Trust

by Sherri Hayes

  When we brought Greta back into the conference room to let her know of our decision, she was more than grateful and readily agreed. She thanked me and the board profusely for not sending her to jail. There were a few on the board who didn’t like my decision, and I saw some glares as they left the room. I wasn’t all that concerned. They would get over it.

  Megan would be pulled aside by HR and one of the firm’s lawyers and be told she was being suspended on suspicion of theft. Since we weren’t having her arrested—at least, not as long as she complied with whatever the board came up with as a suitable punishment for her crimes—she’d be on leave, without pay, until the final decision was made. For now, I wanted to see her relegated to the lowest job we could find for her and make her stay there for the foreseeable future. I wasn’t sure that was the sane part of me talking, or if everything in my life was finally getting the best of me.

  Erik mentioned he could place a type of tracker in Megan’s computer that would show if anyone outside the company tried to access it and then track that person’s movements. It would essentially give us full access to the hacker’s computer. Right now, all we had on Greta’s grandson, Frankie, was his single phone conversation with Greta and her confession. I wanted more. He and Megan were responsible for this, and I wanted everything I could get on both of them. It would give us leverage if they tried to weasel out of what they’d done and place the blame solely on Greta’s shoulders.

  One by one, everyone left the room, with the exception of my uncle. He lingered by the coffee until we were alone.

  “Something on your mind, Uncle?”

  He absentmindedly stirred his coffee, before throwing the little straw in the trash can. “I know you’ve been busy with this situation, so I was wondering if you’d read a newspaper lately or watched the news?”

  I frowned. “No. Why?”

  “Because you and Sarah are all over it.”

  “Me and Sarah? Why?”

  “Because apparently you’re expecting a baby together.”

  “What?”

  “I told you this would happen, Stephan. The media loves to jump to conclusions, and they didn’t have to leap very far for this one. Have you told Brianna, yet?”

  At the mention of Brianna’s name, my heart sank. “When did you hear about it? Where did you see it?”

  Richard stood there with an exaggerated calm. “Last night on the news. I was at the hospital most of the weekend, though, and from the sound of the anchor’s comments, this wasn’t their first broadcast reporting it—they were giving an update, which included pictures of you and Sarah in college.”

  My heart started beating rapidly. “I have to go.”

  “Maybe you need to calm down first.”

  I ignored him, my only thought of Brianna. That had to be why she hadn’t e-mailed, why she hadn’t called. I had to get to her and explain.

  Making a beeline for my office, I grabbed my keys, and then raced to the elevator.

  Jamie yelled after me. “Sir?”

  I stepped onto the elevator before I answered her. “I’m leaving for the day.”

  Her mouth opened to respond, but the elevator doors closed, cutting her off.

  Sliding behind the wheel of my car, I started the engine, and then maneuvered out of the parking garage and out onto the street. It was then I noticed the extra news affiliates hanging around. Had there been that many this morning? I had no idea.

  As I drove, it rapidly became clear that I had several of them following me. That wouldn’t do. Even in my desperation to get to Brianna, I knew I couldn’t lead them to her.

  Making an unplanned right at the traffic light, I headed in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and hit Lily’s number.

  “Stephan? Where are you? Your uncle said you flew out of here as—”

  “I’ll explain later, I promise, but I need to borrow Logan’s car.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I’m being followed, and I need to lose them. That will never happen as long as I’m driving my car.” She was silent on the other end of the line for too long. “Lily?”

  “Um. Yeah. Sure. His keys are on the kitchen counter next to the toaster.”

  “Thanks.”

  Without waiting for her response, I hung up and sped toward Lily and Logan’s apartment as quickly as Minneapolis traffic would allow. My only hope was that switching cars would throw the vultures following me off my trail.

  Chapter 25

  Brianna

  “There’s been no change?”

  “No. None. We thought she’d come out of it by now. That’s why we called you. We’ve never seen her like this.”

  A hand touched my forehead, and then two fingers pressed firmly against the side of my wrist. “She doesn’t appear to be running any type of a fever, and her pulse is steady.”

  “Is there anything you can do for her?”

  The voices moved farther away, although they were still close enough that I could hear them. “You could admit her to a psych ward for observation, but given her history, it may do more harm than good.”

  “I don’t understand how this could happen. I thought she was getting better. She was acting better.” That time I recognized the voice as Cal’s. He sounded irritated . . . and worried.

  “She is getting better, Mr. Ross, but Anna experienced trauma that left huge emotional scars. That isn’t going to repair itself overnight.”

  They were all quiet for a long time, and then I heard what I thought to be Jade’s voice. “So what do we do now?”

  “Keep doing what you’ve been doing. Sit with her. Talk to her. Give her an anchor to reality. Anna has escaped inside herself because what happened . . . what she saw and heard . . . was too painful for her to deal with. This . . .” She paused. “This is how she’s protecting herself. Unfortunately, there is no magic button that will bring her back. You’re going to have to let her work it out on her own.”

  After that, the voices left the room, leaving me alone. There were no sounds other than a low hum that seemed to surround me. The sound only added to the feeling of emptiness, and eventually the black void pulled me into its embrace once again.

  Raised voices tore at my subconscious, demanding I pay attention to them. I didn’t want to. I wanted to go back to the void. There wasn’t pain in the void.

  The voices wouldn’t go away, though. They kept getting louder. One voice in particular.

  Cal’s.

  “You have a lot of nerve showing your face here.”

  I opened my eyes slowly, and the light that hit my eyes nearly blinded me.

  Someone spoke, but I couldn’t hear what they said. Their voice sounded muffled.

  “You need to leave.”

  The muffled voice spoke again.

  “Like hell you are. Leave now before I rearrange your face some more for you.”

  The muffled voice grew louder, and this time I was able to make out both the words—and the speaker. “I’m not leaving until I see Brianna.”

  Stephan.

  My chest tightened painfully, and memories flooded my mind. Stephan was going to be a father. He was going to have a baby with his ex-girlfriend. No. If they were having a baby together then she wouldn’t be his ex anymore, would she?

  I heard more yelling but no words. Then there were sounds of things breaking.

  Willing my legs to work, I stood up beside the bed. I felt weak, but I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t stay in my room and hide no matter how much I wanted to. Stephan felt responsible for me. That had to be why he was here. He deserved to be happy, though, and Sarah could do that for him. She could do the things I couldn’t. I had to set him free . . . let him know that he didn’t need to care for me anymore.

  When I shuffled into the living room, Stephan and Cal were both on the floor. Each looked as if they’d thrown a few punches. Stephan had a bloody lip, and Cal’s nose was bleeding. Jade was towering over them, try
ing to break them apart, but she didn’t look to be having much success.

  “Stop,” I squeaked.

  They couldn’t hear me over everything else that was going on.

  I took a deep breath and tried again, this time putting all the energy I had left behind it. “Stop!”

  Stephan halted his movements first, which caused him to double over from a swift punch Cal landed to Stephan’s stomach.

  I tried one more time. “Stop! Please, stop.”

  This time, Jade and Cal heard me. They froze.

  Stephan used Cal’s distraction to push him away. Cal grunted, but other than that, failed to react.

  “Brianna.” Stephan stood and took a step toward me.

  I took a step backward.

  My retreat didn’t escape his notice, and he didn’t continue to approach me. “I was worried when you didn’t contact me. I tried to call you.”

  “Leave her alone, you bastard! She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

  “Cal, honey, calm down. You’re going to frighten Anna.”

  Cal’s only concession to what Jade said was that when he spoke again, he was no longer yelling. “Haven’t you hurt her enough? Leave.”

  Stephan didn’t take his eyes off me when he answered Cal. “Not until I say what I’ve come to say.”

  Cal didn’t like that answer. He took a step forward like he was going to attack Stephan again, but Jade blocked his path. “Let him talk, and then he can go.”

  “Why are you always on his side? You heard what he did. He doesn’t deserve anything.”

  Jade sighed but stayed calm. “I’m not on his side. But the two of you fighting again isn’t going to solve anything either. Let him say his piece, and then he will leave.” She turned to address Stephan. “You will leave after you’ve said what you came to say, or I will help Cal throw you out. Understood?”

  Stephan looked as if he were going to argue but gave Jade a single hard nod instead.

  He looked me up and down, taking in my appearance. “Give us a minute.”

  “Not on your life.” Cal’s voice was hard once more.

  Stephan sighed. “I’m guessing you heard the rumors going around about me and Sarah.”

  Cal snorted, but Stephan ignored him.

  “Brianna, they’re not true. Sarah is pregnant, yes, but it’s not mine.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Sarah came to visit because she needed some time away to think. She was pregnant when she arrived in Minneapolis.”

  He paused and took a tentative step toward me again. This time, I didn’t move.

  “I’ve never lied to you, Brianna, and I don’t want you to think that I have. I had every intention of explaining Sarah to you, but I wanted to do it in person. I was going to tell you Saturday at the planetarium. We would have had time to talk, to be together . . . and I could have explained everything. I wasn’t expecting the media to blow things out of proportion.”

  Moisture gathered in my eyes. I didn’t know what to believe. They’d said the baby was his, but Stephan had never lied to me before. I wanted to believe him.

  “Since I’m laying all my cards out on the table here, Sarah has been living in the upstairs bedroom at my condo since she arrived. This weekend she found a place of her own and is moving out as we speak.”

  She’d been living with him?

  “Look at me, Brianna.”

  No matter how conflicted I was feeling, I couldn’t deny him.

  When my gaze met his, I could see the pain in them, and my heart broke a little more.

  “I love you, Brianna, and I never meant to do anything that would make you question your trust in me.”

  “Okay, that’s enough.” Cal pushed forward, placing his hand on Stephan’s chest.

  Stephan wrapped his fingers around Cal’s wrist. “I’m not finished.”

  “Yes, you are. You said what you came to say. Now you are going to leave.”

  When Stephan didn’t move, Cal punctuated his words with a push. Stephan narrowed his eyes at Cal but took a step toward the door.

  Cal positioned himself protectively between me and Stephan. Over the last few weeks, I wasn’t as jumpy around Cal as I used to be, but it still made me nervous when he was like this.

  Stephan opened the door and paused before stepping outside. He met my gaze again from across the room. No words were spoken, but what I saw spoke volumes. He was hurting. Every instinct inside me called out to comfort him, but before I could command my body to move, he was gone.

  I listened to him start his car and then disappear down the driveway.

  Closing my eyes, I collapsed onto the floor as the blackness took over again.

  When I opened my eyes, I was back in my bed. I had no recollection of returning to my bedroom. The last thing I remembered was seeing Stephan walking out the door and my heart breaking in two all over again.

  “Hey, you’re awake.” Jade sat in one of the kitchen chairs a couple of feet from the bed.

  I met her gaze but didn’t say anything.

  “Are you hungry? I made some soup. It’s not as good as what you can make, but Cal says it’s edible.”

  I shook my head.

  She sighed and reached out to touch the tips of my fingers where they were laying on the bed. “Anna, you haven’t eaten anything in almost three days. You need to eat something.”

  “I’m not hungry.” Even those three simple words took more effort than they should.

  “Please eat something. For me?”

  Reluctantly, I nodded. Jade had been so nice to me. I didn’t know if my moving in with Cal would have worked if not for her. She’d allowed me to lean on her when I no longer had Stephan.

  Stephan.

  My eyes filled with tears again.

  Two seconds later, Jade’s arms were around me. “It will be okay. We’ll figure it out. I promise.”

  She held me until I’d stopped crying. I felt dead inside except for the pain that seemed to be a permanent resident in my chest. It almost felt as if someone were sitting on top of me and wouldn’t get up. Every time I breathed in, it wasn’t enough to fill my lungs. It reminded me a little of my panic attacks, but this was different in that there wasn’t a flashback or a fear of pain. This time there was pain.

  Jade brought me in some soup and sat with me while I ate it. It didn’t have much flavor. I didn’t know if it was just me or if it was because Jade had made it. She wasn’t very good with cooking, even with the few lessons I’d given her.

  “You don’t like it.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, sipping another spoonful into my mouth.

  She didn’t say any more until I’d finished the soup. Taking the bowl from me, she laid it on the nightstand beside the bed. “Cal wants to come in and see you, but I asked him to wait. Anna, do you remember what happened this afternoon?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you remember Stephan coming to see you?”

  “Yes. I remember.”

  Jade moved to sit on the bed beside me. “Did you want to talk about it?”

  Did I?

  “There’s no pressure, but if you want to talk, I’ll listen.”

  I thought about it for a few minutes. “Stephan has never lied to me before.”

  “Do you think he’s lying now?”

  “I don’t know. The news . . .”

  Jade shifted so that we were facing each other. “No one can tell you what to do, Anna. Well, Cal will probably try to tell you what to do.”

  She smiled, and I couldn’t help the soft snort that escaped.

  “My point is that you can’t always believe what you hear on the news or read in the paper. Remember my friend I was telling you about? The one that was raped? The guy was a football player, and there were some people who thought she was lying. They spread rumors about her that weren’t true, and some of those rumors were printed in the campus paper. I know it’s not the same thing, but . . .” She sighed. “What does your heart tell you?”
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  “I don’t know!” I cried.

  She grabbed hold of my hands and held tight. “Yes you do. One way or another, you know.”

  Four days later, I sat across from Dr. Perkins in her office. It had been a long week. Stephan had come to see me again on Tuesday, but Jade had met him at the front door and told him that he needed to give me some space. I wanted to see him, but I didn’t at the same time. He’d been my stability since he’d gotten me away from Ian. For the first time in months, I felt unsure of the one thing I’d always been certain of. Him.

  I reached up and touched my collar. There were several times this week I’d almost taken it off. It didn’t feel right for me to wear it anymore. Not when I was doubting . . . everything.

  “You look like you have a lot on your mind today, Anna.”

  As if I’d been stung, I dropped my hand and wrapped my arms around my torso. I looked quickly around the room as if waiting for some unknown . . . something . . . to jump out at me.

  I hadn’t wanted to come today, but Jade and Cal had begged me to go. They thought it would help.

  “This is a safe place. No one’s going to hurt you here.”

  Meeting Dr. Perkins’s gaze, I saw the same worry that had been on Cal’s and Jade’s faces since Monday. I didn’t like making them worry about me, but I couldn’t help it. My world no longer made sense to me. “You know what happened?”

  “Your friends filled me in on some of it, but I’d like to hear it from you. If, that is, you’d like to share it with me.”

  Dropping my gaze to the floor, I raised my feet up onto the couch and rested my chin on my knees while hugging my legs. Every time I talked about it, I felt. I didn’t want to feel.

  When I didn’t say anything after a while, Dr. Perkins leaned forward in her chair, and laid her pad of paper aside. “I know there has to be a lot going on inside your head right now, Anna, and I’d like to help you sort through it . . . make sense of it, if I can, but I’m going to need for you to talk to me.”