The Devastatingly Beautiful Series (29 page)

17

Tatum

“So what do you plan on doing with Delany?” Eddie’s voice booms through the Bluetooth of Molly’s car as I drive to the grocery store.

He called this morning to tell me the entire town back home is buzzing. Someone knows what’s going on, but if my father finds out who that is, they won’t be a problem for too much longer.

“I need to see him. Face to face. I need you to make that happen, man,” I sigh, rubbing my face with my hands.

“Can do. Texas or Illinois corn fields?” he asks, laughing. Apparently the fact that I now live in southern Illinois is funny to him. If I have it my way, though, we’ll be back in Texas in no time.

“Somewhere else. My father has a warehouse in Kansas. Have him moved there, make him wait a few days. Only feed the asshole a piece of bread a day for a week, then I’ll be there.” I growl into the phone.

Robert Delany is about to get a taste of his own medicine.

***

Later that day we go up to the studio so Molly can meet her new assistant. To say she is shocked to see who it is is an understatement.

“Oh my GOD Trey?! What are you doing here?!” She squeals when he walks up front after hearing the door open.

“Hey sweet! SO GOOD to see you. My Lord you have gotten bony, girl. Did Tatum not tell you about our arrangement!?” he looks at me and I smile and shake my head.

“Wanted it to be a surprise,” I laugh as she playfully hits me in the arm.

“Well what the hell? How did all of this happen?” she asks.

I then explained to her how Trey had stopped me in the hospital and told me to take care of her. I could feel the connection that the two of them made, so when she went missing I contacted him to help out. Offered him a shit ton of money to come work here and as it turns out he’s a damn good photographer.

“So Trey has pretty much been keeping this business afloat since you’ve been gone. I’ve just been the puppeteer. He has put in most of the man hours,” I say as she laughs again and hugs me tight.

“Thank you, Tatum. This means more to me than you know.” Her eyes are bright with emotion. I’d do anything to have them like that every day.

Knowing I have hired guards outside both of the studio exits, I leave Molly and Trey to start learning how to work together. I have a plan to bring to life, hopefully sooner than later.

***

Later that evening I’m finishing up dinner when Molly walks into the kitchen. She hugs me as I am putting the noodles on, then again thanks me for what I did for her studio.

“Mol stop, you would have done the same for me. Now go put your things down, I’m almost done.” I have to stop myself from slapping her ass as she walks away. One day I’ll be comfortable with that, but not tonight. It’s still too soon.

She heads into the office and my thoughts drifted to the house. We really need to get that office cleaned out and finish putting all of the boxes away. I left everything sit while she was missing. I couldn’t stand doing something so meaningless when I could have been looking for her.

“Hey babe!” I yell down the hall. “We really need to clean that office. Want to start after dinner?”

“Sure, that’s fine! Now finish up… I’m starving!”

A woman who loves food. How did I get so lucky?

Molly

After an insanely delicious dinner, it’s time to finally tackle the rest of the boxes left over from Tatum’s move here. We divide and conquer and within a few hours we’re already making progress. The final box in my assigned room is the box from my parent’s house. I really have no use for any of it, but something tells me to look through it, just in case. On top is a picture book of my wedding day. TRASH! Under that are the sonograms from Alice. Though they bring back memories in my life I’d rather not remember, these are a keeper. Definitely. Underneath everything is the unmarked envelope I received shortly after the threats came. The envelope I was too afraid to open. The one I left sitting on the counter, unaware that my parents kept it this whole time. I guess since I never told them about the threats they wouldn’t think twice about saving this.

I sit next to the box, Tatum’s in the room but completely unaware of what’s going on over here as I start to open the letter. Everything else around me fades away as I read the letter that would have changed everything had I opened it five years ago.

Molly,

I hope you are doing ok. I am sorry that you were hurt, and I’m sorry that your husband was lying to you. Know that I am hurting right along with you. I couldn’t wait to hold that tiny baby and treat her like the sister I never had. The sister I will never have. Understand that even though I am only 18, I know a lot more than one would think. My whole life I’ve been observing the behavior of the men my father would bring home for supper, the friends he played cards with. When I was younger I was naive, but now that I know the truth, I feel less bad about what I’ve done.

These men killed my father. The ones that used to come to our house for my mother’s homemade soup. The ones that used to swing me on our front porch. They killed him because he was trying to help you. I hope you are not upset with what I did, and I hope one day our paths cross again. I love you like my own mother (just younger and cooler)

Love,

Evelyn

My hands are shaking and I don’t realize I’m crying until I hear Tatum’s voice.

“What’s wrong, what is that?” he asks as he takes the letter and reads it. “Wow. It really was her.”

I nod, wondering what she meant about me not being upset. Why would I be upset with her?

I take the envelope and reach in, feeling a smaller, thicker envelope inside and bringing it out to the light. My stomach drops when I realize what’s inside. All of the cash that Brian stole is currently sitting in my hands. It was all Evie all along.

“Holy shit what is that?” Tatum asks, sitting next to me.

“It’s the money Brian stole… I don’t... oh my God she did know where it was….” Fuck, this is the money! This is a lot of fucking money! “Oh my God Tatum do you know what this means!!!?” He raised his eyebrows, smiling from ear to ear.

“I can finally buy my outdoor studio!!” I laugh, we hug, I cry some more. Then I send a silent thank you up to Evie.

“Does this mean it was sitting at your parent’s house all along?” he asks when I finally calm down.

“Yea, I guess it does,” I say, scrunching my eyebrows together.

“Didn’t my dad tell you a while back that you needed to call your parents?”
Holy shit he did
.

“Do you think he knew?!” This is too weird.

“I wouldn’t put it past him. That man has a soft spot for you and a way of getting information out of people.” He laughs then pulls me in for another kiss. One that leads to a night full of fun, right there on our office rug.

18

Molly

Early the next morning there’s a knock at the door. I grumble and roll over, wishing away anyone that dares interrupt the warmth and snuggles I’ve been receiving all night. Tatum laughs and gets up to answer it, pulling on pants and a shirt on the way. I lay in bed, reveling in the feeling of being home with him again. Things are looking up for us.

Moments later, Tatum’s face peeks in the bedroom.

“Hey babe. Uh… our parents are here,” he says, a slight grin on his face. “You may wanna put some clothes on before coming down,” he laughs as I groan and roll out of bed.

What’re they doing here? Both of our parents? As in, there’s four adults at our door right now? Shit! Looking in the mirror, I make a mental note that today needs to be haircut day. Rob sucks at a lot of things, haircuts being one of them. Tossing the short waves and washing my face, I slip on a sun dress and walk downstairs to meet his parents. His father I’ve met plenty of times before, but I’ve never met his mother.

“Molly, dear, thank goodness you are home.” Al is the first to come over and hug me, not holding back like most people would have had they known what I lived through. It doesn’t bother me, though. The first time I met this man in person I was banged up terribly. The second time I am meeting this man in person I am bruised and beaten from head to toe. Great.

“Yes. Thank you Mr. Savage.”

He laughs at my formalness.

“Please, call me Al. Molly, this lovely woman right here is Nate… er… Tatum’s mother. Alice Savage.” My breathing hitched and I cocked my head at Tatum who is standing behind me smiling at me the sweetest smile.

“Alice?” I ask him in a whisper that I’m sure everyone hears.

“Yeaaa...” he raises his eyebrows in defeat, smiles, and shrugs his shoulders. He didn’t ever tell me his mother’s name, and now I know why. I hear my mom’s tiny gasp as I introduce myself to Tatum’s mother.

“Nice to meet you, Alice. Sorry for the weirdness. I’m sure you know about my past and my connection to your name by now. Your son never mentioned that to me, though, so I was a little shocked. I’m incredibly happy to have you here and to finally meet you.” She’s shorter than me, white hair falls straight to her shoulders, and her grey eyes smile at me.

“I’m so happy you are okay, my dear. You don’t know what you mean to my son, do you?” I smile and raise my eyebrows back at him.

“I think I’m starting to figure that out,” I say and he laughs, bringing me to his side and kissing the top of my head.

I look at my parents next, my dad brooding in the background, my mom tearing up next to him.

“Hey guys,” I offer a smile and is met by a burst of tears and hugs by my mother. I don’t want to be fussed over, I don’t want to be touched this much yet, but I’m not going to make her stop so I stand there, stiff as a board, until Tatum gently reminds her not to smother me.

My father glares at Tatum and I know why. Tatum never told them I had gone missing. I’m sure it was one hell of a shock when they found out, however they did. Either way, they are here. Maybe we can start healing things between us now.

Tatum

When we found Molly, I thought it might be nice to finally let her parents know what had been happening. I didn’t give them details, but they did know that she had been missing for a while and with the help of my father, she was found safe.

Holy shit that was a bad idea. Looking back, not telling them she went missing when she did was a bad idea. Parents, no matter how far removed from their child’s life, want to know that their child is safe. In this case I didn’t think anything of it because they didn’t seem to care for five years, what would make them change their mind now? Apparently I was wrong, and boy did her dad let me have it.

***

“She what!?” his voice boomed into the phone.

“Well, she was missing. For two months. I didn’t tell you because you didn’t need to worry about it. She’s fine, we found her yesterday. No need to worry.”

“The hell I won’t worry! This girl was fine until you stepped into her life! Now, in the last two months she’s been beaten close to death, kidnapped, God knows what was done to her when she was gone, and you didn’t think her PARENTS needed to know?!”

I felt like a child, and I should have. It was a dick move not letting her parents in, but I was in a bad place.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do with myself, I didn’t know the choices I were making were the wrong ones until after they were made. If you want, we will be home soon. I can have my dad fly out to pick you and your wife up so you can come see for yourself that she is okay.”

It was the least that I could do. I just hope that when he sees me he doesn’t attack me. I could probably beat his ass with my eyes closed, but he’s Molly’s father. Even if he did attack me I wouldn’t retaliate.  I couldn’t do that to her.

***

So here we sit. All six of us in this tiny house. It’s cozy, but when we get married we will be building something a bit bigger. I have my eye on some land a few miles out of town that would be great to raise a family, have room to spread out. I’m a Texas boy at heart, and land is kind of a must-have for my future home.

I just brought back in the tray of drinks for everyone, my hand shaking as I hand her father his drink. He hasn’t said much to me since he’s been here, just sent those ever famous Ward family death daggers my way. I now know where she gets that look from.

My dad clears his throat to talk, but Molly’s mom speaks up first.

“Tatum, thank you for having us here today. Al, Alice, Thank you for making it possible for us to get here,” she starts, her eyes, as green as her daughters, start filling with tears. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a pile of what looks to be letters. She clears her throat, takes a breath, and goes on. Jesus Christ will this ever end? The insane amount of secrecy in this family is mind blowing. Any normal person would have run away screaming by now, leaving their lying family in the dust. Not Molly, though. She’s ready to fight, I can feel it in the tense way that she’s sitting on the couch. Shit, I’m either about to witness the best family make-up ever, or the explosion of the century.

Her mom seems more upset that she has to tell the story, rather than being upset that she lied to her daughter all of these years. If I were her, I’d be more worried about the fact that she lied. Obviously her parents have never conjured the wrath of Molly.

Molly

In the last ten years I can count the amount of times I’ve seen my parents on one hand, and still have fingers left over. Seeing them today, standing in my living room for the first time ever, I see them in a whole new light. Maybe it’s just my new outlook on life, but they look more fragile than I remember. Granted, I was an eighteen year old girl who obviously knew more than her parents at the time, but they have always seemed so strong and strict. Standing here now, though, they look like one wrong word from me would break them.

My mom just apologized to me. Mark that one for the history books. I’m still a little bitter about how everything went down between us so I’m trying my hardest to be nice to them. I have a terrible feeling I’m going to say something nasty to them without even realizing it.

That is, though, until I see the pile of envelopes that my mother pulls out of her bag. What the hell? She hands them to me and I notice the handwriting on the top immediately.

Evie.

My heartbeat quickens as she attempts to explain everything. Tatum notices my nerves growing and wraps his arm around me. Funny, I don’t want to be touched by people, but his is the only touch that can calm me.

“Molly,” my mom starts “I never meant to keep any of this from you. It all snowballed so fast, and I didn’t know what to do. Evelynn came to me when her father died, telling me everything she knew. She knew that Brian was in on the deal, she knew that her father was trying to help you, save you and the baby. She even knew where the money was from overhearing a conversation in her living room between Brian and her dad. When they killed her father, she didn’t know where else she could go so she came to me. No one would ever suspect it.”

“Wait, she was just eighteen at the time mom. There are a lot of fucking letters here for her only contacting you once when she was eighteen.” She gasps at my language but I’m not apologizing. This is bullshit.

“Baby-“

“Don’t call me that. Don’t you dare call me that. Why are there so many letters here?” I can feel my heartbeat rising, anger swelling up inside me. I thought this chapter of my life was closed, I thought the lies had all come out and I could move on. She sighs, wringing her hands together.

“ANSWER ME!” I yell, making Tatum’s grasp on me tighten. I can tell he’s holding in whatever he wants to say to me as he presses his lips on the top of my head.

“She stored the money at our house in the attic. No one would suspect us. She was there when you were in the hospital. When you left, she followed you. She felt so guilty because she believed, until the day she died, that she could have stopped them from killing your child.  The letters start when she found you, all alone and incredibly depressed. Honey, you didn’t contact us for five years. Evelynn was our only way to know how you were doing. Sure we were angry with you when you married Brian, but we still loved you. We still do love you. I hope one day you can forgive us. I hope these letters bring some closure to this awful situation.” She starts crying and my dad, who up until now has been glaring either at Tatum or the floor, wraps his arms around her and lets her cry it out.

I’m speechless. Evie followed me because she felt guilty? Thinking back to when I told her of what happened to me, she cried as hard as I did. Now I know it was because it was so personal to her, so close to home. One day I will read these letters. One day, not today.

“Molly, if I can speak up. I know this is a hard time, and you’re having a lot thrown at you, but I think Tatum needs to see this…” he pulls an envelope out of his pocket and hands it to Tatum. Tatum doesn’t open it. He stares at it, then back at his father. “When the situation with the Delany family arose,” he continues, “I freaked out. I am known to be a very stern man, not showing much emotion in even the most dangerous of situations, but my children have always come first. I failed two of my three kids” he shakes his head and his wife grabs his hand for support. “I wasn’t about to fail my only living child. I took it as a personal attack when you were kidnapped, Molly. I know how much my son adores you, and it ruined him when you were taken. As you all know, the Delany family isn’t too fond of the Savage family. As soon as you were taken I put everything I had into finding you. Tatum, you traveled to seven different cities, all following dead ends. I traveled to over twenty other cities, doing the same thing. I fired so many incompetent men in the last two months it isn’t funny.” He pauses and looks right at me. One of the most deadly men in the country is staring at me, and all I want to do is run over and hug the sadness out of him. “I’m so sorry. Both of you, neither of you deserved this. Hell, if Rob wanted revenge, it should have been on me. I was driving the car the hit her!” he shakes his head before going on “I got to the house too late. Rob was already back inside, icing his wounds. The only way to get inside was the upstairs window.”

I don’t want to relive this. I know what window he was talking about, I opened it right before I left. I closed my eyes, wishing for this to be over. I’d rather not have to relive anything from that house, and I now know what he handed his son just moments ago.

Shit.

“Tatum, I found that letter for you inside that room. Molly, if I ever was unsure of how you felt for my son, this note ended all uncertainty. This is why I did… what I did,” he says, glancing over at my parents.

Tatum opens the note with shaking hands. The room falls silent as he reads, everyone waiting for his response to the most depressing thing I’ve ever had to do.

When I wrote that note, I was convinced that he had moved on and wasn’t searching for me anymore. It was my way of moving on. Had I not been rescued that day, I don’t think I would have lasted much longer. My life was becoming more and more meaningless as the days went by. Hearing the words rip out of Rob... that Tatum moved on... killed any hope I had.

“You wrote this?” he asks, his pain filled eyes looking at me. So many questions, but I don’t want to answer any of them.

“The day you rescued me was the day I wrote that note. I had just received the beating of a lifetime just because he hadn’t yet given me one. I was defeated, and when Rob walked in and told me you had moved on my world shattered to pieces. Every bit of hope I had that you were coming was ruined. Before he made me leave I wrote the note. I guess I thought that if anyone found it, it would be you, and by the time that happened I’d already be... gone... for good.” My voice is a whisper by the time I finish. I don’t like voicing that I had thoughts of ending my life, but it happened in my darkest times.

“This was a goodbye note?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to accept the fact that you moved on, I couldn’t live knowing that you loved someone else. I wanted you to know I would love you until the day I die.”

Great, the tears are starting again. Screw this, I’m done with all of this emotional shit for today.

“Everyone, this has been a very eye opening day. I’d really appreciate it if Tatum and I could have some alone time. I think we have a lot to talk about,” I say, hoping that I’m not offending anyone, but not really caring if I do.

Tatum doesn’t let go of my hand the entire time we say our goodbyes to our parents. Actually, he hasn’t broke physical contact with me since they arrived. He knows how calming his touch is to me. Once the door is locked behind our guests, he turns and cups my face, tilting my head up to meet his eyes. His beautiful eyes, full of color and emotion.

“That was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever read, Molly. I’m not giving up on you. I’d never give up on you,” he says. His lips slam into mine and he kisses me hard. So much of what I’ve wanted these last few days comes rushing back and I cling on to him, my legs wrapping around him as he lifts me and carries me upstairs and straight to the shower.

Giggling, he fumbles a few times before turning on the shower and backing us into it, clothes and all.

“I love you, Molly Ward,” he whispers on my lips.

“I guess I love you a little bit too, Mr. Savage,” I smile when he pinches my ass.

This man is everything to me.