I overheard Asher and Willow talking about the kidnapping at last Sunday’s dinner. Since I wasn’t here for any of it, I’ve only heard bits and pieces about it. I know Asher isn’t happy with Max. I guess he warned Max at Kyle and Amelia’s wedding, that if he hurt her he’d have him to deal with.
I couldn’t imagine being held by a crazy psycho man for three years. I understand that he lost his ever loving mind when he lost his wife and baby in the delivery, but it really wasn’t Kyle or Chloe’s fault. I guess the woman had an underlying condition that no one knew about. It’s sad to think that the man lost his wife and baby all in one fell swoop. But, to kidnap Chloe and hold her in a basement for three years is unthinkable. Kyle was left to wonder and agonize about his twin sister’s whereabouts. When the man saw that Kyle was moving on with his life and started seeing Amelia, he kidnapped Amelia to continue to punish Kyle. That was when the shit hit the fan and Asher and Kyle got involved.
Asher called in his friend Max who, I guess at the time was not known to be on the right side of the law. But since meeting Chloe, he’s now a licensed PI and is doing very well for himself. The big part of that whole catastrophe is that it was actually Chloe that ended up shooting and killing the kidnapper.
Both Chloe and Amelia went through some pretty extensive counseling. I know Asher and Kyle were worried that Chloe was going into a serious relationship way too soon after such horrific events. Max assured everyone that he loved her and that he was going to protect her. No one understands why he broke up with her. No warning, no reason, and she’s not seen him since. To say that Kyle or Asher are not pleased with him, is an understatement.
We all get out of our cars at the same time and head to the door. As soon as we get to the door, we hear yelling going on inside. Kyle turns the door knob and enters without even knocking.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Kyle asks.
Everyone is shocked to see the house a complete mess. There are things thrown all over the place. Furniture has been upended and Ava is in tears as Chloe yells at her.
“Did you do this too? You called all of them here? How could you? I thought you were my friend?” she yells at Ava pointing at us.
“I am your friend! I’m worried about you. That’s why I called them all here. You need help,” Ava insists.
“I don’t need help, I certainly don’t need help from any of you, I’m fine,” she yells back.
“You’re not fine, we all see it. I’m worried about you, sis,” Kyle tells her in a sad tone.
“You’ve all lost your ever loving minds. I’m fine,” she insists again.
“If you’re fine, then what’s with this mess and why is Ava in tears?” Willow asks.
“We’re all worried about you. You haven’t come to Sunday dinners. You’re working way more hours at the hospital than you need to. And you’ve lost a lot of weight. Don’t stand there with broken shit all over the floor and tell me that you’re fine. You’re not!” Kyle yells at her.
“Are you still going to counseling? I can come with you if you like. We all love you. We’re all just worried about you, that’s all,” Amelia says.
“I don’t have to stand here and take this from any of you. You can all go to hell. There’s nothing wrong with me. I work a lot of hours, yes, and I joined a gym, so what, leave me the hell alone!” she says to all of us.
She grabs her coat and slams the front door behind her.
Well, that didn’t go as planned.
“Now what do we do? I can tell you that she hasn’t joined a gym. Unless she works out in scrubs, she’s lying. If talking to Chloe isn’t going to work, someone needs to talk to Max. Has anyone seen him lately?” Ava asks.
Adrian and I look at each other a little guiltily, because we have and no one knows about the whole Hawaii thing.
“I talked to Max the night he broke up with Chloe,” Adrian admits.
“You did what?” everyone says at the same time.
“Now don’t go biting my head off. I had my reasons for not telling anyone. She had just gotten the black eye of her life, and I’ll be honest, I completely understand why Max did what he did. He was sitting down the street in his Explorer making sure we all showed up that night. He still cares, hell, he still loves her. He told me that night Ireland punched her was the first time he’s ever hesitated on the job in his life. He could have really put her life in danger. He doesn’t want to drag her into his dirty world. He’s still been hanging around all the time, just hidden in the shadows. She’s never been out of his sight for very long.”
“What the fuck, man? Were you ever going to tell us any of that?” Asher asks.
“He asked me not to and I had to respect that. I get it, I really do. I put myself in his shoes and I asked myself if that were Shay, would I rather know she’s safe by not exposing her to my world? He deals with fucking bad people. He can’t have that bleeding into her life. She’s already been through too much. Our heart can’t choose who we fall in love with, it just happens, but he sure as hell can protect her for her own good by sacrificing what he loves the most to keep her safe. He’s putting her and her safety before his own needs. No one can fault him for that.”
“That’s fucked up,” Asher says.
Chapter 17
Adrian
Everyone seems to be in a foul mood at Sunday dinner. It doesn’t sit right with me how things were left with Chloe. Everyone is mad at me for not telling them about talking to Max that night. Well too bad. I saw it in Asher’s eyes too, he understands completely. I know he would go to the ends of the earth to keep Willow and their two kids safe. Neither, Max or Chloe, are at family dinner tonight.
As we all sit down to dinner, Asher stands and clears his throat. “If I could have everyone’s attention please, I know everyone is upset about the whole Max and Chloe thing, let’s just hope things can work themselves out. But, today I’d like to speak on a happier subject. This week marks the second year anniversary of Willow being cancer free. I promised her that every year on this anniversary that I’d add to her charm bracelet.”
Willow sits looking up adoringly at Asher, as tears fill her eyes and spill down her cheeks. I can’t help but think about Asher’s tragic past. When his first wife, Olivia, was killed by a drunk driver, I thought it had destroyed Asher. They were so in love with each other. When they first got together, I wished that someday I could find that kind of love again for myself. Now I have and I’m so thankful to have Shay back in my life. Asher was devastated. Two years later, when he literally crashed into Willow, was a second chance for him to believe in true love. To believe that it could happen to one person twice in a lifetime, is phenomenal. I can’t help but see the similarities here. It would kill me if I lost Shay, but I feel like we’ve been given a second chance at love, too.
When Asher fell in love with a woman who was going through treatments for breast cancer, I won’t lie, I was scared for his heart. We were all scared. I didn’t know if Asher could take losing another love of his life. How could life be so cruel to one person? But in the end, Willow kicked cancer’s ass. She’s here and healthy and beyond anyone’s thinking, has given him two children. Life has a way of coming full circle. You may not be going through something pleasant in your life right now, but as they say, this too shall pass. That was proven to me the day Shay crashed into me on the ice. I hope that will be the case with Chloe and Max too. I see how much they love each other.
“I love you, Willow, so much. I love our children, Abbey and Aaron, down to the root of my soul. You three are what my world revolves around. I do everything, with all of you at the front of my life.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box and continues to say, “This represents not only the life that I’m honored to share with you, but the promise of a life that we’ll share for eternity.”
He hands the box to Willow, she opens it with a gasp, then starts to full on sob. She stands up and hugs Asher around the neck as her whole body shakes with, what
I hope, is joy.
“Thank you so much! I owe you and this family so much. Without you in my life, I don’t know where I would have ended up. I was so lost and broken. You’ve given me a life that’s only dreamt of in a fairy tale. You not only gave me the gift to want to live and be here for you, but you’ve given me the two little blessings that we share and call our children. This family is so amazing and I love each and every one of you,” she says, looking at everyone at the table.
She passes around the charm. When it gets to me, I can’t help but have a lump in my throat. It’s a pink charm with a raised infinity platinum pattern circling the entire charm. I pass it to Shay and she too, has tears running down her face. This is her first time being a part of this ceremony that Asher rightfully makes a big presentation out of. As much as I’m thrilled to have Shay back in my life and soon to become my wife, you can never be too certain that tomorrow they won’t be taken from you. Life is precious and too many people take their loved ones for granted. I pull Shay’s hand in mine and offer her a small smile. She passes the charm back to Asher, who removes Willow’s bracelet, then places this one with the other two that he’s given her. The very first one was given to her the day she was told she was cancer free. Then Asher added to it last year and again this year.
The only missing link in our family is Chloe and Max.
Shay
I knew that Willow was a cancer survivor, but what Asher did tonight at dinner was so gut wrenching. The love that he has for her and their children is insurmountable.
The next few months are strange. I want them to hurry up and be done so I could again become Shay Wellington, but at the same time, every day that goes by and we don’t get the call for adoption, kills me. Adrian and I are still trying to conceive. We both agree that if it doesn’t happen naturally, then we accept that. Our only hope is that this adoption will happen soon.
March and my wedding day are here. The owner of the stable has allowed the girls and I, to use her personal bedroom as our bridal suite to get ready. All the girls are in a flutter getting ready. Chloe is here, but at the same time it’s not the same Chloe we all know and love. She had to have her dress altered at the last minute because she’s lost way too much weight. She has dark circles under her eyes and I’m incredibly worried about her. She’s dressed and sitting off to the side, looking as sad as ever. Her hair and makeup are done and look amazing, but her demeanor is broken and lost. She’s been through so much and she’s a survivor, but losing Max too, seems to have pushed her over the edge.
My brother Drew and his family came up yesterday. We even rearranged a few things a few weeks ago, to include Blake and Sammie in the wedding. This whole day is just so much more than I could have ever imagined.
“I have something to say before we get to the something old, something borrowed, something blue, something new part. Chloe, I have thought long and hard about what to do about you. I’m very concerned with how you’ve been behaving these past few months…” Amelia starts to say to her.
“I told you all, I’m fine,” Chloe states.
“No, you’re not. But let me finish. I won’t claim to know what you went through being held those three years. But, I had a little taste of it when I was there with you. You survived something that normal people only ever hear about in a news report or watch on a television show. We both survived. Don’t give that man the satisfaction of seeing you like this…”
“He’s dead. He gets no satisfaction. I saw to that. I killed him myself,” she interrupts again.
“I know he’s dead, sweetie. You’ve been through so much. You deserve to be happy. I know why Max broke up with you,” she says.
Everyone’s eyes go to Amelia. I can’t believe she’s going to tell her the real reason. She’ll be furious with all of us, when she finds out we’ve all known for months why Max broke up with her.
“You can keep it to yourself. I don’t care why and I don’t want to know why he broke up with me. I don’t care about any of you,” she shouts.
“That’s just the thing. We all care about you. I talked to your counselor and she said you stopped seeing her a few months ago…” Amelia starts to say.
“I don’t need her. I’m fine. How dare you go behind my back and talk to her. She has no business even sharing that kind of information with you. Everyone just leave me alone,” Chloe says.
“I’m not going to do that. None of us are. I have something for you,” she says and hands her a small gift bag. Chloe is so dead inside she isn’t even crying. She just looks like a hollow shell of a lost soul. She hasn’t been truly living since Max broke up with her. She’s just been going through the motions of day to day activities. Chloe takes the bag and pulls out the tissue paper. Her hand stills in the bag, but she doesn’t take out whatever is in there. A lone tear slides down her cheek. It’s the first emotion any of us have seen from her besides anger, in months. Amelia kneels in front of Chloe and places her hands on her knees. “You never let that man get the best of you. Never. I don’t know what your future holds with Max, but I can tell you that you can’t let this get a hold of you either. We’re all worried about you. I’m not saying that you need to get over Max. I’m not even telling you to stop loving him. If you’re meant to be with Max, then it will happen. But, sweetie, if you’re not meant to be together, then you need to let go and move on. You’ve been through so much and you can’t let a breakup pull you down into a depression. That’s what this is, too. Honey, I need you to promise me that you’ll start going back to counseling.”
Chloe pulls out what’s in the bag and to say that I’m confused, would be an understatement. It’s beautiful though. It’s an origami unicorn. I don’t know the meaning behind it, but it must be something monumental. Amelia hugs Chloe and they both hold each other while they both sob. I hope for Chloe’s sake, that this is what she needs to release her demons, once and for all.
“Alright, now that that’s out, let’s get this wedding going,” Amelia says, then she wipes away her tears and squeezes Chloe’s hand.
“Now we Wellington’s have this tradition going on that the last married woman gives the bride her something new. Well, it originally started with Asher giving Willow hers, but Willow gave me mine and now I’m giving you, yours.”
She hands me a small rectangle box. I open the box and I’m just floored.
“Amelia, this is too much, I could never accept this,” I tell her.
“Nonsense! But don’t tell Kyle how much I spent. And don’t worry about it, because now the baton is passed to you and the next something new gift comes from you,” she replies with a smile.
I take out the beautiful platinum diamond tennis bracelet. The bracelet alternates seafoam green and peach diamonds. I knew they manufacture colored diamonds now, but this is just stunning.
“Thank you, it’s unbelievable. I love it! It’s gorgeous. Can you help me put it on?” I ask Amelia.
She does and it looks beautiful, especially standing next to Amelia in her seafoam green dress.
“This is your something borrowed. I asked Drew a few weeks ago, if there was something special of your mothers that you could borrow. He sent this, I haven’t opened it yet,” Willow says and hands me a small square box.
Oh man, this could be anything. I have most of my mother’s things. I’m not sure at all what this might be. I take a deep breath and open the box. I find my mother’s simple gold wedding band. I never thought of where this went. After my father died, my mother never took it off. I guess I somehow missed when she finally did take it off. I slip it on my right hand and feel her love wrapping around my finger, and all the way to my heart. I’ve missed my mother every day. I can feel her here with me, smiling down at me. Willow also hands me a note.
“This was with it. It says it’s for you.”
I open the envelope and in my brothers scrawling handwriting it says,
To my sister on her wedding day,
Today you marry the love of your life.
I share the great honor of walking you down the aisle. I say share, because I know mom and dad will be right there with us. Even though you may not see them, they’re with us in spirit, like footprints in the sand. They will be walking side by side with us, with tears and smiles all the way down the aisle. I know they are so proud of the woman you’ve become, because I’m proud of the woman you’ve become. Fate has its way of working out just as it should. For you, that’s marrying the love of your life for a second time. This is mom’s wedding band. I thought you should have it on today of all days. I wish you and Adrian the kind of love that mom and dad shared. This is your something borrowed. I want you to keep it until the day comes that you can give it to Sammie on her wedding day. I love you, sis.
Love,
Drew
I know my parents are here and that they wouldn’t miss this for the world or in their case, heaven.
“This is your something blue,” Mia says.
She hands me a very large box, with a very smug smirk on her face. I open the box and pull out a pair of cream and blue cowboy boots. I instantly have a huge smile on my face. They’re just perfect. I’m not a true country cowgirl, despite having our wedding in a stable, but these are perfect. I go to put them on and notice that all the girls have signed the inside lining.
“You guys, this is perfect, thank you,” I tell them all.
“Your something old is outside, if you look out the window you’ll be able to see it,” Ava says.
I go to the window, and if I thought my smile was big before, it doesn’t come close to the smile from what I see. Just outside the doorway is an old horse carriage hitched to none other than Patsy and Dusty themselves.
“That’s amazing, thank you all so much.”
“There’s one more thing,” Amelia says.
She hands me an envelope with Adrian’s beautiful handwriting on it. Oh shit, a poem. I don’t know if I can handle a poem. I open the envelope, then thank God it’s not a poem, but a letter.
Running Into Love - The Complete Box Set Page 47