“Austin,” Diane stepped in, trying to dampen the heat of Austin’s rage with an apologetic tone.
Feeling her anger reaching breaking point, Austin remembered how Grace was in direct hearing range of this entire conversation, and the last thing she wanted was for her to hear her mother completely break loose as she reached the end of her tether. “I’ll be right back,” she stated and left the pair.
Tyler stood awkwardly with Diane, listening as Austin asked their daughter if she could go and do more drawings. He loved how Grace reacted and agreed and he waited on the door to close Grace away in the sanctum of the den. He felt Austin close the gap between them; as she approached she jumped straight back into the conversation.
“I’m sorry, but I never once lashed out about her after she turned the town against me, or after she played arsonist and nearly killed me, and I never once hit out at her when she stepped into my hospital room to torture me a little more, or hell, when you did, Diane. No, I remained the good guy, because that’s who I am. I never reacted when she targeted me in the courtroom when she was prosecuted, and I never ever spoke badly against her, regardless of the amount of opportunities I was given. I’m sick of biting my tongue when this is getting too out of hand.” Making an attempt to calm herself, Austin landed one final blow, “And to top it all, I have to put up with Robert threatening me at every turn.”
“Robert?” Diane gasped in shock horror.
“Yeah, the man you married has been threatening me and I have no real reason as to why,” Austin answered back, allowing Diane some insight to what had been going on in their sleepy town. “He’s been trying to scare me, and last night he actually told me I will get what I deserve for what I did to your family.”
Tyler put his arm around Austin, hoping to offer her support and calm her all at once.
“I have never spoken badly of your daughter or your husband, because I am the better person, but all of this.” Austin held the tattered photo up, taking a pause for a second. “This is beyond unfair. I have done nothing to deserve her constant pestering in mine and Tyler’s life. She lost, she needs to accept responsibility and move the hell on. As for Robert, he is acting like a man scorned for me just living my life.”
Feeling Austin shudder slightly, Tyler knew he had to step in and save the moment. “Look, Natasha is always going to be a sore spot wherever Austin and I, hell our families too, are involved,” Tyler stepped in, becoming the calm one. “You were out of line giving her any photographs of our daughter without our permission, and even though we understand why you did it, and what you were trying to do, you still broke our trust. We still have to live with what Natasha did all those years ago, and we do not need her thinking she deserves some chance in our life, in my life, and that ex of yours will know that too. It won’t work,” He shook his head in disgust. “I won’t let it happen.”
“I know it won’t,” Diane stepped in, stating the fact with hard certainty.
“Looks like it’s judgment day again,” Austin stated seeing the mailman come into view, changing the subject entirely. “I wonder what the mailman brought us today,” Austin pondered sarcastically.
“I’ll go and grab it. See if we have any other surprises,” Tyler said as he watched the mailman coming up the street, sifting through his pile of letters and packages before stopping at their mailbox. He didn’t mean to make callous remarks, but like Austin, he hated these pointless games. He came back slowly, rooting through their pile. He saw a few bills, a piece or two of junk mail, one that looked to be from Michael and then one that struck him hard. Looking to Austin, he didn’t hesitate. “Here. It’s for you,” Tyler said handing over a letter. The cop in him had told him to keep a hold of the letter, claim it as his, but he knew the consequence of that would be far worse than just giving Austin the letter. “It’s for you.”
Taking the letter, she slipped her hand under the lip and tore it open. It was hand written, and she knew there was only one culprit behind the signature scribble on the front. She knew from Tyler’s tone of voice he knew as well.
“Fucking great,” Austin laughed, ignoring her anger. She flashed her gaze to Diane, before she began to speak, “Want to hear what your daughter has to say to me? I mean it seems she no longer wants to contact just you, that darling ex-husband of yours, or my husband.”
“What has she done?” Diane dared to ask, her tone cautious.
Clearing her front, Austin readied herself to speak, holding the letter, she hated every word she was about to read out. “Dear Home Wrecker, I managed to get insight into your life the other day, and the only thing I can be thankful to you for is keeping my main man happy. I’m sure you did enough to pass the last three horrible years for Tyler, and that darling daughter Grace of his. I know we’ll get along like a house on fire, me and Grace that is, once you’re gone. I mean, you won’t be here forever playing happy family. That’s completely ridiculous if you ask me. You and Tyler no longer belong together. You proved how little you cared when you left him in the middle of the night nine years ago, and how little you loved him when you blew back into town expecting everyone to just love you again. Well, it’s all a pipe dream, Austin. I’ll make sure you realize that before it’s too late for Tyler and I to get our happily ever after.” The last words caught her, she knew not to believe them, but that seed of doubt that always tortured her unleashed a new rampage upon her. “I look forward to the day that man of mine wakes up and realizes what a monster he sleeps beside every night. I cannot wait for the repulsion to drive him away from you and back to me. Lots of love, the future Mrs. Tyler Armstrong.” Looking to Diane, Austin allowed all of her emotions to hit the surface and palpate the air around them. “Your daughter is a fucking psycho. That’s all there is to it.”
“I’m so sorry this is happening,” Diane sobbed, horrified by her own daughter’s malice. She then quickly ran from the porch to Tyler and Austin’s house, unable to confront them any longer.
Weakening suddenly, Austin needed her husband. She didn’t want to feel like this, and she hated the feelings that Natasha still managed to evoke in her. Even now, all these years on, she still managed it. Covering her mouth to withhold the sob, she turned to her own support and strength she had and fell against Tyler’s strong build.
Tyler wrapped his arms around Austin. He knew she was reaching her breaking point, and it worried him to think how she was going to completely snap. So he held her tight, letting her draw whatever she needed to from this moment.
“What’s happened?” Jane asked as she rushed over. “I was coming over and saw Diane leaving. What’s going on?”
Pulling away from her husband, she remained close by his side and looked to her mother. “We’ve got some problems with Natasha,” Austin spoke coldly, her entire body unable to react normally when she held the shredded photo in her hand. “Diane gave her a photo of us three, and I received this,” she told her mother and handed the letter over as well.
Jane took the letter from her daughter’s hand and read it. “This is to go with the others your sister was going on about this morning?” Jane asked looking up, only half reading the malicious words printed onto the page. She watched them nod. “Why now?”
“She wants my life,” Austin said, and Tyler tightened his arm around her. She knew from that one gesture he hated how this was turning out to be a battle and how doubts were becoming apparent over Natasha and her intentions.
“She’s not getting it,” Tyler affirmed, his jaw clenched tightly together. “Over my dead body will she get it. I won’t allow her to dictate our lives like this, Aus. She has absolutely no right to do it.”
“I know,” she whispered, knowing she believed him, but she needed fool hardy proof. “There’s only one thing left to do now,” Austin said and looked to her husband who stood clueless. She rolled her eyes and looked to her mother, “Can you watch Grace? I’m going to pay someone a visit.”
“Of course,” Jane stepped in, tempted to ask for the full picture.
>
“Baby,” Tyler stepped in. “What are you up to?”
“Like I said,” Austin began to say, her tone heated and hard. “I’m paying someone a visit. Now you can either come with me or stay here. The choice is entirely yours, but someone needs to see how things have changed in three years.”
Chapter Eleven
STANDING in a room with Tyler, Austin began to pace with nervousness. With the help of Tyler’s position and badge, he was able to get them a meeting with Natasha within the hour. They were led to a room that looked into an interrogation room. The room only held a table and two chairs, another door on the opposite side of the room and the window was barred. The sight of it only jangled Austin’s nerves more.
“You don’t have to do this,” Tyler said, stepping in and placing his hands onto her arms to stop her from burning a hole in the floor with her incessant pacing. “We can do this another day, or not at all. We don’t have to appease her by being here. We don’t need to do any of this. I can sort out a restraining order that prohibits her from even sending a letter to us and we can move on.”
Closing her eyes briefly, Austin gathered some composure before opening her eyes to look at her husband. “I know,” she whispered at him, “But I was unable to say much before. She left me feeling so weak and powerless after the fire, but I’m not that way any longer. I’m not going to be beaten or threatened by Natasha Truman. I won’t let it happen anymore.”
“I know you won’t,” Tyler said, pushing a loose piece of Austin’s hair back. “This time you will get the final say. It’s what you do best.” He gave her a wink, hoping it would loosen her up to his teasing.
“Hey,” she said, a small smile breaking through her nerves and she pushed onto his chest a little. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Might not be, but it’s the truth,” he told her playfully, grinning at her the entire time. “Want me to go in there with you?” he asked her, quickly moving onto a new conversation.
“You don’t really want to see her,” Austin joked, knowing her husband all too well. She giggled at his facial expression; she knew how little he wanted to be face to face with Natasha.
Tyler went to reply, but the noise of a door opening alerted them that Natasha was finally brought into the room behind them. Turning to look, he gasped at her appearance and how defiant she was towards the guards. Her hair was lank, her skin almost sallow, but her eyes were alive with manifesting malevolence. He watched her being manhandled by the guard as he chained her to the table, and he gulped. He could not understand how he had ever loved her, how he devoted part of his life to her. He could no longer see the attraction, and only felt the regret multiply within him.
“I think I need to go in there alone,” Austin stated, looking through the one way glass at Natasha. Seeing the culprit to her stress she was suddenly racked with anger again. The heat of her rage obliterating her nerves in one swift shot from her body, and she no longer felt the need to run scared.
“You sure?” Tyler asked her, searching for a loop hole in her expression.
Austin nodded at him. “Yeah, I need to do this. I need to confront her alone. I know you’re here. I know you’re close.” She gave him a cunning smirk, she was beginning to feel calculating towards her action plan. “I wouldn’t say no to you coming in after a little bit, but I feel this needs to be between Natasha and myself. I think you and I together will stir this up too quickly.”
“Okay,” Tyler relented easily and pulled her into his arms. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” she whispered against his hold, inhaling his scent as if it would put her battle armor on. Releasing from his firm grasp, she left him alone and went to the door where she nodded her head to tell the guard waiting that she was ready.
Stepping into the room, Austin was even more horrified by Natasha’s appearance. She looked significantly older, she barely looked her age. Her hair was uncared for, her skin tired, and she had clearly lost weight. Austin had expected change, but not this. A part of her had expected Natasha to thrive within the walls of her prison cell, but apparently Natasha was barely surviving. The thought did make a part of Austin laugh; she had half hoped that Natasha had met the bigger fish that would put her in her place. Someone that would knock her down a few notches, and really make her repent for all she had done.
“They didn’t tell me who was visiting me and I did half expect my mother to come here with some new bribe or trick,” Natasha stated coolly as Austin stood before her. “But I guess I was wrong. I never expected you to be here.”
“Yeah, this isn’t a pleasant visit on my behalf,” Austin responded, keeping a similar manner as Natasha. “I’m here because of this,” Austin commented as she put the letter down on the table before Natasha. “Who do you think you are?”
“Natasha Truman,” Natasha replied, folding her arms across her chest.
Austin rolled her eyes at Natasha’s pathetic nature. “Wow,” she sighed in sarcasm. “Is that all you have for me? You’ve been in prison three years and all you can use is childhood responses.”
“Are those what Gracie uses? Does she use childhood responses when she doesn’t get her own way?” Natasha asked, smiling at Austin in glee.
“Don’t you dare say her name,” Austin ground out between her clenched teeth, she was trying to keep herself from literally going crazy. She knew she had to keep calm, and retain composure. “You have no right to speak of her.”
“Can’t really stop me,” Natasha goaded the situation, immediately seeing Grace as a way to hit out at Austin. “It’s good to know Austin Pearson isn’t barren after all. You can bear a child to full term.”
“Least I managed to have a child,” Austin bit back, and regretted it immediately. Trying to attack Natasha wasn’t why she was here. She wanted answers, not another argument. “She isn’t why I am here. I want to know why all of a sudden you have struck up an interest in my family.”
“Have you ever wondered how short lived your family will be?” Natasha asked, ignoring Austin completely. “I mean, come on, Tyler can’t love you. Look at you, Austin!”
“I do look at myself every day,” Austin began to say, keeping her voice steady. “I have scars, so what? I have had them for three years; do you really think they still bother me? That I am that easily swayed with your insults about them?”
Natasha chuckled, throwing her head back a little. “You always will be! Austin, I know you almost as well as Tyler does!”
“No, you don’t!” Austin snapped bitterly. “I am not that girl you went to school with, nor am I the girl you pushed that night, and I am certainly not the girl that walked back into town nearly four years ago and allowed you to turn my world upside down. I will never be her again.”
“Give me an opportunity and I’m sure I could make you a sniveling mess on the floor,” Natasha giggled at Austin wickedly. “I know how to get you each and every time, Austin! Being in here hasn’t changed that. If anything I’m wiser now. I’ve learned more in here than you would believe.”
Putting her hand to her forehead, Austin could feel a headache beginning to throb alive in the front part of her head. Letting her hand drop, Austin looked to Natasha and narrowed her gaze. “Do you know I pity you?” Austin asked Natasha, and even when she snorted, Austin continued. “I do, I mean look what you made of your life and all over a man. Was he worth all of the pain and heartache, Natasha? Is Tyler worth it all these years on?”
“Is he worth you being scarred for life?” Natasha retorted back. “I mean, it is his fault too. You came back to town and suddenly he’s falling in love with you again. If you had just stayed away, he would have carried on loving me and I wouldn’t have needed to start that fire.”
“But he never loved you.” Austin repaid Natasha’s comments with one that just rendered her silent. “He never loved you because he never stopped loving me. Even you saw that, otherwise, I wouldn’t have been a threat. If you knew he loved you without a doubt, the
n you wouldn’t have needed to lie to me, and hurt him, and do all the things you did.” Austin paused a moment before finishing her comment. “He will never be guilty for my scars, so don’t even try to make me feel like I should blame him. We all know where to point the finger here.”
“Oh yes, at me!” Natasha exclaimed, still finding this all highly amusing. “Anyway, how have the letters gone down?” she asked, and noticed how Austin didn’t hurry to answer. “Clearly he’s read them,” Natasha suddenly sobered up on her warped sense of truth. “So he knows I still love him.”
“Yeah, he reads them, lets me see them as well,” Austin appeased her. “Even knowing you still love him doesn’t sway him. He’s happily married to me, and all your little letters will stop when you find yourself unable to send any mail again.”
“Such an over exaggeration,” Natasha laughed at the ludicrous sounding comments.
“He doesn’t care,” Austin silenced Natasha in one swift sentence. “He doesn’t feel anything for you apart from a lot of wasted memories. Trust me; he regrets your time together, so maybe you should too. Look where that relationship got you,” Austin spoke maliciously, using Natasha’s words back on her. “Loving him got you thrown into a cell for the rest of your life. Have you faced up to that yet, Natasha?”
“I won’t be in here for life,” Natasha stated with clarity. She knew she was being arrogant, and she knew full well it might not be an easy feat to win, but she knew she would not sit and look at the same four walls for the rest of her life. She had things that still needed rectifying.
Austin laughed a little, wondering how Natasha still hadn’t faced up to her own fate. “Did you hear the judge when the jury found you guilty?” Austin asked her. “You’re in here serving a life sentence.”
“Like I said,” Natasha smirked, “I won’t be in here for life. That judge was a silly man. You’ll see me living back in Point Arena before long.”
Austin shuddered at the thought of having Natasha living so close to her daughter and family. She was unable to comprehend that ever happening, and as she saw the look on Natasha’s face, the thought vanished. “I saw how smug you looked on that stand that day,” Austin sneered in disgust.
Watch What Burns Page 9
