Relinquishing Liberty (Second Chances)

  My hand smacked across the side of his face with so much force I wouldn’t be surprised if it was broken. But I didn’t care about the pain that was now radiating throughout my fingers and shooting up my wrist. It didn’t compare to the hurt that he not only caused me, but Maddie, as well. My heart ached for what she had gone through. For that poor, innocent baby. What kind of sick bastard would do something like that to her? Well, apparently he was standing right in front of me.

  “Did your unborn baby mean nothing to you!? Were you not man enough to step up and be a father? Did you think you’d just leave Maddie to deal with it on her own? God, Shayne, you disgust me!” Anger sliced through my words.

  “Wait…baby?” He whispered. His disconcerted gaze slowly passed between Maddie and I. Was he seriously going to play that card? Pretend he had no idea what the hell anyone was talking about?

  “Yes, Shayne. Baby. B-A-B-Y. You know? That thing that happens when a man and woman have unprotected sex?” My heart sank as I spoke those last few words.

  I gasped when the realization took hold of me. He lied to me. He straight out lied to me. Maddie said she never knew if they used a condom that night, but they were both so drunk that it was unlikely that they had. But he stood there in the shower the morning after I had given myself to him for the first time and had the balls to tell me that I was the only one he had ever been with without one. He even swore on his mother’s grave. How could I have been such a fool to fall for his lies?

  “My God, I am such an idiot. I can’t believe I ever trusted you. Was this some kind of sick joke to you? Was I just another notch on your bedpost? Well, I guess you got what you wanted, you sick fuck!”

  I had so many emotions running rampantly through me that my body couldn’t contain it anymore. My body shook violently as Brett stepped up behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. All of the anger, the pain, the betrayal…it all came flooding out in heavy sobs as I slumped back into Brett’s steady hold.

  “What? How could you ever think that? Liberty, I love you. I. Love. You.” He stepped towards me, but Brett pulled me back, holding a tight grasp around me. Shayne’s eyes grew murderous at the sight of Brett’s hands on me. “Sweetheart, I would never do anything to hurt you. Never. These are all a bunch of bullshit lies that they’re spewing out to try to tear us apart. I told you before I wouldn’t let that happen. I won’t let anyone else’s lies come between us. Baby, please. You have to trust me.”

  I shook my head furiously as the tears poured down my face. I couldn’t even make eye contact with him, not wanting to believe the ugly truth that stood before me. That Shayne fathered the baby Maddie had once carried. The baby that he abandoned. How could I possibly ever trust him again?

  “Get me out of here,” I whispered to Brett. “Please.”

  I turned to look at him with pleading eyes and he nodded in agreement. He kept his arms wrapped protectively around me as he guided me towards the wooden steps leading towards the beach, and Maddie slowly followed behind us. God, I couldn’t even imagine what Maddie was feeling right now.

  “What the fuck? Get your hands off her!” Shayne grabbed Brett’s arms, trying to peel them away from me. Brett willingly released me only to shove Shayne back against the deck with his arm pressed into his throat.

  “If you come anywhere near Liberty or my sister again, so help me God, I will end you. You’re lucky I’m letting you walk away with nothing more than a busted jaw because right about now, I want to chop your fucking balls off and shove them down your throat. The last thing we need in this world is your spawn running around and ruining more lives.”

  Brett released his arm from Shayne’s throat with one last hard shove and stalked back towards me, pulling me back into his shielding arms.

  “Liberty! Where the hell are you going? You can’t leave!” He bolted in front of us, blocking our way to the Brett’s car, and fell to his knees in the sand. “Baby, please. Don’t go. I promise I’ll fix this. I’m sorry I never told you about Maddie, but I swear I’ll prove to you that they’re wrong. Just please…don’t leave me.” The last three words came out as tears began to trickle down his face. I hated seeing him like this. So broken and helpless. It completely tore me up inside, but not as much as his lies had.

  “I’m sorry, Shayne.” And truthfully, I was. Sorry that I ever met him. Sorry that I ever trusted him. Sorry that I had given my heart so willingly to him.

  How could I have let my guard down and fallen so hard and so quickly for him? Was this how it always happened, when every other girl fell head over heels for his charming façade? Was I just another victim of his “fuck ‘em and leave ‘em” M.O.? God, this day had become such a clusterfuck of a mess, and it wasn’t nearly over yet!

  I buried my face into Brett’s chest as we stepped away, unable to watch as Shayne’s body crumpled in the sand. I couldn’t look back. Not now. Not ever. This place was no longer my home…it never really was.

  Brett opened the passenger side door of his truck and helped me in before stepping around to the other side and climbing in the driver seat. He turned the ignition and the truck roared to life, blocking out my muffled sobs.

  “Is Maddie coming with us?”

  “She drove separately. She was planning on meeting up with her new roommate later on tonight, but I doubt she’ll be up for it now.”

  “Oh.” I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window and watched as Maddie slowly trekked back to her car. She lifted her head and gave me a painfully forced smile before Brett pulled away.

  “Do you want me to take you back to the apartment?”

  “I don’t live there anymore, remember?” I let out a bitter laugh. “I guess I don’t live anywhere now. I’m right back where I was when I first got here in March.”

  Brett looked over and smiled reassuringly. “Well, you’re more than welcome to stay with me. I don’t think you should be alone tonight anyway. I understand if you need your space, but I’d feel more comfortable knowing that you’re safe.”

  Still my knight in shining armor…

  “And don’t worry about going back there to get your things. I’ll bring Travis and Corey over there with me, so you won’t have to deal with him. God, I still can’t believe this whole time he’s been prancing around like nothing happened. Fucking prick.”

  “Can we not talk about this? I just want to forget that this day…fuck…that the last three months ever happened.” I leaned back against the headrest, squeezing my eyes shut to block out any thoughts of Shayne. “If it weren’t for you and Maddie, I would completely regret ever coming here.”

  Brett reached over, intertwining his fingers with mine and brought my knuckles to his lips for brief, gentle kiss. I smiled back at him. It wasn’t meant to be anything more than a comforting gesture, and it was a much-appreciated distraction; anything to take my mind off of the pain clinging to the fragments of my shattered heart.

  We pulled up to Brett’s empty apartment, and I was glad to see Travis and Corey weren’t there. Apparently they were crashing one of the parties a few houses down from Shayne’s and most likely wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Perfect, because I really wasn’t in the mood for their immature antics right now.

  I sank down into the couch, and Brett plopped down beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. Leaning into him, I released a drawn out yawn and shut my eyes. It was only mid-afternoon, and I was already wiped out. If it weren’t for my hand still throbbing from the slap I delivered across Shayne’s pain-stricken face, I probably would have fallen asleep right then and there.

  Brett lifted my hand and without looking, I knew he was assessing the damage. He was becoming quite a pro at this. “Your hand still looks pretty swollen. I’ll get some ice for it, but if the swelling doesn’t go down, I’m taking you to the hospital to get it checked out.”

  I flexed my fingers in front of me. “It’s sore, but I should be fine. I didn’t realize how hard I smacked him.” I laughed because it hon
estly felt good the second my hand connected with his face.

  Brett smiled proudly at me before walking off to the kitchen. “You’re a regular Mike Tyson, darlin’.”

  “Hardly. If I was Mike Tyson, Shayne would’ve been lying on the ground in a pool of blood with a chunk of his ear missing.”

  Brett’s laughter filled the space between us as he stepped back into the living room. My fingers were so swollen that I didn’t even register the cool touch of the ice pack as he gently placed it on my hand. He sat back down beside me, and I snuggled into his side, craving that brotherly comfort that only he could give me. Now that my hand was quickly becoming numb, I shut my eyes and let all of the pain and stress from the day drain out of my mind as I drifted off to sleep.

  When I opened my eyes, the room was completely dark other than the glow of the television in front of us. Brett must have sensed I was awake because he loosened his hold around me so I could sit up.

  “Mornin’, sleepy-head. Or should I say evenin’.” He smiled back at me warmly.

  “Sorry I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you like that.”

  “No worries, darlin’. I knew you were exhausted so I figured I’d let you sleep it off. Are you hungry? Neither of us has eaten since this morning so I’m sure you must be starving.”

  Food was the last thing on my mind. What I really wanted was a nice, hot shower. I wanted to scrub every inch of my skin and remove any remnants of Shayne that were still clinging to me. God, I could even still smell him on me. The mix of his cologne and the sea, a scent that was all his own; that alone made me want to curl up in ball and cry. I thought by now I’d be completely dried up from all of the tears I shed, but I wasn’t so lucky.

  “I’m…” I choked back a sob before Brett could notice. “I’m just going to take a quick shower first.” I quickly spun on my heel and padded down the hall to his bathroom. Once the door was shut behind me, I quickly turned on the shower to mute my cries. I stood there looking in the mirror, and boy, was I was a sight for sore eyes. My face was red and blotchy, and makeup continued to smear as the tears rained down in buckets full. It wasn’t until I was alone that the reality of what happened finally settled in, and I completely lost it.

  God, I just wanted it all to go away. I didn’t even bother taking my clothes off before I stepped in the shower. I sank to the floor of the tub, my dress clinging to my body, and I just let the scalding hot water pour over me, absolving me of all the mistakes I had made from the moment Shayne entered my life.

  Between my wailing cries and the water cascading around me, I never heard him come into the bathroom. I didn’t even notice the shower curtain being pulled back as he stepped in and pulled me into his lap. I lifted my head and was surprised to find him completely clothed, as well. We must have looked ridiculous, but I was glad he was there. He always was, and I knew he always would be. I pressed my face into his soaked shirt and continued to cry until there was nothing left in me.

  When I had finally quieted down, I leaned back a little, and Brett cupped my face in his hands, brushing back a few wet tendrils of hair. The eyes looking back at me held so much love, and I didn’t put up any resistance when he moved in to gently capture my lips. His kiss wasn’t hungry or forceful. There was no passion. No spark. It was just a simple kiss, but in those few seconds that his lips were on mine, I hadn’t once thought of Shayne.

  Without over-thinking it, I pulled him back down to me, crushing his lips against mine. His arms around me froze for a moment, but as soon as I trailed my tongue alone his bottom lip seeking entrance, he opened up for me, and his body relaxed.

  “I just want to forget, Brett.” I breathed against his lips. “Make me forget.” I moved my legs so that I was straddling him, and I could feel him grow hard beneath me.

  “Are you sure? I know you’re upset right now, and I don’t want to take advantage of you.” He pressed his lips chastely against mine. “You know how I feel about you, Liberty, and if this is what you really want…”

  “Yes. Please,” I begged and pleaded with my eyes.

  He carefully stood up with my legs wrapped around his waist, and carried me to his bedroom. Just then, someone began pounding relentlessly on his front door. I had a pretty good guess of who it was, and it was a wasted trip over here because I had nothing more to say to him.

  Brett set me down on the edge of his bed and pressed a lingering kiss against my lips. “Don’t worry; I’ll get rid of whoever it is.” He kissed my forehead and winked at me before shutting the door behind him.

  Suddenly I had a very unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, and everything about this felt so wrong. I knew sex with Brett wasn’t the answer to my problems. It would just be a means to cope with the pain that still clung to my heart. At that point, I was no better than Shayne, and to be honest, that just made me feel a hundred times worse. Because now I knew exactly how it felt to be in his shoes.

  Three seconds. Three words. That was all it took for my entire world to come crashing down around me. As soon as my admission slipped past my lips, and the look of betrayal washed over Liberty’s beautiful face, I knew there was no turning back. But it wasn’t until the word “baby” was thrown into the mix that I began to realize why everyone was shooting daggers at me like I was the anti-Christ in the flesh.

  I laid there motionless in the sand on my hands and knees as Liberty walked away with him. I knew he had to have played some part in this whole fiasco. He hated that Liberty and I were together, and he was just waiting for that one moment where I would fuck everything up so he could swoop in and steal my only reason for breathing away from me.

  Mission accomplished.

  I watched Maddie as she slowly pried her car door open, but I wasn’t going to let her get away so easily. She owed me some answers and one way or another, I was going to get them before she could run off spewing more lies. It might be my only chance, if there was even one left, to get Liberty back.

  “Maddie! Wait!” I raced over to her driver-side door, slamming it shut and startling her in the process.

  “Haven’t you done enough damage, Shayne?” She wiped away the few remaining tears that trickled down her cheeks before crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

  “What the fuck was that back there?” I motioned my arm back towards my house. “Why the hell was Liberty going on about a baby?”

  Her arms tightened across her chest and she turned away, refusing to make eye contact with me.

  I hung my head, shaking it in disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me that I got you pregnant the one and only time we ever had sex, and you’ve been keeping it a secret this whole time?”

  “Look, Shayne, you don’t understand…” Her eyes were apologetic, but sorry wasn’t going to cut it this time. Not when you drop a bomb on me like that.

  “I don’t fucking understand!?” I roared. “What part of ‘I have a kid’ don’t you think I understand? I have a fucking kid that you’ve kept hidden from me for almost four years! Do you not see how fucked up that is!?” I could feel the heat creeping up my neck the angrier I got.

  “No, you don’t understand…you don’t have a kid, Shayne. We don’t have a kid,” she whimpered.

  “So you’re saying I didn’t get you pregnant? Well, which is it, Maddie? Pick a story and stick to it because I don’t have time for your mind games. I may have lost the one girl who truly ever had my heart, and if there is even the slightest chance that I can get her back, you better start telling me the goddamn truth.”

  She leaned back against her car, and slid down to the pavement, her arms wrapping around her legs. “Yes, I did get pregnant.”

  I started pacing alongside her car and threw my hands up in frustration. “Well then, I have a right to see my kid!”

  “There is no kid! I took care of it!” She violently choked out.

  I felt all of the blood drain from my face. “You…you took…Maddie, please tell me this is some sick joke. Please tell me you didn’t do
what I think you did.”

  “Well, what was I supposed to do!? I was 16, Shayne! Do you really think I could take care of a kid when I was still a kid myself? There was no way I was doing that on my own.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me? I would’ve kept the baby. That was my baby, too! You had no right to take that away from me!” I could feel the moisture begin to pool in my eyes, and it took everything in me not to break down.

  “Oh sure, like I wanted a guy who is notorious for sleeping around with a different girl every night to raise a baby. I’m sure you’d be the perfect fucking role model, Shayne. There was no way in hell I would ever put a child through that, let alone my own. You have no idea how hard that decision was for me. I carried that baby inside me for two months…TWO MONTHS…before I finally decided that it was the best option for me. So don’t you dare stand there and try to make me feel guilty for making the hardest damn decision of my life because now I have to live with it every day.”

  Her bottom lip trembled as she choked out the last few words. I don’t doubt that it was a difficult decision for her, but it doesn’t change the fact that it wasn’t a decision she had to make on her own. She never even took into consideration that I might have wanted to keep the baby…my baby.

  “You stupid bitch! What about me? What about the best decision for me? I can’t believe you did this!” My throat grew tighter the more upset I became. “You didn’t even give me a chance, Maddie. I could be a father to a three-year-old right now. But you selfishly took that away from me, and I’ll never have the chance to know my first child!”

  Saying those words and finally feeling their full impact was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I have never in my life felt so completely and utterly broken inside, and now the sobs were tearing through me in a violent frenzy. At that point, I didn’t care if my emotional breakdown made me any less of a man. Without Liberty, I was nothing, but to have this added on top of that, to have two precious beings stripped away from me, one I never even knew existed until today, was more than I could bear.