Chapter 66 - Elliot

Emma is smiling at me, eyelids heavy as she recovers from her orgasm.  

“I love you,” I tell her again.  I can’t help myself.  I want to tell her again and again, and never let her out of my sight.  She grins.

“I love you too.  It feels good to say it.”

She crawls closer to me and I wrap her in my arms.  I bury my face in her curls and breathe in deeply.  I trail my fingers down her arms and gently touch the raw skin at her wrists.  She winces gently.

“What happened to you?  When you were gone for those three days?”  I ask gently.  She still hasn’t told me, and the marks on her wrists and ankles are as red as ever.  I feel her stiffen in my arms and I run my fingers up and down her spine until she relaxes.  She takes a deep breath and starts talking.

“Remember when I told you about my dad?  How he died of a heart attack three months ago?  Well, shortly after he died I got a visit from a guy.  Turns out my dad owed a lot of money to some pretty scummy people.”

My hand pauses from its movement up and down her spine.  She takes another breath and keeps going.

“I got a visit from this guy a few days after my dad passed.  Guy with a big scar on his face, telling me about my dad’s debts.  He had photos, proof.  Said he’d ruin my dad’s reputation and come after my friends if I didn’t pay.”

“Victor..” I breathe.  I remember him, the muscle that followed Melodie around whenever she was doing business.

“Yeah, Victor.  Well he kept coming to see me.  My plan was to make an impression at the practice, and get a reference from Dr. Yates so I could be approved for a big loan.  That way I’d still have debt but at least it wouldn’t come with threats against me and everyone I cared about.  I don’t know if that would have worked.  I don’t know if they would have left me alone after that but it’s the only thing I could think to do.”

She shifts her weight and looks up at me.  Her eyes are watering, I can see the tears building up and spilling over as she talks.

“I wanted to tell you everything.  I wanted you to know, but I couldn’t risk bringing you into this, bringing Gracie into this.  It was better if you had no idea.”

“You were thinking about Gracie?”  

“Of course I was!  When they took me, all I could think about was you and her, all I could think about was how I needed to get all three of us out of this.”

All three of us.  It feels so good to think about that.

“Anyways, Victor got impatient.  Or maybe Melodie put him up to it, I don’t know.  And then my plan of impressing Dr. Yates backfired and I stumbled into this whole money laundering thing.  They took me - “

A sob catches in her throat.  I pull her into me tightly and whisper into her ear.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I say.  “It’s ok.  It’s over now.”

“No, I want you to know.”  She pulls away and looks deep into my eyes.  Her brown eyes are shining bright with determination.  “She offered me a deal.  She told me I could turn you in and I’d have my debt wiped clean.  Gone, like it never existed.”

“And you risked yourself for me.”

“For you and Gracie.  For us,” she corrects.  “Elliot, I wasn’t joking when I said I love you.  I want to be with you.”

I can’t wait any longer.  I tilt her chin towards me and kiss her deeply.  Our lips come together and I can feel the power of her love in every touch.  I pull away and look at her again.

“I love you too Emma.  When you were gone this week, I…”  I can feel the tears welling up in my own eyes now.  “I didn’t know what to do.  I went crazy.  I couldn’t take it.”

“I know.  I wanted to tell you when I got back but it was too risky.  They were watching me.  And then I thought I’d messed it all up when I couldn’t get Dr. Yates to admit to anything.”  She looks at me and smiles.  “But you did.”

“At least I could do something in the end,” I respond, grinning.She pauses and chews the inside of her mouth.  

“Elliot,” her eyes are lasered in on me now.  “What was your involvement in all this? I overheard you and Dr. Yates about him helping you out a few years ago.  I… the gambling…”

I know what she’s thinking.  She’s thinking of her father.

“That was only a desperate attempt to pay for Chloe’s medical bills.  I don’t gamble anymore, Emma.  I haven’t played poker or stepped foot inside a casino in seven years.  Well, except for this week when I was tearing the city up looking for you.”

“You looked for me?”

“You have no idea.  I’m not kidding when I say I went crazy.”

“So the gambling… that’s over?”

“The thought of it makes me sick.  I asked Stuart for a loan, as a friend and a boss, and he said we could run it through the practice to make it legitimate.  Legitimate!  What a fucking fool I was to trust him.  I didn’t think about it at all until he told me it was my name all over this whole thing.”

“He set you up from the start.”

“And that bastard looked me in the eye and told me he was doing me a fucking favour.”

She nuzzles into me.

“I only had enough evidence to implicate her.  I was hoping she would turn on Yates when the police questioned her but it was still a risk.  If you hadn’t gotten that confession from him… I was so worried.  I was so worried it would all fall apart.”

Her voice cracks and I pull her in closer.  We stay motionless in each other’s arms.

“Thank you,” I whisper to her.  “What do you say we go get Gracie from her grandmother’s house?”

“I’d love that,” she says with a smile.  “And Elliot… There better be brownies left over.  I didn’t stay locked up in a dark room for days to miss out on Gracie’s baking.”

I laugh and give her another kiss.  

“There’s brownies left.  And when they’re done we’ll make more.. As a family.”