The night of the Oscar win was… I guess… the pinnacle of your career that he was looking for as the point to destroy you from. He hired those two men, Larry and Wade… and he told you to go in to your office the night of your party so they could drug you when you took the shot with them, and they planted the drugs all around your desk and on you. You passed out because you were drugged.”
A soft groan came from deep in his chest and he shook his head slowly. “He did… he did tell me to go in the office and meet them. I didn’t think about that before, and I know I didn’t tell you that part. I know I didn’t tell you who it was that sent me into my office. It was Warren.” He reached his hand up to his forehead and rubbed his fingers over the skin there as if he was trying to push a headache out of his mind.
“I can’t believe it…” he spoke in a low voice. “All this time… I trusted him. I trusted him with everything and all along… he was betraying me.” He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “He was betraying me and he put you in danger. You know… he hasn’t been around. I didn’t think about it too much, but for the last few days, he hasn’t been around.
I haven’t been able to get a hold of him, and I wasn’t sure what happened to him, but I wasn’t really too worried about it. Now I can understand why he disappeared. What are we going to do about getting him caught?”
Alexis looked over at him again and lifted her chin. “Actually, I can help you with that.”
His brows raised in surprise and he glanced at her. “You know where he is?” he asked incredulously.
She shook her head. “No, that was just a ploy to trick those two goons. I don’t know where he is, but while they had me, they left me alone for a while and I was able to set up my phone to record what was going on. I got everything that they said recorded. All of it. They talked about everything. There’s so much evidence on my phone that we can put both of the goons away, and probably get Warren arrested.”
Lucas clenched his jaw and then spoke sternly. “We’re going to call the police when we get to the hospital, and we’ll give them a copy of the video. We’ll send them after Warren, and hopefully they can find him.”
Alexis was surprised by the sternness in his voice, and when she heard it, she knew that he was serious. She knew that it was the best way to go, and she was relieved that he was going to work with her to bring Warren and the drug dealers to justice.
They arrived at the hospital and he helped her into the emergency room. She was checked in and taken to a room, and Lucas went with her, determined to stay at her side. While she was checking in, he had been watching the video for himself and then calling the police. The police came to the hospital immediately, and took a copy of the video with them for evidence. They took statements from both Alexis and Lucas, and promised to go find Warren.
The police officers who spoke to them at the hospital told them that Wade and Larry had been arrested at the warehouse shortly after Alexis had escaped and contacted them. They also advised that the drug boss who the two men had been working for was arrested.
Alexis was beyond relieved to see what was happening with the arrests, and to have discovered the truth. The people who should be put into jail were going to be put into jail, and she was going to make sure that it happened.
She felt bad for Lucas. After talking to the police, he sat quietly in the corner of the room that she was in, trying to absorb it all. The doctor and nurse came into the room to help Alexis with her ankle and it wasn’t until then that Lucas stood up and came over to her to be at her side when they helped her.
A physical examination confirmed that her ankle was sprained, and the doctor looked at her with great concern as he checked it over.
“Did you put any undue stress or weight on this ankle after your injury?” he asked with a furrowed brow.
She nodded. “I did. I had to… I landed hard on it from a big height and that sprained it, and then I had to run on it for a little way, and it’s been getting worse. I didn’t want to, but I had to. There was no way to get around it.”
Alexis winced as the doctor prodded her gently and he saw it. “I can fix this, but it’s going to hurt really badly. I can give you some pain medication. Do you have any medical allergies?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
“Is there any chance that you could be pregnant right now?” he asked, looking at her seriously.
Alexis felt everything in her clench tight and she stopped herself from looking at Lucas, who was standing right beside her. She wished that there was some way that she could answer the doctor differently, that there was some way she could keep her condition from Lucas, or tell him differently, but she knew that there was no way. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and there was no way out.
“Alexis?” the doctor asked again, looking at her, “is there any chance that you are pregnant?”
She nodded. “Yes. I am pregnant.” She kept her eyes on the doctor. She couldn’t look at Lucas, but she heard him gasp and she could feel him staring at her.
There was a silence in the room and the doctor turned toward the cabinet behind him to get some pain medication for her. She looked down at her hands and sat there in stillness.
“Alexis?” she heard Lucas whisper.
She looked up at him and their eyes met. She didn’t say anything at first. He stared at her, asking with his eyes for an answer from her.
“Yes, Lucas, I am pregnant.” She paused and sighed. “It’s ours.” She said quietly.
His eyes remained locked on her as if everything inside of him had frozen. He didn’t move at all for a long moment and she felt anxiety begin to rise in her as she realized that he might not want anything to do with the baby. She had planned on taking care of the baby on her own, but in the eternal fraction of a moment that had passed between her speaking the words and him reacting, she had hoped with a sliver of her heart that he might be accepting of it and want to be part of it.
As he stood there gazing at her, she realized that she couldn’t have been more wrong about his reaction to the news of their child. The doctor came back to her and gave her two pills, telling her that they would be safe for her to take without risking harm to the baby she carried, then he proceeded to wrap her foot and get her taken care of.
Lucas turned away from her and walked over to the chair beside the door, keeping his back to her until the doctor was done, and then the nurse and doctor left them, and they were alone.
“Were you going to tell me?” he asked, as he turned around slowly to face her.
She looked away from him. “I hadn’t actually decided yet, I guess. I mean… when I thought you were a druggie who was definitely headed for jail, no. I wasn’t going to tell you, but then I found out that you were telling the truth this whole time, and that you’re innocent, and everything has changed. I hadn’t had time to think about it today… to make any new decisions about what would happen in the future.”
His voice grew deep and strong; filled with emotion and she heard anger behind it. “The only reason that I even know right now is because you had to tell the doctor that you were pregnant so he would give you the right pain medication! You have been with me for two hours now and you never said a word! Nothing!
After everything you’ve told me today, after your big sincere apology and your huge revelation of truth, after your promises to help me prove my innocence now that you really believe me, and to help me put Warren and the drug dealers behind bars, you never felt the need to bother mentioning to me that you were carrying my baby?”
She realized then how bad it sounded, and how he could be so upset, but she was in no mood to hear him chastising her.
Alexis lifted her face to look at him and snapped back at him defiantly. “Are you really going to stand there like you are right now and get on my case for not telling you I was pregnant in the short time we’ve had together today, when you know full well what an unbelievable day this has been for me? I was kidnapped th
is morning and hauled off by drug dealers, tied up to a chair in a warehouse, and threatened to within seconds of my life!
I had to figure out my own escape and pull it off, contact the police, try to find you, and hide from the kidnappers so that they wouldn’t find me again, and I did all of that while I was injured! I’m sorry if I’ve been a little preoccupied this morning; it’s been busy!” She raised the volume of her voice as she grew more frustrated with him.
“I’m sorry if my mind was on anything other than telling you about the baby right away; this just happens to have been the worst and most terrifying day of my whole life! You have the audacity to stand there and lecture me on keeping this pregnancy from you after what I’ve been through today?
"Are you kidding me? The baby was not the first thing on my mind! I was more worried about getting to you to tell you the truth, and getting the police to the bad guys to get them caught so that neither you nor I would be killed by them! You’re more concerned with telling you news that isn’t life threatening to us, when we are both in the worst danger we’ve ever been in!” She growled in frustration and turned away from him, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I’m not saying that you had to tell me that first, but certainly you could have mentioned it! It’s kind of important!” he snapped back at her.
She didn’t know if it was the hormones, or her temper, or the fact that she had just had the worst day of her life, but she suddenly decided that she was done dealing with him. She turned to look straight at him and she glared into his eyes. “Get out. Just get the hell out of here and leave me alone!” Her tone was dangerous. He started to say something back to her and then stopped himself, throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head.
“You want me gone? Fine. I’m gone.” He raised his voice. He turned on his heel and walked straight out of the door, shutting it firmly behind him.
Tears burned her eyes and streamed in rivulets down her cheeks. She buried her face in her hands and wept alone for a little while before she picked up her cell phone and called her sister. Abby promised to come and get her, and she went out to meet her in the lobby. Abby was horrified at everything that had happened to Alexis that day, and she insisted that her sister come to her house to stay for a little while; at least until she was back on an even keel emotionally, and Alexis was in no fit state to argue the point with her.
The Final Chapter
Alexis stayed at her sister’s house in the guest room, only leaving to go into the office intermittently, and doing most of her work remotely from her sister’s living room. She didn’t want to see anyone or talk about her harrowing experience, and she wasn’t feeling very well because of the baby. Taking her sister up on her offer of a quiet and secluded place to stay was almost the only thing that kept her feeling rested and strong, rather than worried about everything that was going on. It was a great comfort to her to be there, and she was glad and grateful for it.
Anderson Nolan had been made aware of all of the developments both in the case and with Alexis’ kidnapping and all of the circumstances regarding it. He took it very seriously and commended her on her rapid thinking and brilliant escape. She was grateful that he felt the way he did about it, and was willing to let her do most of her work from Abby’s as a result of it.
The one thing he didn’t know about was the baby that she was carrying. Lucas’ baby. Lucas had not spoken to her for the first two days after he had left her at the hospital, but after that he had been trying to call her a few times a day every day. He had sent her texts and emails, and left voicemails for her, and she had not bothered to respond to any of them. There was nothing that she wanted from him. All she wanted to focus on was the trial, and proving that Lucas was innocent.
She had been able to build a rock solid case to prove his innocence, but it wasn’t complete until she got a phone call two days before the trial date. It was the city police. They had located Warren Paul, and he’d been arrested. She had put out a subpoena to demand Warren’s presence in court, and she was guaranteed by the police that he would be there in court when she wanted him there.
It was then, and only then, with the drug boss in jail, Wade and Larry in jail, and Warren in a cell not far from them, that she knew she was going to win the case. She got off of the phone with the police after they called her to tell her they had Warren, and sat in her sister’s kitchen, staring out of the window at the bright, warm, sunny southern California day.
Tears rolled down her cheeks; tears of relief and incredulity. She never would have guessed at the beginning of it all, when Anderson Nolan called her into his office that first morning and demanded that she take the case or lose her job, that she would have wound up where she was with it.
She had gone from knowing that there was no way to prove Lucas’ innocence and having no way to build any kind of defense for him, to being kidnapped and finding the truth out from her captors, and then managing to get them arrested and taken in, to having such a rock solid defense for Lucas that it was totally airtight and there was no way it would fail him. The entire thing had gone full circle, and she shook her head in amazement at it, knowing that she never would have guessed it or seen it coming.
There was that, and the fact that she was pregnant with Lucas Ryan’s baby. Sighing, she glanced over at her phone. He had tried again that day to get a hold of her a few times, and she rolled her eyes, admitting to herself that he was just as stubborn as she was, and he wasn’t going to give up. She also knew that she had to tell him about the updates to the case.
Dejectedly, she reached for her cell phone and called him back. His phone only rang twice before he answered it and she could hear the desperation in his voice when he greeted her.
“Hello? Alexis? ….thank god. I didn’t know if you were ever going to talk with me again. Thank you for calling me! How are you… how are you doing?” he asked, sounding as if he wanted to say several things at once.
She closed her eyes and put her hand over them. “I’m alright. I’m sick, but that’s just part of… being pregnant, I guess.” She told him quietly. Then she tried to change the subject. “Listen, I didn’t call to talk about the baby. I called to tell you that the police caught Warren. He’s been arrested and I have a subpoena out for him to appear in court at your trial.
He’s going to have to testify and tell the court exactly what he did. Then he’ll be prosecuted and you’ll be set free, and it will all be done. I’m also going to put Wade and Larry on the stand as well. I have a feeling that after everything they’ve done, they’ll be willing to work with us on testifying in exchange for some leniency for their crimes.”
Talking about the court case made her feel better, but only a little. There was still that aching feeling of sadness all around the edges of her heart, as if it was bleeding itself out over an ache that she could not control.
He breathed a sigh of relief and she heard it. “They caught him! Well… that’s… that’s such good news. That’s a big weight off of me. I guess there’s no way we’ll lose now, right? With all of them testifying about what really happened?” .
“Yes, that’s right. There’s no way we can lose. If even one of them tells the truth on the stand, we’ll be all set, and I have a strong feeling that all of them are going to be more than willing to testify because they all want the prosecution to work a deal with them when they are defending their own cases. They are all looking for leniency with the court, and they are all willing to do whatever it takes to get it.” She tried to keep her mind focused on the business between them, rather than the sound of his voice in her ear.
Hearing him brought back so many memories with him, and it made her miss him and want to be with him. She was surprised to hear him voice some of his own thoughts that echoed hers.
“Alexis, I am so glad to hear from you finally. I was really beginning to get worried about you. I needed to know that you are alright, and that the baby is alright. I can’t stop thinking about you both, and it’s
driving me crazy to be away from you. I need to see you. I want to be around you and be there for you during this pregnancy. This is something we really need to talk about.
I know it sounds like nothing I would ever say, but this baby is my responsibility and my family. I have a duty; an obligation, and such a strong desire to be active in every part of what we have created. We need to do this together. Please don’t keep me out of it. Please let me be there for all of it.” His voice had never sounded more sincere, and she knew then that he meant it.
Her heart felt like it might break in her chest as she realized how genuine he was being with her, and she grinned slowly through tears that wet her eyelashes and rolled to escape.
“Maybe we can talk about it.” She acquiesced quietly; her voice taking on a much more tender tone.
She heard his breath catch, and smiled as he spoke again, his own voice matching hers. “I’d love that. Can you come over? Would you come over to talk with me, please?” she could hear the hope in his voice, and she knew that he really wanted her to do it.
“Yes, I will come over.” She said, shaking her head. She had promised herself that she wouldn’t, but after what he had said to her, she knew that it was what they both truly wanted, and she wasn’t about to let a chance go that it might work out. There was more to consider than just the two of them and their own selfish, stubborn agendas, she told herself. There was a baby who would need both of its parents, and that meant that the two of them were going to have to make some sacrifices.
She told him she would be over that afternoon, and he sounded completely elated to hear it.
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