Kaye
The sterile hospital smell of the room let me know I was going to be okay. “God, it’s good to be here.”
David smiled at me as he sat on the bed next to me. “It’ll be better when I get you home.”
He leaned back, and I rested my head on his shoulder. “Yes, it will.” I thought about everything that had happened and how I’d promised myself I would tell David I was sorry for being oblivious. “David, I did a lot of thinking while I was stuck there. And I did a lot of remembering, too. I want to say that I’m sorry for getting mad at you. I’m sorry that I thought you were only being jealous.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry. I could’ve handled things differently.” He kissed the top of my head, and then took my hand, running his thumb over the back of it. “I had this gut instinct that someone was after you, and I reacted to anything and everything, instead of focusing on any one person.”
“But David, I should’ve told you about the argument I witnessed between Jeffrey and John on the day it happened,” I had to admit my faults, too. “My mind was so set on thinking you were just being a jealous fool that I didn’t want to say a thing to you about what I’d heard and how they’d acted. You might’ve been able to do a bit of spying on them if I had told you.”
“Yes, and then maybe things wouldn’t have gotten this far.” He kissed me again. “At least you know now that you should tell me everything, even if you do think I’ll just act like a jealous fool.”
The IV was quickly replenishing my fluids, and I was feeling a thousand times better. “When we get home, I want you to hold me for hours and hours. But not until after a nice, long, hot bath to get the stench of blood out of my nostrils.”
My doctor came in with a smile on her face. “Hey, looks like I can spring you now if you’re ready, Kaye.”
“Please, spring her,” David said as he got up and went to shake her hand. “Thanks so much for coming in so early this morning to see to her.”
“Of course,” she said as she nodded. “After an ordeal like that, I wouldn’t be worth my salt if I left her to whoever was on call.”
“It was so nice to see you instead of a stranger,” I told her. “Thank you so much, doc.”
After the nurse came in and took the IV out of my hand, I left the hospital with my husband. It felt like a dream when I stepped out into the bright sunlight.
David looked at me as he opened the passenger door for me. “You seem kind of dazed, baby.”
“I didn’t really believe that I would ever see daylight again.” I took his face between my hands. “I thought I would never get to see your handsome face again, either.”
Taking my hands, he kissed my palms. “Well, you do get to see it, and I get to see your gorgeous face again, too.”
“I want to go up to Vancouver to see our kids, David. So many terrible thoughts went through my head…” I blinked back tears as I recalled the pain I’d felt only hours before when I thought I might not ever see my children again.
“Then we’ll go as soon as we can.” He helped me into the car. “I’ve got another security service sending over a couple of new bodyguards. I want to get them all squared away before we do anything else.”
Having more men around sounded a bit daunting to me. “I don’t know.”
My husband laughed and then closed the door. I watched him walk in front of the car, smiling away as he did. When he got in behind the wheel, he looked at me. “I told them to send a man and a woman. They happen to have a married team they’re sending to us. I think that will work out just fine, don’t you?”
My husband always did know how to make things right. “I think that will work perfectly.”
On the drive home, I noticed every flower, every bird, every little detail. My eyes had never seen color the way they were seeing it now. Brilliant, vibrant, and everything so full of life.
It’s a terrible feeling when you think death is coming for you. But when you manage to escape it, your elation is beyond anything anyone can imagine.
Our marriage had started based on a lie. But David and I managed to overcome that to create a beautiful marriage and a family we were proud of.
Things that seemed awful could morph into things that were beautiful and magical. I’d already had two things in my life that proved that theory true. And as much as I knew bad things could end in a good way, I prayed that I’d now endured all the bad I ever would.
On that drive home, I learned so much about myself: my love for my husband was endless, my faith in him renewed, and my heart belonged to him—it wasn’t even mine.
Above all things, I knew that my husband wasn’t a jealous fool hell-bent on embarrassing me. He was a man who adored me and loved me with everything he had. And he would fight the world for me if he had to.
When a man braves the dead of night and the dark woods prepared to fight armed men to find the woman he loves, that woman is pretty much guaranteed one hell of a great happily ever after.
The End
If you want to read more about Kaye and David, you can find it in (Vengeful Seduction)