“All of you,” Trent says to us. Go over to that corner now or I will shoot her.” We all walk over to where he wants us to go. “As soon as we get outside, you can have her, but I need you to come with me, okay?” Maya nods her head at him and starts walking with him out the door. As soon as they are out the door, I head over to it when Callie and Leighton meet me there.
“Here, I really don’t want to shoot anyone else,” Callie says, handing me her gun she keeps in her purse. I take it from her and try to quietly walk down the hallway.
As soon as they exit the building, Trent stops and hands Ava to Maya. I point the gun to the back of his head and shoot, thanking the heavens above I’m a good shot. As soon as Trent goes down, I yell at Maya to run back inside. Instead she runs straight into my arms and I hold the two people in this world that I will never be able to live without.
“I’m so sorry,” Maya keeps repeating to me. Maya is sobbing and now Ava is sobbing.
“Are you okay,” I ask Ava. She nods her head at me before burying her face in Maya’s neck. “I need you to take her inside while I deal with this.” She nods her head and walks back inside to Callie and Leighton.
After dealing with the cops and Trent’s body, Brody comes outside to join me. “Ash took the girls home. Margo is in custody here if you want to go talk to her. We couldn’t get anything out of her.” I nod my head and hand him my keys.
“Can you come with me?” I ask. He nods his head and we head downtown to try to get Margo to talk.
I walk into the room they are holding Margo in. She looks up at me for a split second before looking back down to the table in front of her. I take a deep breath and sit across from her. I have so many questions that I am afraid I will never get answered now that Trent’s gone. I really hope she answers them.
“I’m sorry about your brother,” I say quietly. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes, but doesn’t say anything. “How did he get the pictures of him and Maya together?” I’m hoping if I start from the beginning all of this will make sense. If she would kidnap a kid for him, I’m sure she has helped him with lots of other stuff too. Margo looks up at me, then up to the camera in the corner. “I’ll turn it off if you will tell me what has really been going on,” I offer. I don’t tell her the audio recorder will still be on. She nods her head at me, so I go over and flip the switch to stop the video recording. I walk over and sit back down across from her.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant,” Margo starts. “Trent has always had a thing for Maya. He convinced me if I would help him break up the two of you, then he could have her and I would have a chance with you. He was obviously delusional about that,” she says, surprising me. I can’t believe she would ever think I could be interested in anyone but Maya. “I saw Maya out eating one day and asked if I could join her. Halfway through the meal, she got up to use the bathroom and I put something in her drink. It was easy to talk her into coming back to my house then. Once she was there, I stripped her and Trent got in bed with her. Nothing happened. She was completely knocked out. I took the pictures and sent them to you the next week. You were working that night, so it was easy to get her home and in bed. Lucky for us, she didn’t remember anything, except being sick and me taking her home.”
“Did he really tell you they were married and Ava was his?” I ask, remembering what Molly said she told her.
“The timing was off with Ava. I knew she had to be yours. He did tell me they got married and I think they probably are,” she says, looking into my eyes. I slowly shake my head at her before telling her Maya and I have been married this whole time.
“How did you get Ava to leave with you?” I ask her wanting to know what really went down today.
“I have met Ava a few times when Trent would watch her for Maya to do a shoot. I saw her playing by the barn tonight and asked her if I could take her to her daddy to play a game. I’m sure she thought I meant you. When we got to the room, I told her Trent was coming to see her. He was supposed to meet me earlier to get her, but never showed up. I don’t know where he was.”
“He was at my house, waiting to talk to Maya,” I tell her. She nods her head at me with tears pooling in her eyes.
“I’m sorry for everything, neither of you deserved it, and I never should have gone along with him. I really hope Ava is okay. I promise I didn’t hurt her while I had her.”
“Thanks for being honest with me,” I say before standing up. I walk back over and flip the switch to video camera back to on. I walk out the door and pray I never have to see that woman again.
Brody is waiting for me when I come out. “Ready to go see your girls?” he asks. I nod my head at him and follow him to my truck. I have never wanted to see my girls more than I do now.
Maya
“I’m going to give her a bath. Y’all are welcome to stay,” I tell Callie and Leighton after Ash dropped us all of at Jaxon’s house. Ava finally stopped crying halfway home. I know I shouldn’t have, but I held her in my arms the entire drive. Thankfully it’s not a far drive. I’m not sure I will ever be able to let her go again.
After getting her cleaned up and changed into some of her new clean pajamas, I grab her horse, formerly Jaxon’s horse, and go back into the living room. Callie and Leighton are still here. “Y’all can go home. I’ll be fine. I know you probably want to go check on the girls.”
“I have already called to check on them. Cindy and Bo have them and said they were sound asleep. I know it’s hard to believe, but we have both kind of been in Ava’s shoes right now and we want to stay until Jaxon gets back,” Callie says. I nod my head at her and sit in the recliner so I can rock Ava. She is asleep in no time and I am so thankful that she is taking this entire situation well. She says she had pizza and played a game of Candyland with Margo. I am praying she didn’t hurt her in any way. “I’m sorry about Trent. I know what he did was awful, but I also know he meant a lot to you.”
I have tried really hard this whole time not to think about Trent and what he looked like laying on the cold pavement, or the fact that I will never talk to him or see him again. I am also trying not to think about the fact that for the past five years, he has helped me in so many ways. I don’t even realize I am crying until Leighton brings me some tissues.
“It gets easier I promise,” she says quietly. “My sister kidnapped me, it ended the same way with her it did with Trent.” I look up at her and notice the tears in her eyes. I nod my head and give her a small smile.
Thirty minutes later, the door opens and Brody walks in with Jaxon. “I told Ash I would take you home, Callie,” Brody tells her. She nods her head and walks over to Jaxon to hug him.
“Call if you need anything,” she tells him, before leaning down and kissing Ava’s forehead.
“Thank you for staying,” I say, before she walks off. After they are all out the door, Jaxon locks up. He hasn’t said a word to me yet. He finally walks over to us and squats in the floor.
“Is she okay?” he asks quietly. I nod my head and look at my daughter. “I’m going to clean up.” He walks down the hallway and I hear the shower start. I have no idea what he found out or why he will barely talk to me.
I stand up and walk to Ava’s new room to put her to bed. I pull the cover’s down and lay her down before crawling in the bed with her.
A few minutes later, Jaxon walks in and comes over to kiss Ava. He walks to the side I am on and lifts me in his arms. I don’t say anything, I just let him carry me to his bedroom. He puts me down and crawls in beside me. He wraps his arms around me, still not speaking. “Are you okay?” he finally asks.
I don’t trust my voice to speak right now. Instead of talking, I shake my head and bury myself into his side. He wraps his arms around me tighter.
“I’m sorry about Trent,” he whispers, surprising me. “I shouldn’t have shot him, not to kill him.” I turn around to face him and try to read his face, but I can’t figure out what he’s thinking. “I should have shot him to get
him away from you. I just knew he had the gun and I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you or Ava, not again,” he adds, correcting himself.
“I never thought he would be capable of pulling all of this off. I promise up until a week ago, he has never done anything to make me question him.” Jaxon nods his head, but doesn’t speak again. “Did you find out anything tonight?”
“A little, what do you want to know?” I want to know all of it, but for some reason he doesn’t seem to want to tell me.
“First off, where did the pictures come from?” He takes a deep breath and turns on his back to stare at the ceiling, without letting go of me.
“Margo says he asked her to drug you. You went to eat with her and she drugged you during the meal, took you back to her house where Trent was waiting and they took the pictures.” I sit up with my eyes widening. I can’t believe they did all of that and I never knew it.
“You mean they drugged me, took my clothes off and…” I can’t even finish the sentence. Jaxon sits up quickly pulling me back to him.
“No, nothing happened, she promised nothing happened and right now her word is all we have. I really believed her tonight. I think she would have told me. She has no reason to lie at this point.” I know he’s trying to reassure me, but I feel dirty and exhausted right now.
“I’m going to shower, can you listen for Ava?” I jump out of the bed and run into the bathroom before Jaxon can stop me. I’m not sure how much longer I can stop my tears. I know my daughter is safe in her bed right now, but I can’t help but mourn for the man who has been like a father to her since she was born. And I don’t think that’s something Jaxon can handle right now. I can’t even handle it because I know what a monster he truly was on the inside now.
I turn the water on as hot as it will go, take my clothes off, jump in, and I cry for everything that I have lost.
Jaxon
I walk to the bathroom door as soon as Maya shuts it and slide down it. I have listened to her sob in the shower now for thirty minutes. I’m not sure why she is breaking right now. I know she has a million reasons to be upset, but I can only think of one reason that she would want to keep from me. Trent.
After fifteen more minutes, I decide I need to go in and get her. I grab the handle and am relieved to find she left it unlocked. I grab a towel before moving the shower curtain. She is squatted down, still crying with ice cold water falling on her. I turn the water off and wrap her in the towel before picking her up. I carry her back to my bedroom, try to dry her off and grab one of my t-shirts. I throw it over her head and lead her back to the bed. I cover her up and walk back down the hall to check on Ava. She is still sound asleep and safe.
After staring at her a few more minutes, I take a deep breath and head back to Maya. I get back in bed beside her and pull her into my arms again. “It’s okay to cry in front of me for him. I get it. He meant a lot to you and took care of you when I didn’t.”
She starts shaking her head. “Do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep for you? How long it took me to not wish and pray that I could fall asleep next to you?” she asks. “Years, it took years. I dreamed that one day I could do that again, even for one night, have you hold me and tell me everything is okay. Now that I have it, I don’t know what to do because the one person I did have is gone.” She takes a deep breath, but her tears have finally stopped. I’m assuming it’s because she is back to hating me and I still can’t blame her for that. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but I wouldn’t have made it without him. And now, I don’t know if I’m supposed to be sad he’s gone or relieved that he didn’t try to take Ava sooner. Obviously, I don’t know men very well. The only two that I have ever trusted, didn’t work out very well.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, getting a death glare from her.
“Stop apologizing. I know you’re sorry. I know that if you had known I was pregnant and we had talked about things, everything would be different now, but it didn’t happen that way, and now we have to deal with this mess. Please stop apologizing. I get it. If I had gotten pictures of you with another woman, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“Okay.” I pull her back to my side and cover us up again. “Tomorrow, we will talk about us. Let’s just get some sleep right now.” I turn the lamp off and hope she can get some sleep tonight.
I lay awake for hours after Maya goes to sleep, trying to figure out how to fix this mess. She’s in my bed asleep, so she can’t hate me too bad. Now, I still need to figure out how to keep her here permanently.
“Daddy,” I hear down the hallway. I don’t think I have ever heard Ava scream for me during the night. Maya must be exhausted because she doesn’t even move when Ava screams for me again. I scoot her over and put my pillow in my place when I get up. I walk down the hallway to find Ava sitting up in the bed.
“Hey baby girl,” I whisper, getting in the bed beside her.
“Where’s mommy?” she asks, putting her head back on the pillow to face me.
“She’s in the other room asleep. Do you want me to go get her?” She shakes her head and closes her eyes before asking if I will stay in her bed tonight. I nod my head at her and close my eyes before finally drifting off to sleep.
I wake up what feels like minutes after I finally go to sleep. Maya is standing in the room now, shaking me. “Is she okay?” I nod my head and look at the clock. It’s six in the morning and I know I was still awake at three.
“She started crying for me during the night, so I came in here with her,” I say, crawling out of the bed. Maya nods her head at me, but doesn’t say anything, just points to the door.
“Can we talk now?” I nod and follow her out the door. “I can’t believe I didn’t hear her, I must have been tired.”
“It’s okay. She actually called for me, so I wouldn’t have let you get her anyway,” I smile. She walks over to fix some coffee and turns back to me.
“What did they do with the body?” I walk over and grab a mug of coffee. There’s no way I can have this conversation this early in the morning.
“I’m not sure. I’ll find out. I guess the decision will be left to Margo.” Maya nods her head and sits down at the table. I walk over and sit beside her.
“I’m going home…..today,” she says, looking down at the table.
“Are you coming back?” She takes a deep breath before lifting her eyes to mine.
“I’m not going to keep Ava from you, but my home is there. I think I just need some time away to think about things and figure some stuff out.” I don’t like this. I don’t want her to leave, but I know I can’t keep her here. I kicked her out and told her to stay away. That is definitely hard to forget.
“I want you to stay. I wish I could change the past, but I can’t. I just need you to forgive me, please.”
“Jaxon, I forgive you. I just can’t forget it, not yet. Maybe in time, I don’t know. Yes, you messed up, but I did too. I should have brought Ava here for you to see, I just didn’t want to be rejected and I definitely didn’t want her to be rejected.”
“I would have never rejected her,” I whisper.
“I know that now, I just wasn’t convinced then and I need to figure out if I really thought that or if Trent had me convinced. I keep thinking about them setting us up like that, and I just need some time to think about everything.”
“Daddy!!” Ava screams, running into the kitchen and straight into my arms.
“Hey baby girl, did you sleep okay?” She nods her head at me before looking over at Maya.
“Where’s Margo? She said Trent was coming to see me and I should call him daddy too.” Maya’s eyes widen and she looks at me. I try really hard to keep my cool and remember that Trent is no longer a threat. I’m also trying to figure out how to tell a four year old that she will never see the only father figure she has had in her life again.
“Margo had to go back home and Trent had to leave on a really long trip,” Maya says to Ava without batting an
eye. Wow, she is good under pressure. It bothers me for a minute that she didn’t tell her not to call him daddy. But since she won’t be seeing him again, I try to let it go. “Okay, Miss Ava, we need to go get packed up. We are going home today.”
Ava turns to me and frowns. “Can I stay with you again?” she asks. This is going to break me. A four year old has the power to break me right now. I turn to watch Maya barely shake her head at me.
“Not this time, baby girl. I need to work this week and I have the wedding next weekend, but I promise after that, I will come see you in Atlanta.” She nods her head and puts her little arms around my neck and doesn’t try to let go. I watch Maya walk out of the room and wonder how I ever made it without them in my life and more importantly how I am going to make it now.
Maya
Ava and I left Jaxon in Tennessee almost a week ago. I think I was testing him a little to see how he would react to me taking her away, especially after the night we had just survived. After I had packed us up and loaded the car, I went back inside to get Ava. She was sitting in the chair with Jaxon and neither knew I had come back inside. I stood in the doorway and watched them quietly. She was telling him to take care of Dog and Ed until she got back and he was promising her the world.
I’m not sure how or why he let me go, especially after Ava looking up and telling him how much she loved him and was going to miss him. I honestly didn’t think a week would be enough time for them to form any type of relationship, but in that moment, I knew there was no way I could keep her away from him. If I’m honest with myself, I’m not sure I can keep myself away from him.
I know he messed up big time five years ago, but I also know I messed up big time five years ago too. I really thought I was putting Ava’s needs first by staying away after he had treated me the way he did. But now looking back on it all, I only hurt us all by staying away. Jaxon lost out on amazing little girl and Ava lost out on so many things. I wish every day I had gone back to him and made him look at Ava. Unfortunately, my pride was too big and Ava has been paying the price for that.
Forgiving You: A Switched Series Novella (The Switched Series Book 3) Page 9