Pretty Little Lies (Lie #2) (17 page)

Dylan
 

“You’re room is this way,” a kindly, older lady, Jane, said as she started to walk up a set of metal steps outside a run-down apartment building. “We do laundry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Breakfast is served at eight sharp, lunch is at noon, and dinner is at six. If you need anything, James the handyman’s number is taped to the top of the phone on your breakfast bar.”

I looked around, catching a glimpse of three pregnant women lying out by the pool and another one sitting on a small patio outside her front door. It was nice to know I would have support and be able to gain strength from other women going through the same thing.

I had been so relieved when I’d stepped off the plane in that dinky, little airport to find a smiling face there waiting on me. My lawyer, Mr. DeMarco, had arranged for me to fly to a home for unwed mothers. Each woman there had found themselves in the same predicament as I was in. Pregnant without anyone to turn to. The prospective parents only lived two hours away, so they could take a more active role in the pregnancy.

Jane produced a key and opened the door to a furnished apartment. It wouldn’t have won any decorating contest but held ever necessity. “It’ll be okay. If you need anything day or night, I’m always around.” She patted my hand. “We stocked the fridge for you already. The ice maker is broken, but James will be around tomorrow to fix it.”

I stood in a well-worn apartment and fought back the tears. It was the last place I wanted to be. I wanted to be back in that hotel, making love to Ethan. But with what I knew to be true, I would only be holding out for the inevitable. I wished I had never forgotten the lies, and then I would’ve never believed I was capable of the happily-ever-after.

“It’s great. Thank you,” I said but couldn’t bring myself to look at her without bursting into tears.

I didn’t have to see her to know her mouth was turned down in a frown. “Sweetheart, in years to come, you’ll see this was for the best.”

I didn’t want to think about the years to come. What life would be like after I held my little girl? She kicked my left rib, no doubt, letting me know she was still there. My past would always define me, but I wouldn’t cast that burden on another helpless child. I loved her enough to give her a life better than me.

“I haven’t been able to sleep in quite a few hours. May I take a nap before I come down and sign all those papers?”

She seemed agitated I was putting off signing the papers giving away the rights to my child. “Sure, but as soon as you are up we need to get those papers signed.”

As much as I needed one, I was too tired to take a bath or even change clothes. I was too tired to care about anything.

The bedroom was sparse, but the linens were fresh and looked inviting. I kicked off my shoes, crawled under the thick layers of blankets, curled up into a ball, and cried myself to sleep.

Ethan

Mom scrambled to the back door and hesitated. It was the first time in my life she was scared of me. I waved for her to come out, and tried smiling but my lips refused to obey. She rattled her cellphone in her hand.

“It’s Margaret Ellen. She said she had been trying to call your cell.”

I slapped the pockets on my jeans.
Fuck, I left my cell on the bed at the hotel.
I held up my hand and shook my head. I had no desire to talk to anyone about anything other than Dylan.

“It’s about the girl you set up a trust for,” Helen said.

Dylan,
what did she know about her? I snapped the phone out of my mom’s hand.

“Marge?” I choked out.

“Sir, I got a call about the girl you’ve been supporting the last few years.” Margaret Ellen’s voice was shaky and nervous.

What the hell did she know about Dylan? What if they were making trouble for her for not attending college? Was that why she ran? I felt my heart race at the thought.

“What about her?”

Margaret Ellen knew that I was highly protective of the recipient of the trust fund, but she had no idea it was the girl I was dating. It was my Dylan.

“A clinic for unwed mothers in Alabama called and offered to repay any or all the scholarship money back. I thought you would want to know she is obviously pregnant and debating adoption.”

My heart slipped from my chest at that moment and left behind a ragging, bleeding hole. Dylan Elizabeth Summers had changed me in ways I never dream possible. She owned me, and the thought of her sitting in some clinic ready to throw it all away killed my soul.

“What was the clinic’s name? I paused, afraid I might have lost everything that ever mattered. “What the hell is the name?” I barked again without thinking.

“The Clymer Clinic in Birmingham.”                           

“I know it’s your day off but can you gather as much info as you can on the clinic and send an email to my dad’s phone? I’ve lost mine.”

I clicked off the phone and knocked the chair over getting up. “Come on, dad. We’re taking a road trip.”

I turned back first and kissed my mom on the forehead. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Dad will text you when we know something.”

I shook my head and walked away. I didn’t wait to answer any questions because I knew that it would push me over the edge. I was simply fighting to breathe through the pain at that moment. I couldn’t just let her leave. Who would take care of her? Who would hold her when she was crying? Who the hell was she trying to give our daughter too? She wasn’t thinking. I needed to get to her and help her get through whatever made her leave.

The three-hour drive to Birmingham, Alabama would have been harder if my dad had not come along. At times, I wanted to blame half my problems with Dylan on him but the truth was he had always had my back.

“Son, you’ll get her back. Slow down before you kill us,” Neal said, cutting his eyes over toward me.

I eased off the gas pedal but still kept it a little over a hundred.

“Every one of my kids are the greatest blessings in my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant I didn’t get to have each of you. But you’re my pride. Not only because you’re the one I got to have with my Helen, but because you’re me. Not one of my other children has the drive and desire to succeed like you. But as hard as you’ve always worked, you’ve always partied even harder. Are you ready to turn your back on all that for her and a family?” he asked quietly and started fidgeting with the radio buttons.

I tousled my hand through my hair. “I use to live for the next deal, the next fix, hell, the next fuck, but none of that matters anymore. I can’t wait to get off work and go home to her. I enjoy cooking for her, snuggling on the couch. I love our sex life . . .”

Neal held up his finger not wanting to hear about my sex life.

I didn’t even blush. My dad had walked in on me fucking. The fact I was no virgin wasn’t news to anyone.  “But I love the nights I just hold her while she sleeps. My biggest fantasy now is watching Dylan raise that precious little girl with me.”

“You have to tell her. You have to tell her who Victoria really is. Why you can’t marry her.”

“Yet, why I can’t marry her yet.” I slammed my fist into the steering wheel repeatedly until my dad reached across the truck to grab the wheel to keep from ramming into the side of a nearby car. 

Sunday March 22, 2015

Dylan

It was dark outside when I woke up. I looked around for a clock and didn’t spot one. I reached for my purse to pull out my cellphone when I remembered I had left it back in that hotel room. Thinking about it, I wondered about Ethan, and what he was possibly doing at that moment. Was he wondering about me? Did he miss me? I had analyzed every second I had with him, every word I could remember coming out of his plump, kissable lips. I tried hating him, not wanting him, but the more I thought about him, the more I wanted to be with him. We never talked about the past, but then again, Deacon and Sarah threaten him every time they saw him to not tell me anything. It was dangerous.

I got up, needing some time to decide what to do. I was still fully dressed and didn’t have any desire to change. I slid opened the patio doors and stepped out onto a small wooden deck overlooking a massive span of concrete. I shrugged. It was better than anywhere that I had lived as a teenager.

“You don’t need to be outside this time of the night. It’s not the best part of town.” A deep voice came from a picnic table that sat on the side of the parking lot. He was a middle-age man. It was obvious he was manual labor. He was heavyset but you could still see tight muscles on his upper arm. His long dirty blond hair was in a low ponytail. Several strands fell loosely around his face. I couldn’t see his mouth from the several weeks’ growth of facial hair but I could tell he was smiling.

“Smoking around an apartment full of pregnant women is not very safe either,” I said with a smirk and took a drink from the water bottle I had picked up on the way out. I hadn’t expected to see a man outside the building, but he seemed like he belong there, and for some reason, he didn’t raise any flags.

“So when did you get here?” He raised one of his eyebrows. “Are you the new girl DeMarco sent over?”

“I guess,” I replied.

1. Who was he? The damn police. Ethan would’ve been ready to kick his butt for asking me too many questions. I cracked. Falling back in my chair, every emotion I’d ever experience came crashing down on me. I’d been an emotional wreck since Victoria greeted me outside the bathroom, but nothing compared to the brokenness I suddenly felt. I was pregnant with a child I wanted more than my next breath, by a man, I wanted just as much. By a man, who promised to make me pay for hurting his brother who spent three days raping me. A man, who promised to love me. A man, through it all, I still needed. A man, who I wanted to hold me. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut in order to hold back the flood of tears. I didn’t want to cry. Crap, I couldn’t stop crying.

I stroked over my stomach. My heart was too shattered to give to my daughter the love she deserved. She was worthy of a mother who was not totally broken, and a father that actually loved her.

Ethan

I needed to get to Dylan. I needed to touch her soft skin and try to show her how much I loved and needed her and the baby. Whatever hurt her enough to make her leave, I would fix it. Even if I couldn’t marry her at the moment, she would always be my forever.

I pulled up to the address Margaret Ellen emailed when my dad gripped my arm. “E, before you get out, I need to tell you something.”

“Shoot,” I said with my hand on the door handle. I wanted out of that truck.

“I didn’t tell you everything Marge’s email said. Her lawyer DeMarco is a baby broker.”

“Huh?”

“He sells these babies to the highest bidder. He’s a piece of crap.” He squeezed my arm. “In Alabama you can sign your rights away at any time. You don’t have to wait for the birth.”

I caught my reflection in the rearview mirror, and it startled me. Dark circles encompassed my sad eyes, my once confident demeanor unrecognizable. I looked like the hell I was living in. I was being sucked into a living nightmare. I closed my eyes. Her smiling face burned behind my eyelids. My trusting Dylan was once again in the hands of a savage wolf. All she wanted was to be happy, and all she found was misery. I rammed my fist onto the dashboard, shaking the cab of the truck. I choked backed a lump welling up in my chest. The pain was oppressive. “Please forgive me, Privy. Come back to me,” I whispered to myself.

My dad tapped his fist over my knee, unsure of what else to say. After wallowing in my despair for a few more moments, I took a deep breath and got out.

I caught a glimpse of a man smoking at an old wooden picnic table. He was huffing on that cancer stick as if it was the only thing keeping him alive. He stared up at a patio connected to a dilapidated apartment building and a girl slumped over a small metal table. Long red hair hung down and sprawled over the tabletop. A pair of small shoulders vibrated as she cried. I was looking at a woman that was totally shattered. It was my sweet Dylan the man was staring at. Taking in the sight of her, I finally felt whole until  . . . I remembered the reason she was there was because she was running from me.

She never realized that someone was watching her . . . that I was watching her. I counted the decks across the back of that rundown structure to figure out which apartment Dylan was in, before I took off running around to the front of the building. I noticed the man still looking at Dylan. I was pissed and wanted to beat the shit out of him for following every movement of the girl that was mine. I couldn’t blame him though. Even totally broken, she was ravishing.

I took out into a full-fledge run. She was inside the third apartment from the left corner. I glanced back at my dad sitting in the truck before I started banging on the front door. I pounded my fist onto it until I heard a key turn in the lock. She slowly opened it, and stuck out her head. When she saw it was me her eyes with wide, and she dragged her bottom lip through her teeth.

“Why are you here?” She opened the door and stepped aside.

“Because you are?” I walked through the open door and closed it. I locked my eyes on her and hungrily devoured every inch of her succulent body.

She put the entire length of the room between us. She didn’t stop until she rammed her back against the wall. She crossed her arms and rubbed her shoulders as if she was trying to ward off the cold.

“How did you know where I was?”

“They called about the scholarship.”

Her eyes had a brief glimmer as if it was all coming back to her. Could she have possibly been remembering that I’ve always tried taking care of her?

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Dylan asked.

I flinched at the thought of that ever being a possibility. I took a few steps toward her, trying to close the gap between us.

“You promised Victoria you would make me pay. E, I wished you would’ve killed me instead of making me believe you cared.” She backed farther into a corner. “I should’ve had enough sense to know you couldn’t love me. My own mom didn’t love me so why should someone like you?”

The room spun around me, and tunnel vision set it. All I could see was her cowering in the corner crying. I couldn’t stand seeing her in so much pain. I had no idea how deep the extent of her pain truly was. She didn’t even believe I could love her. Hell, I was the luckiest son of a bitch in the world because I got the privilege to love her. Her mother had to been the biggest fucker ever not to realize what a treasure she truly had in her daughter. I prayed every day that my daughter would just be half the woman Dylan was. 

I couldn’t respond. God, I couldn’t stand seeing her like that. Words suddenly seemed inadequate. I encompassed her against me. I couldn’t hold her close enough. If I couldn’t find the words to say, I would show her what she truly meant to me. How fucking crazy I was about her. She buried her face against my chest. I felt her hot tears as they soaked my shirt. She clutched my hand and bought it to the swell of her stomach.

“E,” she said against the lapel of my suit coat. “Did you ever even care about her?” She choked back another round of tears. “Do you love her just a little bit?”

She started shaking her head. Would she even believe me when I answered? Abruptly, she shoved me hard enough to topple me backwards. “Just get the hell out. I’m tired of your shit.”

I started to take a step in her direction when she held up her hands to keep me away. Sometimes a person can hurt so deeply that they’re unable to hurt again. That was where I found her. I snapped.

“Well, I’m tired of yours too.” I was trying to be gentle with her, but I felt the asshole I tried to suppress around her come to the surface. “I’m tired of rehashing crap. No, I haven’t told you shit since I found you again. But then again, your ass-for-a-roommate threatened me daily if I did. I’m tired of trying to convince you that I care. Hell, what else can I do? I’m tired of you running every time something goes wrong.” I kicked a small table, sending it barreling across the room. “But I promise you something right now, you can run anywhere but my sorry ass is following you.”

I jerked her hand and started to pull her to the front door. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“I don’t know but somewhere besides this dump,” I answered but kept walking.

She tugged on my shoulder. “I can’t leave.”

I spun around and hovered over her. “Why the hell not?”
 

“Because they said if I left I couldn’t come back.”

“Great, because I’ll never allow you to step foot in this damn place again,” I screamed and shook with pent-up rage. “You want to give our baby away to a baby broker?”

“I don’t want to give her away but what other choice do I have?”

I glared at her. My breath caught in my throat, and my heart started thumping in my chest. The atmosphere started to shift around us. I watched as Dylan’s eyes widen before her head dipped slightly, and she gazed up at me through her long lashes. Her body was totally contrite, and for a brief moment, I saw something I had never caught in her gaze before. Why I’d never seen that look was beyond me. My sweet Dylan was a submissive at heart. She had spent her whole life trying to just breathe. She needed a Dominat to take care of her and fight for her. She ran when she was backed in a corner because she was looking for a lifeline. She didn’t want to figure it out anymore. She wanted someone to tell her what to do. She was tired of fighting alone. I would be that lifeline.

“You have me. You asked me if I wanted our baby. If I love her? The answer is yes. I can hardly work for dreaming about her. Who she’ll look like? Act like? But as much as I already love her, it has nothing on what I feel for you. I’ve done so much shit in my past. I’m fully aware I don’t deserve you but I’m not letting you leave me.”

The next thing I was aware of was the small smile shadowing on her face and throwing her over my shoulder. I stepped outside her apartment, raced down the stairs, and was greeted by two security guards.

“Sir, you need to let the lady down and leave the premise immediately.” They crossed over the sidewalk and stared me down.

“She doesn’t want down,” I said matter-of-factly, my eyes never leaving them.

“That’s for her to say.”

I fisted my hands in her hair and lightly yanked her head up. “You want me to let you down?” I asked and smiled as her eyes soften before she shook her head.

The look on Dylan’s face caused an unexplained rush of adrenaline to pulse through my veins. I quickened my pace to get away from them and to get Dylan safely in my truck. They were not going down easy. They stepped in front of us.

“I think you men need to move,” Dad said as he walked up behind the security guards. “Or my son here, who’s a D.A., will gladly show you what an overprotective papa-bear is capable of.”

It didn’t take much to get those thugs to step to the side. Those simple words did it.

Once I got Dylan in my truck, I could finally think straight. I climbed in right beside her. When I shut the door, everything felt totally right. My impatience made it feel like forever to drive into the city and get a hotel.