by Mia Carson
They ran down the steps of the courthouse, laughing loudly, and only stopped long enough for him to kiss her hotly when they neared the car. He’d bought a cheap, run-down truck while they were in town with some of the cash Johanna had on her, leaving James’s car at the house until they had a chance to return it. Fredrick promised he’d find a way to get her the rest of her money soon so they would have enough to start their lives properly. They were married—officially married—and all he wanted was to hold his wife close for the rest of his life. But they had one last piece of business to take care of.
As he set Johanna back on her feet, she turned to her brother. “Are you sure you want to come with us?”
Reider enjoyed knowing the softer side of Fredrick. According to Johanna, he used to be this way until Frank and her dad messed him up with their insane goals for the family business. The man hid away the love of his life and his son because his family was that awful. If that wasn’t a wake-up call, then Reider didn’t believe there was hope of any of them seeing their families again.
Fredrick kissed Rosaleen and held his son close. “It’s time they learn the truth, and Johanna’s right. We can’t leave Izzy with them. We’ll get her packed, and she can live with us for a while, and go to art school like she wanted.”
“But we have to swing by the house first,” Rosaleen said and cooed at Travis. “Someone made a mess in his diaper, and if this is the only time he meets his grandparents, I’d prefer him not to smell.”
Johanna hugged Rosaleen, and Fredrick shook Reider’s hand. “I’m happy for you both, really, and sorry Frank attacked you.”
“Eh, it’s all in the past now,” Reider said, touching his face gently where the bruises had mostly faded. “You’ll have to come visit us in Montana.”
“Visit? Hell, we might join you and move out there, too, depending on how tonight goes.” He clapped him on the shoulder and said he would see them soon.
Reider opened the door for Johanna, and she climbed into the truck, waving at her brother and future sister-in-law. Once Reider was in, he turned the key and the truck rumbled to life loudly, sputtering a bit, but there was enough life left in it to get them where they needed to go.
“Ready for this? Jo, you alright?” he asked, frowning at her suddenly pale face. “We don’t have to.”
“No, it’s not that. I feel nauseated all of a sudden,” she said. After a few deep breaths, she shook her head and smiled. “I’m fine, really. We haven’t eaten much today…” She trailed off and held up her hand, counting quietly on her fingers.
“Jo? You’re freaking me out here,” he asked.
Her face blanked, and her hands went to her stomach. When she turned to meet his confused gaze, she smiled and whispered. “I’m pregnant.”
Reider’s eyes shot to her stomach. “You’re… you’re pregnant? We’re going to have a baby?”
She nodded. “I don’t know… I mean, maybe. I missed my last period and have been feeling sick lately, but I thought it was because I missed you. But… Reider… I think I am.”
He laughed with her, filled with joy, and kissed her. “I love you. God, I love you,” he whispered as she held his face and kissed him back. They rested their foreheads together, staring into each other’s eyes. “We’re going to start our own family now, with no more divided lines.”
“No more pointless hate,” she added and held her stomach in amazement.
Reider leaned back in his seat and pulled away from the curb. As he drove, he worried about the stress this night could bring to Jo and the baby she might be carrying. He considered telling her they should wait, or to let him go with Fredrick, but he knew she would never allow him to face her family without her by his side.
He held her hand the whole way back to Lincoln, the silence in the truck soothing as he contemplated their future together. They made it into town as night fell. Everything was going to turn out—
Reider gasped a second before the truck was struck, sending it rolling across the pavement. Jo screamed, but it cut off as metal and squealing tires filled his ears. Reider coughed and gagged, blood filling his mouth as the truck came to rest upside-down. Glass shards covered his arms and face, but he couldn’t see Johanna.
“Jo,” he gasped as people outside the truck yelled. “Jo!”
Smoke filled his eyes and choked him. Someone yelled to get them out, and his door was pried open. “Man? Can you hear me?”
“Get… get her out,” he sputtered and tried to push away the hands helping him. “No. Get her!”
“They are, let me get you out,” the gruff voice said. He called over his shoulder for a knife after tugging at the seatbelt. Reider’s vision blurred, but he focused on the pain to stay conscious. Jo coughed beside him and moaned in pain, but she didn’t speak.
“Can’t see her,” he muttered. “Is… is she alright?”
The man’s face came into view, and the furrow of his brow told Reider it wasn’t good. “Hold on, let me cut your belt off,” he said. It came free after a few minutes, and Reider tumbled painfully to the hood of the truck. More hands reached in and pulled him out gently, laying him on the pavement. “Ambulance is here,” the guy told Reider. “You should lay still.”
Reider shook his head until his vision blurred and he vomited. A man told him to sit back down, but Reider pushed past him, staggering around the truck that was flipped over in the middle of the intersection. Lights flashed all around them, and he saw the driver of the other vehicle staring in horror at what he had done. Reider ignored him and made it to the other side, but what he saw sent him to his knees.
“No… Jo!” he cried out, and a paramedic rushed to his side, trying to pull him away. “No, get off me, that’s my wife!”
Tears streamed down his face as he howled as if a beast struggled to tear free of his body. It took two more cops to hold him back, and all he could do was watch as Johanna’s motionless body was placed on a board and the paramedics lifted her up to a gurney. They tried to wake her, but she didn’t respond. Her breath rattled loud enough for Reider to hear.
“Sir, we need to get you to a hospital,” the woman said sternly.
“My wife… I’m not leaving her,” Reider sobbed, watching as Jo’s body was wheeled towards the ambulance. There was so much blood covering her clothes and her face, and her hair was matted with it. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he mumbled repeatedly, “Pregnant.”
The paramedic froze. “What did you say?”
“She might be pregnant,” he repeated. “The baby—oh God!”
Reider sagged, and the two cops held him upright as the paramedic rushed over to the ambulance to tell the others. Someone yelled Reider’s name and he turned, searching for the man it belonged to. “Freddie?”
“Let me past! That’s my sister and brother-in-law,” Fredrick ranted.
The cops let him by, and he rushed to Reider. “I don’t know… she’s hurt badly, man,” he muttered.
“We need to get him to a hospital,” one of the cops said.
Fredrick nodded and took one side of Reider as the cop took the other. “Ride with her, alright? I’ll call our parents and yours,” he said, but Reider didn’t respond. “Look at me, man! She’s going to make it. You both are.”
Reider lifted his hand to wipe the tears from his face, but the paramedic stopped him. “Too much glass. Let’s go,” she said, and Fredrick helped him into the ambulance. The woman told Fredrick where they were going, and after a quick, horrified glance at his sister, he backed away and the doors were slammed shut.
The ambulance bounced down the road. Reider pushed the woman aside as she tried to work on his face. “I need to get the glass out,” she said sternly, but he shook his head, his eyes glued to Johanna.
The other two men cleaned the wounds they could and set up an IV in her arm. They placed an oxygen mask on her face and checked her vitals, but the amount of blood oozing from her wounds twisted Reider up inside until he clutched at his chest, unab
le to breathe. The woman said something, and Reider was leaning back against the sidewall as the woman scolded him and checked his vitals. He said he was fine and asked about Jo, but the woman said nothing.
Reider closed his eyes, his heart thundering in his chest when Jo gasped for air and struggled against the paramedics. They tried to talk to her as Reider leaned forward, reaching for her hand, then suddenly she went still.
“Damn it,” the man snapped and reached for paddles. He yelled ‘clear,’ and Reider dug his nails into his palms until blood oozed from the fresh wounds. Jo’s body jerked, but her heart didn’t start. “Again!”
He whispered under his breath, praying she would live. “Jo, please… come on, Jo,” he whispered, watching as she was hit repeatedly with the paddles. The space inside the ambulance shrank, and his heart shattered. Tears streamed down his face until the man announced he had a pulse. Reider slumped in relief, and the world went dark for a few moments. When he opened his eyes, they were at the hospital. He was taken out and led to the ER, but they wheeled Johanna away and out of sight.
“I have to go with her… Where’s she going?!” he yelled, but two nurses held him back. “No!”
“Sir, please, we need to see to your injuries, too,” the older nurse with a kind, soothing smile and wrinkles told him. “We’ll let you know how your wife is as soon as we know anything. Please, sit down.”
Too long… it took too damn long for them to stitch up the cuts on his arms and remove the glass shards from his face and neck. When he was bandaged and declared fit enough to leave the ER for the waiting room, he paced around it and stopped every doctor who came near, demanding to know about his wife.
“Reider,” Fredrick called as he arrived and after another nurse told him he needed to sit down. “Where’s Jo?”
“They took her into the back. I haven’t seen her yet,” he muttered, rubbing a hand down his face. Fredrick embraced him tightly, and Reider leaned into the man who was once his enemy because of their parents and grandparents, because of a decades’ long feud no one even cared about anymore. “I don’t know if she’ll make it.”
“Where is she?” a woman shrieked, rushing into the waiting room. “Where is my daughter?”
Reider and Fredrick turned to see Lucy, Ben, Izzy, and Frank hurrying towards the waiting room. Rosaleen and little Travis stepped quickly out of the way to let them pass, but the second Lucy’s gaze locked onto Reider’s, she slid to a stop.
“You. What the hell are you doing here? What’s going on, Fredrick?” she yelled.
“Mom, calm down,” Fredrick snapped and held out his hand for Rosaleen when she looked worried. “There’s a lot to talk about, but right now, you need to sit down.”
“No, I will not. Why is he here? Is he involved?” Lucy snapped and charged forward and raised her hand to slap Reider again, but Fredrick and Izzy moved between them to stop her. “Why are you protecting him? He hurt your sister!”
“No, he didn’t!” Fredrick yelled, and Lucy’s mouth clamped shut in surprise. “They were in an accident, running away from you and the rest of the family.”
Lucy’s mouth moved but no words came out, and Reider glared fiercely at her from between her two children. Anguish filled him because Jo might be dying, along with their unborn child if she were pregnant, and her mom was still holding onto the grudge between the families.
“They wouldn’t run away,” Lucy muttered. “She wouldn’t do that to me.”
“We love each other,” Reider said and moved Fredrick aside gently so he could speak to her. “We want to be together. We were leaving tonight, once we saved Izzy from you, too.”
Lucy’s eyes darted to her youngest daughter, her head lowered and cheeks burning red. “Isabel? Is this true?”
“Yes,” Fredrick answered for her and placed a hand on his little sister’s shoulder. “She was going to come live with me and my fiancée and our son.”
Lucy gasped, covering her mouth in shock, and Ben said, “Your what?”
“Rosaleen,” Fredrick called and held out his hand for the redheaded woman to come over, carrying the little boy. “Mom, Dad, this is my fiancée, Rosaleen, and this is our son, Travis. We’ve been together for two years, and I thought it was time for you to meet.”
“No,” Lucy muttered and stepped away from Rosaleen’s outstretched hand. “No, this isn’t happening. You’re all turning against us. It’s all lies, and Johanna—my Johanna—is not going to be with a damn Marquette!”
“Too late,” Reider said and crossed his arms over his chest.
“What do you mean?” Ben growled. “What are you talking about?”
Reider was ready to tell him when his parents rushed around the corner, and he groaned. Janet and Peter hurried to their son’s side. When they spotted the Chadwicks, they stopped in their tracks. “Why are they here? What’s going on?” Peter asked. “Reider?”
“Your son was in a car accident with our daughter,” Ben muttered and stood toe-to-toe with Peter. “Explain what the hell your son was doing with his hands on my girl?”
“Your daughter manipulated him,” Peter argued.
Up and down the hall, people stopped to watch, and Reider cursed. Izzy pulled out a cell and called someone, stepping to the side. Reider had a feeling he knew who it was, and the sheriff couldn’t get there soon enough. The two men continued to snipe at each other while Lucy and Janet eyed each other darkly. No one else visibly cared that Johanna was back in surgery and had nearly died. He had no word yet on how she was doing—whether she would live, if she would ever wake again. The love of his life, the woman he married, was in danger of disappearing from his arms forever, from this world forever, and these damn people were too busy biting each other’s heads off and placing blame to notice.
Reider’s hands covered his ears, and he muttered curses under his breath. Rosaleen and Izzy moved closer to him, asking if he was alright, but Reider moved past them. He raised his head, the angry voices filling him with rage, and he screamed at them to shut up.
“You all are pathetic,” he went on, glaring from his parents to Johanna’s. “Do you even realize why we’re all here tonight? Why this happened? You told us for so long we couldn’t like each other, either side of the family, so when two of us happened to fall in love, we had to hide it. Or we met someone you don’t approve of, and we hid it,” he said, motioning to Fredrick and Rosaleen. “Too damn scared to tarnish the family legacy.”
“Reider, really,” his mom said hotly, but he shot her a glare so filled with anger, her lips shut with an audible pop.
“I’m finished being scared of what you might think or what you might do to me,” he growled. “I am in love with Johanna Chadwick and she with me, and before you open your goddamn mouth, Dad,” he warned, “or you, Ben,” he added when the man stepped forward, “nothing you say will change that.”
He moved to the corridor and pointed at the doors leading to the surgeries. His heart ached for his love, and for a moment, he was too overcome with emotion to say anything until Fredrick gripped his shoulder in support.
“That woman down there is no longer just your daughter, she is my wife, and I don’t know if she’s going to live or die tonight,” he whispered harshly. “I don’t know anything besides the fact I love her, and you should be here supporting her instead of blaming her!”
Both sets of parents glanced at each other, faces crinkling with disbelief before Peter finally said, “She’s your wife?”
Reider nodded. “I will not be taken from her side again.”
“How dare you do this to us?!” Janet shrieked. “She’s a Chadwick!”
“Yeah, and I don’t give a damn,” Reider yelled. “Is that really all you care about?”
Frank rushed forward suddenly, his fist aimed at Reider’s face, but Fredrick was there and decked his twin first, sending him staggering to the floor. “Enough, Frank.”
He glared up at his brother and spat blood from his mouth. “You traitor.”<
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“Traitor to what?” Fredrick argued. “To greed and power? Take it all, I don’t want any part of it, and I sure as hell won’t have my fiancée or son around it either.”
“You see what you’ve done to us?” Reider snapped at his parents. “This is all because of you.”
Frank scrambled to his feet, looking ready to fight anyone he could get his hands on, when two cops rushed forward from the end of the hall and pinned him against the wall.
“I think that’s enough of that,” Sheriff Princeton called out, hefting up his belt as he walked.
“Sheriff,” Lucy said and aimed an accusing finger at Reider. “Arrest him. He kidnapped my daughter and nearly killed her!”
Princeton’s lips screwed up to one side as he nodded slowly. “Is that right?”
“Yes, it is. I want him arrested!”
Princeton glanced over his shoulder at Frank, struggling against the officers, and the sheriff leaned in real close. “Thought I told you to behave yourself, Frank. Cuff him. He’s wanted for questioning anyway in relation to the car accident that killed the Marquettes.”
“What? What are you doing?!” Ben yelled and moved to stop them, but Princeton stepped in his path. “How dare you! You work for us!”
“Since when? Because you donate money to the department two times a year?” Princeton said gruffly and laughed. “You got some nerve, Chadwick. All of you do. Now, the way I hear it, Reider and Johanna got in an accident. Reider, you okay, son?”
Reider nodded once. “But Jo… I don’t know…” He trailed off, unable to finish as pain choked him. He hung his head, hating to think of his life without Jo in it.
“She’s strong,” Princeton said encouragingly. “She’ll be alright, you’ll see.”
“She might be pregnant,” he said. Peter cursed loudly, and his mom muttered something about whores under her breath as Lucy cried. “Don’t you dare insult my wife,” Reider raged at his mom. “Don’t. You want to lose your son tonight, too?”
“Reider, please, see reason,” she sputtered. “This is young love. It’ll fade. She’s using you like Chadwicks always do.”