My father is out of prison. Fuck. I was supposed to have three more years to prepare for this day. Why? How is this even possible? I can’t believe this is happening. I’m sick to my stomach.
“Ms. Livingston? Are you still there?”
“Yes. Thanks, officer. Have a good day,” I say before I hang up.
Dialing Seth’s number I wait for him to pick up.
“Faith. What’s up, babe?”
“He’s back. He is going to come for me.”
“Who’s back? What are you talking about? Babe?”
“My father. Seth, they let my father out early.”
“What? How? Fuck. I’m on my way to come get you. Stay where you are. He won’t hurt you again, sweetheart – I will make sure of it. Everything will be fine.” I barely hear Seth. I am in shock. My biggest nightmare is coming true. My father knows what name I go by now, he knows where I live. I need to get away from here before he finds me.
Deep down I know that he won’t give up until he makes me pay for telling the police what he did to me.
The monster will return.
Chapter 16
Seth
My thoughts are running rampant. Faith’s dad was released from prison. Why in the world did they release him three years early? It didn’t even make sense.
I curse under my breath when all cars in front of me come to an abrupt halt. Shit. I hate traffic in this damn city. I just need to get to Faith – she needs me.
I dial her number but the call goes unanswered. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get to her, but I need to make sure she doesn’t build those damn walls back up around her. I worked too hard to break them down just to lose her again. I will do everything in my power to keep her safe and the bastard that is her dad away from her. I will kill for Faith. No one will ever hurt her again. I made her a promise and I fully intend to keep it.
Finally, traffic clears and I am on my way to her office. I told her to stay put – I just hope she listens to me for once. If anything happened to her, I would never forgive myself. We need to see about putting a protective order in place so he can’t come close to her.
Pulling up to her office, I barely put my car into park before running towards the entrance. The receptionist probably thinks I’m crazy, but I don’t care. The love of my life is possibly in danger and I’d be damned if I would just let it happen.
“Faith Livingston. I’m looking for Faith. Where is her office?” I ask the blonde receptionist. Looking me up and down, she licks her lips. Before Faith I might have been attracted to her, but now she does nothing to me.
“Where is she?” I repeat myself. She snaps out of it and tells me where to find my girlfriend. I run in the direction where she is located. I don’t care that I’m almost knocking people over – I just need to get to her. Glancing to my right, I see her name on the door. I burst in without knocking. She is sitting in the corner with her knees pulled up to her chest rocking back and forth.
“Faith, I’m here. It’s gonna be okay.” I try to soothe her wrapping her up in my arms. Her skin is terribly cold and she’s staring off in the distance. I’m not sure if she even realizes I’m here. She is in some kind of shock.
“Come back to me, Peach. He won’t hurt you, I promise. I won’t let him touch you ever again.” She turns her head slowly looking at me. My grip around her tightens. I’m not letting her go. She’s my lifeline.
“Seth. Oh, my God, Seth. You’re here,” she lets out a small whimper. I have never seen her so... frightened before.
“Of course I am. I’ll always come for you. We’ll get through this together. Let’s go talk to your boss. I’m not letting you out of my sight. We’ll make arrangements for you to work from home or something. Or I’ll come to work with you every day. I’m not leaving your side.”
The severity of the situation is not lost on me. We thought we had three more years to prepare for this moment. I wish I would’ve been here when she got the call. She shouldn’t have been alone with this.
“I... I... Don’t want anyone to know,” she stammers.
“Baby, you have to tell your boss. I can only protect you when you are with me. I’m helpless when you’re not by my side. We need to figure out how to do this.”
“You can’t be around me 24/7 for the rest of my life, Seth.” Tears are welling in her eyes. The reality of things is setting in - I see it in her expression.
“I know, but I can be by your side till we have some kind of protective order set in place. Or I will hire someone to watch over you. I mean it, Peach - I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
“I don’t know what to do. What if he comes for me? He’s gonna kill me for talking to the cops, for putting him in prison. I can’t go through all this again. All my life I have fought to get away from him. The last twelve years I was finally able to breathe again. Now I feel like someone’s sitting on my chest making it impossible for me to come up for air. He knows I changed my name. He knows where to find me. Looking me up will be easy for him. I’ve felt watched for the last couple of days. I can’t shake the feeling that he is already close somewhere. A restraining order is already in place, but we all know it’s just a piece of paper. It won’t stop him. Not only will he come for me, he’ll come for you too once he realizes what you mean to me. I can’t put you in that kind of danger. It would kill me if something happened to you. Or Caige, or Braden, or Skye. Fuck. I didn’t even think about that. He’s gonna hurt everyone I love. That’s the kind of person he is.”
“Shhh, baby, don’t worry about us. Braden, Caige and I are well trained in dealing with the enemy. Nothing’s gonna happen to us. Braden will make sure Skye and Abby are safe. We only have to worry about you right now. Please promise me you won’t go anywhere alone until we can figure this mess out.”
“Seth...”
“Promise me.” I interrupt her. She doesn’t understand how serious I am. I vowed to protect her for the rest of my life.
“I promise.”
“Good. Now we need to talk to your boss. I know you don’t want to, but I’m not giving you a choice. Either you come with me or not.” She just nods at me still a blank expression on her face. I have no idea what she is thinking. Fuck. Why can’t we just get a break? She leads me to her boss’s office. Her body is visibly shaking and I just want to wrap her up in my arms and take her away from here. She doesn’t deserve this. No one does.
Thirty minutes later we have filled her boss, Shannon Ross, in on everything that has transpired in the last couple of hours. She is aware of Faith’s past and has agreed to let her work from home until we figure out what to do. Relief washes over me – watching over Faith will be a lot easier for me this way. I’d go crazy with worry if she had to go to work on a daily basis.
“Faith, dear, take as much time as you need. I know this isn’t easy for you. We’ll be here when you’re ready to come back. Take care of yourself first. We don’t want anything happening to you. I’m gonna inform the clients that I’ll be taking over most of your projects and that all consultation should run through me. Of course, I’ll still keep you in the loop and need your help,” Shannon explains. I want to hug her for being so understanding. Not that I would’ve given her much of a choice either way.
Saying our goodbyes, we gather Faith’s stuff from her office and she lets me lead her to the car. She has been quiet the entire time I talked to Shannon. I’m not sure how to read her silence. I don’t know if she’s pissed, hurt, or just scared. My guess is a mixture of it. I need to find a way to distract her from the mess that is our life right now.
“What do you think about a weekend getaway? We could go to Florida or wherever you want to go. I think it’ll be good for you to get out of here for a while, Peach.”
“What? You want me to run away? Isn’t it enough that you already took my job situation in your own hands? Now you just want to take me away from it all? Newsflash, Seth, it’s not going away no matter what we do. You don’t know him
. He’s unpredictable. He will strike when we don’t expect it.” She is glaring at me. Not exactly what I expected.
“Sweetheart, I’m just trying to keep you safe. I want you to be able to forget about it for a while. Trust me, I know it’s not just gonna go away as much as I want it to. Please, baby, don’t pull away from me,” I plead with her.
“Just take me home, Seth.” Staring out the window she continues the silence. I’m at a loss. Once we arrive at home I rush around the car to open the door for her. She ignores my efforts and just walks up to the house. I feel her slipping away and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
“I’m gonna lie down for a while. I’d like to have some time alone.” I watch as she closes the bedroom door behind her. I slump onto the couch burying my head in my hands. Tears are falling freely. What am I supposed to do? There’s not only one but now two men who hurt Faith deeply and she just wants me to watch it happen? Only over my dead body.
Hours go by and Faith has still not come out of our bedroom. I’ve tried knocking but she was either asleep or ignoring me. My phone starts ringing and I see Krystal’s face light up on my screen. Great. What does she want from me?
“Krystal, what do you want?”
“Hey, Seth, I talked to my lawyer today and he’s saying there is a signature missing on the papers for the house. Can you come over and sign them?” She’s almost purring. What the fuck? I signed everything over to her, how in the world is there something missing?
“Just send them to me and I’ll sign them.”
“Come on, Seth, we used to be married and now you won’t even give me the time of day? You’ll be in and out in no time. I’m sure it can’t be that hard to spare thirty minutes to take care of this. I just want it to be over with. After that you don’t have to ever deal with me again.”
Dammit. If I go now Faith will be pissed, but I could finally rid myself of Krystal completely.
“Fine. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Great. See you then.”
Just as I’m about to grab my keys I hear a little cough behind me. Turning around I see a furious Faith standing in front of me.
“Where are you going?”
“Umm... Krystal just called. There’s a signature missing on the paperwork for the house. I’m just gonna swing by there and sign it real quick.”
“She can’t just send it here? I don’t want you to go there.”
“Peach, if I go now she’ll be gone and out of our lives. The faster I can get this over with the better.”
“This is bullshit. I know she’s trying to play some stupid game with you again. She always does and you still fall her shit. But you know what? Fuck it. Go.”
“Please don’t be mad. You know there’s nothing between her and me.”
“She is your fucking ex-wife. Do you really expect me to be happy that you’re gonna see her? Fuck off, Seth. Go. Leave me alone.”
Her emphasis on alone is not lost on me. Here I am doing everything in my power to keep an eye on her and now I’m just going to leave her to go sign some stupid papers for my bitch of an ex-wife. I’m such a fucking idiot. Maybe I should at least call Caige to come over here and keep an eye on her while I’m gone.
“I’m sorry, Faith. I’ll be back in no time. I promise.”
I leave without looking back. I know she’s crying and I hate myself. The chapter Krystal has to be closed once and for all.
Twenty minutes later I pull up to what used to be my home. It seems so long ago since I was married to Krystal. I take a look around and am disgusted. The grass is growing wild and the house looks run down. Wow.
I still have my key but opt to ring the doorbell. No answer. What the fuck? I keep ringing it but still nothing. I pull out my key and let myself in. Darkness and silence surrounds me.
“Krystal? Where are you? Come on. I need to sign those damn papers and get on my way.” I don’t get an answer. Walking into the bedroom I see the light shining underneath the bathroom door.
“Krystal, are you in there?” What the fuck is going on? I slowly open the door. The sight that greets me turns my stomach upside down. Krystal’s lifeless body is lying on the floor. Next to her is an empty bottle of whiskey and what seems to be sleeping meds or something else. Motherfucker. She had this planned all along. I pull out my phone to dial 911. After explaining to them what’s going on they promise to be here very shortly. I kneel by Krystal’s body to feel her pulse. It’s weak but it’s there. Thank God. Why the fuck would she do this?
The EMTs arrive ten minutes later and I follow them to the hospital. Faith is going to rip my head off, but Krystal needs me. I owe it to her. I can’t shake the feeling that somehow this is my fault. We may have been divorced for months but she has never been a very stable person and the separation might have just pushed her over the edge. They take her back and since I’m no longer married to her I’m only allowed to wait in the waiting room. I go to call Faith to let her know I will be home late and realize my battery is dead. Son of a bitch. This day can’t get any shittier.
Krystal’s parents, Robert and Courtney, walk into the waiting room. I was wrong. The day just got even worse.
“What the fuck did you do to her now?” Courtney spits out.
“I didn’t do shit. Your daughter decided to take a bunch of pills and swallow them with a bunch of whiskey. I told you she needed help, but you never fucking listened to me. Now see where that got you. You need to finally get her the help she needs. This can’t go on any longer.”
“Watch your mouth, young man. My daughter is not ill. This is your fault. I always knew you weren’t good enough and would drag her down.” Robert has always hated me. Not that I cared but his words still cut deep. It is my fault Krystal is here. I should’ve sought help for her before divorcing her. It was my responsibility to make sure she would be okay, but I failed. I would make it up to her if she pulled through.
A doctor comes out and talks to her parents. I eavesdrop knowing full well if I walk up to the doctor they’ll just flip out again.
“Your daughter has taken an overdose of sleeping meds. We had to pump out her stomach. She’s still asleep, but we’re positive she’ll pull through. I strongly suggest that you find a rehab center for her. She’s going to need help to overcome whatever brought her to do this tonight. We are putting her on suicide watch to make sure she doesn’t try to harm herself again once she wakes up.”
“My daughter doesn’t need to be admitted to the looney bin. She’s perfectly healthy.” Robert is almost yelling at the doctor.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Krystal tried to kill herself and you’re not going to find her help? What kind of parents are you? Oh I forgot - it would look bad on Mr. City Council here. You two make me fucking sick. Doctor, can you give me a list of rehab centers? I will make sure she admits herself to one since her parents aren’t worth shit.”
“Excuse me? Who do you think you are? You divorced her and you think you have any rights? Her health is none of your concern.” Courtney grits through her teeth.
“You’re right - I have no say in what she does or doesn’t do. But she does. I will make sure that she agrees to get help. I may not be married to her anymore but that doesn’t mean I don’t care unlike you guys. All you’re worried about is what people will think about you if you’re daughter goes to the psych ward. It makes Krystal’s behavior all these years so much more understandable.”
“Get the fuck out of here. You don’t get to come in here and tell us what we have to do.”
I gladly follow Roberts demand. I’m done talking to them. There’s not much I can do for Krystal right now anyways. I’ll come back tomorrow and talk to her if she’s awake.
When I get back home Faith is waiting up for me. Her eyes are blood shot and I know she has been crying. Fuck me.
“Thirty minutes, huh? Where the fuck have you been? Shagging it up with the ex-wife?”
“Peach, it’s nothing like that.
”
“Save it. Four hours. Four fucking hours, Seth. I tried calling you and your fucking phone is off. What am I supposed to think?”
“Faith, let me explain.”
“No, Seth. You had your chance to be with me. You chose to go shag it up with your ex-wife. Caige is gonna be here shortly to come get me. I’m gonna stay with him. Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere alone.”
Again with the emphasis on alone. Why won’t she even let me explain what the fuck happened? It hurts that she doesn’t trust me at all. I would never betray her. Can I blame her for thinking it though? Not really. I wouldn’t want her to spend hours with Jordan either. I know I fucked up.
Ten minutes later, I watch Faith drive away with Caige. The woman I love walked away from me. Again.
Chapter 17
Faith
Tears stain my face. I can’t believe Seth would betray me like this. I told him I didn’t want him to go see Krystal, and yet he still decided to spend hours with her. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined Seth would go behind my back.
I watch the world pass by in a blur while Caige is driving us back to his house. I just moved out of there to start my new life with Seth. Our relationship has never been easy and I’m starting to think that maybe it’s just not meant to be. I’m not supposed to be happy. On top of that my father is somewhere out there, lurking, waiting for his moment to get to me. I can feel him close by. One may call me paranoid, but I know my father. I know how evil he is, what he is capable of. All these years I’ve fought to get my strength back, to find my place in this cruel world, to find my voice just to have him come and snatch it all back. It’s inevitable. He has robbed me of my happiness before and he will do it again. I need to get away from the people I love so he doesn’t have the chance to hurt them as well. None of them deserve to face the monster that is my father. Cory Smith knows how to get to me. He won’t stop until he breaks me. Again.
Uncovering Peace Page 13
