My Only Regret (Twisted Fate Book 1)

by James, Rhonda

  I’ve been thinking that maybe this would be a good week for you to come out after all. I’m sorry about earlier, you just threw me for a loop when you called. I was being stubborn. I love you and I miss you too. Text me back right away and let me know what you think.

  I couldn’t hide my smile, he wanted to see me. I had just started typing out a response when I heard a voice behind me that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I slipped my phone into the pocket of my hoodie and turned to face him.

  “Hey baby,” he sneered through his clenched teeth.

  “Steve,” I croaked. “What are you doing here?” Everything within me told me to flee but my legs suddenly felt like rubber. I stood there mentally running through all of the self-defense techniques I had learned in class many years ago. Should I let him get close and then bring my elbow up into his throat? Should I knee him in the groin and punch him in the nose? Do I scream and make a run for it, hoping for the best? Or should I wait until he came up behind me and stomp him on the foot and reach my hand back to squeeze his testicles until he screamed for mercy? All of them sounded like the right thing to do, but at the same time panic seemed to be getting the best of me. I stared him in the eyes, not backing down. The look on his face heightened all of my senses and pretty soon rage and common sense kicked in.

  “My, my. Look at you Rhyann. You’ve done well for yourself I see. Guess you found yourself someone to take care of you after all. Isn’t that right, Mrs. Montgomery? Rhyann Montgomery. That man you were with at the police station was Jesse Montgomery. I thought I recognized him. So our fair Rhyann married a rockstar. You must be loaded now. How much is he worth? Ten or twenty million?” He circled me, clenching a knife tightly in one hand. “That’s pretty funny seeing as how I'm financially ruined, thanks to you. I think you owe me.” Spit spewed from his mouth after each angry word. It was clear that I was going to have to try and do some damage control if I wanted any chance of getting out of this situation in one piece.

  “Steve, I wasn't responsible for you being fired. I didn’t want any part of that.” I declared, moving backwards slowly, while my eyes remained focused on the knife. “That lawyer sought me out. She asked a few questions and I answered them. I left my job and had no intention of discussing our work issues with anyone. I never even told my husband. I only wanted to move forward with my life. I honestly never thought I would see you again. I’m truly sorry that all of this has happened.” I continued backing up, but stopped as he moved slowly around me.

  I waited until he was on my left side before slamming into him, catching him off guard and knocking the knife out of his hand. We rolled around on the path, grabbing at one another’s arms and throat. I smacked his face and clawed at his eyes, trying my best to blind him. He rolled over and pinned me to the ground before punching me hard in the mouth. Even through the pain I managed to keep my hands on his face, trying my best to draw blood. I bucked hard with my hips and legs and finally made direct contact with his groin. He let go of me for a moment and covered himself. I got on my knees and scrambled forward, ending up on the other side of a wooded area before he grabbed hold of my ankle and twisted it violently.

  “Fucking bitch!” He slapped me so hard I saw stars. I screamed and threw punches of my own before he placed a hand firmly over my mouth. I bucked wildly and turned my head left and right, trying to shake him loose. His pinky finger slipped over my parted lips and I bit down hard. “Ouch! You like it rough don’t you?” He pulled at the zipper on my hoodie, revealing the thin tank top underneath. “Well, look at what we have here,” he growled, staring at my heaving breasts. His free hand moved to grasp one of them and I smacked at him. He threw his head back laughing and squeezed harder, making me wince. “You do know that every time you buck against me I get a little bit harder for you. You’re only making it that much more enjoyable for me.”

  “No!” I screamed. “Please don’t do this Steve. Please don’t hurt me,” I pleaded.

  “Too late honey. I’m taking what was owed to me a long time ago. I should have had my way with you in that hotel room. We could have been so good together. I could have made you happier than your rockstar. You know you want this so stop fighting me.” He grabbed both of my hands with one of his and held them over my head. I spit in his face when he leaned in to kiss me. He stopped and licked it off his lips. “Yum. I can’t wait to see what the rest of you tastes like,” he laughed wickedly while trying to yank down my yoga pants. I heard my phone ringing but I couldn't reach it. I knew in my heart that it was Jesse, and if he were with me he would have killed Steve.

  My mind spun out of control. I didn’t want him touching me, just having him this close made my stomach curdle. I choked back bile that burned my throat and fought hard against him, but he outweighed me by at least sixty pounds. His hand traveled to the waist of my pants and started to pull them down. He stuck out his tongue and licked his way across my neck before kissing between my breasts. No fucking way was I going to let him rape me. I brought my knee up to the side of his head and rammed as hard as I could. He fell to the side and I kicked him again. I scrambled to get out from under him and stood on wobbly legs, trying desperately to get away. I screamed for help, and almost made it to the clearing, when he yanked me backwards, sending us both to the ground. I kicked back at him and stretched my arm out for the knife I saw shimmering in the grass just inches away from my fingertips. I had nearly reached the tip of the blade when he flipped me over.

  “Oh no you don’t,” he hissed, pinning me beneath him once more, “I’m putting an end to this right now.” The last thing I saw was his fist approaching my left cheek, I felt the first blow, and the next, then, nothing…

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Do you think she’s dead?”

  “Nah, I think I see her chest moving.”

  “Put your ear to her mouth, see if you hear her breathing.”

  “Hang on, wait, I think I hear something. Holy shit!”

  I opened my eyes and found two more staring back at me, just over the tip of my nose. I screamed and clawed at him, afraid he was going to finish what he had started. He screamed back at me. I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them again, it wasn’t Steve. It was a young boy, and he had been so frightened by my screaming that he had scrambled backwards over the pathway. I looked quickly between him and his friend, not sure who they were, but pretty sure they had played a part in saving my life. I tried pulling myself up on my elbows but the pain in my head made me woozy.

  “There was a man here before, did you see anything?” My voice came out sounding small and weak.

  “Yeah, we were playing soccer just on the other side of the woods when we heard screaming. We ran over the hill and saw you on the ground and he was kneeling over you. He saw us and took off in that direction,” the boy pointed toward the park entrance. “Were you two having a lover’s spat?” The other boy said something nasty to him but I couldn’t hear. “What? That’s what my grandmother calls it. Anyway, did he hurt you?”

  “Don’t worry, an ambulance is on the way. I called 911 right away, they taught us that in school last year,” said the other boy, who slowly came into view as he leaned over me, smiling.

  “Thank you. I believe you both saved my life. That man was trying to hurt me.” I looked toward the edge of the path, just beyond the grass, and caught the shimmer of the knife blade. “Do you see that knife just over there,” I lifted a hand to point, they both looked and nodded. “Don’t touch that, it’s evidence that the police will need.”

  “Okay, we’ll be sure to show it to them when they get here. Do you think they’re going to ask us a lot of questions? Will we have to go down to the police station?” I heard the sound of sirens approaching and my rapidly beating heart finally began to start slowing down. I was going to be okay. I closed my eyes once again, drifting into blackness.

  “Miss, can you hear me? Are you with me?” I felt a light patting on my cheek. “Miss?”

  “
Yes,” I squeaked, “I’m with you, but please don't do that, my head really hurts.”

  “You have some contusions on your face and a bump on the back of your head, probably from hitting the pavement. Do you remember anything about what happened?” I nodded, squeezing my eyes shut.

  “A man…”

  “It’s okay, we’re going to take you to the hospital and they’ll probably keep you overnight for observation. You’re going to be okay, we’ve got you. Okay, let’s go.” They loaded me into the back of the ambulance and headed for the hospital, where doctors and nurses scurried in and out of my room, hooking me up to an IV and monitors. After documenting a complete history on me, a young nurse checked my temperature and asked me for a urine sample, I gave a puzzled look.

  “It’s standard procedure Ms. Michaels,” her smile was polite and sweet. I hadn’t given them my married name because I thought it would be best to keep Jesse’s name out of the media. I made my way into the bathroom, collected a sample, and ambled back to the hard bed.

  “Excuse me,” I asked a passing nurse, “Do you know where my belongings are? I’m looking for my phone.”

  “Sure hon, they are in that bag just at the foot of your bed,” she replied. "The reception is spotty here so don't be surprised if you can't get a signal."

  I wanted to get out of here; I wasn’t in any mood to spend the night alone in this place. I found my phone and saw that I had only one bar of reception. Jesse had been the one trying to call me while I lay on the ground fighting for my life. He didn't leave a message so I tried calling him back. At this point I was pretty sure no one knew of my whereabouts, let alone what had happened to me in the park. His phone went straight to voicemail so I left a message, telling him that I needed him, and asked him to call me. Next, I tried calling Mel, she answered on the first ring.

  “Hey Rhyann, what’s up? You want to come over and hang with me, we can miss our guys together.”

  “Umm, I’m at the hospital, they're keeping me overnight for observation.”

  “What? Why? Are you okay?” She threw questions at me quickly.

  “I’ll tell you all of it later. Can you please just come and sit with me for a bit?”

  “Of course, I’m on my way.” I hung up the phone and lay back against the pillows. This was going to be a long night.

  Knock, knock,” came an unfamiliar voice. I looked toward the door and there stood the police detective that had taken my statement last week. “Ms. Montgomery can I have a moment?”

  “Of course, please come in, just so you know I told them my last name was Michaels, I need to protect my husband.” He nodded his understanding and came to stand by the bed.

  “I wanted to let you know how sorry I am for what happened to you. Do you mind giving me your account of what transpired in the park this afternoon? Anything that you remember will be helpful.”

  “Of course. I went for a jog, there weren’t many people around…” I gave descriptive details of everything that happened, making sure to mention the knife that had been left on the edge of the path.

  “Yes, we collected that during our first pass through the park. We’ll send it off for prints and I'll have the hospital collect any evidence that may still be on you or under your fingernails. I’ll file my report and we will bring Mr. Nelson in again, see if we have enough evidence to charge him. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.” He stood to leave. “Listen, I have a friend in the department that talks with victims of these types of crimes. I think she would be someone who can help you in case you ever felt you needed to talk. Here’s my card, her name and information are on the back.” He set the card on the bedside table. “Best of luck to you Rhyann. I’m glad that you’re going to be okay.”

  Sweetie, you are lucky to be alive. My gosh, I can’t believe this happened to you. Have you talked to Jesse? Does he know what happened?” Mel had only been in the room for twenty minutes but I had brought her up to speed on everything that occurred since I left her apartment. It felt good having her with me, keeping me company. The only thing that would have made me feel better would have been if Jesse were here to hold me. I still hadn’t heard back from him. He must have been rehearsing for their performance tonight. My head felt better, after a few doses of medication, and I was just waiting for the doctor to drop in during his rounds.

  “He hasn’t returned my calls. You know, he sent me a text this morning; I had stopped to read it when Steve surprised me. Maybe if I hadn’t stopped I could have kept running and got away. As it was, once I saw him I froze in my tracks. I have never been so scared for my life. The look in his eyes, the way he held that knife, he looked like a man with nothing to lose. The sooner they lock him up the better off I will feel.”

  “Amen to that, he never should have been released to begin with. The man is a menace to women everywhere. I hope they throw the book at him,” Mel scowled.

  “Throw the book at him,” I giggled. “What does that even mean anyway?” We both fell into a fit of laughter, giggling until the doctor came into the room.

  “Glad to hear you laughing Ms. Michaels.” Mel threw me a confused look but I pursed my lips and gave a quick shake of my head. “How’s the head feeling now?” He lifted me forward, feeling the bump, then leaned me back and checked my pupils and swollen cheek. “The black eye and cheek should heal pretty quickly, there were no lacerations to the face so that will speed things up. The bump on your head will probably take a good ten days to go completely down. We’ll want you to be on the lookout for continued headaches, blurred vision, that sort of thing. As for the rest of you, everything looks to be in good order, a few bruises here and there from the struggle but there was no harm to the baby when you fell so your pregnancy should continue normally. I do recommend that you follow-up with your obstetrician just to be on the safe side.” He paused, taking in my shell-shocked state, before continuing. “I take it this pregnancy comes as a surprise to you. I’m sorry, I mistakenly thought you already knew,” his warm smile filled his face as he watched me.

  “No,” I shook my head slowly. “I mean, I’ve had sickness throughout the day for the past five days but I just thought I had a bug. I guess I should have assumed that could have been a possibility.”

  “Anything more than vomiting?” he asked, writing in my chart.

  “No, just vomiting, but violent at times. Wow, this is a shock. I’ve been on the pill but my husband and I weren’t trying for a baby, we weren’t exactly abstaining either. How far along am I?” I asked, my voice shaking. How on earth was I going to tell Jesse this, after everything else we had to deal with?

  “I would say only about five or six weeks, but your OB can confirm that after you make your first appointment. I’ll give you a few recommendations of qualified obstetricians I’ve worked with. You can meet with one of them and then make your decision on how you want to proceed. Until then, I want to keep you overnight and release you first thing in the morning. I’ll handle all of your release papers so that you can leave before breakfast if that helps. Take care Rhyann, and good luck with whatever you choose.”

  He left the room and it took me a full minute to make eye contact with Mel.

  I’m pregnant?

  We were going to have a baby. We were going to be parents. Fuck. I turned to Mel and started bawling. She crawled onto the bed and rocked me back and forth, like a mother would her child, and spoke in soft sentences to me, encouraging me. I stayed that way for nearly an hour before Mel ran out to pick us up some take out. The food they had delivered earlier still sat congealing on the tray at the foot of my bed.

  We finished dinner and were now sharing the narrow bed to watch television. Jesse still hadn’t called back. This was the longest we had ever gone without seeing each other. Not talking to him had been one thing, but not seeing him was what hurt the most. I couldn’t stop thinking about the night I left the house. Looking back, I wished like hell that I could change the way that conversation had gone down. Now that I’d had ti
me to consider my options I realized that I should have given him the benefit of the doubt. I was always doing that, jumping to conclusions and reacting irrationally. My mother had often pointed that fact out to me once I became an out of control teenager, and on more than one occasion I had heard it from Mel, now it was happening with Jesse. It was a destructive pattern of behavior that needed to stop, I just wasn’t sure how to go about getting it under control.