Table of Contents
TRANSCENDING REGRETS
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Also by Aimee Noalane
About the Author
Transcending Regret (No Regrets Series) book 3
Copyright © 2017 Aimee Noalane
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author of this book, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in fictitiously manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademarked / licensed status and trademark / license owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of these trademarks / license is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark / license owners.
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EBook ISBN: 978-0-9953482-5-7
Dedication
To the angels that grow in our hearts and touch our souls with the caress of the wind…we miss you.
Prologue
Abbygail
17 years old
“Ummm…” I looked around, trying to figure out where I was. My throbbing head and the bright light made me want to gouge my eyes out. I tried to assess where I was, but couldn’t quite figure it out until the antiseptic smell attacked my nostrils.
Why the hell am I in a hospital?
A thousand images went through my head as I tried to understand what was going on. The last thing I remembered was being with Damian on the football field. Everything was fine until I just completely blacked out. It was weird how fast it had happened. Out of all the times I had gotten drunk or high with Damian, I couldn’t remember waking up to a blackout before. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of it.
“Abby?”
My head went from left to right as I tried to find out where the familiar voice came from, but every time I moved, I got dizzy and nauseous.
“Fuck.” I groaned, pulling my hand from under the covers to rub my temples. If the room wasn’t going to stop spinning I was going to throw up.
“Jen.” It was then that I recognized Stephan’s voice. Aside from the Langton’s, he was the only one who called my mother by her nickname.
“Yes sweetie?” I heard her respond from the hallway.
“Abby’s awake.”
“Oh thank God.”
I could hear her mumbling something to someone on the other side of the door, but stopped paying attention. She and I weren’t on the best of terms and the last thing I wanted was to face her. I sat up unsteadily only to see my friend’s furrowed brows.
“What?” I asked to his frowning at me. By the look he had on his face he wasn’t pleased by my tone.
“Nothing.”
“No, Steph, go ahead. Get it over with. Please, tell me, what’s on your mind.”
His frown turned into worry. “Is it ever going to stop?”
I pursed my lips.
“Fucking hell, Abs––when Ty got to you on the field…he thought––I thought you were dead.”
I plopped my head back on my pillow in annoyance. “Well…clearly I’m not.”
He just shook his head as we both looked up at my mother standing in the doorway, with a man I didn’t know. I watched the both of them and narrowed my eyes, scrutinizing the unfamiliar man leaning on the frame with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing crisp blue jeans with what looked like a brown suede vest. The guy was clearly overdressed for the season, never mind a hospital. He observed me silently, and as I looked at his eyes hidden behind his glasses, I couldn’t help thinking that they reminded me of someone. There was just something about the way he held himself that had me questioning everything that was going on.
He raised an eyebrow in concern and the color in his eyes changed from blue to gray. I shot a spiteful glare at my mother. Oh, how I hated her at that exact moment, and by the look of uneasiness on her face, she knew.
“Get the fuck out.” I spat.
“Abbygail,” my mother disciplined. “Don’t talk to your father that way.”
“My father?” I sneered with a sarcastic laugh. “Fuck him. And fuck you for calling him here. I have no father. Not anymore, anyway. The only father I’ve ever known died in a car accident eleven months ago. This man…” I looked at his sad pitiful demeanor. Had I not been confined to my bed and attached to an IV, I would have walked up to him and throat punched him. “This man isn’t my father. He’s a deserting piece of shit. GET OUT! Both of you.”
“Abbygail,” he pleaded with a pathetic, sorrowful look.
I just ignored him. How he thought he could just show up in my life unannounced and want me gushing over his sudden interest in me was beyond ridiculous.
“Stephan, hand me my phone.”
“Who do you think you’re going to call?” my mother interjected.
I snickered. It was funny how she thought she had any sense of control over me or my actions.
“Didn’t I just ask you to leave, Mother?”
“Abbygail.” Her attempt to scold me was laughable.
I smiled sarcastically and answered her with the one name I knew she wouldn’t want to hear. “Damian.”
“You can’t call Damian. He’s in jail Abs.” Stephan retorted.
Alarmed, I frowned and turned to him. “What are you talking about?”
“He got arrested two blocks down from the field where he left you last night. He had enough drugs on him to keep him locked up for a while.”
“No––” I faced my mother. “You did this. Call them. You can’t do this. I’ll hate you forever.”
“Abs” Stephan said trying to calm me down. “I don’t understand why you’d want to call him anyway. He’s the one that put you here and to make matters worse, he left you on that field knowing something was wrong. He called his dad who told him to bail. He didn’t even think twice about leaving you there. You could have died, Abby.”
I just rolled my eyes, Stephan was clueless. “If I almost died, how the hell did I end up
in the hospital?”
“Damian called to let me know something was wrong with you. By some miracle, when I managed to reach Tyler to tell him what had happened, he said he was already on the school grounds with other friends. He got to you before the paramedics did.”
“There you go, Damian left me with Tyler. He did a good thing.”
“Are you kidding me right now? He left you on the field to die because he didn’t want to get caught and be held accountable for giving you the drugs that caused your overdose.”
“You’re over exaggerating. Damian wouldn’t do that. He loves me. I love him.”
“Love him?” He paused, looked at the floor and let out a low sarcastic laugh. “Babe, you wouldn’t recognize love if it hit you in the face. You don’t even know what love is anymore. The only thing you love about Damian is how he helps you lose control and facilitates your stupidity.”
“Go to hell, Stephan.” I shot him a bitter scowl. “Give me my phone and get the fuck out.”
“Gladly.” He stood up, dropped my phone at the foot of the bed and walked out without even looking back. There was a small part of me that wanted to feel bad for being as cruel as I was, but I couldn’t find it in me to try and hold him back. Instead, I picked up my phone and pressed 1 on speed-dial. The ringtone went on and on until someone finally picked up on the sixth ring.
“Hello?” I heard him say.
Silence.
I just needed to hear his voice.
“Hello?” he repeated over the muffled loud voices and music behind him.
Words caught in my throat. The pain of every word trying to make their way out felt like swords slashing my vocal cords.
Just talk to him. Tell him that Simon’s here. Tell him that you almost died. Tell him that you love him, that you need him. Beg him to come back. Tell him that you feel like dying. Just say something…
“Hey Ol,” a feminine voice called close to the phone. “What are you doing on the phone? We’re all in the living room waiting for you.”
“Yeah, just give me a sec, baby. I’ll be right there.”
My heart broke.
“Hey,” he whispered to me. “You do know I can hear you breathing through the phone right now. Right?”
“Yeah, um…” I hiccupped. “Sorry wrong number.”
“Wait Ab––”
Silent tears ran down my cheeks. I wanted it all to be over and the only thing I could think was how I wished that Damian would have just left me there to die and that he hadn’t called Stephan.
Chapter 1
Abbygail
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked the guy that was sitting next to me on the plane.
At first, I thought I would be enjoying the comfort of the empty seat beside mine, but it turned out that my traveling companion boarded the flight just in time for takeoff. He’d caught my attention as soon as he set foot inside. His whole image would have thrown anyone off guard. The expensive Armani suit he wore felt so out of place with his loosely tied up dark-blond hair and scruffy beard, but it was the main reason why I couldn’t take my eyes away from him. He had made his way down the aisle and dropped his bag on the seat next to mine, hitting my thigh without even apologizing for it. In fact, he’d barely acknowledged me at all. The flight attendant urged him to take his seat, but he ignored her completely. While he took his time to remove his jacket and dress shirt, to put on the gray hoodie he pulled out from his luggage, my eyes were glued on his perfectly sculpted abs. The lines of the vivid colors inked on his skin were mesmerizing. Unfortunately for me, after finally sitting down, he retracted his sleeves, pulled the hood over his head to hide his face, and turned on his computer, giving us no chance for conversation.
My neighbor removed his headphone off one of his ears, and let out a deep chortle. “I was starting to wonder when you’d stop ogling me.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the sound of his voice.
“I wasn’t ogling you. I was looking at your tattoos.” I replied, a little surprised that he’d noticed me staring at the ink covering his arms. It wasn’t my fault though. Even if I hadn’t been in a drunken state, I would have been tracing the lines with my eyes: they were flawless. “Do they have a special meaning? Not that you need to answer or whatever.”
“Love. Loss. Strength. Empowerment. Who knows? Are you always this curious, or are you just nervous because I caught you staring at me?”
“Again,” I rolled my eyes, “I wasn’t staring at you.”
“Well technically, it is my arm.”
“It’s the art, dude.”
Another sexy laugh escaped is perfect pierced lips. “Whatever helps you sleep, beautiful.”
The pain of his words echoed deep inside me, reminding me of how broken I was. Everything that had happened since I’d stepped foot in B.C. proved to me once more that shattered hearts never really did fuse back together. I was done with Oliver.
Thank God for tequila.
I left. The second I stepped out of his house, I called a cab and it drove me away. He didn’t even try to stop me as I got inside the vehicle. He just watched me from his living room window until we rolled out of his driveway.
I was done with love.
My heart would always be bound to Oliver, but I refused to be the girl he once left behind; I needed to move on. Well, that was the initial plan anyway. Things changed after I took a seat at the airport bar and decided to drown my pain.
Tomorrow…I’ll try to move on tomorrow.
“So do you have any more tattoos?” I curiously asked my traveling companion. I don’t know what it was about him that had me being so forthcoming.
“I do.”
“How many?”
He shrugged. “Many.”
I raised my eyebrow waiting for more, but he simply pushed his headphone back over his ears, putting an end to our short conversation.
***
“They’re my addiction.”
I looked up surprised by the sound of his voice. Half an hour had passed since the last time either one of us had said a word. He seemed so engrossed by the work on his computer screen, that I truly believed he’d forgotten I was there.
“The tattoos.” he explained. “You asked me how many I have; I shrugged because I never counted. I go to a tattoo shop whenever I feel the need to do something stupid. They are the alternative to my other cravings.”
“What kind of cravings?”
He raised his eyebrow, defying my curiosity, but the way he was looking at me was more arousing than anything else.
“So?” I dared.
“I’d rather not say.” he admitted. “I believe that sometimes things are just better left as a mystery. Don’t you think?”
“Agreed.” I extended my hand. “I’m Abby by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Abby.”
I expected him to introduce himself, but he didn’t. He simply sat quietly, and observed me for what seemed like an eternity. There was a familiar feeling in the way he regarded me. The longer it lasted, the more curious he got. It was like he was waiting for me to figure out something. Unfortunately for the both of us, I was completely clueless.
“What happened?” he asked, brushing his finger against my tender skin on the right side of my head. I pulled away from him and loosened my hair to let my ponytail fall. His jaw tightened at my reaction.
“It’s not what you think.” I voiced.
“How would you know what I’m thinking?”
“You’re assuming things, and you’re wrong.”
“Okay, Abby, humor me: what is it that I’m thinking?”
“That my boyfriend did this to me.”
“Did he?”
I shook my head. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
He smirked at my reaction. “Uh-huh, good. So if it wasn’t a guy that did this, what happened?”
“I got attacked in my house a few days before Christmas
.”
“So, what? Someone just broke into your house while you were there? That’s unsettling”.
“Scary is more accurate, but I don’t think I would actually call it breaking and entering. It’s more like a ‘walking inside an unlocked house without being invited’, kind of thing. I have a bad habit of leaving my front door unlocked.”
“So had you answered the door, you would have let them in?” he questioned.
“Them?” I frowned. “I never told you there was more than one person.”
“Yeah,” he coughed. “Sorry. I guess I just assumed there would be more than one person, sorry.”
“No, well…there was. My intruders were my neighbor from across the street and her boyfriend. And yeah, I probably would’ve let them inside. I mean, I had no reason to suspect something would go wrong. I’ve babysat Nancy’s son his entire childhood.” I stared blankly out the window and focused on the clouds while thinking about my stupidity. “I guess I never expected her anger towards me to be at the point where she’d physically hurt me. Maybe things just got out of hand…”
“Okay…so I don’t get it,” his eyebrows pulled together. “If you knew your attackers and didn’t believe they came in to cause you any harm, what the hell happened?”
“Long story short?” I requested, not wanting to get into too much of the details with a stranger.
He nodded with a tight smile.
“I pissed the woman off by having her son removed from her care.”
“And you still would have let her inside your house?” he replied in disbelief.
I nodded.
“I’m not sure if I should call you weird, naïve, or just plain stupid.”
“Thanks,” I retorted.
“Don’t look at me like that. I mean, listen, I get that we don’t know each other, but still…”
“I have faith in people, what can I say?”
He just shook his head clearly disturbed by my admission. “So what happened?”
“Well, after shooting my ex in the shoulder, she knocked me out with the side of her gun and banged my head a couple of times against the wall.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah.” It felt liberating to recount what had happened to me to a complete stranger…or maybe the relief was due to the quantity of alcohol I had ingested.
Transcending Regrets (No Regrets book 3) Page 1
