“I thought you were getting rid of the problem,” Mrs. Roche said.
My gaze whipped in her direction. She would be the first to go down. Little did they know how adept I’d become at photoshop. Things were about to get very, very nasty for her.
“She’s too far along,” my mother informed them, her tone full of distaste. “Besides, we feel she may be more compliant if we allow her to keep them.”
Compliant, my ass. But I kept my mouth shut like a good girl. I could lay in wait. They would never see what was coming to them all.
Mr. Roche hummed, and I clenched my jaw to keep from growling at him. “There will be some amendments to our agreement,” he told my father. Jared smirked, winking at me again. I gave him a bored stare.
“We can discuss those in the parlor after dinner,” my father told him, to which he agreed.
How these people thought they could control someone, control a situation that was so completely out of their control, was beyond me. Though it showed me a glimpse of myself. Always thinking I could control everything, could keep everything working just right. How wrong was I? These blessings growing inside me were the perfect example of that. As was the situation at hand. If I’d shared my past, my secrets with Kai long ago, I may not have ever wound up back here. He wouldn’t have left. Whenever I was able to get a hold of a charger, or a computer, or anything, I would tell him how sorry I was and beg his forgiveness. Somehow, I would escape this place again, with our twins, and I would go be with him.
Dinner was brought out while the adults chatted and Jared messed around with his phone. The scent of the roasted chicken mixed with the sautéed brussels sprouts had my stomach rolling so violently, I almost had to run to the bathroom. But the doorbell rang through the house, distracting me.
“Who could that be?” my mother wondered, looking to my father.
There was a quiet murmur as Henrietta answered the door.
“I’ll take care of it,” Father told her, excusing himself from the table and exiting the dining room into the foyer.
Then we heard the doors bang open and shouting commence.
“Let me the fuck in to see Chloe.” Kai’s voice boomed through the house.
My bones melted, a whimper escaping me as I surged to my feet, ignoring the spinning room while the rest of the table got up.
They hurried out in front of me, too concerned with the commotion to even think of me, the person who was requested. But I got around the wall to see Kai filling the doorway, my father standing in front of him with his arms held wide. He looked so small, so nothing, in front of Kai.
“You will not be seeing Chloe,” my father snapped as my mother hurried for them and Henrietta cowered in the foyer. “You have interrupted our dinner. We’ll call the cops if you don’t leave the premises at once.”
The Roches stood back, watching the scene play out. Kai was attempting to look around my father and mother standing in front of him. His gaze caught mine over my mother’s shoulder. Relief consumed me as another whimper escaped me.
“Chloe.” He sighed my name, my real name, his shoulders sagging. He looked as exhausted as I felt, but he was there. He’d come to my parents’ house to rescue me.
My parents gasped when he shoved past them, hurrying for me. I moved, too, but was stopped by someone grabbing my wrist, yanking me in the opposite direction. It was Jared, who had no clue what touching me so forcefully would do until I vomited all over the front of his polo. The dehydration coupled with the touch to my irritated skin and the quick movement was just too much to handle.
“What the fuck, Chloe?” he hollered, releasing my wrist only to smack me across the face.
It was a blur of motion when I stumbled to the floor, my face stinging in pain. Kai dashed past me with a roar before tackling Jared to the ground. I heaved on the floor with the sound of bone meeting bone repeatedly, mixed with screams and hollers ringing through my ears.
The sickening sound of Jared getting the shit beat out of him stopped, to be followed by Kai snarling, “That’s what happens when you take something that isn’t yours.” And then to someone else, “Touch me, and you’ll get a thousand times worse.”
Then his arms were under me, hoisting me up. I was shaking and crying, but I’d never in my life felt more relief than in that moment. He kept my head pressed against his shoulder, warm sandalwood and patchouli soothing me, as he passed by Jared, who was whimpering on the floor. Then we passed Jared’s parents, who were ranting and raving at Kai, and then my parents, who didn’t say a word when he walked through the doorway, stepping into the muggy night air.
19
Kai
She passed out moments after I got her in the car that had broken down on me eight fucking times on the way to that shit show. My heart was racing, adrenaline still pounding through me. The sting of my busted, bleeding knuckles was easily ignored when the love of my life, who was carrying our twins, was barely breathing next to me.
Peeling out of their driveway, I sped through the gates after they moseyed open, then raced to the highway.
I thanked the Lord that I’d spotted the hospital on my way through Mandeville. It was only a few miles away.
When we got there, I slipped the ring on her finger before carrying her into the emergency room. They were quick to get her in and up to a room in the maternity ward. They let me stay when I told them she was my wife. They got her hooked up to machines monitoring her, the babies, and her contractions before the doctor came in.
She was an older woman with round cheeks and gray hair pulled back in a bun. She stopped short when she saw me, muttering something to herself before she went to Chloe. “You’re the father?” she asked while looking Chloe over.
“Yes.” I nodded.
Her gaze flashed to my hands, and then her lips twitched. “I’m glad you got her out of there,” she told me, kind green eyes holding my gaze. My mouth hung open. “Her mother called on me to… do a checkup of sorts. She was not in good condition then, and that was yesterday. When they notified me who was here, I thought her mother had come to her senses.” With a shake of her head, she cleared her throat. “She’s very dehydrated, but nothing we can’t fix. We’ll get her back on her meds and I’m giving her some Progesterone to hopefully keep those babies in there a bit longer. You should be on your way tomorrow so long as there are no complications.”
“Thank you” was all I could say before she left the room and a nurse came in to give her medication through her IV.
When the room was empty save for Chloe and me, I took a much-needed deep breath. This doctor probably just told me something she shouldn’t have, but it gave me some insight as to what the hell I’d found Chloe in the midst of.
The whole drive there, I tried calling and calling, to tell her I was coming, tell her I loved her, too, and that her car was a piece of shit. It just kept going to voice mail, driving me mad. I imagined the worst happening to her. To keep myself sane, I played out every scenario of what would go down when I got there. I made myself comfortable calling her Chloe, so they wouldn’t turn me away when I showed up simply by saying no Kate lived there. The name had stuck. She was more a Chloe than a Kate anyway.