Chance (25 page)

Even though they didn’t
discuss it or take their physical contact any further than handholding,
Charlotte knew this was leading somewhere. It was difficult to believe it was just
days after being in a bad accident while fleeing her violent psychotic husband.
It was amazing she'd found herself falling in love with the appealing, Dr. Brett
Devlin. 

Brett always encouraged
her to talk about Logan. It was pretty much the only subject she felt she had
any detailed knowledge of these days. She'd been so isolated for so long in his
prison. Charlotte had given up her dreams of any kind of career, although when
she mentioned it to Brett, he encouraged her to get in touch with her old boss.
He was certain he'd be happy to take her back, perhaps even give her the old
job back. Charlotte wasn’t as sure, but it was an idea she stored in the back
of her mind for later.

For the most part, they
talked about her relationship. Brett wasn’t a counsellor or a psychologist but
perhaps that was his true calling. He certainly did a good job of getting
Charlotte to open up and share some of the worst aspects of her abusive
relationship. He wanted to hear everything. When Charlotte tensed up or became
upset, he'd just sit there.

He'd hold her hand and
whisper quietly, “In your own time,” or “Whenever you’re ready.”

Brett was so patient,
supportive and caring. He'd encourage her to continue through her emotions, even
when she said she didn’t want to or he could see she wasn’t comfortable.
Sometimes he'd change the subject for a while, but he'd always return to that
later and coax it out of her.

He said it would be
therapeutic for her and it was important to get everything out in the open, to
say it out loud and to realize what it was. To accept what had happened and to
accept that Logan’s behavior was wrong and abusive. That he was the bad guy and
she wasn't at fault. Only then, could she hope to move on and eventually find
something new and better in life.

At first, she was
cynical. She laughed bitterly and said it was like a cheesy line from a movie.
Talking about it wouldn’t help. It would just make her upset or angry. Well, it
certainly did. It took her on an intense rollercoaster ride of various emotions,
but the bottom line was; he was right. It did help.

She'd somehow feel better
with each horrible word that spilled from her mouth. It was as if she could
somehow unburden herself of the experience. Perhaps if she shared it, it wasn't
weighing her down as heavily. It was as if she no longer had to carry it alone.

Charlotte knew it helped
that she was falling for Brett. She didn’t want to hide anything from him and
she'd sometimes ask him questions about his wife's experience, as well. Then
she'd listen to him for a while. That helped her too. She learned although she
was isolated, she was not alone. So many people were like her, they'd all
shared the experience of falling victim to abuse. That knowledge helped her
feel less shame.

Sadly, Brett had only
recently lost her and his pain was still quite raw. He said he wasn’t sure
whether he was ready to move on yet, but he'd be prepared to do so if the right
person came along. At that point, he looked at her for a very long time and
took her hand.

Charlotte blushed and averted
her eyes at the intimacy and intensity of the moment.

Could he be talking
about me? Could I be the 'right' person for him? She gave his hand a little
squeeze and smiled.

“Do you still believe in
love?” she asked him quietly.

“I do,” he nodded. “Don’t
you?”

“I never have. I used to
tell Logan I loved him because that was what he wanted to hear. I don’t think I
ever actually felt it. I thought I did, at one point. I guess it was all sort
of…a fairy tale I tried to believe. Sometimes, I'd imagine I was in a movie,
that it wasn’t real.”

“That’s a common thing to
do, apparently,” he nodded. “But believe me, love does exist, Charlotte. It's
out there, somewhere. You just have to find it.”

“You sound like you’re in
a cheesy romantic-comedy,” she teased him.

“Maybe,” he smiled.

“Did you love your wife?”
she asked.

“I did, very much” he
nodded.

“Does that mean you won’t
ever love someone else?” she asked, afraid of his answer.

“I think there’s room in
someone’s heart for more than one person. It's possible to love again,” he said
thoughtfully. “I think I will. I think I can.”

“That’s good,” she smiled
at him, and he squeezed her hand. She squeezed it back again. “I’m sure there’s
someone out there for everyone.”

“That’s not what you were
just saying two minutes ago, Little Miss Cynical,” he chuckled.

She laughed with him.

“True. Hmm, maybe you’re changing
my mind, convincing me.”  

She reddened, thinking
that could be taken a number of ways.

“You’d better go,” she
said for him, before he could respond to what she said.

“Yeah, I'd better go,” he
agreed.

“I don’t want you to get
in trouble.”

“I won’t.” He stood up,
then leaned down and kissed her cheek.

It was quite unexpected
and elicited a fierce blush from Charlotte’s already flushed face. He smiled.

“You look sweet when you
blush,” he told her. “Maybe, if I’m lucky…I can get you to do it more often?”

The last part was posed
as a question, one to which she had no idea how to respond.

What was he asking? Was
he asking me out? Was he simply asking me if he'd be allowed to make me blush
more often? Either way, the answer was a resounding,
yes
.

“I don’t think that’ll be
a problem,” she replied.

“Good.”

Brett picked up his
clipboard and disappeared through the door.

She lay there, in a
dreamy state, thinking about Brett. He occupied most of her thoughts these
days. It was a pleasant change from worrying and stressing herself out over
Logan. Just saying his name gave her a shudder.

Thankfully, Brett had managed
to stop him from seeing her for three days in a row, but they weren’t sure how
much longer they could keep up the façade. Logan would be frantic from his lack
of control in the situation. He'd also be fuming over the delay in meting out
her punishment, which she was sure would be far worse than anything she'd
experienced at his hands yet. It was probably only the fact he thought she was
incapacitated and incapable of leaving the hospital that kept him at bay. Sooner
rather than later, he was going to realize something was going on.

Her parents came to her
rescue in the end. They took time off work and made the trip to the city to pick
her up. It turned out, Brett had spoken to them on the phone and explained he'd
have trouble trying to keep Logan from her much longer. That was the only
incentive they needed to put their wheels in motion. They would pick her up and
take her back home with them.

Brett broke the news to
her himself. He knocked on her door and walked in with a little smile on his
face.

“Someone’s here to see
you,” he announced.

She knew he wouldn’t be
looking at her like that if it were Logan, so she guessed immediately who it
was. A relieved smile spread across her face.

“Mom and Dad?”

“Yep. I honestly think
you’re fit enough to go home today so…they can sign your papers and you can
go.”

Charlotte sat up in
excitement. It was true; she felt a lot better. She’d had the scans on her head
and they’d all come back normal. There was nothing wrong with her except the
broken leg; and that was in a cast and ‘healing normally,’ according to Brett.

She’d been practicing
walking around the ward on crutches and was doing well with it. All she needed
now was to get away from Logan for good, and Brett was providing her with the
opportunity. She'd tell them on the way home everything about what had happened,
as well as the death threats Logan had made against them. The police would need
to be informed.

As happy as she was to be
getting out of there, and to be going home with the people she loved and
trusted most in the world, she was extremely sad to be leaving Brett. She almost
wanted to stay in the hospital longer just to see him. She knew it was
ridiculous, of course. He worked at the hospital; he had responsibilities
there. She couldn’t just kidnap him and take him home with her, as much as she'd
have liked.

That would make her almost
as bad as Logan, after all. She smiled a little at the thought, and then felt
herself blushing. She couldn’t actually understand what it was about Brett that
she liked so much. Was it because he was nice to her?

That was part of it. He
was the first person she'd met who she could truly open up to, without feeling as
if he was judging her for the bad decisions she'd made, or viewing her as a
weak person because she'd allowed Logan to dominate her for so long.

No, it wasn’t
only
that. She was also extremely physically attracted to him. Yet it wasn’t
only
that either. It seemed as though they just had that rare and indefinable
connection you sometimes have with a person of the opposite sex—an x-factor…

“You’ll be fine,” Brett
said, out of the blue, as if he could read her thoughts.

“Mm?” She looked up at
him.

“Don’t be so worried,” he
smiled and took her hand. “I’ll be here if you ever need me. I'm just a phone call
away.”

She looked down in
surprise and saw he'd placed a piece of paper in her palm. She glanced back up
at him with a questioning look in her eyes. He winked and slowly withdrew his
hand.

“A phone call away,” he
reiterated the statement again, leaning forward to kiss her gently on the cheek
before retreating, leaving the room and closing the door gently behind him.

She immediately opened
the folded piece of paper and saw a phone number scrawled in red pen. '
A
phone call away
,' made more sense when she saw Brett had given her his number.
Her heart skipped a beat. She smiled and tucked it into her nightgown as her
parents came into the room.

Fifteen minutes later,
she'd gotten dressed with her mother's help and was hobbling out of the
hospital on her crutches. As her parents assisted her to the car, she was smiling
and feeling free and happy. Then suddenly, as she looked around at the open sky
and people milling about, she seemed to feel as if something sinister was about
to take place.

Charlotte figured she was
probably just being paranoid, but she couldn’t stop feeling hyper-alert and
apprehensive. She felt somehow Logan would show up, lingering somewhere just out
of sight, waiting to pounce and steal her away again. She shook it off and
tried to relax, as her father made a joke about how slow she was on her
crutches.

They were just entering
the multistory parking garage when a large black car with tinted windows
approached the ramp and drove towards them. Charlotte panicked. It looked like the
car that her kidnapper had driven.

Oh my God! It's him,
oh no! He'll bring me back to Logan! What are we going to do if his gun is
pointed at us? Will he kill my parents?

She quickly reached out
and gripped her father’s arm tightly. As she opened her mouth to shout a
warning to her parents, the black car cruised by them. A blonde female driver passed
without even glancing in their direction. Charlotte shuddered.

“Can we hurry up?” she
asked urgently, still feeling panicked. Her voice cracked and she spoke a bit
louder than she'd intended.

“Well, we’re going as
fast as we can,” said her father. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I'm just anxious
to get home.”

She consciously began to
move as quickly as she felt comfortable on the crutches.

Finally, after what felt
like an eternity, she was sitting in the back seat of her parents' Mercedes. They
set off on the four-hour long journey back to their home.

During the long drive,
she told them about Logan’s threats to kill them with his own hands if she
would ever try to leave again. She stated his menacing threat with a sense of
urgency in her voice as she pressed them to go to the police immediately. She
was sure as soon as he found out she'd left the hospital, he'd be after her. He'd
figure out where she'd gone and come to get her, again.

Her father simply laughed
it off. He didn’t believe Logan would actually carry out any threats he'd made.
The bluff Logan had made about ruining his career seemed sufficient proof for
him to dismiss any further threats he'd made. Charlotte's father didn’t seem
worried in the slightest.

“The man’s all bark and
no bite,” her father chuckled. “Remember last time? Claiming that he had some
sort of dirt on me? It’s all BS.”

“He's killed people,
Dad,” Charlotte insisted, firmly. “Well, I know he'd ordered their deaths, at
least. I’d heard his colleagues talking about it. He'd also had me kidnapped!”

“Whatever happens, we
need to report him to the police,” her mother chimed in, quite concerned.
“Especially after last time. He did kidnap Charlotte, after all. Also for his
threats and involvement in crime. I’m sure he can be charged with a few things.”

“I guess pressing charges
might warn him off,” said her Dad. "With a bit of luck, they'd dig a
little deeper and put him in prison where he belongs.”

“He keeps his folders and
documents in his office, in the desk and filing cabinet. I’m pretty sure there’d
be evidence on his computer, too.”

Sadly, she wasn’t
convinced anything, even prison, would keep Logan away from her—not for good.
He'd eventually get out and come after her. He seemed so well connected, he
might have police and judges in his pocket. Why else wouldn’t they have
questioned him more when he was shot? It was more than obvious he'd been lying
and they'd just dropped it.

The more Charlotte
thought about involving police, the more she felt it might all come down to his
word against hers…and her parents. Logan was so powerful and confident. She was
just some woman with seemingly preposterous claims against him. They'd likely
ask why she hadn’t come to them sooner about being kidnapped. No, what she
needed was something more. She needed hard evidence of his crimes or at least
criminal links. It seemed both daunting and impossible.

She thought about it all
the way home, falling into a deep, depressed silence her parents couldn’t rouse
her from, despite promises of her favorite meal and a bottle of wine. They all
needed a drink after what they’d been through. They were all stressed and
conflicted about what to do next. However, only Charlotte realized the depth
and potential for disaster of her current situation.

The only beacon of hope
in her mind was Brett, thinking about what he’d said, the way he’d kissed her
lightened her mood immeasurably. It seemed like the only truly positive thing
in her life she had going on. He was only a phone call away.

Although she wanted
nothing more than to talk to him and be with him immediately. She didn’t want
to call him too soon. Charlotte feared doing so would make her seem desperate
and needy. She didn't want to be a pressure to him or scare him off.

Because of these fears
and beliefs, she waited two days to call Brett. Two long days that seemed to
drag on endlessly. She'd watched the clock ticking slowly and wondered whether each
distant sound of a car somewhere on the road, was Logan coming to steal her back
and murder her parents.

Her parents bought her a
new cell phone and some new clothes. It was the same as last time. They were spoiling
her and trying to make her comfortable, insisting she didn’t need to worry
about getting a job. They wanted her to heal and take things one day at a time.
It wasn't as if she could get a job right now with a broken leg, anyway. She’d
have to wait.

Charlotte had also decided
to hold off going to the police. She didn't think the time was right and she
feared making Logan angrier and more vengeful, if her attempts to get him
imprisoned failed. Her father sided with her in terms of waiting, at least for
the time being. So her father and she overruled her mother's impassioned pleas for
police protection. 

By the time Charlotte called
Brett, she missed him terribly, even while her dread and fear of Logan's next
move had occupied most of her thoughts. She knew Logan had to know she left and
where she was. She became paranoid and terrified every time either parent left
the house, that they'd never come back. Every time the phone rang, terror
filled her that it would be him.

Brett had become an equally
intense distraction to her, filling her heart and mind with hope. At night,
when she'd lie in bed, she'd fantasize about being with him. He sounded very happy
to hear her when she called. They chatted and made small talk for a while. It
was so easy and natural for them, without any awkwardness or uncomfortable
silences in their conversation.

Although she'd tried to
avoid the topic, she couldn’t help eventually voicing her fears about Logan and
what he might do. Brett was extremely caring, quietly comforting and
reassuring. He offered to drive up and visit her sometime after work, saying he
wanted to discuss everything with her in more detail.

“I have the day off
tomorrow. Maybe we can come up with a plan,” he said brightly.

“A plan? What kind of
plan?” Charlotte asked, baffled about his statement.

“How we can ensure Logan
gets convicted.”

“You…you’re going to help
me?” she asked cautiously, not quite understanding why he was getting so
involved.

Of course, she was pretty
well aware that Dr. Brett Devlin had a soft spot for her. However, she hadn’t
yet realized just how deep it was. She believed she cared about him much more
than he felt for her. The fact he offered to help her with something so
important to her and potentially dangerous, seemed to make Charlotte's heart
soar on wings of hope.

“Yeah, I want to help you,”
Brett said with sincerity.

“Why…?”

“Because… I want to…” he
paused, and she thought she heard him swallow.

She could almost hear him
smiling when he said, “I care about you, Charlotte.”

Once again, she felt her
heart skip a beat as she heard his words. She wondered if she'd actually be
able to fall deeply in love, like in books and movies. She wanted to so much,
with Brett. He was so amazing and wonderful.

These thoughts evoked so
many questions and fears within her. Was she too damaged by everything that had
happened? Could she ever trust again? Was she broken beyond repair?

However, it couldn't
possibly be anything like it had been for her and Logan. Brett was so different
and she was different now, as well. Brett wasn't dark, intense or mysterious.
He was sweet, caring, intelligent and open. She knew if she could be brave
enough to let her guard down, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from falling
for him.