to her own cabin, “I better get back.”

  “Oh okay, well another time, maybe?” Nicole fidgeted, drawing attention away from her face to her hand that was gripping the fingers of the other in a wringing motion.

  “Uh, yeah, another time.” And with that, Lucy quickly turned and left to head home.

  Closing the door behind her, Nicole couldn’t help but wonder what had happened just now. There was a moment, between them, something she hadn’t experienced before with anyone. And there was something about Lucy that was familiar. Like she had seen her someplace long ago, but she couldn’t pinpoint it. All she knew was that the more time she spent with Lucy, the more she wanted to spend with her. If she would let her.

  She turned and found Storm watching her. Watching them.

  “So, did you have fun with Lucy?” Nicole inquired, wanting to double check that everything really had been as okay as it seemed to be.

  “Yeah, she’s pretty cool,” she replied, pushing her glasses back up her nose. “We made instruments and played in our own band.”

  “Oh, that must have been fun!” Nicole exclaimed as she sat on the couch next to her eldest daughter. Storm leaned against her mother and snuggled in. It was still early really. She was often allowed to stay up after 8 p.m. now, but she was tired after all the running around she had done at Lucy’s.

  “Yeah it was, most adults get irritated when we make noise. But Lucy liked it,” she declared quite adamantly.

  “Well that’s great, I’m glad you had fun.” Now she knew Lucy must be nuts, liking the noise her kids made? It made her chuckle.

  “She doesn’t have a TV though; kinda weird.” Storm giggled.

  Nicole laughed before she answered. “Yes, I’m sure it is for you kids, I quite like it when the TV is off though. When you’re older you’ll understand more. Come on, let’s get you to bed, huh?”

  Chapter Nine

  As April merged into May, Lucy found herself surrounded most evenings by three kids wanting to play on the shore. They had been here in the cabin a month almost, and it had become almost routine in the last two weeks that if Nicole had to work then the girls could stay with her. The twins, with their hair in bunches and matching outfits, thought it was immense fun to follow Lucy around everywhere she went; whatever she did, they did. At first, it annoyed her a little, but then she turned it into a game, and now she had fun with it. She would start off doing something normal and then she would do a funny walk or hop and skip. The twins would try and copy, and they always ended up laughing. Not once had any of them mentioned her face or any of her other scars that she knew must be visible from time to time.

  She had gotten so used to it now that she had drinks and snacks ready for their arrival. Games she had bought had started to pile up around her cabin, and clothes that had been forgotten from the day before were scattered about waiting to be taken home again. It was messy and chaotic, but if she was honest, she loved every second of it.

  Every day would start and end with questions, but not about her. Just questions that kids had, and she found herself looking forward to seeing them, so when they didn’t show up that afternoon as she was expecting them to, she was concerned.

  She paced around a little, picking up discarded toys as she considered all the reasons why they hadn’t arrived. No matter what she came up with, it always came down to the fact that Nicole would have let her know, either by walking over herself or sending Storm with a message. Neither of those things had happened, and so she was now outside of her own cabin looking up and down the path that led between the two abodes. She was expecting Nicole to be working tonight, that was the plan, but maybe things had changed. It still came back to the fact Nicole would have told her. She was picking up her stuff to go back inside when she heard something she hadn’t heard in a long time.

  A scream. Not a kid playing kind of scream, she heard that every day with the twins, she was used to that kind of scream now. This was a scream of terror, and it sounded like Storm.

  Dropping her things to the floor, she took off running as best she could towards the cabin. Her legs and arms pumped as she picked up as much speed as her broken legs would allow. When she ran into the clearing where the cabin stood, she saw nothing out of place. Nicole’s old car was parked in its usual spot, the girls had a few toys scattered around, but that was normal. Nothing was out
of the ordinary except the silence. Deafening silence.

  Three kids made a lot of noise, Lucy knew this now; every day was filled with questions and talking, laughing and screaming. But not the scream that she had heard a minute ago. Her instincts told her not to call out, but to investigate instead. She moved as quickly as she could around to the back of the house and saw something that was peculiar. Another car, an expensive car. A bright red Mercedes soft top with private plates, NIX 1, sat gleaming in the sunshine that broke through the trees and dappled it. It was a nice car, that was for sure. She knew all about nice cars. In her old life she had several, all for show of course. The fast cars went with the big house. So, she knew this car was not supposed to be here, in the middle of the forest by a lake. No, this car belonged in a city, in a garage attached to a big house.

  She walked quickly back to the front of the house and rapped her knuckles on the door, hard. Nothing, no response. So, she knocked again, louder this time.

  She heard footsteps, then the door bolts as they slid across and the door opened just a crack. Nicole stood there half hidden by the door, only her right eye visible to Lucy. She looked upset, like she had been crying.

  “Hi,” Lucy said quietly, her head tilted as she tried to see behind Nicole.

  “Oh, hello Lucy. Uh, it’s not a good time…right now,” Nicole stuttered, looking back over her shoulder for a second.

  Checking to see what? Something was off; who else was in there with her? Who owned that car?

  “Okay, I just wondered if the girls were still coming over?” she asked, trying to work out what was going on.

  “Uh no, not tonight. We decided to stay in.”

  “Right, so Rita gave you the night off?” Her eyes narrowed as she asked the question.

  “Uh yes, yes she did,” she answered. Her head nodded, but her eyes, wide and fearful, said something else. “The night off, that’s right.” There was definitely something amiss here.

  “Okay then,” she said. Accepting the answer, she turned as if she was about to walk away. “Oh, I almost forgot, did I leave my jacket here?” Lucy asked, and then mouthed quietly, “Are you okay?”

  Nicole shook her head, “No, you didn’t leave it here.” The wide-eyed look of fear still on her face was enough to tell Lucy all she needed to know.

  “Okay then, don’t worry about it, I’ll work it out. Goodnight.” She turned and walked away. Hearing the door close behind her, she moved out of view of the cabin and waited. Then she heard the scream again. The sound vibrated through her and ripped at her heart. She couldn’t stand back and wait for the police to arrive. Out here it could take too long. She needed to do something and she needed to do it now.

  Thinking on her feet, she went back towards the cabin and around to the back again to where the Mercedes was parked. She eyed it for a moment and then she saw what she needed.

  Picking up an old axe handle that was left near the woodpile, she lifted it over her head and brought it down on the car headlight. The impact smashed it to pieces and immediately set off the car alarm. She then ran around the house the opposite way back around to the front and waited. A tall man with short, sandy blonde hair came running outside to the car. He was a big guy, muscular. He was red-faced and angry.

  He had left the door open in his haste to get outside. The moment he was out of sight, she ran for it and flew inside, slamming it shut behind her and bolting the locks into place.

  Breathing hard, she looked up and saw Nicole with a look of sheer terror on her face. She had a cut and swollen lip, with a black eye on the left side of her face. Three small tear-stained faces huddled together on the couch. Storm had a red handprint across her cheek.

  “Who is he?” Lucy demanded as he pounded his fists against the door, shouting and screaming obscenities. She ignored him and concentrated on Nicole, who stood absolutely still, just staring at the door. “Nicole? Who is he?” Lucy insisted again, and this time the raven-haired woman turned slightly to look at her, flinching every time his fist connected with the door.

  “My h-h-husband,” Nicole confessed as she collapsed to the floor. Storm instantly went to her aid along with Lucy. She lifted her gently and helped move her to the couch, where the twins huddled against her immediately.

  “Mommy, why is Daddy so mad?” Rain asked, tears streaking down her cheeks. Nicole didn’t have an answer. She had never had the answer; he didn’t seem to need a reason. Until now, she had managed to hide this side of him from the little ones, but now they knew. Now they could see for themselves just how mean a man their father was.

  The banging on the door continued. He was still shouting and cussing. Lucy steadied herself, took a breath or two to calm her nerves, and limped towards the door. Her leg was aching, and it hurt with every step she took. As she reached for the bolt in order to open it and give this guy a piece of her mind, two voices screamed at her in unison. “No!”

  She looked back at Storm and Nicole as they both shook their heads. Their eyes pleaded silently, terror and fear encapsulated in them both.

  “It’s okay. I’m going to get rid of him,” she answered with such confidence that for a second Nicole actually believed her, but then the fear was back.

  “He is crazy, please Lucy don’t,” she pleaded, and in that moment, Lucy understood everything about this woman. She looked from one to the other and made up her mind. She moved to where Storm sat on the edge of her seat, her bottom lip trembling as she fought to hold back her tears.

  Lucy bent down to speak to the young girl on her level. “Storm, take your sisters into your bedroom, okay? And don’t come back out here until Mummy says you can. Do you understand?” Storm looked to her mother for reassurance. Nicole nodded and Storm did as she was asked, looking back over her shoulder as she ushered the two younger ones to their room.

  Lucy went towards the door again. She stood behind it, listening as his ranting decreased a little. He was still at the door, but the banging had stopped. Now, it was just a verbal assault, threats and promises of what he was going to do.

  “You’re not wanted here, Mate,” Lucy called out. The new voice seemed to throw him for a moment and there was silence, but not for long.

  “Bitch, you smashed my car. I should call the police and have you arrested!” he shouted back, a soft southern twang to his voice.

  “Good, call the police,” Lucy said, nodding at the idea. Nicole had crept up behind her and stood just a hair’s breadth away from her back.

  “What?” he shouted back, and she felt Nicole shrink away. Lucy reached for her hand and grasped it.

  “I said, Dumbass, call the police. That will probably be the best thing you can do if you’re not going to leave,” she challenged, leaving Nicole to wonder what she meant exactly.

  “Open this door.” He banged once more, his voice filled with a venom and hatred that Lucy had never heard from another human being before.

  “Sir, if I open that door then you are going to be in real danger.” She continued to speak to him calmly; she was in control of this, not him. She wouldn’t let him terrify her the way he had his family.

  “What?” he said. “Open the door and I—”

  “And you’ll what?” she said defiantly. “What are you going to do? I ain’t scared of you mister, you can’t bully me! Who the hell do you think you are coming here and behaving like someone gives a shit what you think!?”

  He went silent. She ushered Nicole over to the window, a finger to her lips to indicate quiet before she used her fingers to point to her own eyes and then back at him; watch him. She then thumped the door as loudly as she could with the axe handle and he jumped out of his skin.

  Nicole stifled a giggle before hissing as her lip split once more. A small trickle of blood slid quickly down her chin. Lucy reached out and with her fingers, she gently touched her cheek and wiped the blood away from the lip that he had hit.

  “What the fuck was that?” he shouted, confused now. He was unsettled. This was his
domain, and here was some woman treading on his toes.

  “You need to leave or I swear to any God you might believe in I will hurt you,” Lucy shouted through the door. She didn’t want to get involved in any altercation, but if she needed to, she would take him on and give as good as she could. She gripped the axe handle a little tighter.

  “You’re fucking crazy.”

  “Yes, I think if you asked most people around here they would agree with you, do you want to take your chances? I mean beating up on women and kids seems to be your kind of thing, but I’m pretty sure I could whip your arse given the opportunity, asshole,” she hollered. She was absolutely livid now; how dare this so-called man come here and bully this family. How dare he hit this gorgeous woman and damage her, and what about those beautiful kids? He didn’t deserve any of them.

  “Fuck this, Nicole you get your ass home with my kids or else,” he shouted before turning back to his car. They waited, staring at each other in silence until he drove away. He had been gone for a couple of minutes before Nicole pulled her eyes away from Lucy’s and rushed back to the girl’s room to usher them out. Lucy collapsed against the door and slowly slid downwards as the full impact of what had just happened began to sink in. She could finally admit that she was scared. Her heart pounded in her chest.

  “Girls, get your things packed,” Nicole said, grabbing bags and throwing them onto beds.

  “Wait, mama no,” Storm pleaded. “I like it here. Can’t we just make him go away?”

  “Baby, we need to leave.” She had no idea how he had tracked them down, but she wasn’t going to take any chances; they needed to leave now. Get as far away as possible. Change the car, maybe their name again.

  Lucy watched the scene play out in front of her from her place on the floor, and she didn’t like it. She had run away herself from a situation she couldn’t deal with. She knew all about running and hiding, not from a monster like him, but from herself, and she knew it didn’t end well.