Finding You: The Switched Series book one (15 page)

Chapter Eighteen

I feel like something is sitting on top of me keeping me from breathing. I move my arm up to try and knock it off. When there’s nothing there for it to hit, my arm falls on my stomach and a pain I didn’t know was possible hits me. I try to open my eyes, but I am having trouble keeping them open. What has happened to me? I try to think back but I can’t remember anything. I finally get my eyes open to find everyone sitting around me. We are in a hospital room. I am in a hospital bed. I look over beside me to find Ash staring back at me.

“Hey,” he whispers.

“What happened?” I ask him, looking around the room. Everyone is in here.

“You don’t remember?” he asks. I try think back again and figure out what happened.

“I remember Molly called to talk. I dropped Leighton off at the house and went to meet her. I got there and………….” The eyes, the blue eyes were there. I am shaking and there is no way I can stop the sobs that are coming out of me now. 

“Baby, it’s okay. You are safe. You’re going to be fine. Calm down,” Ash keeps saying. How he can say that? He must not know what I did. I killed someone. I had to though. He killed my parents. He would have killed me and Molly. Molly.

“Where’s Molly? Is she okay?” I ask, looking around the room. I find her sitting in the corner with tears streaming down her face.

“I’m so sorry,” she says, before running out of the room. Everyone is just sitting around staring at me.

“Somebody go after her,” I whisper through the pain that is keeping me from breathing right now. Finally Cindy runs out of the room to find Molly.

“Is he dead?” I ask Ash, looking into his eyes. He just nods his head at me and continues to rub my cheek.

“I killed him,” I say. “I had to do it, he was going to kill us both.”

“It’s okay baby, you did the right thing. I am so proud of you. You saved your life and Molly’s life,” Ash says, still looking into my eyes.

“Ash, I have to tell you something. I am so sorry. I should have done more to protect it, I am so sorry,” I say, sobbing uncontrollably now. My baby, the one person I was supposed to protect, I let down. There was no way a baby could have survived that kick.

“Hey, it’s okay. Look at me,” he says, trying to pull my face back even with his. “They did some bloodwork and said your some kind of levels were good. I don’t know what that means, but they think the baby is fine. They want to do an ultrasound when you are ready to make sure.”

“You know about the baby?” I ask him, watching him nod his head at me.

“Leighton found your test in the bathroom and told the doctor so they wouldn’t give you anything that could harm it. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to tonight. I just took the test yesterday afternoon. I was trying to think of some clever way to tell you. I’m so sorry. I really do want this baby though. I was so excited.”

“I know you were. Why don’t I go find a nurse and they can come in and do an ultrasound now so we can make sure our baby is okay?” he says, standing up from the chair beside my bed. He walks out of the room to find a nurse and I take a look around the room. Everybody is just staring at me with pity on their face. The one thing I can’t stand.

“I can’t believe you got married and didn’t even tell your best friend. I am so mad at you,” Leighton says, coming over to give me and very soft hug. “I’m also very proud of you and so thankful you are okay,” she whispers in my ear.

“When you are better and Ash isn’t totally flipping out, I will probably beat him up.” Brody says, coming over and giving me a quick kiss on the forehead.

“You better not,” I say to him. He just looks down at me and smiles.

“I really am happy for you two. I would have given you privacy if you had just told me.”

“I know you would have. Ash was planning on you moving in being enough for me to give in and tell everyone. I just didn’t want to do that to Molly. Speaking of Molly, is she okay? Did he hurt her or something? I know she went through a lot, but I’m kind of the one that got stabbed, so what is wrong with her?” I ask, watching everyone just look around at each other. Finally Ash comes back in the room with a nurse pulling an ultrasound machine behind her.

“Everyone out except the daddy,” she says to everyone in the room. Slowly they all start walking out of the room to give us some privacy. Bo and Clay are the last ones out after coming over to give a quick hug and tell me congratulations. I don’t know if they are talking about being married or having a baby. I guess they have had lots of surprises today. I just really hope this baby is okay.

“The first thing I am going to do is measure the baby so we can get an idea of how far along you are. After that we will look for the heartbeat and if you are far enough along, we will listen to it,” the nurse says, getting everything set up.

I grab Ash’s hand and look over at him. “I’m so sorry,” I say to him for what feels like the hundredth time since I woke up.

“Stop apologizing. It’s not your fault,” he says, wiping the tears off of my face. “This is a happy time. We are about to see our baby for the first time.”

“What if something happened? What if I killed our baby?” I ask him, turning my head to look at the screen in front of me.

“This baby is going to be just fine,” the nurse says, smiling at me.

“I’m going to get a measurement really quick, and then we will listen to the heartbeat. See this little dot beating. That’s your baby’s heart beating,” she says, looking at the screen really close. This has to be one of the most amazing moments of my life. Somehow after everything my body has been through today, my baby has been so strong and survived it all.

“It looks like you are around eight weeks,” she says, standing up to look closer to the screen. “Can you see this right here?” she asks, pointing to a blob on the screen. “Do you know what that is?” she asks, smiling back at me.

“I thought that was the heartbeat,” I say to her confused.

“It is a heartbeat,” she says, “a second heartbeat.”

I look over at Ash who looks just as confused as I am right now. “I don’t understand. Babies only have one heartbeat, why does mine have two?” Why is this nurse looking so excited about my baby having two heartbeats? That can’t be safe, unless there are two babies…………. I’m having twins.

“Wait, do you mean there are two babies?” I finally ask the nurse.

“Congratulations, you are having twins. Both babies look very healthy. Are you ready for those heartbeats now?” We both just nod our heads at her while watching the screen. I don’t know what I was expecting to hear, but the sound coming out of the machine right now was not it. I never knew you could hear a baby heartbeat so early. They are just little dots on the screen, but they already have a beating heart. “One is beating 156 times per minute and the other is 148. Everything looks really healthy right now. I’ll print off your babies’ first photos for

you to keep. The doctor will be in when he makes his rounds and tell you more then,” she says, handing me the three pictures. Baby A was printed on one, Baby B was printed on one and they also had a picture together. This has to be the most amazing things I have ever seen. “Congratulations to you both,” she says, standing up and taking the machine back out the door.” I’ll tell your family to give you a few minutes before coming in.”

              “Are you okay?” Ash asks, looking down at the ultrasound pictures I can’t stop staring at.

              “I’m great. My leg is killing me and I feel like I can’t breathe, but I am so happy,” I say, looking up at Ash. “Are you okay with this, two babies?”             

              “I have never been happier. I was so scared when I walked in that room and saw you laying there covered in blood. I thought I had lost you. Now I not only have you but two babies we created together, I am definitely the luckiest man in the world,” he says, leaning down to give me a quick kiss on the lips.

              “I am so sorry. I have no idea how he found me or Molly. He knew everything. Do you know his name?” I ask. Ash just nods his head and looks at me with the saddest eyes when the door busts open and Leighton and Brody come back into the room.

              “Is everything okay? The nurse wouldn’t tell us anything,” Leighton asks, while everyone except Molly and Jaxon come pouring into the room. I guess this conversation will have to wait. I feel like I am missing something again.

              “Everything is great. Where’s Molly, is she okay?” I ask Cindy, while she just looks at Ash.

              “You didn’t tell her?” she asks Ash.

              “I was about to tell her when you all came back in the room.”

Something was definitely going on. Had something happened to Molly while I had been out of it? I know she was tied up and that had to be a hard thing to live through, but she wasn’t lying in a hospital bed like I was. “Ash, what’s going on?”

              “His name was Kyle Smith,” Ash says, taking a deep breath and looking around the room. I have never heard that name before. Maybe he is a family friend of theirs or something. I hope not, they probably wouldn’t appreciate me shooting him. Finally Ash looks back at me.

              “Molly has been dating him for the past couple of months or longer. We’re not really sure where or when she met him. She’s not saying much.” She has been dating the boy that murdered my parents. This could not have been a coincidence. He had to have looked us up and found her. Was she mad I shot him?

              “I’m sorry I killed him, but he was going to kill us. He killed my parents. He was crazy. His story was ridiculous, there is no way my parents did what he says they did to his mom. I need to talk to Molly. Where is she? I’m so sorry.” I can’t stop the tears now. I have cried more in the past six months than I have ever cried. He had her tied up. She can’t blame me for killing him. He really would have killed us both and probably everybody else.

              “She’s not mad at you for killing him. She’s mad at herself for falling for his lies and calling you to come over. She thinks she killed your baby. She’s really not a bad person, this has just been really hard on her,” Cindy says, coming over to sit by me. “How did the ultrasound go?” she whispers. I look at Ash and take the ultrasound picture from him and hand them to her. If anybody knows what they mean it will be her. She has had twins after all.

              She looks down at the pictures for a few seconds before throwing her hand over her mouth.

              “Are they okay?” she asks softly crying.

              “THEY,” everybody else in the room screams at the same time.

              “They are perfect,” I say looking around the room to find Clay. He just smiles and winks at me.

              “I can’t believe you’re having twins,” Leighton says, coming over to give me another hug.

                            “I think we all need to get out of here to give you two some alone time. We will check in on you in a little later. We are all really glad you are okay. All of you,” Cindy says, making everybody leave the room.

“Congratulations, maybe it will be a boy and girl,” Collin says, walking out of the room.

              “Alone at last,” Ash says, just as the doctor walks into the room.

              “I hear congratulations are in order. Everything looks good. You will need to stay off of that leg for a few days and you are going to need to keep those ribs wrapped as long as you can. I can give you pain meds if you want, but they won’t be very strong. It’s completely up to you. Just try not to move around a lot and it shouldn’t be too bad,” he says, walking over to look at my chart. “You need to make an appointment for next week to take another look at those babies. Other than that, you are good to go. You better make sure she gets lots of rest and stays off the leg as much as possible,” he says, looking at Ash. “If you can do that, I can go ahead and discharge you tonight. Just call if you need anything or have any questions. Be careful going home,” he says, walking out of the room just as a cop is walking into the room. I don’t know this man, but Ash stands up to shake his hand.

              “Congratulations man, I heard you were married with two kids on the way. You sure know how to keep a secret,” he says, turning to look at me. “I’m Detective Mason and I need to ask you a few questions about what happened if you feel up to it,” he says, while I just look at Ash.

              “I will be here the whole time. You are going to have to tell what happened. We might as well get this over with now,” Ash says, grabbing my hand.

              “Okay,” I say right before reliving another really bad day in my life.

Chapter Nineteen

              This has definitely been one of the longest days of my life. I still don’t understand what is going on with Molly or why she was with that guy. I’m just hoping she had no idea who he was before today. I do know one thing, I need to talk to her now.

              “Can we stop at Bo and Cindy’s before going home?” I ask Ash as we are pulling into town.

              “I would rather get you home first. We can call them to come over if you want to see them. You need to rest, baby.”

              “I need to talk to Molly. She will not come to me and you know it. It’s really important. Please Ash,” I beg.

              “I don’t think it’s a good idea. They were just able to go back in a few minutes ago. They had to go over the scene and then clean the living room. I don’t think you need to go back in there.”

              “Please, I really need to talk to Molly. It won’t take long, I promise.”

              “Fine, but we are not staying long,” he says, turning around to go back to their house.

              We pull into the drive and Ash gets out and comes around to help me out of the truck. He grabs my crutch from the backseat and tells me not to put any weight on my leg. This is going to be fun. We walk into the house to find Bo, Cindy, Jaxon and Collin in the kitchen.

              “We didn’t know you guys were stopping by,” Bo says, looking past me to Ash. I guess he doesn’t think this is a good idea either.

              “I want to talk to Molly. Is she here?” I ask, watching everybody just look at each other.

              “She’s in her room. Up the stairs, first room on the right,” Collin says, while Cindy just looks at him.

              “Thank you,” I say to him, trying to make my way up the stairs with a crutch. No one offers to help and I know it’s because they think it’s a bad idea. I don’t care though. Having these two babies with me has made me realize a lot of things today. One is I want a family. I want a family with Ash and my babies, but I also want a family with my real family and that is going to include Molly whether she likes it or not. She doesn’t have anybody else, but maybe I can help her. I know I haven’t been fair to her holding information about my parents to myself, but I am going to try and fix that tonight.

              I take a deep breath before knocking on the door.

              “I said I didn’t want to talk. I’m tired and it’s been a long day,” she says, through the door.

              “It’s been a very long day for me too, but I really want to talk to you Molly. Please open the door,” I say, hoping she will want to talk to me too. “We can talk through the door if you want, but my leg hurts so I would really appreciate it if you would let me in.” Finally after a few seconds, the door opens to reveal a very horrible looking Molly. Not that I can talk, I know I look bad, but she looks absolutely broken right now.

              “Can I come in?” I ask. She opens the door and lets me come in closing it behind me. I sit down on her bed and look around at her room. I don’t know much about this girl, but looking in her room tells me all I need to know about her. She is more like my mom than I ever could have imagined. “Did you draw all of these?” I ask, looking all over her room.

              “I did, it’s good stress relief. I’m not very good, but I enjoy it,” she says. She is wrong, these are amazing. How could she think she wasn’t very good? “I’m sorry. If I had known what he was going to do or had done, I never would have called you. He just said he wanted to meet you. He said he thought it would be good if we talked. I had no idea he already knew all of that.”             

              “I know you didn’t. He was right, we do need to talk, maybe start over. I never wanted to take your family away from you. I just wanted to get to know them and you. I never planned on staying,” I say, hoping she will understand.

              “I know you probably didn’t plan on staying, but I knew you would. My family is amazing. I have always been the annoying little sister that never fit in. I knew the first time I saw you that you were the opposite of that and you would fit in with them perfect. Then when I saw you and Ash together, I knew he would definitely be the reason you would stay. He really is an amazing person. I guess I have always had a huge crush on him. I lied about what I said about him. We were never together. I was just trying to hurt you.”

              “I know you were. I know we haven’t known each other long at all, but I really can’t imagine my life without him, especially now.”

              “Congratulations on the wedding and the baby. I hope you weren’t keeping it a secret because of me.”

              “I didn’t want to give you another reason to hate me. I thought it would be best if we just kept it quiet for now. I sure didn’t mean to get pregnant.”

              “So the baby is okay? He kicked you really hard,” she says, looking at my stomach.

              “Yes he did, actually broke two ribs, but both babies are okay,” I say, hoping she heard the last part. I have decided no more secrets from now on out. I might as well get it out now.

              “Twins, wow. That’s exciting. I know he’s not really mine, but growing up with Collin as a twin really was amazing. I really am happy for you.”

              “Thank you, that means a lot to me,” I say, starting to cry again. “I’m sorry. I think my hormones are seriously out of control.”

              “It’s okay. I know I haven’t given you a chance. I have been difficult and mean, but I really want to start over. I know you don’t trust me, but maybe we can try to get to know each other.”

              “I think that’s a great idea. Can you take me home? I have something I want to show you,” I ask her. Maybe I do have something she can have to know more about her parents. It’s not much, but maybe it will be a good start.

              “Okay. Do you really think Ash will let you leave with me alone?” she asks. She has a point. After today I don’t know if he will ever let me out of his sight again.

              “There’s only one way to find out,” I say, trying to stand up again while she slips some boots on. When we both come down the stairs together, everybody just turns to stare at us. I guess it has been really bad with the two of us since I have been here.

              “Hey baby, Molly is going to take me home. Give us around thirty minutes, and then you can come home. You can all come over if you bring food. I’m starving,” I say, walking by him and out the door with Molly. He grabs my hand and holds me back very easily.

              “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asks.

              “I’m sure. I’ll see you in a few minutes. I have something that belongs to her.” I say with the tears flowing again. “Now, go get me food. Your babies are starving in there.” He gives me a quick kiss on the forehead and lets go of my hand. I know after the day we have had that the last thing he wanted was for me to walk out the door with this woman. I really doubt we have thirty minutes.

              I unlock the door to find Brody and Leighton cleaning my house. Was it really that dirty? There has to be something going on with these two. Right now, I have more important things to take care of.

              “I was just packing up my things. I figured you two didn’t need a chaperone anymore,” Brody says, looking between me and Molly.

              “You can stay as long as you want. Right now I need you to take Leighton somewhere for a few minutes. I need to talk to Molly, okay?” I say, looking at Leighton.

              “Please,” I mouth at her.

              “Sure, come on Brody. We will be back in a little while. Good to see you again, Molly. I’m really glad both of you are okay,” she says, pulling Brody out the door.

              “Just have a seat, I’ll be right back,” I say, before heading to the bedroom to get a box out of the closet. I grab the letter out of the nightstand drawer and open it one last time before giving it to her. I take the letter out, unfold it and begin reading it for my final time.

My beautiful baby Callie

If you are reading this, then something really bad has happened and you are alone. No child should be alone and I don’t want you to be either.

I want to start off by apologizing for what I am about to tell you. I need you to know first and most importantly that you are and always will be my baby girl. I brought you home from the hospital. I sat up with you all hours of the night when you wouldn’t sleep. I saw every one of your firsts, your first tooth, first steps, first word, first lost tooth, first day of school, everything.

I also need to tell you that I may be one of the most selfish people in this world. I hope you don’t hate me for what I am about to tell you, but I need you to know you are not alone and never will be.

When you were three years old, you had a really high fever and ended up spending the night in the hospital. I was a nurse and was looking at your chart when I noticed something, your blood type. All children have to have either their mom or dad’s blood type. You didn’t have either of ours.

I talked to your dad and we did some research and found out you were not out biological daughter. You were switched with another baby in the hospital that day. We found that baby and went to see her soon after you were out of the hospital.

She went home with an amazing family who also had three boys. We found them at a park one day and you actually played with their little girl or I guess I should say our little girl. She was beautiful. She had the most gorgeous strawberry blonde hair. I loved her the moment I laid eyes on her. I also knew I loved you and her parents loved her just as much.

This is where my selfishness comes in. I decided not to tell anyone. They seemed like a great family and I didn’t want to share you. You were mine and they were not going to take you away from me.

We kept up with our biological daughter Molly. We attended dance recitals, ball games, even school functions so we could see her. I know this wasn’t fair to you or her, but unfortunately life isn’t always fair.

I hope you understand and don’t hate us for this decision. I also want to ask you one small favor. I want you find this family and tell them this story. Trust me when I say they will believe you just by looking at you.

I love you more than anything in this world and I hope you understand one day what a mother’s love truly means.

Please don’t live your life alone. Find this family and see what it’s like to have a big family. Enjoy having three overprotective brothers. I also hope you and Molly can be great friends, maybe even sisters.

Just know we love you both more than anything and we are so proud to have known both of our amazing daughters.

Love always, Mom

PS  Bo and Cindy Taylor are your parents

       Brody, Jaxon and Collin are you brothers

      And I pray every day you and Molly will be sisters one day.

I fold the letter up and put it back in the envelope with the pictures. I walk back into the living room and sit on the couch with Molly. Taking a deep breath, I hand her the letter.

“This is how I found out about us. This was in the bottom of a box of pictures I was going through after they died.”

She takes the envelope from me and pulls the letter out. She opens it up and begins to read it. I can see all of the emotions on her face I felt when I read it the first time, love, hate, anger, and sadness. It’s all there.

“There are a few pictures in there too,” I say, when she finishes the letter. She wipes her eyes and grabs the pictures. All of the pictures have one thing in common, her. There are pictures of her at parks, in recitals, and then there is the one picture of her with my parents, taken as soon as she was born before the switch.

“I’m sorry I didn’t show you any of this sooner,” I tell her, and I really mean it. It’s probably my fault all of this has been so hard on everyone.

              “It’s okay, I probably wouldn’t have let you,” she says, trying to stop crying. “I can’t believe they didn’t tell anybody all that time. That has to be the most selfish things I have ever heard of somebody doing.”

“Yeah, try being sixteen and having no one to tell.”

“You never told anyone about this?” she asks.

“I told Ash the night you and I got into it. That was the first time I had ever talked about it. I have something else for you too,” I say, grabbing the box beside me. I take out the two paintings my mom made and give them to her.

“My mom painted these. I thought they might mean more to you.” It’s two paintings. One is blue and one is pink and they both have sweet little teddy bears painted on them.

“She painted them when she was pregnant. They didn’t find out if they were having a boy or girl, so she made both. They both hung in my room forever. You should have them,” I say.

“You should keep these. You are the one having two babies. One for each, I can’t take them,” she says, trying to give them back.

“I thought about this a lot today. She painted these with you in mind, not me. You were the one she was getting that room ready for. They are yours. I know if I made anything for these two inside of me right now, it would be for them, no matter what happened. I really want you to have them,” I say.