A Week for Love to Bloom

by Wolfe, Scarlet

  “You have a distinguished office. I never thought I’d be in it, but it’s lovely.”

  “Thank you. What can I do for you?”

  Lauren handed him the paperwork. “We were served these today. I thought it was a misunderstanding, but once I saw your office listed I had a feeling there might be more to it.

  “Then my mother just informed me minutes ago that they secured a loan a few years back, but we haven’t received a single piece of mail related to it since I took over when my father moved away. I wasn’t able to reach him before coming here. Do you know what this is in regard to?”

  “I was afraid of this. You really had no prior knowledge of this loan?”

  “No.”

  Jeffrey took a deep breath and gazed at her quietly for a moment. “Ms. Evans, it appears that a few years back your father took out a mortgage for twenty-five thousand dollars. The loan became delinquent, so the bank came to the decision to sell the property to satisfy the debt.

  “A single payment hasn’t been made for a year. Baker’s First Bank claims they’ve tried to work with your father, giving him plenty of opportunities to catch up. It will be auctioned the 1st of September if the balance is not paid in full. I’m very sorry that you were not aware of this.”

  Lauren became dizzy and felt as if everything was happening in slow motion. “There has to be something I can do. I mean, we have equity in the property.”

  “Ms. Evans, unfortunately, we represent the bank. I can’t advise you on this matter. You’ll need to secure your own attorney. However, I’m able to give you the facts in the case. Your father put in a change of address when he moved. It appears he has intercepted the mail related to this delinquency. Also, the loan documents state that Mr. and Mrs. Evans waived their right of redemption, meaning you cannot take back the property after it’s sold if you were able to come up with the funds.”

  The room started spinning as a wave of nausea washed over her.

  “Ms. Evans, are you OK? You look rather pale.”

  “I’ve had dinner in your home, and I’m in love with your son, so you can call me Lauren. Could you please direct me to the nearest restroom?”

  He directed her to the restroom down the hallway and went straight to Jonathan’s office.

  “You need to call your brother. He’s already going to be furious, so I’d like for him to hear some of it from us. I’m also worried about Ms.—I mean, Lauren getting home safely.” They both heard her vomiting in the restroom.

  “Call him now,” Jeffrey said with urgency.

  “Justin, this is Jonathan. I need you here at my office.”

  “What’s the rush? I just got out of the gym.”

  “Lauren is here. She received some bad news today about her property, and she seems very ill.”

  “Shit.” Justin hung up on him.

  When Lauren came out of the restroom, Jeffrey was waiting for her in the hall.

  “Lauren, please have a seat back in my office.”

  The lady from the front desk brought her a glass of water, and after several minutes, Jeffrey returned to his seat.

  “My mother said he’s told her for a year that he was trying to get a loan to pay off this one, and then the new one would be in only his name. I imagine it has been impossible for him to secure a loan based on his low income.”

  “Lauren, as of now, the law states the bank is only required to sell the property at auction for half of its value. Then there would be huge administrative and legal fees tacked on to that. There will be very little equity left for you.

  “There’s already a developer in town who’s planning to turn the property into a subdivision, so I know he’ll bid on it. Unfortunately, unless you can pay off the loan beforehand, the auction will happen as scheduled. You should hire an attorney immediately.”

  Lauren felt detached from the conversation. She could hear him, but the room was still spinning. She tried to process what he said and started putting two and two together. Lauren stood and sat the glass of water on the desk.

  “You and Jonathan knew about this and chose not to discuss it with me. You had me over to your home more than once and not because you cared about getting to know me but because you wanted to see what I knew. That’s what all the questions were about at dinner.”

  “I didn’t feel it was my place to tell you since the loan was not secured in your name, and we had no idea you and Justin were that serious.”

  “Are you really saying it was not your place to tell me, yet a developer has known about it all this time? Interesting. I imagine the legal fees that’ll be tacked on because of this sale will be from your office.

  “I don’t need a college degree to understand what’s truly going on here. I bet in addition to you representing the bank, you’ll be doing all the legal work for this developer as he turns my property into a subdivision. I imagine it takes a lot of legal work and a lot of dough for a developer to bring that to completion,” Lauren snapped.

  She heard his voice the second he came through the door. She instantly felt her dizziness worsen. He was screaming her name as he hurried down the hallway.

  Justin flew into his father’s office with wide eyes glued to Lauren. Jonathan walked in behind him.

  “Justin, I don’t want to see you or talk to—”

  “No, Lauren!” Justin tried to grab her, but it was too late. She collapsed, nailing her head on a credenza before hitting the floor.

  “What the hell happened to her? What did you all do?” Justin asked, yelling.

  He bent down on his knees and tried to wake her. Jeffrey yelled for his assistant and asked her to get some wet paper towels.

  “Lauren, wake up!” Justin placed his hand under her neck and felt something wet. When he lifted her head he saw the puddle of blood.

  “Call 911, now!”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Lauren opened her eyes and heard foreign beeping sounds. Panicking, she glanced around the room trying to orient herself.

  “Lauren, I’m right here,” Claire said, grabbing her daughter’s hand.

  “Mom, what happened to me?”

  “You passed out at the Garrison’s office and hit your head pretty hard on a credenza and then the floor. They believe you have a concussion, and you had to get quite a few stitches in the back of your head. You’re in the emergency room.”

  Lauren gently touched the back of her head and felt the bandage as the happenings of the day rushed back into her mind.

  “I want to go home and be left alone,” Lauren said.

  “Honey, I know you’re angry and hurt, but we’ll find a way to get through this.”

  “Maybe you don’t care that we’re about to lose everything, but I do, and now I’ll have nothing. In one day, I’ve lost my whole world.”

  “I know what you’re thinking. You’re mad at Justin, but he knew nothing about any of this.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He’s a part of that evil family, so I can’t be with him. There’s no way we can be together with that obstacle, and I promised from the beginning I wasn’t going to interfere with his relationship with his family. I made that clear to him.”

  “He’s in the waiting room and wants to see you something awful. Justin’s father told me you’re pretty upset with all of them, so I figured it was better if I was the only one in here when you woke up.”

  “Wow, Mom, you did one thing right,” Lauren said with an icy tone. “You can go tell him to leave because I don’t want to see him.”

  “I think that’s going to be impossible. He’s a mess. Please let him come back for a minute.”

  “No, go tell him to leave.”

  Claire sighed as she left the room.

  Lauren stared at the ceiling as she lay alone in the hospital room. When she was finally able to trust again, all those closest to her let her down. Being betrayed by the man she gave her heart to and the family she believed might accept her was too much for her to bear.

  The pent up hurt
and anger from her father’s deceit rushed to the surface. She’d shoved it down for too long. Lauren became entranced by the deep sorrow she felt she was drowning in. She envisioned being in a greenhouse where there were shards of glass splayed around her on the floor from her world shattering. She picked up a jagged piece and cut through her dirt covered hands, watching the blood drain from her as it took her life with it. Without Justin and her business, life meant nothing to her. Absolutely nothing.

  “I’m going to see her!” Justin was quickly walking past the row of curtains trying to peak in them until he found Lauren.

  She snapped out of her trance when she heard his voice.

  “Lauren, please, I’m begging you to let me stay back here. I have to know you’re OK and talk to you. I love you so much.”

  “Get out, Justin! I don’t want to see you ever again. Leave with your evil, greedy family.”

  “Don’t do this, Lauren. I know you don’t mean that. We love each other, and we need to talk about this!”

  Security had reached the small room Lauren was in. No amount of medical curtains could’ve shielded everyone’s ears from their yelling. A man Lauren believed to be in his sixty’s wearing a uniform and black hat pulled the curtain back to see in.

  “Sir, you have to leave.”

  “Lauren, please tell him I can stay,” Justin pleaded.

  “No. Get out, and take all the shards of glass with my blood on them with you!”

  “Oh my God, Lauren. What are you talking about? Let me stay in here. You’re not OK.”

  “Sir, you can’t stay. Please come with me. If you care about her, you’ll let her have some space. If she’s hurt then she needs to rest and not get worked up.”

  Justin groaned loudly, grabbing his head with both hands.

  “I love you, Lauren.”

  Her heart ached from the defeated look on his face when he turned to walk away.

  When Justin pressured Jeffrey and Jonathan for details, they only told him about the auction and that they were representing the bank.

  An hour passed before a man wearing blue scrubs entered the room. Lauren took notice at how tight his scrub pants were tied around his waist and thought he looked too young to be a doctor.

  “Ms. Evans, I’m Dr. Creely. I’m here to go over your discharge instructions.” He informed her she was not to work for a few days because of her concussion and explained to her how to care for her wound.

  He then turned to Claire. “Ma’am, you can go ahead and pull your car around. We have the paperwork here to release her. I just need to cover something else with your daughter.”

  Claire left the room, and the doctor moved a little closer to Lauren.

  “Ms. Evans, are you aware that you’re pregnant?”

  Lauren thought she was going to pass out again. “What?”

  “You’re pregnant. From our test, you’re very early in your pregnancy, but you’ll need to get in to see an obstetrician soon for a check-up.”

  Lauren stared straight ahead and spoke as if no one was around. “One time. One time without protection.”

  “That’s all it takes,” the doctor said as he signed the papers he was holding. Lauren’s forehead creased from his comment.

  “Will the baby be OK from my fall?” she asked.

  “There’s no way to know that with certainty, but my medical opinion is that you and the baby will be fine. I must say though, stress can be just as detrimental, so you need to see what you can do to alleviate that some.”

  The doctor left the room, and a nurse had Lauren sign a paper. The ride in the wheelchair to the car felt like a never ending tunnel, closing in around her. She kept hearing the doctor say “you’re pregnant” over and over again.

  Her family had lied to her, and in a little over a month she was going to be without insurance, a job, and a home. Then to be told she’d have Justin’s baby to love and care for soon was too overwhelming.

  I’m carrying a Garrison.

  Lauren dozed off and began dreaming on the ride home from the hospital. She was holding a beautiful baby that stared up at her with huge, sparkling, blue eyes. She saw they were Justin’s eyes as the baby smiled at her, filling her heart with love until it was whole.

  Lauren’s eyes jerked open as she sat up straight in the car.

  “God gave me life again.”

  Claire glanced over at the sound of Lauren speaking.

  “Honey, are you OK? Justin said you were rambling off something upsetting at the hospital. I think the fall has affected you more than they originally thought.”

  Lauren didn’t speak again. She placed her hand on her belly and stared out the window.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Justin went straight to the bank to tell Ashley what happened. “Ashley, I need your help.”

  “What’s wrong? You look terrible.”

  “It’s Lauren, she’s hurt and won’t talk to me.” He told Ashley the details of the day.

  “I need you to leave work, so you can check on her. You know I wouldn’t ask this of you if it weren’t important. She won’t let me take care of her, and I’m sure Claire will have to work in the garden center.”

  “I’ll go ask Beth, but I don’t think she’ll let me leave.”

  Justin watched Ashley and Beth speaking. Ashley turned and shook her head, signaling that she couldn’t leave. Unfortunately, Beth was about to have a wave of fury thrown at her that she didn’t see coming.

  “Beth, Ashley’s leaving. It’s an emergency.”

  “Lauren is not family to her. I don’t see why you can’t do it, if it’s that important.”

  Justin paced in a circle, running his hands through his messy hair and blowing out a deep breath. He turned back to Beth. “Does Ashley have vacation time available to her?”

  “Yes, she does.”

  “Beth, I need you to do this. It’s important, and if you care about me as a friend, then you’re going to let her leave and give her time off with zero consequence,” Justin demanded as he pointed his finger at her.

  “Fine, you can go, Ashley,” Beth said with her arms crossed.

  “Thank you, Ms. Humphrey,” Ashley said before she left to get her purse. Justin felt bad when he saw the mortified look on Ashley’s face, but Lauren was more important to him.

  “Thank you, Beth,” Justin said as he gave her a quick hug.

  Justin begged Ashley to convince Lauren to see him. She promised to try and to give him updates.

  ***

  Lauren opened her eyes to find Ashley sitting on her bedroom floor, flipping through a magazine. “Ashley, what time is it? What are you doing here?”

  “It’s five o’clock. I’ve been here a couple of hours. I left work so I could see how you’re doing. It appears you’ve scared the crap out of some people, including me.”

  Lauren erupted into a cry that lasted twenty minutes, and nothing Ashley said kept the pain behind the tears from flowing. She sat on the bed next to her and held her hand. Lauren finally settled down.

  “Justin went all Incredible Hulk at the bank. You should’ve seen him. He was hot, Lauren. He came in blazing and told Beth I was leaving. He really didn’t give her an option. I thought I was going to lose my job right then and there, but he told her I was leaving, and there’d be no consequences for it. You would’ve been impressed.”

  Lauren didn’t want to laugh, but the way Ashley told the story made it impossible for her not to.

  “He’s an absolute mess. I’ve never seen a man this passionate about his woman before. He’s sick with worry over you.”

  “Well, I have bigger problems. Please don’t tell me how bad he’s doing, it just makes me feel worse.”

  “He wants me to convince you to see him.”

  “No, absolutely not. I want to be with him, but I can’t. I have to make him stay away. He can’t give up his family for me, and I refuse to be around them.”

  “What did they do?”

  “Justin didn’t tel
l you?” Lauren asked.

  “He told me about the auction and said the firm represents the bank. He said he thought you were mad at them because they didn’t tell you ahead of time. Is there more to it than that?”

  “Oh my God, they don’t even plan on telling him. Maybe it’s better that way. At least he’ll hate me instead of them. He can blame me for giving up on us instead of blaming them for their greed and destruction.” Lauren proceeded to tell Ashley what the Garrisons would gain from the property being sold.

  “Oh, Lauren, I don’t think he knows about any of that.”

  “I received more shocking news today, but I can only tell you if you swear not to tell anyone.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m pregnant. I found out at the hospital, and you’re the first to know.”

  Ashley started crying with Lauren as she held her on the bed.

  “I have to tell him, but I’m not doing it until after he starts his classes in Nashville. I know him, and he won’t go if I tell him about the baby. He’ll make a great dad, and at least I’ll have a part of him.”

  “You can’t make rash decisions, Lauren. It’s way too soon. Give it time. Your anger toward the Garrison family might ease, and maybe you all can find a way to be amicable. Don’t throw away your future because you think it’s what’s best for Justin. Let him make that decision.

  “I know important people have let you down, but it doesn’t mean he will. I know forgiveness is the last thing you want to think about right now, but eventually, it’s something you’ll need to face.”

  “Your brutal honesty is hard to take sometimes, but I’m a lucky girl to have a best friend like you,” Lauren said.

  ***

  Claire woke Lauren up the next morning to let her know that she was going out to work. She eased Lauren’s mind when she told her she called in reinforcement for the rest of the week. Brett and their other part-time employee agreed to work a few extra days, so Lauren could rest as the doctor ordered. She looked at her phone and had two missed calls from Justin and a few texts.