by Hazel Parker
Pain shot all through her body. Kelly cried out. She wrapped her arms around her, trying to protect herself. She ducked her head, feeling another kick hit her head.
Kelly became conscious of the sounds of other voices shouting, starting to drown out Monica’s screams of rage. Then suddenly Monica was gone, but Kelly could still hear her shrieking through her haze of pain.
“Hey! HEY!” A boy was kneeling beside her. He was focused down on Kelly, staring into her face. “Can you hear me?”
“I…” Kelly whispered out. “I…I’m…pregnant.”
She was in so much pain right now. She knew that something was wrong. Something was happening to her. Monica had done something—something bad. Kelly buried her face into her arm, feeling like she was ready to doze off.
Above her, she was vaguely aware of the boy talking on his phone. Paramedics…police. Kelly could only assume one of them. Maybe both.
She felt like she was starting to lose consciousness. The baby. She hoped that they could do something. She hoped she had not failed it. Before the blackness took over, Kelly was aware of her palm pressing firmly over her belly…one last attempt to protect the unborn child.
Chapter 12
Kelly’s eyes batted open. Immediately, she registered a stiffness that was tinged with underlying pain. She groaned.
“Hey,” a strong male voice beside her spoke, “just lay still, okay?”
Kelly did not try to sit up, but she did turn her head. Grant was sitting beside her. One of his hands was resting over hers. He smiled faintly.
“I’m glad to see that you’re awake.”
“What…” Kelly started to ask what happened, but she knew what had happened. Monica had happened. But then she remembered her last thoughts. “The baby?”
Kelly turned her head to look at Grant. She met his eyes, desperately seeking her answer. Grant bit his lower lip. He shook his head.
“The baby didn’t make it.”
Kelly felt tears rising in her eyes. She pressed her right hand over her mouth, trying desperately to fight back sobs.
“Hey.” Grant squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. You’re okay. The doctor said there was no major damage. You’ll be able to have more children.”
“But it was your baby,” Kelly whispered softly. “I lost your baby. I’m so, so sorry Grant.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Grant told her. “You were doing all of the right things. It was Monica’s fault. And in that regard, Monica killed her own child.”
Kelly knew that what he was saying was true, but at the moment it just hurt so much.
“What happened to Monica?” she forced herself to ask the question. She needed to think about something else…focus on something else.
“The boys that found you two pulled her off of you. They held her until the police came.”
“So?” Kelly pressed gently.
“She’s been arrested, pending assault charges.” Grant’s face hardened. “The police told me I could explore pressing further charges against her for the death of the baby.”
“Oh!” Kelly had not considered that aspect. “What do you think? Will you do it?”
“I…don’t know.” Grant shrugged. “The baby couldn’t have survived on its own. And I’m just not sure it’s a good idea.”
“Why?” Kelly turned her hand over beneath his, taking his hand.
“Because I just want to be done with her.” Grant squeezed her fingers tighter. “I think I’m going to have my lawyer tell her that I won’t pursue any further charges if she just gives me a clean divorce.”
“That seems fair.” Kelly’s brain registered that he was going to be single. It was the wrong thing to think right now. She should not be considering this right now.
“Yeah,” Grant smiled. “And I will be free to start a new life—without her.” His eyes roamed over her for a minute. Kelly felt her heart skip a beat.
“So everything’s going to be okay?” she asked gently. “I mean, the doctors have said….”
“You’re going to be just fine,” Grant assured her. “The doctor said he’s going to keep an eye on you for a couple of hours, and then you’re going to come home with me.”
Kelly’s face lit up.
“Really? Home to your house?” She tried to lighten the mood.
“Home to my house.” Grant squeezed her hand. This time, there was no mistaking the look in her eyes. “Kelly, I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you.”
She smiled at him, turning more to face him.
“I’m right here.”
“Yes, you are.” Grant met her eyes. “And I mean to keep it just that way.”
“What do you mean?” She hoped that she knew what he was saying, but she wanted to be sure. He couldn’t really be…could he?
“Kelly, I have come to realize that you are the true love of my life.” Grant looked down at her hand, and then back to her eyes. “You are the only woman in this world that I could see myself loving. The things that I have felt for you, they’re not the type of feelings that you find every day.”
“Oh, Grant,” Kelly whispered.
“I’m in love with you, Kelly.” He raised his hand to her lips, kissing it gently. “I love you more than I have ever loved anyone else, or ever will.”
Kelly felt tears beginning to form in her eyes once more. Smiling, she reached for him. Grant instantly moved to meet her, not allowing her to sit up.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “I never meant to fall in love with you, but I did.”
“Sometimes the best things are unexpected, and happen in the strangest ways.” Grant leaned down, pressing his lips to hers.
She had never imagined that this type of love could come between them. She truly had never meant to find this love in this situation. But now that she had, she could never imagine being with anyone else. If she was the love of Grant’s life, then he was the love of hers as well.
Chapter 13
As eventful as the beginning of her term had been, the rest of the school year passed quietly. Kelly fell back into a fairly normal swing of life for a college student. She went to class, and ate on campus. She spent her nights in her dorm room. The only change to this situation occurred when Grant came into the picture.
Since their declaration of love to each other, the two had been inseparable as much as possible. That did not negate the importance of their individual lives. Kelly wanted to finish school—no matter what the future might hold for she and Grant. Grant wholeheartedly encouraged it. So after she had recovered from Monica’s attack, Kelly went right back to her classes.
Grant still had a business to run. He still had to travel for his company and attended all of his meetings, but he also had to clean up his life. True to his word, he had sent his lawyer to have a serious discussion with Monica about any further charges. He had found that Monica actually felt bad about the baby’s loss. It did not particularly surprise him. It had been her all along who had wanted to have the child, and now it was gone. She had lost the chance at what she really wanted in this world because her own jealousy had overcome her. She had agreed to all of his terms without hesitation. He figured that a lifetime of guilt would be worse than any charges he could pursue.
The months had seemed to fly by. Kelly had told her mother that she was seeing an older man, but she had left out the details of how they had met. She figured that her mother did not need to know about the surrogate deal, or the money that she had lost. Grant was helping her pay through the last semester of school. So at the end of the day, Beth’s theory on what Kelly had needed to get her through school was correct—and it had worked.
Finally, the months had wrapped up. The end of the final term had come. Kelly had spent the last month studying for her finals. She was in no risk of not graduating. Despite everything that had happened, she had not let her grades slip. What was on her mind now was the job market.
It was
not an easy place for college graduates to enter. She had put out her resume, but had not heard much back. Most of her friends were in the same boat. If they were getting jobs, it was not necessarily in their field. Kelly had a feeling she would need to think about doing that. It was either that, or go back for further education. Kelly was too enticed by the idea of her life with Grant to really entertain that. She would find another plan before she came back to the education world.
She was already planning to move in with Grant after graduation. Her mother was not thrilled about it, but since Kelly was still looking for a job it was not so bad. Kelly just kept wondering to herself what living with Grant would mean. Should she stop looking for a job? Was he going to be set on taking care of her? Did she really want him to?
She also wondered if she was getting ahead of herself. She could not expect Grant to take care of her for her entire life if he had not even talked about marriage to her. She did not blame him. His divorce had been finalized not long ago. She would not blame him if he did not want to jump right into marriage again. But she knew that her mother was going to ask. And she had to have an appropriate answer. Which right now, she did not.
The Saturday after her last final, Grant had come over and helped her clean out her dorm room. Most of her dorm accessories were getting donated to charity. She was not going to need them moving in with him. It was funny to her, moving from the dorm to a mansion. Graduation was not for another two weeks. Kelly’s mother would be coming up then, and staying at the house with them. She hoped that seeing how her daughter was living would be impressive enough for her.
“Why don’t we get cleaned up and go out to dinner?” Grant offered when the last box was situated in the house. Now it felt a bit funny. Seeing all of her college possessions in the house made her realize how much younger she was than him. She would have to make sure to get everything cleaned up and put away this week.
“I think that sounds like a great idea.” Kelly took his hands, pulling him to her for a kiss. Grant smiled.
“Good. Let’s get dressed then. Something nice?” Kelly raised a brow.
“Are we celebrating something?”
“We’re celebrating the next stage of our life together.” Grant leaned over to press his lips against her cheek. “Come on. Find something pretty.”
Kelly showered, and then began rummaging through the clothes that she already had in Grant’s closet. He had bought her some nicer things, and she had not taken them back to campus with her. So for tonight, she selected a plain, black dress, as well as a pair of black pumps. She accented the outfit with a silver bracelet and a solitaire pearl on a chain. She wanted to look simple, classy. She always associated too much flare with Monica—and worried that Grant did too.
Grant was standing at the front door when she came down the stairs. She watched his eyes light up as he smiled at her.
“Look at you. You look incredible.” Kelly blushed.
“I was going for classy. It doesn’t look boring, does it?”
“You could never be boring.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Come on, let’s go.”
Kelly had gotten used to the life of fancy cars and nice restaurants. She was mildly ashamed that it had not taken her as long as she had thought that it would. She still had her car, though it was not nearly as nice as anything that Grant had. She had wondered if he might buy her a new one for graduation, but so far she had not seen any indications.
The restaurant that they went to was a steakhouse that Grant had mentioned many times. Kelly had never been with him, but knew that he liked to conduct his business deals here.
“Tonight must be special if you’re bringing me here,” Kelly told him once they were seated. Grant smiled at her.
“Tonight is special. I think that you and I deserve a nice night out, a nice quiet dinner together before all of the graduation fun starts up.” Kelly chuckled.
“Well, I appreciate that. You know that we don’t really have to go.”
“Of course we have to go.” Grant shook his head. “You need to be at your graduation. Besides, I don’t want to start things off on the wrong foot with your mother. I’m sure any parent would be furious if their daughter decided not to walk in graduation.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that I would hear about it.” Kelly agreed. “But regardless, I think that she’s really going to like you.”
“I hope so.” Grant squeezed her hand. “I want to impress her.”
“Then just be yourself.” Kelly squeezed his hand back.
“It’s all that I know how to be.” Grant chuckled.
The waiter came. Grant ordered them a bottle of wine, and his own steak. Kelly picked something smaller than the giant piece of meat she knew that would be coming as his own meal. It never ceased to amaze her how differently men and women ordered.
She soon found that she was right. Grant ate most of his huge sirloin while she ate the much smaller cut of beef. They chatted, sipping on their wine.
“Sales might work too.” Kelly ran her fingers over her napkin. “I mean, I’ve been looking at some pharmaceutical companies. Apparently there is real money to be made in that type of sales.”
“I’ve heard that too.” Grant sipped his wine. “But really, Kelly, every college student with a business major is going to try for that aspect. The field won’t be any less crowded than everything else you’ve looked at.”
Kelly sighed. She knew that he was right.
“I know.” She frowned. Grant shrugged.
“What about your history minor? There are lots of historical sites and companies in this area. You could find something through one of them.”
“Maybe.” Kelly reached over to take his hand. He was such a good man. She was so grateful to have his support. Not only did she have his love, but she had the guidance of a successful business man. That made her smile.
“I guess I could settle for an internship,” Kelly told him gently. “I mean, it won’t pay, but it might get me in the door somewhere.”
“I always think that’s a good opportunity.” Grant leaned back in his chair. “You know that I could—”
“No, no.” Kelly shook her head firmly. They had been over this. She did not want him to get her a job at his own company. She did not want to start out her career with those types of favors being pulled for her.
“I understand.” Grant let it go. “But you know the offer always stands.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.” Kelly winked at him. Grant shook his head.
“Let’s have dessert.”
“Really?” In all of the times they had gone out, Grant never suggested ordering dessert. Kelly was always the one who wanted—and ate—the sweets. Secretly, she admired his healthy willpower.
“Yes, and you don’t have to sound so surprised,” Grant laughed at her expression.
“It’s just…very unlike you,” Kelly countered. Grant shrugged.
“Everyone can have a moment of desire every now and then, right?” She liked how he said it, and liked even more that his hand calmly slid along her arm. She loved him so much.
It seemed to take a while for their dessert to come to the table. Kelly found that to be odd. They had not ordered anything terribly complicated. She was mildly relieved when she saw the waiter coming with their plates.
“Here you are, Mr. Stone.” He put Grant’s down before him. “And for you, Miss Wilson.”
He set her plate down in front of her. Immediately, Kelly’s eyes fell on the white plate. She had ordered chocolate cake, and something seemed to stand out immediately. Something was written in red letters on the white plate.
She thought that she certainly must be seeing things. Why would there be any type of writing? But further inspection told her that no, there were words written in red script. She read them to herself.
Will you marry me?
Kelly gasped. Her head shot up, immediately meeting Grant’s eyes.
; “What?”
“Look at the cake.” Grant gave her a nervous smile. That made her curious.
She did. There, settled on top of the chocolate layer was a platinum ring. It had the largest, square-cut diamond in it that Kelly had ever seen. She was somewhat aware that her hand was picking it up, holding it in front of her. The diamond gleamed in the restaurant’s dim light. This was real. This was happening.
“You…” Kelly looked up at Grant. “You had all of this planned?”
“Yes I did.” He still looked so nervous. Reaching across the table, he took her hand which was not holding the ring. “Marry me, Kelly. I love you so much. I just want us to be together forever.”
Kelly’s heart melted. She loved him too. The only thing that she wanted was for them to have a life together.
“Oh, Grant.” She leaned across the table to kiss him. “Of course I will marry you.”
Grant’s eyes lit up. The nervous smile fell off his face and was replaced with one of pure radiance.
“I love you,” he responded.
“I love you too,” Kelly whispered.
Grant took the ring from her fingers. Gently, he slipped it onto the fourth finger of her left hand. Kelly held her hand out in front of her. It looked perfect. Her eyes brimmed with tears of happiness.
Kelly got out of her chair. She moved over to give Grant a proper kiss. This night was her dream come true. She was going to have the man she loved with all of her heart—and they were going to be together forever.
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