I rolled over and cuddled with Stosh. “I think you should go into work tomorrow.”
He sat down the remote and cuddled up with me. “I told my dad that I had to stay home and take care of you. I can make all my calls and do my invoices from here.”
“I was thinking of going over to my parent’s house in the morning. The longer I ignore their calls, the more likely they are to come over and check on us. We can’t have that happening.”
“I’ll just go with you. I’m sure they’d rather see us together.”
I hated lying to Stosh, but I was protecting him and our future. “Yeah, I guess so.” I hoped this next part was believable. “Oh Wait! You need to stay here. What will you do if Rafe shows up and has a key to this place? Ivy could have given him one, you don’t know. If he comes in and finds her we’re screwed.”
I could tell that he felt defeated. “Will you at least hurry home. I mean, I know you’re healthy, but I like the idea of taking care of you. Being without you, right now, makes me nervous.”
“I will be fine. How about I pick up lunch on the way home?”
He kissed my nose. “Fine. You win.”
I was all about cuddling with Stosh, but like all cuddle partners, it gets too hot to sleep like that. Shortly after rolling out of his arms, I laid awake upset with myself for lying to him. So many lies had already been told. I couldn’t believe that I was telling so many of my own. It made me uneasy.
The next morning came too fast and I knew that I had to go through with what I had set out to do, so I got dressed and headed out before Stosh could argue about it. I wasn’t used to driving my sister’s vehicle, but it was necessary. After doing a search on the internet, I had Rafe’s address and had plugged it into the GPS.
When I pulled up and saw the size of his house, I was in shock. My sister had picked him for a reason. I wasn’t sure what he did for a living, but he definitely had money. His house wasn’t a mansion, but it was damn near one.
I knocked on the door several times, before he answered it wearing only a robe and pair of boxers. The smile on his face let me know that I still had him faked out. It amazed me that all these people had no clue the kind of person that my sister really was. She’d told so many lies to so many people.
“Hello, my love. Come in, come in.” I hated feeling him put his arm around me and lead me inside. “I’m making your favorite breakfast.”
“I can’t stay long. I have a doctor’s appointment.” Maybe I should just be a professional liar. I was getting pretty good at it.
“We must discuss what is happening.”
I sat down on the other side of the kitchen table and tried not to look around the house. Ivy would have known where everything was, so I had to make it seem like I was comfortable. “Rafe, I appreciate that you stuck by me when things were at the their worse. I just can’t continue this with you. It isn’t fair to you or to me.”
“But, you were the one who said we had to leave. You told me we were going to be a family. I’ve already paid for the house in Malta.”
Did he say Malta?
Holy shit! “My feelings have changed. I want to work things out with my husband. I owe it to him.”
He shook his head and approached me, crouching down on his knees. He grabbed my hands. “Please don’t say these things. I love you and you love me.”
I pulled my hands away from him, stood up and walked past him. He was still on his knees, waiting for me to say something. I saw the pain in his eyes and I knew he was heartbroken, grasping at straws for something to hold onto. “I’m so sorry, Rafe.”
He shook his head and looked down. He really was a gorgeous man. I could see how Ivy would want to be with him. “I won’t give up. You’ll come back, you always do.” He poured himself a drink, even though it was still early in the morning. I could see his hands shaking as he tipped it back and sipped from it. I’d forced a man to be an alcoholic. This was yet another reason that my life was off track.
I wondered how many times my sister had told him it was over. Maybe she didn’t know who she wanted to be with. “Look, I came to tell you in person. I’d appreciate it if you let me move on. What we had was great, but it’s over.”
This guy couldn’t take a hint. He ran up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, keeping me from going anywhere. I tried to pull way, but he was too strong. “Please. I don’t want you to go back to him. He beat you and cheated on you. How could I be okay with that? You deserve to be happy. I can make you happy, Ivy.”
I kept my body as still as possible. Fear was overwhelming me. “Please get your hands off of me.”
Finally, he let go. I ran out of the door and didn’t look back. I have no idea if he’d followed me outside, but I didn’t want to take the chance and have him catch me. That man was creepy and obsessed.
I drove out of his private development and finally parked at a nearby grocery store. I needed to relax before I walked back into Stosh’s place all worked up. Besides, being stressed couldn’t have been good for the baby.
While I was there, I went into a pharmacy. While browsing around, I finally spotted what I’d came there to look for. I grabbed a bottle of prenatal vitamins and a bottle of Tylenol. Once I paid and got back into my car, I emptied the Tylenol into another half empty bottle and filled that bottle with the prenatal vitamins. Then I discarded the prenatal vitamin container so that nobody would ever know that I’d purchased them.
I didn’t want to keep the secret much longer, but the timing had to be right for me to finally be able to tell people the news. I kept picturing Stosh’s face when I told him that he was going to be a daddy.
It was going to make him more happy than he’d ever been before. I rubbed my stomach and thought about our little bean growing inside of me. I hoped that all of the stress that I was under wasn’t harming it. The last thing I wanted was complications. I just wanted he or she to be healthy and have a loving family to belong to. Stosh was a part of that now and I couldn’t wait to be able to be free of all of this bullshit that was going on around us.
When I got home, it was nearly twelve. I’d stopped by and grabbed two salads from a local deli. I could have just bought one, considering they were enough to feed a small summer camp full of kids.
I went inside and sat the bag down on the countertop. Stosh wasn’t in the living room. I knew he was home because his car was in the driveway. I checked the bedroom and the bathroom, but he wasn’t there either.
I walked out to the main house and checked the door. It was locked, so I knew he couldn’t be inside. He wasn’t out by the pool or anywhere in the yard.
I started to panic, thinking back when I felt like he’d betrayed me in the worst way. There was one more room to check and I was too afraid to open the door. What if they were in on some ki
nd of master plan. What if he’d been lying to me the whole time?
The more I stood on the other side of the door wondering, the more upset I made myself. With my hand on the doorknob, I took a few breaths and opened the door. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when it opened. The pain I felt was unbelievable and I didn’t know what I was going to do.
Chapter 19
What the…
I just stared for a few moments, trying to picture that what I was seeing wasn’t actually happening. Stosh was laying down on his back. His eyes were closed and so were Ivy’s. She was laying on top of him, but that wasn’t what alarmed me.
Ivy’s hands were undone and next to her lay a baseball bat.
I ran over toward them and pushed my sister off of Stosh. She didn’t wake up.
“Stosh, can you hear me?” I put my head against his chest and heard his heart beating. That was my first concern. I just needed to know that he was still alive.
Upon further inspecting him, I noticed that he had a gash on the other side of his forehead. It was bleeding down onto the carpet and there was a puddle already there.
I looked around the room and saw that it was in a disarray, like she untied herself and waited for him to come in. What she must not have figured was that he would have fought back.
He started to stir and I leaned in close to his face. “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” he whispered.
“I was so worried. What happened?”
Before he could respond, I watched his eyes get really big. Just as I turned around, I felt my sister’s fist punching me right in the face. I went down hard, landing next to Stosh and right in his pile of blood.
I could see him trying to focus enough to stand up and help me, but it was obvious he had a concussion. He needed to get to a hospital.
I put my hand over my face to block any more blows that were coming my way. “Ivy stop!”
She shoved me out of the way and made a dash for the door. Unfortunately, I was just as fast. I grabbed the leg of her pants and sent her falling face first. She landed hard on the floor and it must have taken her breath away. While I stood up and rushed for the door, she remained still, trying to catch her breath. I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back in the bedroom. “Get the fuck off of me!”
“Shut up!” I shoved her down in the corner. “What did you do to him?” I was so mad that I threw myself on top of her and started smacking her in the face. She put her hands up to protect herself.
I felt someone pulling me away from her. Stosh had blood running down his face, but he was alert enough to know what was happening. When Ivy saw that he was conscious, her eyes got big and she began to plead. “Stosh, please. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
He grabbed her by the hair and shoved her against the wall. “Grab her hands.”
I looked down on the floor and grabbed the zip ties, before rushing over and wrapping it around my sister’s wrists. Once her hands were bound, it was easy to get her sitting down and attach each of her feet to the chair. It was barbaric, but necessary.
When I knew she couldn’t move, I rushed over to Stosh’s side and helped him get into the living room. “I feel like I’m going to pass out. That bitch hit me with a bat.”
“I saw it.” I ran over with a wet towel and started cleaning him up, so that I could assess the injury. “You’re going to need stitches, babe. The gash is pretty deep and you’ve lost a ton of blood. I’m positive you have a concussion.”
Even while he was in pain. He managed to smile. “Listen to the doctor’s daughter go.”
I shook my head. “Stop joking. Are you able to walk to the car?”
I helped him stand up, grabbed a clean shirt for him, and led him to the car. The hospital wasn’t that far from the house and we were there in just a few minutes. Stosh kept closing his eyes, dozing off.
“You have to stay awake.”
“I can’t. My eyes feel heavy.”
I was so worried about him. Head injuries were serious. Someone could be talking to you one minute and dead the next. Losing him would crush my soul. I couldn’t even let myself imagine it.
I ran into the hospital and got some attendants to come out and get Stosh in a wheelchair. From there, they put him on a gurney and took him right into the emergency room.
It seemed like forever that I had to wait to hear from someone. When the nurse came out to look for me, she had this look on her face like she didn’t have good news. My stomach dropped and I felt like I was going to hurl. I covered my mouth and ran toward the ladies room.
She’d followed me in there. “Ma’am are you okay?”
“Just give me a second.”
I was beginning to cry and I couldn’t get myself calm enough to face her. Finally, after a few minutes, I made my way out of the stall and saw her standing there. I looked her right in the eyes and waited for her bad news.
“You can come back and see him now.”
My face lit up. “He’s okay?”
“The doctor will explain everything. He has a concussion and we had to give him stitches. He’s lucky you were there when he fell. A head injury like that could be fatal.”
When he fell?
Stosh told them he fell?
I followed behind her until we got to his room. His head was bandaged up, but he looked alright. His face lit up when he saw me walking in. “There’s my girl.”
I was so happy to see him. I rushed over and wrapped my arms across his chest.
He struggled to breathe for a second. “Easy now. I’m a little beat up.”
“I’m so sorry I left. You don’t know how worried I was when I got home and found you like that. I was so scared.”
“It could have been worse. I got one blow in as I was going down. I know the hitting a girl rule was broken, but she deserved it.”
I laughed and kept holding him. Letting go was not an option. “I wanted to kill her. Seeing you just laying there, looking all lifeless was horrible. I felt like picking up that bat and ending her existence.”
He reached his arm up and put it around my back. “That would have messed up the plan.”
“Yeah, but at least we have another option to fall back on. Running away with you seems better by the second.” It was true. We would be giving up our family, our friends and Stosh’s job, but we’d be together. Somehow, that was all I cared about.
“You know, I tried to call you. I wanted you to grab creamer on the way back. When you didn’t answer your phone, I called your parent’s house. It was disturbing when they said they hadn’t seen you.”
I felt sick. He’d caught me and I was going to have to tell him that I went against his request and met Rafe. “Stosh, I’m sorry. I was trying to take care of the problem. I thought if I could just talk to him alone, he would back off.”
“So, where were y
ou?”
I sat up, seeing that he wanted details. I could understand how he wanted us to be honest with each other. After everything, it was the only way our relationship could work. “Please don’t get mad at me, but I went to his house.”
“You what?” He tried to sit up, forcing me off the bed and him to fall back down on the bed. “Willow, you’re smarter than that. He could have attacked you, or raped you. For Christ sakes, you have got to be more careful.”
“I know. I know. I wasn’t thinking.”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “I’m glad you’re okay, Will. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
“It wasn’t even worth it anyway. Rafe couldn’t take no for an answer. He said he won’t give up on our love.” I was sarcastic when I said it.
“Great!”
“I told him to leave us alone. He said he’d already bought a house in Malta. They were going to move there and raise our baby, after Ivy stole it from me and took it from you. With her living out of the country, we’d never freaking find her.”
He kept holding my hand. “At least there isn’t a baby for her to steal. I would really kill her if she tried that shit.” He shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong. I know why you did what you did, but I do want children. Someday, I guess.”
“Yeah, someday.” I felt like more of an ass.
He pulled my hand up to his lips. “Just promise me no more lies, Will. I can’t keep worrying about you like I did today. It killed me. I think it’s why I let my guard up. I couldn’t think straight.”
I stood up and froze. I had to tell him about the baby. If I waited, he was never going to forgive me. I tried to open my mouth to speak and I started to get dizzy. Before I could even grab the edge of the bed, I went down.
Twinsequences (A Twisted Twin Series) Page 16
