“Trust me you little cunt, I have every intention of finding out.” He grinned maliciously, and harshly pushed me to the ground.
A painful spasm ran through my entire body when my back collided with the wet grass. The contraction hit my lower stomach and I cried out in pain. Harrison just ignored me. He seemed content on watching me suffer
“Doesn’t it seem fitting to you that my son and I get to experience the comfort of your pussy?”
“Fuck you, you disgusting pig.” I tried to kick him, but missed. “Dam––”
Harrison slapped me across the face almost knocking me out in the process. The sting made tears pool out of my eyes, and somewhere deep down I hoped that he would do it again. If I was going to be raped, I didn’t want to be awake to suffer through it. I swallowed the lump in my throat as he kneeled in front of me.
“Abs?”
Oliver?
The darkness and my tears made it impossible to see where the voice came from. I didn’t know if I should be relieved or worried, but I wasn’t given much time to think about it as Damian flew right past me, knocking his father away in the process.
“Can you get up?” Oliver asked trying to help me.
“I think so,” I cried. “How did you know I was here?”
“I pinged your phone. Get up.” He lifted my upper body and I managed to pull myself up on my two feet.
“What?”
“Go,” Damian yelled, but his words were cut off by a loud cry of pain.
I stilled.
“Abby,” Oliver pleaded. He yanked on my arm and I followed him as best as I could. “Let’s go.”
“Oliver, wait,” I groaned bending over. My growing contractions made it difficult to keep up. I just needed to kneel on the ground until they passed. At the same time as Oliver grabbed my hand, I looked up and noticed Harrison standing over his son, beating on him like a ragged doll.
“No!” I shouted. “Please no!”
Another contraction shocked me and I fell back down to my knees. They were too painful, I couldn’t move anymore. At the sound of my cries an evil grin spread across Harrison’s face and he lifted his arm to point his gun straight at us.
“Oliver.” I screamed getting up, but by the time his name left my lips, the shot had already gone off and I was back on the ground.
It took me a few a seconds to realize that I was okay. I shouted Oliver’s name again, but he wouldn’t respond. As I crawled my way towards him I kept slipping on the wet grass. I could see the flashing lights and hear the sirens coming towards us, but couldn’t feel the relief I was supposed to be feeling. I pushed myself closer and when I was finally by his side, I panicked. His body was covered in blood.
“Oliver?” I cried. I touched every part of his body, trying to figure out where the blood came from, but I couldn’t move him.
“Abby, are you okay?”
“Yeah, Ol. I’m fine. What time is it?”
My body was shaking. “Oliver, please.” I sobbed.
His eyes fluttered and he looked up to me, they were swimming in tears and I could tell that I wouldn’t be able to keep him awake.
“Abs, go,” he mumbled barely audibly.
“I don’t know. I think we fell asleep, your crying woke me up.”
“I wasn’t crying.”
“Yeah, Abs, you were. See?”
I shook my head. Desperate howls escaped my throat. “Oliver…Oliver, please.” I wailed. With one of my hands on his body and the other one close to his neck I could feel his heartbeat slowing down. “You can’t leave me.”
“What were you dreaming about?”
“I don’t know really. The last thing I remember before you woke me up was sitting alone on the football field. The whole place was deserted.”
I looked over my head at the barely lit up sky and tried to find the stars. None. I couldn’t find one single star, just a light cool drizzle falling over my face.
Oliver’s limp hand let go of mine.
“Noooooo!”
“What were you doing?”
“Waiting, I think.”
“Waiting? Waiting for who?”
I could hear all sorts of things going on around us. My body was being pulled away from Oliver’s, and I fought myself back by kicking whoever was holding me.
“Abby,” he grunted. “Abby we have to bring you to the hospital. Your water broke. You’re bleeding.”
“Let go,” I yelled hysterically. “Tyler, let me go.”
After I finally managed to free my way back to Oliver, I leaned over his lifeless frame and kissed his unresponsive lips.
“I love you.” I whispered crying. “Oliver, I love you. I’ve always loved you. Please. Please don’t leave me, I need you.”
“You. I was waiting for you, and you never came.”
Epilogue
Abbygail
Two months later
“Abbygail,” Stephan growled in my ear. His strong arms wrapped around me, and he pulled me away from Oliver’s limp body so that the EMT’s could move in and do their job. I tried to wrestle against all of them, but when I realized that Oliver had given up on his fight, I couldn’t find the strength in me to continue anymore. Covered in blood, I gripped Stephan’s shoulder and crumbled to the raw agonizing shatter of my heart. Pain ripped through me in every possible way. Contractions hit my lower abdomen, but I ignored them.
“Babe, listen to me,” Stephan ordered. “I need you to believe that he isn’t gone yet. Please. Do it for you…do it for Lyvia.”
I stared down at the dirty wet grass and didn’t respond. I couldn’t find it in me to care.
I was done.
“I need you to fight––”
“I can’t!” I cried.
“Abby.” He grabbed my cheeks and lifted my face upwards, forcing me to look into his dark eyes. “Fight, goddammit. Don’t give up on him. Fuck––Abby––this isn’t the end.” Tears ran down his face and I knew that he didn’t even believe in the words that were coming out of his mouth. “I swear, Abs. It’s not over...”
***
I was looking at my reflection through my old wardrobe mirror when the sound of the front door slamming shut startled me. I wiped away the little drop that escaped my teary ocean blue eyes and tried to put on a brave face. The memories were still hard to shake off. So many things had happened that night; and as I tried to remind myself that it was all over, I couldn’t help myself from thinking how stupid I had been, and how close I was to losing the two people I loved the most in this world.
At some point after Stephan had pulled me away from Oliver’s inanimate body, I remembered that Tyler had told me that my water broke. I never felt anything or maybe I had, but the panic overtook my senses and I didn’t even realize it.
In any case after being put on a stretcher, I got loaded into the ambulance and rushed to the hospital. As soon as the doors to the truck closed, reality kicked in. I felt a striking shot of pain in my lower back, and I knew something was wrong. Lyvia was ready to come out, but my body was far from being ready to give birth. On our way there, they paged Dr. Collins and the moment we got to the hospital, they rolled me in for an emergency C-section.
Lyvia was so small…and because of her fragile frame, she was put into an incubator for observation. There was nothing more frightening than not knowing what was going on. I had no news from Oliver. I couldn’t hold my baby, and I was in so much physical pain.
The good news was that Stephan was right. Oliver fought. He fought so hard that even with the amount of blood he’d lost; he survived. After finally being rolled out from the recovery room into my own room, the first thing I saw was Oliver sound asleep. I had no idea who or how they managed to have him in the maternity ward, but I was so relieved to see him. He was hooked up to an IV and so many machines, but he was alive; and that’s all that mattered.
During the first few days following the attack, he’d show signs of waking up, but never enough for him to realize what was
going on. It was the sound of our daughter’s cries, three days later that finally woke him up and had him fully alert. Lyvia definitely inherited her father’s strength. Even though she was small, she was strong. Less than forty-eight hours after her birth, Camelia came into my room and she placed my baby girl into my arms. She assured me that the incubator was just a precaution, and that Lyvia was in perfect health.
After weeks of recovering and hours of physical therapy, Oliver and I were finally ready to move on from our past, and become a family.
“Angel?” Tyler shouted, walking inside my mother’s house.
I smiled, happy to hear the sound of his voice. “I’m up here. Just give me a minute, I’ll be down in a sec.”
“Take your time. I’m a little early, anyway.”
I slipped on my black and white Converse shoes and applied some bubble gum flavored lip gloss.
“Hello my beautiful baby angel,” Tyler cooed from the living room. At the age of twenty-two weeks, Lyvia Langton had Tyler Parker wrapped up around her little finger. He was hilarious when it came to her. He loved Lyvia. He took care of her as if she was his own, and spoiled her rotten. So much so, that it drove me nuts. “How’s my little girl doing this afternoon? Have you been nice with your mommy?”
Lyvia chirped back, babbling complete nonsense. I’d left her in her playpen to go take a shower, and she ended up falling asleep on her own, giving me just enough time to get ready. If my calculations were correct, she was going to cry for another feeding in about ten more minutes. One would think that I’d actually be able to get a restful night’s sleep before our big day, but nope. Lyvia chose otherwise; gracing me with the world’s worse twenty-four hour growth spurt in the history of mankind.
“I think that means that she’s been perfectly nice to you,” Tyler responded to Lyvia’s gibbering.
Before leaving my childhood room, I took a long last look at myself and grinned. My short halter white laced dress was completely untraditional, but exactly what I wanted and I knew that Oliver would absolutely love it.
“If it does, she’s lying. She’s been a pain and cried all night,” I replied coming down the steps. I walked into the living room and beamed as I saw a handsome Tyler sitting on the floor between scattered toys and blankets with my baby girl in his arms. “Hi.”
He smiled back and got up from off the floor. “You look beautiful,” he replied, hugging me as best he could with a baby in his arms.
“Thank you. Are Stephan and Laney here yet?”
“Stephan’s in the backyard, and Laney’s at the church with Oliver. I suppose she’ll be showing up any minute now. I doubt she’ll be able to keep him away for much longer. Oh, here. I parked my car in your driveway and saw this on the first step of your front porch.”
Tyler stretched his arm to the table lamp and grabbed a small black box with a golden ribbon on top.
“What is it?” I asked curiously.
He shrugged. “I have no clue, it didn’t have a note, but Congratulations is written on the ribbon.”
I untied the knot and opened the box. Inside was a White-Gold necklace with a shimmering blue bird pendant.
Damian…
***
A small knock took me out of my slumber, and I immediately looked up at the door. “Hey there, Little Bird.”
“Oh my God, Damian.” I teared up.
His face was bruised, his left eye was swollen shut, and his right arm was in a cast. By the way he limped as he made his way towards me, I knew he had to have significant injuries to his abdomen, but it didn’t stop him. He smiled at my worry and looked at Lyvia sleeping in my arms.
“She’s beautiful,” he whispered once he was close enough to see her angelic face.
“Thank you,” I replied softly.
Lyvia and her father were finally sleeping, and the last thing I wanted was to wake them up. Especially Oliver. After a few days of being awake, they cut back on his morphine doses, and he had trouble sleeping because of the pain.
I sat up. “Would you like to hold her?”
He looked up at the ceiling and then met my eyes sadly. “I can’t stay. I just came to say goodbye.”
I frowned.
“I’m taking my sister to meet my aunt. She agreed to help with Millie after she gets out of detox and into my care.”
My heart sunk knowing that he would be leaving again. “How is your sister?”
“Shocked, angry, in withdrawal, in pain…” He laughed bitterly. “She’s a fucking mess.”
“I hate him,” I spat. “He deserves to die.”
Damian shook his head. “My father doesn’t deserve to die. He deserves to suffer. He’s in jail, and I’ll find a way to make sure he stays there until the end of his days.”
I stretched out my hand and pulled a strand of hair away from his face. He closed his eyes and exhaled softly. “Am I ever going to see you again?”
“I don’t know…” he leaned in to kiss Lyvia’s head, and winced in pain. “That’s not up to me to decide.”
“What do you mean? You better not pull that destiny shit on me again. You don’t need to leave Carrington, Damian. Just stay.”
“You know I can’t. Not for me, not for my sister.”
I teared up and he wiped away the escaping teardrop.
“If we’re meant to see each other again, we will.” His lips lightly touched my forehead, and he breathed in. “Taking a chance and going to see you on the football field six years ago was the best decision I ever made, Abbygail Evens. Thanks for believing in me.”
I looked up at his beautiful face and held back my tears. “Thanks for being you.”
He nodded and walked away. Before passing the doorway, he turned around and smirked at me.
“What?” I questioned.
“Something true?”
There were so many things I wanted to say. I wanted to tell him that over six years ago he was right. I did think he was hot. I was a mess. I wanted him to know that I knew he wasn’t the one that drove Oliver away. I wanted to tell him that I was happy he came to see me that night on the football field. We were young and stupid, but I was glad it was him. I needed to thank him for not showing up on the field when I asked him to run away with me. I wanted him to know that I learned so many things because of him…but I didn’t. Instead; I smiled.
“I’ll tell you next time I see you.”
“As long as you understand that if we do ever see each other again, the first thing I’m going to do is kiss you.”
“No you won’t.” I chuckled.
“You’re right, he won’t,” Oliver lazily grumbled beside me.
Damian grinned at our responses and winked. “We’ll see… happy to see you alive, Langton. Life may be too short to live with regrets, but you sure as hell better start thinking straight from now on. Make her yours for real this time.”
Oliver answered Damian with a curt nod.
“See ya, Little Bird!”
“I really hope so, Damian.” I whispered, but he was already gone.
***
“It’s pretty,” Tyler said interrupting my thoughts. “Who’s it from?”
“Damian.” I didn’t need a note to tell me who it was, but I was curious to know how he knew about Oliver and I getting married. I hadn’t talked to him since he left the hospital. “Did you tell him about the wedding?”
“You know Damian and I don’t get along very well, Abs,” he pointed out. “So, that would be a definite no. But I guess now you have your something new.”
“And my something blue.” I smiled placing the pendant around my neck. It was perfect. Lyvia started squirming in Tyler’s arms and I knew it was my time to feed her. “I’m going to go outside. Would you like to come with me?”
“No, I’ll stay here and wait for Ol. Someone’s going to need to calm him down when he gets here.”
I chortled. “Thank you for doing this, Tyler.”
He kissed the top of my head and delicately put Lyvia i
n my arms. “Anytime, Angel.”
I stepped out of the house and spotted Stephan’s silhouette patiently waiting for me as he sat under the willow tree.
“You look absolutely gorgeous, babe.” He moved over on the bench so that Lyvia and I could sit with him.
“Thank you.”
It was a perfect day. Sunny and warm with a constant light wind that made the leaves from the willow tree rustle softly. It was exactly like I hoped it would be. I lifted my head and felt the caress of the warm breeze against my skin.
Everyone one I need is going to be right here with us…
“Any news from Kylie?” I asked Stephan curiously.
“Yeah. She’s finishing her internship and moving back home.”
“How’s the pregnancy going?”
“Apparently well. According to her, she’s following the check-up program like she’s supposed to. She agreed to meet with Dr. Collins as soon as she moves back.”
“Good. How’s Laney taking the news?”
Stephan tossed his head from side-to-side. “A day at a time.”
“You really like her, don’t you?”
He smiled.
“Just show her, Stephan. I know for a fact that she cares for you. A lot. Just give her a chance to adapt to the whole situation, and you’ll both do fine.”
“We’ll see…so, you’re ready?” Stephan asked me, clearly trying to change the subject.
I nodded. All that was missing was my future husband, who was at the church, waiting for me to show up; which I wouldn’t.
The truth was that I didn’t want to get married at the church. I didn’t need a huge celebration with people I didn’t care about. What I wanted was a private ceremony with my family and closest friends, under my willow tree.
“Laney just texted me to tell me they’re on their way. She also said that your mom and the other guests will be following them home about five minutes after they leave the church.”
“Where is she?” I heard Oliver growl from the front of the house.
“That was quicker than expected. What did he do drive a hundred kilometres an hour to get here?” I frowned.
“I guess he was more impatient than we assumed he would be,” Stephan replied, chuckling.
Transcending Regrets (No Regrets book 3) Page 23
