I woke up in a hospital bed. Stosh was sitting beside me and he didn’t look happy. The bandage was still on his head and he was also dressed in the same hospital gown as before, which meant it was probably the same day. “What happened?”
He gave me a funny look. “Apparently, when you’re pregnant, it is important that you eat breakfast and take vitamins.”
I didn’t know what to say. I just started to cry.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“I was going to tell you. I just…”
“You let me think you had an abortion. Do you have any idea how much that hurt me?”
“Stosh, it wasn’t like that. I went to the clinic, but after talking to the counselor and thinking about what I was doing, I couldn’t go through with it. When you came back, I needed to be sure your intentions were good. The timing just never seemed right.”
I could talk to him until I was blue in the face. He was hurt and pissed. The more I pleaded the more frustrated he became. “I’m angry at you for lying to me. I’ve been messed up since you told me what you’d done. The decent thing would have been to tell me the truth. I hope you get that.”
“I do.” I reached for his hand, but he pulled it away. “Stosh, please. I just wanted our baby to be safe. You have to understand that I had to know you weren’t plotting anything with Ivy. She wanted our baby and I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let her find out.”
“The nurse said the baby is fine.” He sat the sonogram picture down on my stomach.
“Please, don’t be mad.”
He stood there for a second, just looking at me. Then, without saying anything, he walked out of the room.
I was still hooked up to the monitors, so it wasn’t like I could just get up and follow him. Obviously, he needed time to be upset with me. If my sister hadn’t tried to smash his head in earlier, I would have still wondered if he would run and tell her. Now that she’d done that and I’d talked to Rafe, I knew he really was telling me the truth when he said he hated her.
This wasn’t how I wanted to tell Stosh about our baby. I’d pictured being in bed and celebrating after everything had calmed down. I thought about showing him a sonogram picture and being happy together.
Now, he’d found out while I wasn’t even conscious. How long had I been out of it?
The nurse came in to check my vitals. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine, I guess.”
“We are going to give you some fluids and some vitamins. After we monitor you for a couple hours, you’ll be free to go. It’s best that you make an appointment with your OBGYN. Health care during a pregnancy is very beneficial to both the mother and baby.”
“Okay, I will. Thank you.”
“Your husband is in the room next to you. He’s very happy about the pregnancy. I take it that it was unexpected?”
“You could say that.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be too worried. He seems over the moon about it.”
That was the reassurance I needed. He was mad and I didn’t blame him. I deserved that. It was still good to know that while mad, he was just as happy about it as I was.
There was one thing that I knew for sure. That was the last secret I was ever going to keep from him.
Chapter 20
Heart Attack v/s Hurricane.
We were released from the hospital later that night. Neither of us was worried about Ivy, since she was tied to a chair in the middle of a room. I’d locked the doors before we left and not worried if she’d died of starvation. She deserved to suffer.
Stosh didn’t say much, during the ride, except that he wanted to stop and get something to eat. I didn’t want to mention that I was starving, being that it would go back to me being pregnant and keeping it from him.
I’d had hours to think about what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t come up with anything that would make him forgive me. He was hurt and it was directly because of my actions. I almost couldn’t forgive myself.
We arrived at the restaurant and got seated. Of course, we got dirty looks with Stosh having stitches in his head. It hadn’t bruised that bad around the injury, but it was enough to make it very noticeable. An egg shape could be noticed from the side and it seemed shinier than his other skin.
As for me, well, I looked normal. To everyone else, I was just a regular woman, having a meal with my husband. Only Stosh and I knew that I was impersonating my sister and carrying his child. We belonged on a talk show with big ridiculous reveals.
We’d already ordered our food when Stosh finally began to speak to me again. “Now that I know you’re pregnant, we need to talk about changing our plan. What you’re doing is too dangerous. Having you in jail is bad enough. I can’t sit around knowing my child could be born in a prison.”
“If we don’t go through with this, Ivy wins.”
“Do you know how immature that sounds? We are going to be parents. I think it’s time we start making smart decisions. Tell your parents the truth Willow. They deserve to know what’s been going on.”
Our food came and we started to eat. I considered my options while chewing my first couple bites. “Ivy needs to pay for what she’s done. Our baby is in danger if she’s set free and you know it.”
“I didn’t say she should be set free. I said you should tell your parents. I’ll be with you the whole time. We’ll do it together.”
That did make me feel better, however, it wasn’t enough to set my mind totally at ease. My sister was smart and manipulative. She would figure out a way to ruin us all over again, if she had the chance.
“Fine!”
“Good. Tonight we’ll go over and talk. If they kick us out, we’re leaving this town together. I have contacts in every city and I can sell anything. It will be easy for me to get a job.”
We finished eating and headed back to his place. I brought a box of leftovers to feed Ivy. She didn’t deserve to have a meal ordered for just her.
When we pulled up at the house, everything seemed fine. It wasn’t until we walked up to the door that things were suddenly wrong. The door was busted open. Stosh ran in first. I followed behind him, running right for the room my sister was in. Of course, she was gone. Stosh ran up and looked right at me. “ Don’t panic!”
“She’s gone! What are we going to do? She’ll tell everyone!”
“Hang on.” Stosh ran into the bedroom and came out with the diary and a large manila folder in his hand. “Go put this in the car while I call the police. We’re going to treat this like it was a normal break in. “
While waiting for the cops, we hid all of the evidence that my sister had been held hostage. The cops came in and dusted for prints. Whether they would find Rafe’s was the million dollar question. I played the part of Ivy, so nothing seemed suspicious.
It was all out of hand. I was shaking so badly, wondering if I was ever going t
o be safe. We’d just left the restaurant with a different game plan. Now, I was going to have to tell my parents everything. I had to get to them before Ivy could. If she talked to them before me, my life could be destroyed.
The police took forever. They had to fill out a report and then insisted on checking out the main house to see if that too had been burglarized. I was trying to be patient, but every second that went by gave my sister ample time to make her next move. When the police left, we headed over to my parents.
There wasn’t anyone home. I tried to call their phones, but neither answered. We knew they weren’t working, since Stosh had talked to them earlier. On occasion they would catch a movie, and honestly, I had no idea what else they liked to do since I hadn’t been around them in such a long time. They could have belonged to a nudist colony for all I knew.
On the way back to the house, Stosh was quiet. He was still upset with me. I got why he was, but he’d also lied to me and put me through Hell. The only reason I had forgiven him was because he’d done it all out of love for me.
I reached over and grabbed his hand. “I love you.”
He looked over and finally smiled. “I love you, too.”
“I know you’re going to be a good father.”
He smiled and looked over at me. “I appreciate you saying that. I hope you know that I would do anything in my power to keep you and our baby safe. Ivy isn’t going to hurt us, as long as we stick together.”
“You think Rafe helped her, don’t you?” I think I had the same feeling. My visit with him must have sent him off the deep end. I don’t know how he knew Ivy was inside, but together they were going to be a difficult force to be reckoned with. “I know I do.”
“Yeah, it had to be him. He knew where we lived. Maybe Ivy freed herself again. Who the hell knows. Either way, I’m sure they are together. She’s going to need someone on her side for when she makes her next attack, if she even gets the chance to do it. Hopefully they will hop on a plane and never look back.”
“As long as they don’t steal our baby, I could care less.”
He let go of my hand and reached over to place his hand on my belly. It was the first time he’d done something like that and I was taken back by his actions. “Nobody is ever going to take our baby. We made that baby out of love. Fuck your sister and her head games. She’s just pissed because she’ll never have what we have.”
“I just want to not have to watch our backs every five seconds. It would be great if she ran off with Rafe and never came back.”
“I hope so.” He pulled my hand up and kissed it. “I am really happy, Will. I know I lost my temper in the hospital. It just caught me off guard. I knew you couldn’t have just gotten pregnant, which could only mean you lied about having the abortion. I don’t blame you, though. I was a fucking douche for what I did to you. I should have been honest the whole time. I hate that you even considered that to be your only option.”
“At the time, I just wanted to be free from it all. You and Ivy hurt me so much. Everything I ever believed about my sister had been this lie. I couldn’t handle it. My parents disowned me and I thought you were just playing with my head. Nothing made sense.” That was the lowest time in my life.
“I know. I feel like shit every day. I think I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make things up to you. I know I won’t give up until I have your complete trust. It means everything to me. You mean everything to me.”
“I feel the same way about you. I just wish there was an easier way for us to be together. I mean, you have to admit that this really sucks. I want to believe that everything is going to be okay, but it’s hard when it all just keeps going so wrong. Now my crazy sister is out there somewhere, planning her next move on destroying us. I won’t be able to sleep until I know she’s put away somewhere. She needs to be put into a mental institution.”
“Right now, my main concern is your safety. I want to get you home. We’re going to stay in the main house and turn the alarm on tonight. Nobody is going to hurt you.”
I liked that he was being so bossy. When it came to me being safe, I needed all the help I could get. “Does she know the code?”
“Hell no! I kept it a secret so I could go somewhere and she couldn’t bother me. Besides, the owners change it every time they leave.”
I couldn’t help but smile. It felt good to know we could go somewhere and be safe from her wrath. “What if she sets the house on fire?”
He shook his head. “The alarm company reports fires. Stop worrying. You’ll be fine. If it bothers you this much, tomorrow we can pack a bag and go somewhere. We’ll just drive until we get tired. Hell, we can drive until you see a place that you’d love to raise a baby in. We can start over there and never look back.”
Selling me on running away wasn’t getting old. The more he mentioned it, the more it seemed like a great idea. “Okay.”
He pulled over the car. “Seriously?”
I nodded. “Yes, seriously. This has all gotten so out of hand. I wanted my family back, but now I just think we’d be better off if we got out of this place. I hate everything about it.”
He leaned over and kissed me. “So, it’s settled? Tomorrow morning we’re getting the hell out of here and starting our new life together?” He ran his hands through my hair. “I need to stop by the bank and close my accounts. We can live off the cash until I get situated with a new job. If it’s okay with you, I want to tell my parents the truth. I know you want to leave everything behind, but I think they’d be on our side. I can show them the diary if I need to. Since I’ve only worked for my dad, it’s important that we are on speaking terms. I need to be able to support us and I can’t do that if I don’t have a good job. There’s a chance that my dad may even let me work remotely and stay with his company. I may still have to travel, but you can always come with me.”
I couldn’t believe he was just willing to give everything up for me. It was like he had no regrets when it came to our future. I felt the same way, so it made my decision so much easier to make. “I’ve wanted to be with you since the day you walked into my classroom. I’ve loved you for almost that long. All I want to do is be with you. I want to raise our baby and spend every single moment knowing we finally got to have the happy ending that we always should have. I know it took us a long time, but we’re together and nothing is going to tear us apart. As long as I have your love, I don’t need anyone else’s approval. You’re all I’ve ever needed, Stoshua Wheeler.”
We kissed each other slowly, not paying any mind to the fact that we were pulled over on the side of the road in a little development. People probably thought we were teenagers, making out in the car so our parents wouldn’t see.
“When we get home, I’m throwing all my shit in trash bags. We
should just leave tonight.”
My heart was beating so rapidly. I didn’t have to think twice. “Let’s do it!”
He pulled away from the curb before I finished the sentence. “The sooner we get out of here, the better!”
Stosh turned the corner to drive down his long driveway and stopped the car. In front of us, surrounding the little pool house, were police officers. He turned off the car and we sat there as they approached.
One officer held up a megaphone. “Stoshua Wheeler and Willow Green, step out of the vehicle with your hands in the air!”
Stosh looked over at me and reached for my hand. I could see the fear in his eyes. “Do what they say. Don’t tell them anything.”
“I’m scared!” I was already crying.
“It’s going to be fine. My parent’s will have us out by the end of the night.”
We were being surrounded and running out of time. We didn’t have a plan for this. In fact, this was the end of the road. My plan had backfired and now I couldn’t see that light at the end of the tunnel. All I saw was pain.
Chapter 21
Claustrophobia
The police waited for me and Stosh to climb out of the car before they slammed us against it and handcuffed our hands behind our backs. Stosh kept his eyes on me the whole time they were reading us our rights. I was trying not to cry, but being arrested for the first time wasn’t exactly exciting or something that I ever wanted to happen in my life. I was petrified. Neither of us belonged in jail.
Sure, kidnapping my sister and pretending to be her could be construed as illegal, but my intentions weren’t. Ivy was the bad person in all of this. Surely, there had to be some kind of justice in it all.
Twinsequences (A Twisted Twin Series) Page 17
