by K. C. Crowne
I hated to admit it, but it warmed my heart to see such a strong reaction from my parents. All these years, they had seemed so cold, so distant. I often wondered if they had even cared about me.
But in that moment, I knew the truth. They were just bad at showing it, perhaps.
My mom reached over and took my hands, placing both of them on the table. “Honey, you should have told me. I always thought he was good to you. I just wanted you to have a nice, easy life - one where you could focus on your passions and not worry about money or working a job you hated.”
“All these years I thought you just wanted me to be a kept woman,” I said. I avoided adding the “like you” part since that seemed cruel, but all my life, that’s what I pictured.
“No, not at all. I just wanted you to be happy, and I guess sometimes I assume what makes me happy will also be what works best for you, but I know that’s wrong.”
Now the tears flowed not because of what happened with Peter - but because of what I was witnessing from my parents. The feeling of unconditional love from them was something I hadn’t felt in so long, if ever.
Dad had sat back down and had remained fairly quiet until he seemed to have his anger under control. “Charlotte, I know we’re not the best at showing you we love you, and I’m sorry about that. But your mother and I love you more than words can possibly explain, and we will always have your back.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“What can I help you with? Do you need me to ruin that asshole’s career, because I’m not above doing that.”
I had to chuckle. My dad was never one to break the rules or use his success in his career to get what he wanted. And I never imagined my dad to be the vengeful sort.
“No, Dad. I am not seeking revenge, but I am worried about what he’s doing to me. He’s not only trying to ruin my reputation in town, he’s trying to ruin my career, and I am worried he’s working with the sheriff’s department and they’re up to no good.”
Dad smoothed his short beard and stared at me, seriously. “Problems with Sheriff Ford?”
I nodded.
“I’m not surprised. That man is as corrupt as they come and will do anything for a kickback, but what could he possibly have to do with you?”
I explained the entire situation as completely as I could, and my dad let out a low whistle.
“Ford messed with the wrong family, that’s for sure. I have been wanting to nail that bastard for years for his corruption, but never had any proof.”
“Do you think we can find any now?”
“I’m going to fight like hell to find anything to take that man down, along with Peter Simmons too,” my dad said.
Eli gave another squeeze under the table, and I looked over at him. He offered a small smile and I smiled back.
“And I just want to say something else,” my father said, pulling my attention back to him. “I’m so happy to see you back with Eli. I always liked you, son. You’re a good man, and I trust that you would never hurt my daughter.”
“Oh God no. I want this bastard’s head on a platter for what he did to Charlotte.”
“You and me both,” Dad said, lifting his wine glass up and clinking it against Eli’s. “You and me both.”
Chapter 22
Eli
“That went a lot better than I thought it would,” Charlotte said as we got back to the hotel room. Her parents tried to insist that we stay with them, but Charlotte had refused - saying that she felt safer in a public hotel in case Peter started anything, there’d be witnesses that weren’t biased.
She sat down on the bed, and she looked so tired. I sat down beside her and placed an arm over her shoulders.
“I still need to call Alexis,” she said. “I need to warn her in case Peter goes after her.”
She stared down at the phone in her hands and sighed. I hated seeing her like this, and it killed me what this man was doing to her.
“I’m right here if you need me.” That was all I could really say. I felt useless in the moment. Give me a physical threat or danger and I can step up and do what needs to be done, but emotional issues, well, I can’t say I had as much experience in that arena. I never had to deal with the type of problems Charlotte did, and I knew I couldn’t go to her sister for her.
“Thanks, Eli,” she said, offering a half smile as she held the phone up to her ear. A second later, she said, “Hey there, sis.”
I could only hear her part of the conversation.
“Yes, everything is fine - we’re back in Red River now, trying to clear some things up. No, I’m not alone, Eli is with me.” She turned to look at me with a bigger smile on her face now. Her cheeks turned pink. “Wow, I had no idea you liked him that much, Lex. Maybe Luna should be jealous.”
Charlotte held the phone away a bit to speak to me. “She wanted me to tell you that she always loved you, and thinks we’re meant to be together.”
I gave Charlotte’s thigh a squeeze. “Tell her thank you, and that I agree with her on the last bit.”
Charlotte’s cheeks turned even redder now, and it was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. She covered the phone with her hand. “Alexis is so excited, should I tell her?”
We hadn’t told her parents yet because Charlotte had wanted to wait. She didn’t want to tell the world until we were at least past the three-month mark, and I respected the decision. She went through a miscarriage once, and I couldn’t imagine if we lost the baby and she had to tell everyone what happened… God forbid, if anything would happen.
“Of course, feel free to. It’s your choice,” I said.
She went back to the call, standing up and walking the room almost like she was too excited to sit still.
“So I have some good news, Lex,” she said. “No one knows yet, not even Mom and Dad, so don’t breathe a word of this to anyone. Well, except Luna, of course. You ready?”
She waited a second before spilling the beans. “I’m pregnant, and it’s Eli’s.”
She held the phone away from her ear and scrunched up her face. She mouthed, “She’s screaming,” at me.
“Happy screams, I hope?”
“Oh yes, she’s ecstatic.”
And from the look on Charlotte’s face, she was as well. I couldn’t recall seeing her this happy, even when we were together before. And I couldn’t help but think - that’s because this is how it’s meant to be. We’re meant to be together, just like Alexis said. The universe finally got around to fixing the past.
Charlotte giggled and chatted with her sister, which I loved seeing. She deserved all the happiness in the world. Eventually, they got back down to a more serious conversation.
“So, before I get off the phone, I need to make you aware that Peter is threatening our family, and I don’t know what he has planned. So please, please be careful? I believe he might have been involved with Jenny’s death.”
I didn’t hear what her sister said, but as soon as Charlotte got off the phone, she said, “Well, Alexis says that she will be just fine. He can come after her reputation all he wants; she can handle it. She and Luna live in a secure apartment complex with cameras and everything, she promises me that she will not go out alone or anything for a bit, at least until we can figure it out.”
I could tell Charlotte was still worried about her sister. She sat down beside me and cuddled against me. “I just want this all to stop--”
Before she finished her sentence, there was a knock at the door. Then another. Then pounding before we could even make it over there.
“I know you’re in there, Charlotte,” a male voice called out.
Charlotte’s face turned white. She stopped in the middle of the room, frozen.
“It’s Peter,” she whispered.
I grabbed my phone and started recording, handing the phone to Charlotte. I knew the laws - Tennessee was a one-party consent state when it came to recording conversations. If he was going to be a dick or violent, or even incriminate himself
, well, we’d get the proof.
“Hold this out of sight and stand back,” I said.
Charlotte nodded and did as I told her. The pounding on the door grew louder, as did his demands for her to open it.
When the door swung open though, he clearly wasn’t expecting me. The look on his face said it all - his mouth opened, and his jaw gaped and pulsed, but it was quickly replaced by a scrunched-up scowl.
Peter might be deemed attractive in some circles, I suppose. If you were into the rich kid with a stick shoved up his ass look. He had blonde hair that was perfectly combed, not a strand out of place, and blue eyes that might have been considered nice if they weren’t filled with rage. At that moment, they felt like icy daggers looking for a target.
“Where’s Charlotte?”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and blocked the doorway with my body.
“She doesn’t want to see you.”
“She’s my fiancé, I have a right to see her.”
I laughed without even meaning to. ‘Right. She called off the wedding and broke up with you, she’s not your fiancé and she doesn’t owe you shit. I suggest you walk away now or--”
“Or what? Because I can have the cops here to arrest your sorry ass within minutes.”
“Eli--” Charlotte’s voice came from behind me.
“Stay back,” I said.
“Charlotte? Is that you?”
Charlotte was still behind me, but she had come closer.
“Eli, step aside. Let me talk to him.”
“I’m not going to let--”
“Eli, you’ve never been controlling of me before, and I ask you to not start now. Step back. Please.”
I didn’t step back, but I moved to the side. Charlotte could at least see Peter now, and he could see her. But there was no way I was going to let that asshole near her.
It’s in that moment that I noticed people were gathering in the hallway of the hotel. They were watching. Charlotte took them in with a quick glance as well.
“What do you want to say to me, Peter?” she asked, her voice calmer than I would have expected.
Peter’s eyes moved over me. “Can we talk in private?”
“No,” I said before Charlotte had a chance to answer.
Charlotte sighed. “You can say whatever you have to say here and now.”
“Really, can we stop playing these childish games?” Peter scoffed. “Come home, Charlotte. We can reschedule the wedding and forget about everything else.”
“Everything else like how you got someone to accuse me of stealing their work and then hurt her too?” Charlotte countered, somehow edging out of the door ever so slightly and raising her voice. “Because I don’t think I could ever forgive any of that, or how you hit me.”
Peter’s face turned red, and right then and there, I knew what Charlotte was doing. She was trying to provoke him. I noticed my phone was tucked away at her side, hidden from his site, hopefully still recording.
“I told you I was sorry,” Peter shouted. “I told you it was an accident, that I’d been drinking and--”
“You gave me a black eye, Peter. You hit me, and then tried to ruin my career. And the poor girl you were cheating on me with is dead. Do you even care about that? Or do you only care about yourself?”
“Jenny killed herself--”
“After you visited, am I right? After you hurt her, like you hurt me!”
Peter closed the distance between them and was in Charlotte’s face, his hand at her neck. I lunged toward him just as someone from the hallway came running as well.
“He’s strangling her!” someone shouted, and that’s when Peter realized that we weren’t alone.
My body knocked into him, taking him to the ground. I held him there as the people around us murmured. “He attacked her first, I saw it.”
Charlotte touched her neck as if it hurt, and part of me just wanted to let loose on this guy. I wanted to hurt him the way he had hurt her. I was seeing red when I pulled my fist back, ready to release all of my emotion on him.
“Eli, stop,” Charlotte’s voice pulled me out of my head. “Don’t hurt him. You’re better than him.”
And she was right.
“I don’t want you to end up in jail,” she added, and I thought back to how Peter had the sheriff in the palm of his hand. A thought he was thinking over too, clearly, as he smirked up at me.
“Don’t worry, the sheriff is going to hear all about this,” he spat.
“And we have witnesses. Even a shitty lawyer like yourself knows there are too many people here to cover this up.”
“We’ll see.”
“Step back,” a voice called out. “Red River Sheriff.”
I was expecting Ford, but Thomas was who knelt down at our side.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got him,” Thomas said, speaking to me.
“Where’s Ford?” Peter said.
“He’s on suspension,” Thomas said.
That was like music to my ears, but I couldn’t resist asking, “What?”
“Yep. Guess he was caught taking bribes,” Thomas said as he motioned for me to move away from Peter. Several deputies joined him to help cuff him. “I’m interim Sheriff at the moment.”
I looked back over at Charlotte who looked absolutely relieved at the news. We both knew who was probably behind this.
Her dad had come through for us, and, thankfully, at a relatively quick pace.
Chapter 23
Charlotte
Relief washed over me as Peter was carted away in handcuffs. My hands were shaking as I checked my phone and saw a message from my father.
We got him, honey. I got one of the deputies I trusted to come forward about him being bribed by Peter. There was proof, everything we needed.
My daddy had come through for us.
As things started to quiet down, Eli led me back into the hotel room. My nerves were still fried as I slipped away to the bathroom, worried about some cramping I felt. As I pulled down my panties, I saw the blood and panicked. “Eli!”
He rushed into the bathroom with his eyes wide. “What’s wrong?”
I pointed to the blood as tears streamed my cheeks. “The baby. I think we lost the baby,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
“No, we don’t know that. Let’s get you to the hospital,” Eli said. “Come with me, I’m sure everything is okay.”
“And what if it’s not? What if like last time, I killed our baby? What if--”
“No, you didn’t kill our first baby, and even if something has happened, you didn’t kill this one, Charlotte. Look at me,” he said, holding my chin in his hand, stroking my skin at the same time. “No matter what, it’s not your fault. Remember that, please.”
I nodded, wanting to believe him, but I was the reason we were in this mess. It was my fault, and I feared that if I lost this child, I might not ever feel safe trying again.
The drive to the hospital was a blur, and Eli handled checking us in. The nurse took me right back, asking Eli to wait out in the waiting room. I didn’t want to let go of his hand, but they promised me he would be allowed back once I was set up in a room.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about the last time this had happened - how I’d been alone in the cold, sterile hospital room when the nurse broke the news to me that I’d lost our child. I didn’t want that to happen again. Every nurse or doctor that walked into the room, I asked them, “Please, can you let him back here with me?”
Until one of them finally said “Yes, I’ll get him.”
Just having him by my side made me feel better. His hand held mine as we waited for the doctor to get back with us, and when the door opened and the white-haired doctor stepped into the room with a smile, I felt some semblance of relief. He wouldn’t be smiling if he was giving bad news, right?
“It’s too early to see much,” the man said to us. “But from everything I can tell, based on all the tests we’ve run, I believe you’re merely experiencing
implantation bleeding. It’s normal in the first month of a pregnancy.”
“So, our baby is fine?”
“From everything I can see, yes.”
I wish I could say that his words soothed me, but there was still the possibility of miscarriage weighed heavily on me. I knew, no matter what, that I was going to be anxious throughout the entire pregnancy.
As if Eli could sense my emotions, he squeezed my hand. I looked at him and he smiled, reminding me that I wasn’t alone this time.
“You don’t think the stress from the incident earlier could have harmed the baby?”
The doctor shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t sound like the level of trauma that would lead to a miscarriage.”
“I lost a baby before,” I said, my voice soft. “From doing yoga.”
“Regular yoga? As in, nothing too strenuous?”
“Yes. For relaxation.”
The doctor offered me a sympathetic look. “Ms. Grey, I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you this, but I’ve been in medicine for thirty-five years, so I hope you trust me. Sometimes miscarriages just happen, most women experience them in their lifetime, and it’s not usually something they did to cause it. Yoga can often be good for expectant mothers, in fact. And stress, well, it happens to everyone at some point or another, and while it can potentially cause problems - most women can’t live entirely stress-free lives while pregnant, and yet they go on to deliver healthy, happy babies. Don’t be so hard on yourself, you’re doing just fine.”
I took a few deep breaths and tried to take his words to heart.
“Anxiety is a pain sometimes.”
“Yes, yes it is, but please, try not to worry so much.”
“I’ll do my best.”
The doctor left, and said I’d be released to leave before long. A few minutes after he left, there was a knock at the door.
“Someone is here to see you,” the nurse said.
I looked at Eli who looked about as lost as I was.
