Unrequited (Chosen #3) (11 page)

“I can’t stop thinking about you, about us,” she said. “I think… I think I may have been wrong about leaving. Sam came to talk to me the day I got fired.”

“Sam told me,” I stated blandly.

“She told you? She
wants
you, Nick. She thinks she can be a better wife and for a week, I thought that, too. She is beautiful and she comes from a good background. She doesn’t have the baggage I have.” Lizzie paused as if I am supposed to respond. Everything she said about Sam was all wrong but I was so damn tired of words, assumptions, and lies.  Lizzie was the woman for me and no one in the world doubted it now.

“But I
am
selfish,” she continues.

“I don’t care if I fit with you on the outside. Inside, you are my best friend.” She was pleading with me to take her back? This was all too much to understand.

I exhaled. I didn’t realize that I had been holding my breath for weeks. The tightness in my chest started to subside. Nonetheless, I wasn’t just going to give in because my physical tightness was beginning to relax and move more fluidly.

“I was going to go to my parents and call you from there. I really thought that I didn’t deserve you because of your money. I don’t care if I deserve you or not baby. I miss you. I miss our music and our laughter and if I have to buy Prada bags every day just to be your wife, I will,” she cried.

I laughed hollowly. “Lizzie. You hate Prada,” I smiled into the phone. I was finally talking to the old Lizzie.

“Well,” she drew out the word. “I was online and I think I found a few things I like,” she laughed.

We were bantering with each other already. It was so quick for us to get back to that wonderful, comfortable place and I had missed it so much. It didn’t take away the awful distaste in my mouth that Teagan was still right there with her. A few moments passed in confusing silence. I put my fingers on my right temple and decided the truth was the only way anything would get accomplished with us.

“What is going on with Teagan, Lizzie? What does he want? Do you have feelings for him still? And please, please be honest.” I got serious again. “How did he even know how to locate you in Maine? I have been looking for you for
weeks
. I couldn’t find you and I
was
your fiancé.”

“He won’t tell me. I don’t know how he knew I was here. He did come here once with me but… it doesn’t make sense.”
Lizzie lowered her voice almost to a whisper. “He says none of that matters but apparently he thinks I wanted him to come.” She exhaled a shaky breath.

“He wants to know what I want from him. He thinks I wanted him to come back to Boston to help with Niall. I told him that you and I are just fine financially but he won’t leave until I tell him what I want. It’s getting really weird because we just keep going around in circles. I don’t want anything.” She raised her voice almost to a yell. “I don’t feel anything for him, Nick. Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I asked. “I find that impossible to believe. Is he sleeping there with ya’ll? I gritted my teeth, thinking of Lizzie in her boy shorts and tee shirt. I could smell her red locks and prayed that he wouldn’t get the chance to even get a whiff of her beautiful essence.

“No. I made him get a room on the island and he didn’t protest. He still has a girlfriend, Nick. He doesn’t look at me the same way…the way I thought he used to,” she paused for a few long moments.

“When he showed up, I was stunned. I stared at him. I searched his face, his eyes, and his mannerisms to see if I felt anything for him still and it was just…gone. He has this superior complex. He thinks he is better than me or something. I think he was that way when I met him, too, but I was too stupid to notice,” she said in earnest.

I had to stop listening to this. She needed to be here with me. If she wanted me, she should be here. There was no gray area.

“You left me, Lizzie. I drank myself into a stupor for days. I have never cried so much in my entire life. You told me you were tired of people leaving you so you know exactly how I feel right now. I never planned on leaving you. You are my world. You are attached to my heart and when you left… I just couldn’t believe it. I love you and you ruined me,” I numbly stated.

“Nick. I am so sorry. I didn’t know you still felt that strongly, baby. Sam was so adamant that I was ruining your life. She said you didn’t want to deal with me and my problems anymore.”

I laughed out loud. “You fucking believed her? You didn’t have any trust in me, did you? You
should
have talked to me. You
should
have come to me.”

“Nick, you are the one for me and I don’t care if you think I ruin your life. You have ruined
me
for just living life, Nicholas Sawyer,” she said.

She let out a shaky breath. She was nervous. I heard him say something in the background and my stomach clenched up again. I cleared my throat and clutched the phone, ready to do something I never thought I would do. I had to let her do this one on her own. I would not swoop in and help her. She wanted to be alone? Well, she can do this alone.

“We have a lot to talk about, Liz, but you need to take care of the situation with Teagan on your own. You were worried about me taking care of everything? Well, here is your chance to work it out with him…
on your own
. To be honest, I can’t even fathom you and Teagan together in the same room right now. It’s just… It makes me…I am sick with jealousy. I have been dejected here without you, Lizzie. I am fucking pissed that guy gets to see you right now and I don’t. It doesn’t matter whether you have feelings for him or not.” I took a deep breath and clenched my jaw over and over.

I closed my eyes and continued.

“He is
Niall’s
biological father. You have to set it straight with him and find a resolution. If you need lawyers, you call ours. If you need your parents, call them. Just figure it out. Figure out what you need to and then come home to me. We can talk about us and whether we are going to be together when you are ready. I will be waiting for that moment,” I said and then I hung up the phone.

I can’t believe I just hung up on the woman that I had been looking for. I hung up on the woman that I begged for. I hung up on that woman I needed next to me in bed every day and every night. I never wanted to see a person so much in my life and talking to Lizzie for those few minutes did nothing to calm that need.

As I started to fix myself a sandwich, I realized that I had just thrown the ball into her court. I replayed the conversation in my head over and over.

I was here. I was waiting for her. She missed me. There was a slight tinge of optimism in the air. I took a deep breath from that air and let it out. I started the mantra,
“In with the good, out with the bad”
as I breathed through the aftermath of the emotional rollercoaster phone call.

Being without Lizzie was hard because I didn’t know how she felt and I didn’t know if she would ever come back to me. Now, even though I was angry about her leaving and the fact that Teagan was back in town, I felt…okay. There wasn’t an urgency to
do
something.  I didn’t need to throw shit or cry over photos. I had to focus on myself and my plan for my future whether or not she would be in it. I smiled at no one. I finally felt reprieve from the blistering heartbreak. I fought a good fight. Now it was Lizzie’s turn to fight, too.

NINETEEN
- SAM

I leased a small apartment on the Charles River and moved all of my money over to new accounts. I had a few hundred thousand dollars available and hopefully that would last me in the next year or so. I decided against buying a car. I was going to enjoy Boston. I would walk or bike. If things were really dire, I would try out the T. The train couldn’t be
that
bad.

I already bought a couch and a bed. Daily meals would consist of takeout, delivery, and meals in a bag. I called the cable company to set up services. I was not ready to entertain at my place so that was about all I needed for now. Besides, I only signed a six month lease and I didn’t know if Boston would be my final destination. A Texas girl in New England was like a lizard in the arctic. They don’t survive for long.

Nick called me back just as I was headed out of my hotel room for the last time. He was acting weird. We started to set up a time for me to go meet with Conner’s parents that next afternoon but I couldn’t stand his tone of voice any longer.

“What crawled up your ass and died?” I asked.

“What? Nothing,” he replied coolly. “I just had a busy morning.” Bull shit, Nick was obviously going through something. His moods lately were frenzied He was angry, sad, and then happy about me meeting Conner’s family. I didn’t hear his current mood in his voice now. A robot had a more expressive tone.

“Nice try Nicky. What is going on?” I begged.

He blew out a large breath through the phone. “I talked to Lizzie yesterday afternoon and I haven’t slept. She…” He trailed off and remained silent.

He didn’t seem very happy about it. In fact, he was distant and resigned about it. It must not have gone well.

“Why don’t you sound more excited?” I asked. “Did you ask her to come home? Did you beg for her? Please tell me you begged.”

“Well… it’s a long story. But the short end of it is that Teagan is in a cabin on an island with Lizzie and Niall. She says she misses me but that was only after I finally found her and called.
He
answered. I thought… I just thought the worst but she says she is over him. I am so confused but I told her that she needs to take care of her business and I will be here,” he said on another exhale.

“Wait, slow down. Who is Teagan?” I asked, confused by his ramblings.

“The fucking Irish guy that knocked her up and then broke her heart,” he screamed into the phone. Jesus, now he is angry. Then it hit me. “Oh my god, he found him, too,” I thought.

How the
hell
did Daddy find Teagan? I didn’t even know his name until Nick just said it. Who would he call to find out that he impregnated a girl more than two years ago? What kind of money did he have to pay to get the guy to come over here? How did he know where Lizzie escaped to?

All of these questions and I doubted if Daddy would ever tell me. Not after deciding that I would never be Nick’s wife. I wonder if my mother overheard anything. Sometimes she had knowing looks, like she was in on some of his schemes. Maybe they pillow talked about Lizzie. Maybe mom found out somehow.

“What? He who?” Nick asked. My eyes widened and my brain stopped. What had I said? Did I just say all of that out loud? Obviously, I had been talking to myself too much lately.

“I don’t know, Nick.” I tried to think of anything else to say. I couldn’t tell him anything about my father. I wanted to hang up and crawl into the closet.

“No! You just said that someone found Teagan. Who found Teagan, Samantha?” he started to raise his voice.

I was stuck. If I told Nick who it was, he would go bat shit on my father thus making my father realize that Nick would never become part of our family. If I didn’t tell him, Nick would still be calling to say he has no interest in becoming my husband and he needs to back off.

Either way, Daddy will be pissed off beyond pissed off. If Nick knows what I know about the trade though, well Daddy might actually get into trouble if it gets back to him. Do I want to see my father potentially go down? Yes, yes I actually did. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

“Nick, my father is his own God. He will do whatever it takes to ruin someone who gets in his way.”

Just then it hit me that he was going to ruin me, too. He would do anything to hunt me down and I would be homeless, living in a box. Oh well. What are my other choices? Go home? Ha, what a joke. It was time I grew up and lived my own life.

“Ruin? He wants to ruin me?” he questioned me with raging incredulity.

“No! He wants to ruin
her
! He got her fired, Nick. He knows a guy that was able to make that counterfeit trade happen under her name. He called me that day and told me I needed to go to her immediately. He knew before any of us did. Before
Lizzie
even knew. He insisted I had to tell her she didn’t belong in
our
world.”

Nick scoffed at me and swore loudly. I ignored him and let it all rip.

“He laughed about it, Nick. It was really fucked up, now that I think back on it. Since the day your mother told my mother that you were with Lizzie, my dad was fixated on knowing who got Lizzie pregnant. It was real hard finding out and all. I didn’t even know his name until you just told me. Daddy has been looking for any information on that guy and he was livid that you picked her. He
hates
her. He wants her off this planet,” I shakily said. My hands were trembling. Nick was going to blow up.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me, Samantha? No one has that much disdain for another human being they don’t know. This is so unbelievable. He can’t do this to her…to
us!” He was seething. His breathing turned ragged and I could hear his nostrils fuming.

“The problem is that he knows everything and he can get anything he wants. If he doesn’t know how to get what he wants, he has a team of people who will do anything to find out what he needs to know.” I said firmly. “He gets
what
he want, Nicholas.”

It felt so good to come clean and tell Nick everything my father did. A large boulder lifted off my shoulders. I finally made it someone else’s problem. I was done with my father’s madness. I was done being his little blond puppet he could marry off for money. Confessing everything out loud gave my father’s plan a life of its own. It was now a real situation that we could all fight against. I was so tired of the game so confessing was the only way to make it go away.

I confessed for Nick. He deserved better than this. I confessed for Conner because I should have told him I wanted to choose a life with him and our baby. I confessed for Lizzie because she never did
anything
wrong except love a man that my father wanted as a part of our family. That poor girl didn’t even know my father existed.

“Oh…my…God,” he breathed. Everything I had just told him sunk in and he sounded so completely bewildered. I heard him stomp over his hardwood floor.

Then dishes, metal, and other large items were obviously flying. It was loud. I covered my ears and squeezed my eyes shut thinking I was going to get hit through the phone.

“
He
did that trade? Holy shit! She left me, Samantha! She fucking left me because of that fucking prick? And he was the one that brought Teagan over from Ireland? Lizzie didn’t even want to see him. She finally got over him and finally trusted another man. What did your father tell him to do to her? Jesus Christ! He is ruining
my
life.” I heard him punch something hard and curse repeatedly.

I had nothing to say. I didn’t understand why my father wanted Nick’s money so badly. I didn’t know why he wanted us married. I didn’t know how he pulled it off but it was sickening. I was sick to my stomach knowing that I had been a part of his wicked plan all along.

“He wanted me to marry you,” I whispered. “That’s all he told me. He told me to get you to fall in love with me. I don’t know how or why he would take such measures. I…just don’t know.”

Nick hung up on me and I placed the phone down on the cradle. I looked around at the suite in shock. I couldn’t get out of this room fast enough. I grabbed my suitcases and let the door slam on my way out.