by Eva Luxe
“Hey Willow! You working behind the bar again?” she asked, hopping onto a stool.
She liked to get a shot before everyone crowded in. It was enough to loosen her up, but not make her sloppy.
“Yeah. No more pole dancing for me.” I said, dipping down to get her favorite brand of whiskey.
“Aww. Say, you can come back anytime. You know Mr. B would love to have ya.”
“Thanks. It was fun being up there once I got used to it.”
Maybe in like 15 months, after I have the baby and lose the tummy.
I shuddered at the thought of having to plan that far in the future. I had no idea what I would be doing with my life. At this point, I could only think one day at a time. Just getting through a twenty four hour period without breaking down was hard enough.
I couldn’t believe I had to give up my one true love, and his cute little daughter too. My heart broke to think of her thinking I had just walked out on her without any reason. She had certainly been through enough, and I hated that she had to deal with that on top of everything else.
I poured Stacy’s whiskey in a clean shot glass and pushed it toward her. She snapped it up and swallowed it down in one gulp.
“Damn, I love this stuff. Good seeing ya back.”
She hopped off her stool and disappeared behind the black curtain.
A few hours later, the place was hopping. The music thumped, and the dancers put on a good show. I didn’t used to pay attention to them like I did now. I guess the experience of being up there still lingered. I found myself cheering them on, and some of the men gave me the side eye, obviously wondering if I’d be up there too.
Nevertheless, the tips were raining in, with Mr. B having been right about some of the guys happy to see me back in any capacity, and giving me even more money than they would probably tip me had I been dancing on stage. So, I found myself breathing a lot of sighs of relief, as all seemed normal, or even good.
Until he walked in.
“Willow? Is this where you’ve been?” Darien said, pushing his way up to the bar. I was too busy to stop and talk to him, and I was thankful for that. I had not been prepared to see him, and I really needed a minute to figure out what to say.
“D-Darien! I’m really busy—”
“I need to talk to you.”
“I really can’t.” I was juggling a lot of alcohol in my hands and whipped up some drinks for people that were waiting. Darien didn't like waiting though. So he jumped over the bar and scooped me up into his arms. “Wait, what’re you doing! Darien, I have a job to do!”
What had I thought, that he wasn’t going to come here looking for me? I was so stupid. A part of me was happy he found me, another was scared to death.
“Put the girl down,” the bouncer warned.
“Willow, tell them to move. I need to talk to you in private.”
“Eric, he’s good. I’ll be back.” I glared at Darien. “But you need to put me down!”
“Fine.” He let me down reluctantly and we went outside in the same alley where we’d met a couple of months ago.
I looked around and over my shoulder. Darien cleared his throat.
“Why are you back here? After everything—”
“Darien, just stop.” I held my hands up, stopping him mid-sentence. “I know what’s going on. I can’t be around you. I can’t be the reason you lose everything,” I cried, holding my arms.
I had to save the man that saved me.
“What’re you talking about?” Darien inched over toward me, his arms out.
“Look, I have to go.” I turned to the door and reached for the handle.
“No, Willow. Talk to me.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. There went that cologne again. So manly… so him.
“I can’t, it’s too dangerous.” Now I was letting on too much.
“Wait, is this because of Morgan? Did she threaten you? Tell you to stay away?”
“No, I just—”
“It was her.” Darien could see through all the lies.
Time to drop the bombshell. He did have the right to know. “I’m pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” He stared at me, then grabbed me by the shoulders. “Did you think I’d tell you to leave?”
“Of course not. But I can’t stay out here.”
“You’re not telling me the whole truth. I can’t just leave you here working in the bar if you’re pregnant. I don’t want you here at all. Ariel misses you. I miss you.”
I hung my head and rubbed my forehead. “She has a video of us…” I admitted.
“I know— hey, wait— how do you—”
“She came to the house when you took Ariel to school a few weeks ago. She wanted to make you suffer. I— I love you. I can’t let her do that to you. And how did you know? When did you find out?”
“She tried to make me get rid of you. But I wasn’t going to let go so easy… like you did.”
Ouch, right in the gut. Hey, I deserved some credit too. I glanced at the sky and saw the moon. A chilly breeze blew by and I shivered. There were a lot of thirsty people inside I needed to get to.
“Bye, Darien. Maybe when this is all over we can pick up where we left off. For now, I don’t—can’t see you suffer.”
“Willow, I’m already suffering without you.”
What was I supposed to say to that?
Chapter 26 – Darien
I was close to getting Willow to leave with me. I felt it. She knew damn well Morgan was nothing short of a liar and a manipulator. Willow was mine the moment I saw her.
“Come home, Willow. Tell me what’s been on your mind. Tell me the things I need to do to make you that vibrant, happy person I saved in this alley that day.”
“You really are a good man, Darien. But Morgan—” She glanced back over her shoulder.
“If you really think she’s going to hold to her promise, then you’re sorely mistaken.”
“But she hasn’t released the video yet,” Willow argued, trying to find some reasonable explanation to keep herself away from me.
“There is no video.”
The damn video was the reason she left? God, if only I’d known that was the problem, I wouldn’t have had to suffer, watch Ariel suffer, so long without her.
“Yes, there is!” she snapped in exasperation. “She showed me, I heard it. She said if I didn’t go away, she’d release it to the media!”
“She told me that too,” I said, “the day after you and I first made love. I went over there to tell her to leave Ariel and you alone, and she showed me.”
“But you─”
“I destroyed it. I destroyed her whole phone, and I’m completely sure there is no backup copy. She wouldn’t have thought of it, because she was fixated on gloating, but I had my security team check on it anyway.”
She crossed her arms in front of her. “I don’t understand.”
I shrugged. “Morgan is a liar. Did you actually see the video?”
She squished up her face, trying to remember. Damn, she was so cute, even in the midst of all this chaos. “I─ I guess not. I mean, she flashed it at me, and then I heard, you know, sex sounds.”
“Yeah.” I grinned at her. “The original was pretty hot, probably hotter than whatever junk she pulled off the Internet to trick you into believing she still had a tape. But she didn’t show you that original video, because she couldn’t.”
She shook her head and lowered herself down to sit on a crate. Damn, I should have thought of sitting her down first. “It doesn’t matter, though. She’ll use me to hurt you and Ariel, any way she can find. Now she’ll use this baby too, or even hurt it. I just need to stay away from you.”
She was pregnant with my child, like hell that was going to happen. If anything, I really needed her by my side. If Morgan was watching her like I thought she was, the only safe place for Willow would be with me. I wanted to protect her. Protect our baby. Protect our family, which included Ariel.
I still couldn�
��t believe Willow was going to have my second child. A feeling of pride and happiness welled up inside me before I remembered to stay focused on the issue at hand.
“I’m not saying that she’ll never be a problem again,” I conceded. “And she’s probably looking for some new way to hurt us. She definitely can’t be trusted— all the promises she ever made ended up being indicators that she’d do the exact opposite.”
“Huh, you know, you have a valid point right there,” she admitted, tapping her foot on the grimy ground of the alley.
“But I can handle her,” I insisted. “She’s got nothing to hurt us with if we stick together.”
Willow dropped her arms to her sides and smiled.
The door to the bar opened and out came a portly man with a thick mustache and heavy accent.
“Hey, Willow, there you are. We need you in here or else I have to give your shift to Bradley,” he said through his crackled up voice.
He must’ve been a cigar smoker. Jerry was too, and his voice sounded the same.
Willow smoothed out her apron and sighed. “You can do that, Mr. Brent. I’ve got to go home.” And I knew what she meant by that.
“All right, kiddo. Be careful, ya hear?”
“Yes, sir. Good night!” She turned to me. “I just have to run in and get my purse. Be right back!”
“Hurry. I’ve missed you. Ariel will be so excited to see you again.”
A few minutes later, she ran out the front doors and I seated her carefully in my car. Once I was in beside her, I held her hand that rested in her lap. She squeezed mine back.
“You don’t think Ariel will be mad at me when she finds out she might be getting a brother or sister, do you?”
“She’ll get used to it. Plus, that means you’ll be her mommy after all!”
“I guess so,” she chuckled.
Willow looked out the window and leaned back in her seat. I was thrilled that she was beginning to relax, and to remember that she could trust me.
“Did you know she just dumped me off in the middle of the city?” Willow said. “She was driving a Rolls Royce Ghost.” She rolled her eyes.
Yes, I did believe it. Surprised she didn’t do worse.
“She bought that with my credit card shortly before I initiated the divorce.”
Willow sucked in through her teeth. “Ouch. That’s a lot of cash.”
“Not really. But it did irk me that she didn’t tell me she was doing it. I thought someone hacked my account until I saw that gaudy thing sitting in the drive way.”
A terrible squeal filled the night, and then─bam!
A car rammed into us from the side, pushing my car yards past the intersection and spinning us halfway around. We came to a stop and I unbuckled my seatbelt and checked on Willow. Her side had taken the brunt of the hit.
“Willow! Damn it, open your eyes! Willow!” My head was still spinning, but Willow—she needed me.
“H-huh? Dar—”
“Don’t speak, you’re going to be fine.”
I looked around as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. The car that had hit us was speeding off, and was already too far away to get the plate number.
I called 911 and held Willow’s hand until the EMTs arrived.
Chapter 27 – Darien
I sat with Willow the whole time despite the nurses’ constant efforts to get me to lay down. I wasn’t going to fucking move until she opened her eyes again and said something.
The doctor walked in the room with his pen and tablet and surveyed her monitors. Jerry and his wife were watching Ariel for me tonight, and I called him to let him know I’d be late picking her up.
I didn’t tell him why yet.
“Doctor, will she be okay? She’s pregnant, is the baby all right?”
“The baby is fine. She’s fortunate. All she suffered were a few bruises and cuts.” The doctor touched her wrist and checked her breathing. “Do you know what happened?”
“It was a hit and run,” I said.
And it was deliberate. Someone well trained knew how to hit us like that and still be able to keep going.
There was only one person I knew who had the anger and resources to do this.
“God. I’m sorry to hear that,” the doctor said, shaking his head.
He frowned and checked his tablet one more time.
“When can she go home?” I asked, rubbing the back of Willow’s hand.
“With a head injury, we’ll want to keep her overnight,” he said. “You also, since you got a pretty good whack on the head as well. But it’s just a precaution. Everything looks fine, really.”
Good news. For now.
Willow’s eyes fluttered open, and she turned her head on the pillow toward me.
“Darien, what h-happened?” she asked, her voice cracking from her deep sleep.
“Morgan happened,” I whispered.
“W-wait, I wasn’t dreaming?” Willow struggled to sit up. “She hit our car?”
“Yes, she hired someone to do it. Don’t worry, I’ll have her taken care of.”
Willow grabbed my hand. “Darien, please don’t hurt her. Y-you’re not like her. You’re better.”
Willow had a kind heart. But Morgan was about to take me into dangerous territory. She should be grateful instead of hating Willow— right now Willow was the only thing keeping me from coming down hard on her.
“I won’t. Get some rest.”
“How the hell could both my brother and I be victims of car crashes, so close together?” she mumbled, but she listened to my instructions, nestling her head back down into her pillow.
“Yours was not an accident,” I reminded her. “Don’t forget that. It makes things a lot less coincidental.”
I called the babysitter to ask her to spend the night with Ariel, then settled into my bed in the same private room as Willow, with our beds pushed together so we could hold hands. I wasn’t a billionaire for nothing.
After a long night of being woken up every two hours, I slipped my hand from hers and rubbed her leg. I stepped into the hallway and took out my phone. It had a few scuffs on it, but it was still operational. Before I could even dial, the screen lit up.
It was Jerry, so I answered.
“Jerry? I was just about to call you.”
“Really? Did they already show up?”
I leaned on the wall.
“What are you talking about?”
“The courts. She said she had a video of you sleeping with the nanny, and that she was just one of dozens of women you flaunted in front of Ariel at home, even with Ariel there.”
“And they bought that?” I asked. “Even though she had no video to show them?”
“I guess so,” Jerry said in disgust. “Judge ruled in her favor. They’re coming over to take Ariel. She’s got full custody.”
My grip intensified around the phone. “What? No, they can’t take her! Not my daughter! What the hell happened?”
“Damn it Darien, I’ve been digging hard to find dirt on her ass. She’s no fucking saint, but everything keeps turning up clean.”
“Bribery.” I swore. “She’s using the money I’ve been giving her. She’s keeping people quiet.”
“I know. The hearing is in two more days, so if there’s any dirt I can bring up, I’ll have it by then. That’s our last chance.”
“I’m not home. I’m at the hospital. Morgan hired someone to hit our car.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. But I also know it was her. What time are they going to get Ariel?”
“The papers say noon today,” Jerry said sighing.
“I’ll be there.”
The doctor came by to check us out, checking our heads, our vision, or reflexes.
“You’re free to go,” he finally said. “I suggest that you drink plenty of liquids before re-introducing heavy food back into your diet. The nurse will be right in with your discharge papers.”
The doctor left, but Willow w
as still planted on the bed and looked up at the clock.
“What’s wrong, Willow?” I asked, placing my face near hers for some added comfort and support.
“They’re going to cut his machine off soon.” She swallowed. “A few weeks ago, my mother said in two months they would cut him off. But I thought he’d be better by now, even after we moved him to the nursing home.”
“I can stop it—”
“No, don’t.” She exhaled deeply and wiped a hand across her face. “I finally realized something. Sam needs to be free. Even if it’s without me. I was being selfish by keeping him hooked up to those machines.”
I cupped Willow’s cheeks. “Don’t do this to yourself. You love him. That’s your family. Cry if you need to.”
Willow trembled in my arms. I held her tighter. I was going to be here when the going got rough.
“What if he was in pain?” Willow asked, her voice cracking up.
“Willow—”
“No, my mom was right. I don’t want to let him go. But I have to.” She buried her face into my chest and I held her protectively against me.
“What time do they take him off?”
“Three o’clock.”
“You should be there.” I began to rub her back. It was cruel reality that time was ticking for both of us to lose one of the people we cared about most.
“I can’t watch them do that.” She shook her head.
“You can. You should. I’ll be there with you. But I think Sam would like that.”
Willow’s sobs abated, and she looked up at me. “You’ll come with me?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you,” she sniffled, wiping her eyes. “That’s the only thing that makes any of this any better. To not have to go through it alone.”
“I know exactly what you mean. And I feel the same way.”
Chapter 28 – Darien
I returned home with Willow and Ariel came running from the front door into my arms. I spun her around and placed her back on her feet. I’d be damned if I gave up Ariel this easy. Reputation my ass. The only thing I cared about right now was my renewed family.
