Accidental Heartbreak (The Accidental Series, Book 2) (5 page)

Dr. Westbrook watched him hang his head in
despair, interlock his fingers and stare down at the floor. When he
was at her office a few months ago supporting Shayla, Dr. Westbrook
told him that he needed to tell Shayla about his relation to Jacob.
Keeping it a secret that her ex-fiancé was his brother would do
nothing but harm in the long run. It didn’t matter that Jacob had
committed suicide…she still needed to know. “So I take it you
finally told Shayla about Jacob?” Dr. Westbrook said with a look of
satisfaction and crossed her legs.

“No. I didn’t tell her. I don’t know
how.”

A surprised look touched her face. “Is that
why you’re here? To get advice on how to tell her?”

Carter blew a hard breath. “Shayla and I got
into an argument a couple of months ago and she moved out.
Yesterday, I saw her for the first time in eight weeks.”

“What was the argument about?”

“Um…” Carter paused, because he didn’t want
to get into that. The problem was, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to
accomplish by seeing the doctor today. He just needed to talk to
somebody. So with beads of sweat on his forehead, he looked at her
and said, “She thought I was seeing someone.”

Carter remembered the dejected look on
Shayla’s face the night he told her they could be
just
friends
. His thought pattern at the time was, if Shayla
believed Genevieve was his girlfriend, then her feelings for him
would subside. It was ridiculous for a grown man to play those kind
of games, he knew, but he saw it as a quick way of letting her know
he couldn’t be involved with her. After all, how could he do that
to his brother?

With raised eyebrows, Dr. Westbrook asked,
“Were you seeing someone?”

“No.”

“So what would make her think that?”

“One of my female coworkers came by my house
while I was at work to drop off some papers for me and Shayla
assumed she was someone I was seeing. Being completely honest, I
actually wanted Shayla to think I was with the woman.”

“Why?”

“So she wouldn’t fall in love with me. I
know that sounds ludicrous and juvenile, but that’s what
happened.”

“If you love Shayla, Mr. Williams, why
wouldn’t you want her to fall in love with you?”

“Because I can’t do that to my brother,”
Carter said in anguish, his face turning red. “I loved my brother.
We just…we couldn’t work things out.”

Dr. Westbrook uncrossed her legs and shook
her head. “So let me get this straight…you can’t be with Shayla
because she and your brother, Jacob, had a relationship when he was
alive.”

Carter nodded, fiddling with his thumbs. “It
was more than
just
a relationship. They were engaged to be
married. She was in love with him.”

“And now she’s in love with you. So here’s
the question of the hour…what gives you the right to break her
heart because
you
feel guilty?”

Silence.

“Mr. Williams, this is a serious matter, but
the resolution is quite simple. Tell her about Jacob. I told you to
do that months ago, and if you done it back then, you wouldn’t be
here today.”

“I can’t tell her,” Carter said feeling his
stomach tighten. “I told you
that
months ago.”

“Well, you have to. There’s no other
way.”

“I can’t,” Carter maintained.

The doctor frowned slightly. “Give me one
good reason why you can’t tell her. And I want you to really think
about this before you answer, because from my previous interactions
with you, Mr. Williams, I know you are a professional man, very
well-spoken, considerate and respectful. I saw the way you and
Shayla interacted in my office that day and I knew right away that
you cared for her. So tell me why it is that you can’t talk to
Shayla about Jacob?”

Carter sighed heavily. “If I tell her, not
only would she think I’m a liar, untrustworthy and disloyal. She
would know that everything she went through on the streets – the
harsh weather, being robbed, beaten, begging for money and food –
all those hardships she faced after Jacob’s death was my
fault.”

“Why would that be your fault?”

“Because of this.” Carter stood, took his
wallet from his back pocket and handed Dr. Westbrook Jacob’s
suicide note.

Dr. Westbrook took it, asked Carter what it
was before she unfolded it and was shocked when he told her that it
was from Jacob. She read through it quickly, paying particular
interest to Jacob’s request at the end of the note:

I know you’re under no
obligation to do this, but this is my last and final wish. I’ve
never asked you for anything, even in my most dire straights, but
this I ask of you because I want Shayla to be happy. I want her to
have the kind of life that you can give
her
.
Please tell her I’m sorry I left this way. Tell her it’s for
the best and that in some way, I’m doing this for her. Take care of
her for me. She’s innocent in all of this and I want to make sure
that she’s taken care of. I love her, Carter. Make sure she knows
that.
Make her happy. In the end, I’m
sorry it had to be this way.

When the doctor looked up at him, he said,
“I failed. I didn’t take care of her. I didn’t look for her like I
should have. So like I said, everything she went through is my
fault and when she reads this note, she’ll know that. But you know
what…it’s all a moot point anyway, especially since she’s
relocating to Virginia at the end of the month.”

“She has family there?” she asked, handing
him the note back.

“No,” Carter said growing irritated with all
her questions now. “She got a job and decided to move to get away
from me. She didn’t say that outright, but I know that’s why she’s
leaving.”

Dr. Westbrook thought for a moment. She was
worried about Shayla moving away and living on her own. It was her
opinion that Shayla still needed to come to terms with Jacob’s
death, and it didn’t help matters that she and Carter was now
involved in some convoluted, nonexistent love triangle dispute.
“Mr. Williams, there is no other way. I can’t stress this enough.
You
have
to tell her. Let her make the decision on what she
wants to do. If she chooses to forgive you, then everything is back
to normal, right? But if she doesn’t then at least you will have
the satisfaction of getting this boulder lifted from your
shoulder.”

“I would rather carry around a boulder than
lose her.”

“I hate to put it so bluntly, but from the
looks of things, you’ve already lost her.”

Carter dropped his head, his forehead
leaning against his palms. He
had
already lost her, but the
last thing he needed right now was a therapist who made him feel
worthless. So irritated with Dr. Westbrook’s choice of words, he
said, “I’m sorry. I should’ve never come here. I’m just gonna
go.”

Before he could stand, Dr. Westbrook said,
“Mr. Williams, wait a sec. I know how difficult this is, but you
have to tell her.”

“I can’t. How many times do I have to say
that?” he snapped. “You’re the doctor. You knew my brother, and you
know Shayla, so why is it so difficult for you to understand my
point of view on this?”

“I do understand, but you have to understand
the consequences of your actions. It’ll hurt her even more when she
finds out on her own. You
do
know that at some point, in one
way or another, she
will
find out.”

“Well, maybe not since she’s moving away. I
guess this is how it is supposed to happen. She moves a way, I
never see her again and my life goes back to normal. Everything
happens for a reason, right? Isn’t that what you mindbenders teach
to make people feel optimistic about the disappointment in their
lives?”

Dr. Westbrook furrowed her brows, picked up
a pen and scribbled a note.

“I wouldn’t even be here right now if you’d
done your job in the first place! My brother came to see you. He
wouldn’t talk to me, but he talked to you and you mean to tell me
there was nothing you could do to prevent him from taking his
life?” Carter eyes darkened, and he could feel a thick coating of
anger overtaking him.

“Now wait a minute, Mr. Williams. I know
you’re not implying—”

“That’s what I don’t understand about you
people,” Carter interrupted. “You’re not even here to help
folks…the only thing you do is listen to people tell you about
their problems but not doing a
thing
to help them out of
their own personal crisis. And because of it, my lil’ brother is
dead!” A tear fell from Carter’s eye. He swiped it away quickly,
stood up and said, “Forget this. I’m out.”

He slid on his shades and left her office,
passing through a waiting area then walked by the receptionist,
giving her a flimsy head nod on the way out.

Even though he knew he was running out of
time, Carter let a few more days go by without trying to contact
Shayla. He fought with himself about what to do – carry on his
carefree life as normal, or live without the only woman who was
able to touch his heart. He told himself to let her go a million
times, that she would be better off without him. The only problem
was, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Mad, confused and all –
he could not stop thinking about her.

At work, he sat up tall in his leather
chair, took his spare glasses from the top drawer of his desk. His
mind was so scattered, he’d forgotten to put in his contacts before
leaving for work in the morning.

He glanced at his watch. It was a little
after three in the afternoon. He took his cell from the desk, found
the number to the flower shop in his contact list and dialed the
number.

“Rebecca’s Flowers. How can I help you?”
Rebecca answered.

“Hi Rebecca. This is Carter…was wondering if
Shayla was around?”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “No. She’s not here
right now.”

Carter sighed. “Rebecca, I just want to talk
to her,” he said, thinking she was there and Rebecca was lying,
covering for her.

“She’s not here. Look, Carter, I’m not
trying to come in between you and Shayla and I’ve appreciated your
business over the years but all I’m gonna say is, just because you
are who you are doesn’t give you the right to treat her like
crap.”

“What are you talking about?” he
frowned.

“I’m talking about the night she came home
crying her eyes out…the night you supposedly took her out to
dinner.”

“Look, are you gonna put her on the phone or
not?”

“I
told
you she’s not here,” Rebecca
said flustered.

“Ah’ight. Fine. Sorry to bother you.” Carter
dropped his phone on his new desktop calendar. Then he heard his
desk phone beep a few times – a page from Julie.

He pressed the intercom button. “Yeah?”

“Meeting in fifteen,” Julie said. “The folks
from the Rock Hill office just arrived.”

“Thanks, Julie.”

“Welcome, Sir.”

Carter hung his head. He was in no shape to
have a meeting today. And what time would this meeting get out?
Nine at night? Ten?

His cell ringing interrupted his thoughts.
He looked at the number on the display and quickly answered it.
“Hello?”

“Carter,” Rebecca said with empathy in her
voice. “Look, the only thing I know is what Shayla tells me. To me,
it seemed as if you cared about her—”

“I do care,” Carter interjected. “I know
I’ve messed things up and I really need to talk to her, so if she’s
there, can you
please
put her on the phone?”

“She’s not here. She actually…um…”

“What?”

Rebecca sighed, struggling with whether or
not to tell him where Shayla was…that she was actually at his
house.

“What is it, Rebecca?”

Rebecca sighed again. “She went by your
place to get the rest of her stuff.”

Carter immediately ended the call, slid his
phone in his coat pocket, snatched his keys from the top drawer of
his desk and on his way out, he told Julie, “I’m not going to make
the meeting.”

“But, Sir—”

“I’m not going to make it, Julie. I have an
emergency.” He walked swiftly towards the hallway where the
elevators were located.

“Carter, they’re expecting you to be there.
I’ve already confirmed you.”

“Well unconfirm me.”

“And what am I supposed to tell them when
they ask why you’re not here.”

“I don’t know, Julie. Tell ‘em I had an
emergency, or make up something else. I don’t care.”

With that, he took the long elevator ride
down to the basement level parking. Then he jumped in his car with
one thing on his mind – getting to his house before Shayla
left.

* * *

In her old room in Carter’s house, Shayla
emptied her closet, asking herself if she even had a right to take
the clothes since Carter had purchased them. Technically, they
belonged to him, but what would he do with leftover articles of
size eight women’s clothing? So she packed the clothes anyway,
along with lotion, perfume, nail polish – everything she left
behind was coming with her to Norfolk in two black suitcases. She
zipped both bags, latching on to them while carefully descending
the stairs. When she saw Carter standing at the base of them, in
the foyer, she felt her stomach turn sour.
What is he doing
here
, she thought. So much for making a clean break.

He waited until she was at the base of the
stairway, standing directly in front of him in the foyer and said,
“Can you put the bags down so we can talk?”

“We’ve already
talked
. I just wanna
go.”

“You’re not leaving until I say what I have
to say to you.” He stood tall in front of her, pushing his glasses
tighter onto his face.

“Well can you hurry up and say it so I can
go?” Shayla said with a shaky voice, dropping the bags next to her
side. It was a confusing feeling to be so angry with someone she
loved so much.