Chapter 39

Danica

 

‘I’m here; are you okay? I love you, Rhett xxx’

I kept staring at that message over and over again, waiting for the clock to tick by, waiting for his next communication. Every time my phone pinged, my heart fluttered like crazy, but the moment was always over far too quickly, leaving me to wait in the endless thirty dark minutes stretched out in front of me until I would get to talk to him again.

‘I love you too,’ I wrote back quickly. ‘Be safe; look after yourself. We’re counting on you. xx’

It wasn’t much, but it would have to be enough for the time being. I didn’t know where “here” was, but I knew what it meant. Rhett was finally putting his mysterious plan into action, which also suggested that he was in danger. Until this was all over, I didn’t think that I’d be able to even consider relaxing.

When Rhett finally spoke the words, “I love you,” aloud for the very first time, they had meant so much to me. The moment had been so perfect and I’d felt it so deeply. But now I couldn’t help but wonder if had been some sort of goodbye. If he wasn’t exactly certain that his plan was going to work. Okay, so things had never been smooth sailing between us, but it finally felt like the obstacles were melting away–my secret, our parents, the wedding–and I didn’t want to lose him forever, just as there was the real possibility that he could be mine.

We could actually be a family–that possibility was real–as long as we all got through this in one piece.

I wished I knew what it was that he was doing. That would help me right now, but sitting here in silence with my mom and Auntie Cat with no knowledge whatsoever was driving me insane. I felt twitchy and annoyed, and I was sure that I was winding everyone else up too.

“Are you okay?” Mom asked me, for what felt like the hundredth time. “Do you need anything? Can I do anything for you?”

Now that we had nothing better to do, she was obsessing over my pregnancy, which wasn’t helping anything. I was trying my best to keep calm, and to stop myself from getting too worked up, but it was getting me nowhere, and this wasn’t helping one bit. She kept trying to fuss me, and that was winding me up just as much as anything else.

“I’m fine, Mom,” I replied dully. “I just can’t stand all of this waiting.”

“Rhett didn’t tell you anything?” she asked again. “Absolutely nothing about what’s going on here?”

“Lyla,” Auntie Cat snapped, growing frustrated. “Will you just give it a rest? If that boy said he’s sorting it, then there is nothing else that you can do.” Auntie Cat had always been the stern one of the pair, but this telling off was on another level–even for her.

“What you need to be doing is focusing on your future. From what you’ve told me, your entire life is in jeopardy. You need to contact your employer, to check that you still have a job to go back to, then you need to start organizing your divorce to this awful man.”

“It’s not quite that simple,” my mom replied, clearly chastened, but Auntie Cat was having none of it.

“Bullshit!” she exclaimed. “Brad will be in jail soon enough–that’s grounds enough to get the ball rolling in advance. You’re the lawyer; you know that.”

“I’m in business law, not marital-”

“Stop making excuses, Lyla; just get this done.”

And with that, she stalked from the room, leaving me and Mom to collapse into half hysterical giggles. It was as if we were school children, being told off in the principal’s office, and that was enough to dispel at least some of the awkward atmosphere.

“I’m sorry,” Mom finally said as we calmed down a little bit. “I have been going on a bit, haven’t I? I just can’t seem to stop myself, all of this is a little too much for me.”

“It’s okay, Mom; we’re all just worried. This is stressful.” I held her hands in mine, wanting her to know that I really didn’t blame her for freaking out, because I was, too. I was just doing it in a much quieter fashion.

“I’m sorry that I brought Brad into our lives–this is all my fault.” But I jumped in quickly. I didn’t want her to start feeling sorry for herself, of feeling guilty for what had happened. It was done now; we just needed to deal with the consequences for the time being.

“Mom, we all trusted him. He seemed genuinely sweet and kind, but that’s what conmen do. They trick even the most intelligent of people because they are so damn clever with their games,” I said sincerely, hoping that I could at least help her feel a little bit better. “We just need to get rid of him, that’s all. Then we can start on finding your happiness again.”

I didn’t want this awful experience to put her off men forever; I wanted her to find love again. She’d spent far too long on her own, and now that I was about to start my own life, it was only fair that she did too. She’d sacrificed so much for me, and I wouldn’t let her spend another moment of her life doing that.

“Danica?” she asked me, with a new, curious tone to her voice. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” I replied, just happy to have her opening up to me. I hoped that whatever this change of subject was it would take our minds off of this for the time being.

But I wasn’t expecting what she actually said.

“Is Rhett the father of your child?”

Oh my God: there it was again. That pit of dread that threatened to swallow me up. My heart fell as I spun into an abyss of fear. She knew that my baby’s dad was Rhett–my stepbrother, the son of the conman that she married. This couldn’t have been a worse time for her to figure that one out. I wondered if maybe she’d seen us outside, and that was what had confirmed it for her. We’d been very careful not to kiss in case we were being watched, but there had been a definite intimacy between us, which apparently was obvious to everyone.

It was now or never. Did I lie, and threaten everything that I finally had with the man that I loved, or did I confess and accept the fallout that was to come?

“Yes,” I hung my head, fully waiting for the barrage of abuse that would undoubtedly follow. “He is. But I met him before I knew anything. I lied before. We really were close at Camp Woodtree and I just freaked out when I saw that he was Brad’s son.” I hoped that she wouldn’t ask if things had been going on under her roof, because I really didn’t feel like that would be a good road to go down.

I finally risked glancing my eyes up and connecting them with hers. Luckily, and totally unexpectedly, there was a shining happiness there.

“I’m so glad,” she announced, clapping her hands together with joy. “Rhett is lovely.” Then her voice quieted down. “I was wrong, you know. With what I said before. If you want to be with Rhett, and have him in your child’s life, then you should. I shouldn’t have put my own feelings onto you. Just because I raised you alone, and we got by just fine, doesn’t mean that you should have to do the same. As fulfilling as raising you was, I was always a little lonely, which is why I latched onto Brad when he showed me some affection.”

I couldn’t believe for one second that Brad was the first man to show her any affection, she was absolutely gorgeous, but maybe he had come along at a time when I was old enough for her to feel ready to respond. It was just a shame that he’d turned out to be so rotten.

“You’ll meet someone else,” I reassured her. “Someone so much better. Soon, all of this will be a distant memory, and none of us will ever think about it again.”

She decided to ignore that, and focus on me. “You and Rhett really do seem to have a special connection,” she observed. “I can’t believe that I didn’t pick up on it earlier.”

“Well, to be honest, we were back and forth a lot because it felt so wrong–what with you and Brad getting married.” It felt nice to be able to get this off my chest once and for all. It was like a weight lifting off my shoulders. At least everyone would now understand a little better why I’d been acting so strange.

“Well, that won’t be an issue anymore,” Mom reassured me. “We will be divorced soon enough. Then you can be free to be happy. And, Rhett is a wonderful boy; he’ll be a great father too.”

Free.

The word that I’d wanted to associate with me and Rhett for such a long time was now in reach. I just had to hope that he would make it back to me, and we could make that dream a reality at last. It was almost too good to be true.

“Thank you, Mom.” I smiled gratefully at her. “I appreciate you being so understanding, I really do.”

“You know, I felt as passionately about your dad as you do Rhett.” A dreamy look overtook her face, but all I felt was worry. He’d ended up running out on us, so it didn’t seem like passion was enough to sustain something real. Was that what she was trying to tell me? Was she trying to warn me off a lifetime of heartache?

“Of course, that was far more one sided, which was why he left. Rhett feels exactly the same for you as you do him.” I let out a deep and relieved breath. Okay, good; she thought that we could go the distance, too. “I’m really happy for you,” she finally looked right at me, smiling widely. “And I can’t wait until you finally get the happiness that you’ve been working so hard towards.”

“You and me both,” I joked, feeling my heart race. I really did want that–so desperately–and I just hoped that my desires would be enough to keep everyone safe.

“Was that your phone?” she asked me, dragging me from my thoughts. “I think you just got another message.”

I grabbed the handset eagerly, seeing another message from Rhett. I’d spent so long obsessing over my phone, I couldn’t believe that I’d actually missed it when a message finally came through. It didn’t say anything substantial, but it was enough to get me through the next few minutes.

‘All okay here; are you all right? I love you. x’

Tears filled my eyes as I typed out my reply. I was okay in one sense, but I was falling apart in another, not that I would tell him that.

‘Everything is fine. I miss you, and I hope that you’re all right. Thinking of you, love you. xxx’

“Is everything all right?” Mom asked, biting her nails anxiously. “Has he said anything?”

“Not yet,” I was forced to admit. “Just that he’s all right. He won’t tell me anything in detail until it’s done.”

“Okay,” she nodded anxiously. “So we just have to wait. We can do that, can’t we? Wait patiently, while everything fall apart around us?”

“It’ll be fine, Mom,” I tried my best to reassure her even though I felt exactly the way that she did. “Rhett will sort everything. It’s going to be okay–we just need to trust him.”

There was that word again–trust–only this time I had no trouble with it. I could trust Rhett with my life; I just couldn’t trust Brad with his.