“Okay,” Austin tried to calm him, stepping towards him to close the gap between him. She quickly pulled him into her arms and held onto him. “I think we should take Dean up on his offer,” Austin quickly decided, knowing that reading what was in those envelopes would not work out well. She didn’t want their daughter subjected to whatever outpour of emotions there would be, and Austin knew full well that whenever Natasha was involved, there was going to some emotional backlash.
Tyler kissed into his wife’s hair, inhaling her scent as a way to gather some sense of normalcy. “Sounds good.”
“Well then,” she pushed away from him, “We’ll get them to take her to my parents or to get ice cream while we sort out this mess.” She went over to the door, headed out, and made her way to the pool edge.
“Mama!” Grace yelped as she paddled away in Sienna’s arms. “Are you coming to pway?”
“No, baby, sorry,” Austin let her daughter down gently. “How do feel about an adventure with Sena and Dean?” She watched as Grace’s face lit up and she smiled, “Daddy and I need to discuss something, so we thought that instead of you being bored, you’d have fun going on a little adventure.”
Dean could see that Sienna was confused; he knew he had to react and back up the moment. He could explain later when Grace was occupied with something else. “I say we go and pester Grandma and Grandpa to come out with us. How’s that sound, Gracie-moo?”
“Yeah!” Grace splashed excitedly.
Giving her brother an appreciative glance, Austin watched him stand and come to her and Tyler’s sides. “Is it bad?” he asked, his face told them he knew enough without being told.
“It’s Natasha,” Tyler responded in a low voice.
“She’s been sending Ty letters, and now she’s extended the surprise to the guys at the precinct,” Austin sighed and rubbed a hand over her forehead. “We just want to hash it out and decide a plan, but we don’t want Gracie privy to it.”
“That’s fine,” Dean smiled reassuringly at the pair. “She’s usually got that sleepover bag packed, so I’ll grab that on our way out and get her changed at mom and dads’ ready for bed.”
“We owe you,” Tyler thanked Dean and placed an arm around his wife.
“Don’t sweat it,” Dean replied, pushing away their thanks and turned to the pool. “C’mon Gracie, I’ll race you to grandma’s and grandpa’s!”
“C’mon, Sweetie, let’s beat Dean!” Sienna said, racing out of the pool with Grace in her arms. “You’ve got until I’ve dried her off, to grab her bag.” Sienna had heard the chat between her brother and sister and her interest was piqued, but she knew she could wait. “I’ll call you later,” she told Austin, narrowing her gaze onto her.
“Okay,” Austin said and took over drying Grace a little to say goodbye, allowing Tyler his turn. She knew they were supposed to spend tonight as a family, but it seemed that life never ran smoothly for them when the moment arrived.
Once they had left, Austin went straight for the kitchen. She grabbed the envelopes, and began to pull the letters from the confines. She stood reading them, the confusion swirling around her, her hatred for Natasha only ever growing. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand,” Austin began to say, not tearing her eyes away from the various letters.
“What’s that?” Tyler asked, leaning against the counter as he watched her.
“Why?” Austin asked as she just read over the letters. She shook her head, unable to comprehend what the hell had caused such a reaction. “Why now? I mean, for Christ sake, it’s been years. She should be rotting in that damn jail cell!”
“Oh, she will be rotting in there for longer than we think,” Tyler sneered over the matter, and allowed the silence to beckon around them.
Tyler stood with bated breath. He watched Austin from his side of the room. Slowly, second by second, her face was beginning to darken. The anger literally marking her face the more she read. He felt the need to break the tension. He needed to get rid of the elephant in the room.
“You’re too quiet,” Tyler suddenly broke into the silence. “What are you thinking, Sunny?”
Steeling herself, Austin gradually looked up at him. “I feel like this threatens everything,” Austin fretted out loud.
“Hey,” Tyler reached for his wife, grabbed her arms and forced her to look at him. “This, this threatens nothing!” His throat tightened with the restriction of fear at the predicament they were in, and the way Austin weakened before him. “She is nothing to us. Every single moment of my life I had with her makes me regret it because she nearly cost me this.” He waited a moment before he continued, “She very nearly cost me the good life. I can’t imagine my life without you anymore, Austin. I lived it, imagining it happening again kills me too much, and Grace? I can’t imagine a life without my baby girl’s smiling face every morning or my wife’s kisses. It’s a life I refuse to even get remotely close to.”
“It threatens nothing,” Austin whispered, more to force herself to believe the words than anything else.
“That’s right, baby,” Tyler told her quietly, his tone sincere. “This threatens nothing.”
And just like that, Austin started crying. She had no idea what to do, but she was so angry, instead of screaming it out, she cried it out. All of her fears dissolved and left her weak and limp in her husband’s arms. As much as she believed him, in her head there was one seed of doubt that just didn’t want to leave her. It cast out doubt, it stunned her with shame and most of the time it was the one part of her that reminded her of how imperfect she was.
“I’m okay,” she cried against her husband’s chest, still trying to force herself to believe it.
Tyler ran a hand up Austin’s back, unable to do anything else. “No you’re not,” he countered her miserable lie. “You’re angry and hurt, and fed up of the continual reminder that she seems to think she’s all high and mighty, and has some hold on me.” He pushed her away, again forcing her to look at him and listen. “However, what she doesn’t realize is that my commitment to you, my marriage, my love for you and our daughter, overrides anything and everything she could do. It’s all so futile to me.” He reached out to wipe her tears away before continuing, “I love you, Austin. That is something that has never changed. Even when you left, it never died. I was lying to myself. You are my everything, and to live without you again would be hell on earth.”
“This is life long.” Austin sniffled her response. She gave her husband a watery smile and took a deep, calming breath. “I don’t doubt you, Tyler. I never could. I just worry the lengths that Natasha is capable of going. I don’t care about prison cells or not, she always gets what she wants.”
“Well she’s getting her information from a well informed source,” Tyler started and could see Austin calculating who it was. “It’s not Robert before you point a finger,” Tyler spoke and squished her only culprit that she could deem guilty.
“Then who was it?” Austin asked, trying to think who in town would even go to Natasha and divulge the information on her and Tyler’s tight knit life.
Tyler tried to keep himself calm, “Diane. She’s the only one known on the list to see Natasha recently. I checked before I left work.”
After everything, Austin felt deceit come from Diane Truman, the woman Austin had taken time to build back up. “She wouldn’t,” Austin denied her husband’s claims. “Why would she?”
Tyler shrugged. For once he was totally clueless. “I wish I knew, Aus. I really wish I did.”
Chapter Six
“I need to go over there,” Austin suddenly spoke up, and went to move towards the door.
Tyler, however, stopped her, gripping her hand the moment he could so he could pull her back. “Think about this rationally, Aus. After everything, she would not have thrown this back into your face by goading Natasha.”
“Wouldn’t she?” Austin asked her husband, her eyes casting over in darkness. “As much as I gave Diane the benefit of the dou
bt, but let’s not forget how she hid her daughter for hours after I was caught in a burning building.”
“You don’t have to remind me,” Tyler sniped at her, not needing the mental recollection of that night. Rarely his nights were marred with nightmares, but when they were, they were always of Austin lying in that house, fire waiting to consume her. “I remember very well what happened as a result of that night.”
Austin immediately responded to the flicker of pain that laced through Tyler’s expression and she instinctively moved towards him so she could snake her arms around his neck, and held onto him tightly. This was what Natasha wanted - them sniping at one another. “It was a series of unfortunate events, Ty. It was a ripple effect gone horribly wrong.”
“It was Natasha’s jealousy,” Tyler whispered back, clinging to his wife. He didn’t care if it had been over three years or three centuries since that night, he still thanked some invisible deity for giving him Austin. “Don’t dress it up or give Natasha some form of compassion. She did this, and she knew what she was doing.”
Pushing her husband away, Austin gave him a small, reassuring smile. “I’m not. I’m just saying that although Diane seems to have changed, she is still the woman who chose to push her daughter into hiding instead of facing up to what she did. How do we not know that she still wants to see the good in her daughter?”
“We know she does,” Tyler stated in a simple manner. “We’re like it with Gracie. It’s just the way it goes, but I do not believe for one second that Diane did this, and if she did, I don’t believe she did it in a malicious manner.” He pushed a loose curl out of her face. “I don’t think going over there, all guns blazing, will be the best idea.”
“No, Ty, I won’t, but if she did this, I want an explanation. That’s it. I want to know why she thought it was a good idea to involve Natasha in our lives when she isn’t needed or wanted in it.” Austin took a calming breath and closed her eyes to calm her thoughts before continuing, her softened gaze settling upon Tyler. “If she didn’t do it I will apologize and then I will try and find out who the hell gave that woman details on us.”
“And I will help you, baby. We need to be clever about this. We can’t go causing havoc and reaping a witch hunt, it’s not going to get us anything,” Tyler finalized firmly, willing to bet that if they caused mayhem they would get nowhere.
Austin laughed at the irony of that statement.
Tyler watched his wife with perplexity, trying to work out for a moment what he had said, but nothing struck him comical when they were midst a serious matter. “What’s so funny?
“No, nothing,” she stated, trying to stop her nervous fit of giggles.
“No, tell me,” Tyler fought with her, intrigued to hear what she had to say.
Austin shook her head and looked to her husband. “All those years ago, Dean made a statement that really stuck with me. He said about how everyone loved a witch hunt, and our town really proves that.”
“But they also proved how we can stick together once the truths are out,” Tyler replied to her, remembering how the town did come back to help them finish the house, how they reinstated Austin as a member of the town and worked on getting her forgiveness. “We might get it wrong, but we certainly know how to get an apology going.”
“Oh yeah,” Austin smirked and approached her husband to loop her arms around his neck. “Your apology will forever stick with me.”
“Which part?” Tyler asked, teasing her with a sanctimonious tone. “Was it the part where I saved you? Or the part where I turned up at your hospital room in a tux? Or maybe it was the part where I brought you a Pearson traditional ice cream.”
“Yup that one, nothing to do with the man, just the ice cream,” she purred at him. She accepted a chaste kiss off of him and sighed as she knew she had to face up to this. “Come with me to Diane’s?”
“Course, baby, and then I say we go to the diner in town and have Dean bring Gracie along,” Tyler commented, knowing full well his daughter loved dinner at the dinner with her favorite meals right at her fingertips. “Plus, I know how you both enjoy your milkshakes.”
“Again food triumphs man,” Austin teased him lovingly. She huffed on her exhale and then decided she needed to bite the bullet and find out if Diane had, in fact, betrayed her trust and resulted in this type of deceit. “Right, I need to grab my purse then I’m ready to go.”
“I’ll grab the keys and meet you in the car,” Tyler told Austin and reached for his phone. “I’ll also call your brother and get him up to scratch with the plan.”
“Sounds good, handsome,” Austin chirped, going to the other side of the kitchen to grab her purse. She mentally resolved that she was going to see this through to the end and get Natasha to leave her life well alone. Right now, she had no idea how she was going to do that, but she was going to make sure Natasha was not going to be an everlasting problem.
On the way to Diane’s, Austin made sure she kept her emotions in check. She didn’t want Tyler to feed off of her fear of being let down. She didn’t want to know that the trust she had given to Diane had been discarded to the point that she could fraternize with the enemy.
The moment they arrived, Austin only got out when Tyler did. She only moved when he did so she mirrored him and didn’t result in doing anything alone.
“I know you’re nervous,” Tyler said as he met Austin at the front of the car before walking towards Diane. He knew how to read Austin like a book, and in the five minute drive across town to Diane’s new house, Tyler had enough time to analyze his wife’s behavior. “If anything, we’ll both be let down because we both gave her the benefit of the doubt.”
“You’re right,” Austin optimized, thankful for being reminded of how much she and Tyler were a counterpart. Once they reached the door and Tyler stepped to her side, she knocked and waited for her to find out the truth.
As the door opened, they saw a surprise looking Diane staring back at them. “Hey Austin, Tyler,” Diane spoke as she stood in the doorway. “I was just heading out.”
“Can we speak for just a moment?” Austin asked politely, willing to keep it calm just like Tyler had advised. As much as she wanted to jump in, both feet first, she also wanted to get an answer as easily as possible.
“Oh, erm, sure,” Diane replied, her brow furrowing in a confusion. “Come in.” The pair followed her in, leading straight into the kitchen after Diane’s steps. Once there, Diane tried to mentally guess why they were there, but found herself failing at working it out.
Clearing her throat, Austin spoke first. She had to; she was the one that felt most troubled by Natasha’s sudden obsessive behavior. Tyler and Grace were the main obsessions in the letters; Austin was merely an obstacle to Natasha. As she always had been. It seemed to be the one matter of their friendship. Austin had always been a problem, a brick wall preventing Natasha from truly having Tyler. Even in the six years of her prior disappearance, Tyler had never wholly handed his heart to Natasha. The one fact that only made Natasha become even more jealous, bitter, and insane with her abuse and continual assaults, and something that only became exacerbated.
“We wanted to talk to you about Natasha,” Austin broached the subject gently.
“Right,” Diane pushed on, trying to coerce more information than that.
Austin reached for Tyler before speaking. “Have you seen Natasha recently?” she asked and could tell from the sudden change on Diane’s face that she had. “Okay, did you tell her anything about Tyler and me?”
“Not in so many words,” Diane replied to them, her tone now noting her nervousness. “She does now know about the two of you and Grace.”
“You told her about us all?” Austin asked, aghast. She was actually horrified to learn the truth so quickly after asking, and she was even more horrified to learn that Grace had been used as part of the pinnacle chat.
“Yes,” Diane replied honestly, keeping her answer monosyllabic. “I thought it was time.”
&
nbsp; “Why did you have to tell her about any of us, about Gracie?” Austin asked out of exasperation, her tone faltering on her. “She ruined so much before, how could you think telling her wouldn’t give her an opportunity to do it again?”
“I didn’t do it for her to do that,” Diane defended her actions. “I did it to hurt her. I wanted her to actually feel regretful for her actions, but she never did. She didn’t even twitch.”
“She wouldn’t,” Austin commented back, deliberately allowing a harsher octave control her voice. “How did you think she would react, Diane? I know she’s your daughter and you want to believe that somewhere in her is some bright shining orb or whatever of goodness, but Natasha has proven time and time again she only works for one reason - herself. If it doesn’t go her way, then you have next to no chance of getting anything from her.”
“Aus, calm down a little,” Tyler stepped in, setting a hand onto her shoulder. “Diane, you had to know how upsetting this would be when we found out.”
“I didn’t expect you to find out,” she admitted to the pair and gave them both a solemn look. “I didn’t know she would react in such a way. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and she failed me.”
“What did you say to her exactly?” Tyler asked, taking control right now. “I want to know exactly what you told her, because she’s now using it against all of us to try and get my attention.”
“I told her about how Austin and Grace came over and invited me to a party after the town had literally cast me out,” she admitted to them and then dropped the biggest bombshell upon them both. “I also gave her a photo,” Diane stated nervously. “I gave her a photo I had taken of you with Grace. She couldn’t believe you had a daughter.”
“How could you?” Austin asked; hurt the most that her news had been shared in such a manner. “She hates me as it is. I’m living proof of that, but knowing that Ty and I have a child together is a totally different ball game. I saw how she reacted to that the first time; how she felt I was ruining Tyler; how she thought it was my idea of entrapment. She used that against me to get the one thing she wanted. Knowing that Tyler chose me, made a life with me, is not going to bode well.”
Watch What Burns Page 5