Charles called home every night just to hear her voice and so he could say, “I love my beautiful baby girl.”
Marley spent her days with grandma watching her along with the horses. When grandpa came home in the evening, he walked the ranch with Marley riding along side him on one of the colts.
Charles finished that year of law school and came home to his daughter. He continued to live on the ranch with his parents and Marley.
At the age of six, Marley's grandma taught her how to ride a horse. She loved her Saturday morning rides with her father and grandparents.
One year later, Marley, and her father moved into an apartment.
Marley was happy to be with her daddy.
She asked him about her mother, and he told her she would see her mom, he promised. He told Marley just to give her time she would come to her.
Charles made up a bedtime story for Marley, about the summer he met her mother when they were at the beach, went to the movies, and to the park.
Marley went to sleep at night listening to the story of her mom. It was her favorite bedtime story.
Chapter Three
Two years later, Charles’ parents were in a car accident, his father died instantly and his mother was taken to the hospital.
Charles picked Marley up from school and they went to the hospital.
His mother told him to find Marley’s mother, murmuring, “She needs to know her mother.”
Marley lay in bed with her grandma crying, saying, “Granddaddy gone” and telling her grandma she was scared.
Grandma died later that evening.
A few weeks after the funerals, Charles and Marley moved back to the ranch. Uncle Andrew, Aunt Linda, cousin Dru, and Tiffany drove to the ranch to visit the little family.
They asked Charles about Marley's mom. He said a girl I knew from Promise had her and gave her to my mother and left town, she never came back.
Charles then asked Tiffany about Ashley, Tiffany looked at Marley very strange.
She said, “She’s married to a doctor, they live in Arizona. We don't really talk.”
So, Charles saw no reason to find her.
At the same time, Ashley and her husband were getting a divorce. Her husband found out she could not conceive and he wanted children.
After the divorce she went to her parents and told them, “I’ve lost my husband I could never have children. We went to the doctor and found out that you had me fixed.”
She cried, “Why did you do that, my husband and I had trying for a year to have a baby?”
She told her mother, “My husband accused me of knowing. I tried to tell him I didn't know but he didn't believe me!”
“He got so angry with me. Now we are divorced because of you. I don't have my husband anymore.”
She stormed off saying, “I’m going to bed.”
The next morning she said, “I'm going to see Tiffany and Dru. I plan on making a home there but I am going to travel first.”
Her mother asked, “Are you going to find Marley now?”
She turned and looked at her mother and said, “You named her Marley, but you wouldn't let me keep her. You just took her away. Why should I look for her now, it's been nine years?”
Her mother gave her all the information she needed, saying, “If you change your mind. . .”
Ashley left her mother and went to the place where her child was placed up for adoption.
She was afraid to go in so she left and went to a hotel to do some thinking.
The next morning, still not sure about going in, she thought about how old the child was, and wondered if the child hated her, and of what she could possibly say to the child.
Ashley finally went into the adoption agency and gave them all the information she had on her daughter.
The clerk came back and said, “The child had been adopted.” Then she said, “No, the courts gave the father custody.”
Ashley started having flashbacks to the rape, she said, “What father? What was his name?”
The clerk said, “Charles Roxenbury, a DNA test proved that he was the father of Marley.” Ashley got very angry and went back to her hometown to see Dru and Tiffany. She asked Dru if Charles told him about his daughter.
Dru told her Charles was looking for her about a year ago. “We told him you were married.” Dru told Ashley that Charles had lost both of his parents in a car accident, and he and Marley moved back to the ranch.
Ashley shreiked, “Marley!”
Dru said, “Yes. The child's mother gave his parents custody and left town.”
Dru started telling Ashley about Charles and Marley, she was getting sick of listening to him talk about how great Charles was with his daughter. She said, “I would like to visit him, how can I find him?”
Dru told Ashley where she could find Charles. The next day she left for Promise. As she was driving and thinking about how nice he acted, how they played on the beach, and all the fun they had that summer. She remembered when he told her he loved her drawings, how he would always keep them.
Then she started thinking about how he attacked her, she hated him for what he did to her.
Now he had stolen her baby!
When she arrived in Promise, she stopped for gas at the gas station.
When she was walking out of the gas station a man snatched her purse and ran with it. She had no longer had her ID, money, or phone. He had taken it all.
Ashley got back into her car and drove off looking for The Roxenbury Ranch.
When she saw the police station, she decided to report her purse stolen. As she neared, she asked a man outside of the station, “Do you know where The Roxenbury Ranch is?”
The man answered, “Yes, that's Charles Roxenbury and his daughter over at the feed store.”
The man drove away leaving Ashley standing there at the edge of the road.
Ashley called out with anger, “Charles!” she starting walking very fast. By the time, Charles turned to see who had called his name, Ashley had walked out in front of a car and was hit. Charles could not tell who called him, he just saw someone hit by a car.
People ran to help, so did Charles and Marley.
Ashley saw Marley and reached for her and then she passed out.
Ashley was taken to the hospital and she was in a coma for four days. For four days, Marley thought about the woman.
She asked her daddy if he knew her. He said, “I’ve never seen her before.”
Marley thought, “She reached for me, so maybe my mom sent her.”
She asked, “Daddy can we go see the lady in the hospital?”
Charles said, “Sure we can.”
Charles and Marley went to the hospital; Charles went to talk to the doctor. Marley stayed in the room with Ashley, she remembered the woman reaching for her.
Marley touched Ashley's hand and felt something strange, and then suddenly Ashley woke up. Marley instantly took to Ashley not knowing why.
After she awoke, they found out she had amnesia, so she stayed in the hospital for a few more days.
When Ashley was to be released from the hospital, Marley asked her father, “Can the lady stay with us until she remembers?”
Her dad replied, “Yes, she can stay in the guesthouse.” Charles told his housekeeper, “Someone will be staying in the guesthouse for a while.”
The housekeeper replied, “I'll get it ready.”
The next day, Charles and Marley brought Ashley home with them.
When they walked in the guesthouse, Marley saw fresh cut roses in a vase by the door. She took one out and gave it to Ashley and said, “This will be your name until you remember yours.” Ashley said, “Rose, I’ll take it.” smiling at Marley.
For the next two weeks, Marley was spent a lot of time with Rose trying to help her remember. Marley thought that Rose had a message for her.
They went horseback riding and walked the long horse trails.
Charles brought Rose's car to the ranch, he ran a ch
eck on it and found out it was registered to a doctor in Arizona. The doctor was out of the country, and couldn't return his calls.
Charles did not remember what Tiffany told him about Ashley marrying a doctor in Arizona.
The next morning Marley went off to school, Rose asked Charles if she could go to the office with him. She wanted to look around town to see if she could remember why she was there.
When she walked in the law firm, she started having flashbacks, as if she might be a lawyer.
She walked around the office for a while, and then went outside looking around. She didn't know the town, she saw the courthouse and she remember being in a courtroom.
She went back into the law firm, and went into Charles's office and told him, “Maybe I’m a lawyer.”
He told her, “Look over this case and tell me what you think.”
She came back to his office later that afternoon, and gave him a few suggestions that he liked. She worked at the office for a few months.
He kept winning the cases that she prepared. Charles began to believe she was indeed a lawyer.
One Friday evening Charles told Rose, “I'm checking into something and it will tell me if you are a lawyer or who you are by Monday. In the meantime, let's go home for the day.”
Later Marley went to the guesthouse to invite Rose for dinner.
After dinner, Marley asked Rose, “Do you want to see some pictures that I drew?”
Rose answered, “Do you draw?” Marley replied, “Yes, my daddy says my drawing is good and beautiful like my mother’s.”
Charles went upstairs and left the women to the picture.
While Rose was looking at Marley’s drawing and she started to have flashbacks again. Marley asked her, “What's wrong?”
She said, “I'm just tired.” Rose took the drawing back with her to the guesthouse.
When she was ready to go to bed, she looked at the drawing again and started having flashbacks of many drawings on a wall in a room. Her room when she was in high school.
She went to bed trying to force herself to remember, but she couldn't, and finally drifted off to sleep.
Saturday morning, Marley asked Rose to go horseback riding with her and the both of them headed off to the barn.
Charles looked out his bedroom window and saw them riding. From afar, Rose looked like Ashley to him, but Charles just shook it off and got dressed.
He went outside and started to talk with the ranch foreman.
Marley's friends from the ranch next door were out riding, also. They asked her to go riding with them.
Rose said to Marley, “You go on; I'm going back to the stable.” Rose rode back toward the stable and she saw Charles and the foreman talking.
She handed the horse to one of the stable workers and said to Charles, “Marley is riding with the kids from next door.”
She turned away. Charles glanced at her, and had another flashback of the time he walked Ashley home one evening.
He shook off the feeling, again.
Rose went into the guesthouse and started cleaning up. She saw Marley's drawings and she took them to the main house and up to Marley's room.
She sat on the bed and looked at the drawings again. When she went to put them in a cabinet, she pulled out another book of drawings.
When she opened the portfolio she envisioned Charles’ face saying, “I'll always keep them.”
Suddenly she remembered the rape!
Everything came rushing back like a flood.
“These are the drawings I gave to Charles.” she thought.
She went outside and saw Charles walking back towards the house. She stood there in the yard with the drawings in her hands.
Charles walked up to her and she asked, “Where did you get these drawings.”
Charles started to remember Ashley, and love started filling his heart. He told her, “A girl I loved long ago gave them to me.”
He took the drawings from her, held them to his heart, and said, “I loved her so much and I still do. I think of her all the time.”
“I met her one summer when I visited my cousin. It was love at first sight for me.”
“One night I hurt her so bad. I will never forgive myself.”
He looked at Rose and said, “Rose I just wanted to talk to her and I went to her house. I saw her come outside . . . I pulled her to the side of her house so her parents wouldn't see me.”
Ashley started to have flashbacks.
“She kept fighting me . . . I kept trying to tell her it was me, but she wouldn't listen. She kept hitting and kicking at me.” He turned away from Rose. “Rose, I got so angry that she was fighting that I hurt her. I loved her, I would never hurt her in my right mind, but I did.”
“Rose, I don't think she ever knew it was me. It still hurts so bad . . . knowing I did that to her . . . to Marley's mother.”
“I found out almost two years later that she had a baby and the child was put up for adoption, I knew the child had to be mine.”
Rose was crying the entire time Charles was talking to her. However, he did not know she was crying because he had his back to her.
“Marley was so beautiful and shy; there was no one in her life and I knew in my heart that she was my little girl. I had to take a DNA test to prove it. Even if the test came back saying she wasn't mine, I would have taken her anyway because she was a part of someone I loved so deeply.”
“I was in college when I told my parents what I did to Ashley and they helped me get her. They brought her home to live with them.”
“I finished law school that year and came home to my daughter and parents, my family. Such a beautiful feeling, I never told anyone about this, just my parents and now you.”
Charles turned around to see that Rose was crying.
He said, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry.”
Rose spat out, “I hate you.”
Charles shouted, “What?”
She said, “You raped me!”
Charles shouted, “What, uh, uh, I , I, never touched you!”
Rose cried out, “I remember! I am Ashley!”
Charles was in shock--pacing back and forth in the yard. Ashley said, “The amnesia, that's why I didn't remember you, but you been looking at me all this time and you didn't know me. Someone you claim to have loved so deeply!”
He said, “You don't look the same! It's been nine years. Your hair is short. The scar on your face is gone! I didn't see it then but I can see it now.”
“Little things you did reminded me of Ashley, I saw my daughter getting close to you, but I couldn't do it because you weren’t Ashley, and all this time you were.”
“My heart has always been yours. I still love you, that is forever!” Then Charles asked her, “Why did you cut your hair? What happened to the scar you would always hid with your long beautiful hair?”
She answered, “I married a plastic surgeon, and he removed the scar so I cut my hair.”
“We are divorced now because I can't have children, thanks to my mother.”
“She had me fixed so I could never have another child.” She continued, “I couldn't tell him that I had a child because I didn't want him to know that I was raped.”
Charles said, “Please don't say that . . .”
Ashley said, “It's true, you raped me and I had a baby. My mother just took her away, as if she was nothing!”
“I remember her being born, I woke up, and she was gone.” Ashley cried. “I never saw her . She didn't let me see her! She was mine and she stole her. And now you have stolen her, too!”
“The only thing I ever loved! She grew inside of me and I never even got to her!”
Charles said, “I just wanted my child, I wanted a part of you.”
Ashley said, “So you stole her.”
Charles answered, “When you graduated from college, why didn't you look for her? You ran off to Arizona and married a doctor. Why didn't you think to find her first?” Charles suddenly remem
bered Tiffany saying that Ashley married a doctor and they lived in Arizona.
“That day you were hit by the car, I heard someone call my name but I didn't know who it was, when I turned I saw you get hit. It was you calling me, wasn’t it?”
“The man that hit you said you walked out in front of him, you didn't look. When I brought your car to the ranch, I tried to trace it only to find out that it was registered to a doctor in Arizona. I still didn't think about what Tiffany said.”
Ashley said, “It was a birthday present from him, that's why it's in his name.”
Charles vowed, “If you came here for Marley, I can't let you take her.”
“I knew I lost you when I found out you were married, but my daughter is my life. Please forgive me for what I did to you, that wasn't my intention!”
“I love you. I just wanted to talk to you, but not over the phone. I wanted to see you . . . only to hug you and say goodbye, but you wouldn't listen to me.”
“I will not let you take my daughter to fulfill your marriage.” He added. “She's my daughter not his.”
Ashley replied, “My marriage is over. Marley's my life now, just like she's yours.”
They saw Marley riding her horse to the stable. Charles said, “We can sit down together and talk to her. All I ask of you is not to tell her about any rape.”
“Please don't hurt my baby that way. Please, Ashley!” he begged.
Ashley started to cry again as Marley started skipping towards the house. Ashley dried her eyes and walked out to meet her.
Charles asked Ashley, “What are you going to do?” Ashley kept walking she without answering him.
Marley skipped up to her and said, “Hi Rose!” Ashley answered, “It's not Rose, baby. Let's go inside. Your father and I need to talk to you.”
Marley anxiously breathed, “You remember, don't you?”
Her Rose answered, “Come on.”
Charles opened the door. Marley looked at the both of them, and Ashley rolled her eyes towards Charles.
Marley asked her father, “What's wrong.”
He replied to her, “This is Ashley, Baby, your mother.”
She said, “Ashley, you do remember! You did come for me!”
Stolen Love Page 2
