by Dez Burke
She jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom, her chest heaving as she retched. She felt dizzy and her fingers were tingling, and the only thing she could think was that she was exhausting herself, making herself sick with tiredness.
Her chest heaved again and her meager dinner came out of her mouth. She shakily got up and washed her face, pushing her hair out of her teary eyes. The moment she looked in the mirror though, her heart stopped beating.
She was tired, dizzy, and now vomiting, not to mention three days late on her period. Fear—cold, crippling fear—enveloped her and she collapsed onto the tiled floor, pulling her knees against her chest as she began hyperventilating. Her chest rose and fell in rapid breaths and tears flowed down her cheeks.
She had forgotten to go to the doctor. She had been so wrapped up in worry and self pity that she hadn’t done the one thing Jake had asked her to do repeatedly, and now she was pregnant.
Her head fell forward onto her knees and she began crying with the fear in her heart. Her tears spilled over her cheeks and slowly, her fear turned to happiness. She laughed between her sobs and wrapped her arms around her still flat stomach.
She washed up and went to her room on legs that made her feel like she was floating. She felt incredibly light, and wanted to dance around the house. The fact that Jake was a fugitive and was likely to remain so for the rest of his life didn’t matter. She was pregnant and wanted to have the baby with an intensity that she didn’t know she was capable of.
Leone knew she had to confide in her brother. He knew about Jake and was the only person whose support she could rely on.
“Oh my God!” he hissed and covered his face with his palms when she broke the good news.
Her mind was still in the blissful stage of finding out she was pregnant, and she hadn’t begun to worry about the complications. She was thinking of no one —not her father or her mother—all she knew was that she was going to have Jake’s baby.
“How can you be so stupid?” Damon grunted and clutched her shoulders, shaking her out of her reverie.
“I’m happy, Damon. I don’t regret it. Not at all.”
Damon gritted his teeth in frustration at her innocent idea of love and loyalty, and his mind fumed at the jerk who had seduced his little sister.
“Just please do me a favor and don’t break the happy news to Mom just yet,” he said sarcastically. “Let’s figure something out alright? Think it over. I’ll be with you. This can all be taken care of within moments. It’s not that big a deal.”
Leona’s smile faded and she jerked free of her brother’s grip, “If you’re suggesting I abort Jake’s baby, you’ve clearly lost it. I told you because I need your support. I obviously can’t do this alone and Jake won’t be here to help me, but thanks for letting me know your views on this!” she cried, using his own term for her pregnancy.
Damon slid his hand over her arm reassuringly, “Look, no matter what you decide I’ll be right here holding your hand and trust me, I’m trying to help you. I’m thinking of what’s best for you right now. Going through pregnancy and raising a kid you’ll have for eighteen years is hard enough. And you won’t have the baby’s father…ever!” he added pointedly, and her heart clenched painfully at his words. “I’m not trying to hurt you, sweetheart. I’m just trying to make you see the truth but still, at the end, I’ll be here no matter what you decide. All I’m saying is, you have to think this through.”
He left and Leona stood rooted to the spot, her heart aching at Damon’s words. She knew he was right, and she knew him enough to know that he was just worried about her. But no matter what he said, there was no way in hell she would let go of Jake’s baby.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The FBI agents arrived again in the morning and Leona’s heart thudded until she was assured of the fact that they had come over to talk to her father. The investigation in his assassination attempt was underway and he was still recovering, so she didn’t have the chance to meet with him much.
Damon asked her if she had thought over her decision, and she had calmly replied that she had. “I’m going to have the baby. That’s that. Nobody has to know who the father is. It could be any one of the guys I stayed with at the ski lodge.”
“They were all your friends, and I’m pretty sure two of them are gay.”
“That’s not the point. You’re getting pissed at me for no reason, and I’m an adult, Damon. All I want is your support, nothing else. I can take care of my baby.”
Damon didn’t have a choice and he cared about his little sister too much to hurt her anymore. The fact that he wanted to find Jake and kick him in the balls was a different matter entirely.
Leona broke the news to her parents about her pregnancy two months later, and although her father was livid, he soon calmed down enough to understand her. Leona hadn’t counted on their support, but she got it whole heartedly. Damon, however, the brother she trusted and depended on more than anyone else, refused to be happy about it. He was constantly on edge and pissed off.
Leona continued in law school up until she was six months pregnant, and although life without Jake in it felt hollow and painful she tried to make the most of it. She was just glad he hadn’t been caught and that was the most important thing.
The day after she was done with her final exams, she was in her bedroom at her parents’ house when she heard the name Jake Hartford on the TV in the living room. Running out as fast as she could, clutching onto her small bump, she panted with fear as she reached the TV.
Her brothers were watching TV and Damon’s jaw was gritted tightly as she neared them. The newscaster droned on and on about a serial killer named Justin Lace who had been arrested, and after a few seconds Leona became livid.
“What the fuck did they say about Jake? I heard his name. Did they catch him?” she screamed at the TV. “What did they say, Damon?” she asked when her brother refused to comment on the situation.
“What’s going on?” Josh asked. He was younger than Damon, but didn’t have the same bond as Leona and Damon.
Damon finally spoke and when he did, Leona began gasping for air. “They caught a serial killer and he had strands of hair at his house, all blonde. The police think they’re his trophies, his murder victims.”
“But I heard Jake’s name,” she said again, her eyes darting to the TV in hope that the newscaster would repeat what she had been saying.
“Hartford’s fiancée, the one he apparently killed, her name was what again?” he asked.
“Jessica.”
“Jessica Bynes. They have a DNA match on one of the hair strands. It belongs to her which means…”
“Jake didn’t kill her!” she breathed, her head feeling light.
The newscaster’s voice was loud in the living room, “Industrialist Jake Hartford, who recently escaped from prison, was serving a life sentence for the murder of his fiancée, Jessica Bynes. Police have revealed they have found a match for her DNA on the strands of hair found at Justin Lace’s house, indicating that she was one of his murder victims.”
Leona collapsed onto the floor and the last thing she remembered was Damon and Josh diving to catch her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Did they let him go?” Leona asked an hour later when she awoke.
“Who?” her mother asked, and Leona burst into tears. She couldn’t tell her mother, not yet. “Please call Damon.”
“He’s out, sweetie. I’ll send in Josh. You rest now, we don’t want you passing out again,” she said and kissed her forehead.
Josh came in the room with a solemn expression on his face. “You know,” Leona said and he nodded, thrusting his hands in his pants’ pockets.
“Yeah. Damon told me after you collapsed at our feet.”
“Did they let him go?” she asked him hopefully and Josh furrowed his eyes.
“It isn’t that simple, Leona. He broke out of prison, these things take time.”
“He’s done four years in pri
son for nothing. He loved Jessica and the bastards didn’t even let him attend her funeral.”
Josh clutched at her hand fiercely, “Don’t! You need to worry about yourself ,that’s all. You can’t stress yourself out so much, sis. Just relax. We’re here if something comes of it. It’ll be good, but don’t go pinning your hopes on it too much, alright?”
Two weeks later, Jake Hartford’s business partner gave a news conference along with three well-dressed, impressive-looking lawyers in New York. They asked the media to play their part in releasing a man who had been wrongly sentenced for a crime. Leona watched with hope and prayers as the middle-aged man, Jake’s business partner, tried to free his friend.
“I ask that this manhunt be stopped until someone reviews his case again, and bring into account the new developments in Jessica Bynes’s murder.”
Leona waited for days in front of the TV, desperate for some news on Jake.
Two weeks later, Jake turned himself in on his lawyers’ advice. The news spread like wildfire through the Davies’s household, however, the fact that he was granted bail twenty-four hours later did not appear on the news. Jake’s lawyers kept everything hushed until the final decision.
Jake’s heart thudded wildly when he picked up his new cellphone and dialed the number he had gotten through a friend. It belonged to the residence of Benson Davies.
After several rings, a man answered and Jake’s voice actually shook with happiness as he cleared his throat to talk, “Hello. I’d like to get the phone number for Leona Davies’s residence.”
“Who is this?” the man asked and Jake inhaled sharply. He didn’t know if Leona would even want to see his face after the way he had let her go, brutally trampling all over her heart.
“I’m a friend. I seem to have lost her number.”
“You can reach her here but she’s actually out at the moment. How about you leave your number and I’ll ask her to get back to you?”
“Okay,” Jake said, his heart plummeting. “Who am I talking to, by the way?”
“I’m Leona’s brother. Damon.”
Jake thought it over and decided it was best if he just tell his real name so that Leona would call him if she wanted to and ignore her if she hated him. “I’m Jake Hartford. I met Leona a while back. Please let her know I’m desperate to talk to her.”
Silence met Jake’s revelation and he thought Leona’s brother had hung up on him. “Hello?” he said again and heard a sharp, indrawn breath from the other side.
“You son of a bitch!” Damon hissed through the phone, and Jake gritted his teeth. Leona had obviously told her brother about him, and not good things. “If you think you’re going to march into our house and woo Leona then you are clearly mistaken. She deserves way better than you, and if you think she kept that misbegotten baby of yours, you’re in for a shock.”
Jake’s breath stopped, and his worst fears were realized. Leona had gotten pregnant, but unlike her promise to him, she had aborted his baby. Pain slashed through his chest as Damon continued his one-sided rant.
“You won’t get anything from her. She aborted the baby and moved on. You gave her more than enough when you didn’t keep your pants on. Don’t try to ruin her life any more, you understand me?” he barked into the phone, but Jake had already hung up.
Visions of the dark-skinned girl who had ruled his every waking thought for months filled his mind, and he covered his face with his hands to combat the ache in his chest.
He had thought Leona loved him, but he was crazy to have even contemplated it. The Colorado Mountains, the snow covered peaks, had lulled her into a false sense of affection for him and as soon as she had returned to her family, she had forgotten all about him.
Jake stood up with his chest burning and couldn’t believe that at thirty-two years old, he had been duped by a girl and stooped to fantasizing about her day and night.
Purposefully, he marched back to the sitting area of the suite he was living in until he found a new house. For her to have aborted his baby so heartlessly, she must hate him more than he had bargained for. It was better this way, he assured himself. Life hadn’t been kind to him in matters of love in the past and history had repeated itself.
The next day, the press got hold of the new development on Jake’s release and Leona bawled in front of the TV in happiness. She knew in the pit of her stomach that it wouldn’t change things for her, but she was happy for him nonetheless.
Despite his cruel parting remarks to her, she found herself jumping every time the doorbell sounded or the phone rang. She waited desperately for Jake to call and dreamed repeatedly of him showing up at her doorstep, telling her he couldn’t live without her.
The more days that passed, the more her mood deteriorated, until she finally contemplated getting hold of his contact details somehow and telling him about the pregnancy. She was at the point where she would do anything as long as she got to see Jake again and hear his voice.
Damon glanced towards his sister as she stepped out of her bedroom after several hours staying locked up, and his heart clenched painfully as he noticed her frail arms and protruding belly.
“Leona,” he called her and she stopped in her tracks, her eyes blank, expressionless. “Why don’t you ask Matilda to fix us a steak sandwich? Will you eat with me, please?” Damon was worried about her now. The fact that he hated Jake’s guts for seducing his sister mattered little now that he could see how it was affecting Leona.
“I’m not really hungry, Damon,” she said softly, and her voice was barely a whisper. “I had some lasagna in the morning but I’ll ask Matilda to fix something for you.”
“No, it’s okay. Will you have a milk shake or something? You aren’t eating much, you know.”
She looked at him with a haunted look in her eyes and turned away. “You’re right,” she said, suddenly terrified of hurting the baby.
Damon clenched the TV remote in his hand as Leona walked away, and then called a friend who could get hold of Jake Hartford’s address.
Leona returned with two large glasses of strawberry milkshake and handed one to her brother. Damon took a sip absentmindedly, but seeing the haunted look in his sister’s eyes was too much. His guilt was complete.
“Leona, I have to tell you something,” he said, and she waited, not saying a word in response. “Before I tell you this, I want you to know how much I care about you and I’m just telling you this so you can get over the bastard.”
“What are you talking about?” Leona said uninterested, and took a tentative sip from her glass.
Damon sighed. This was going to be difficult. He wasn’t used to being wrong. “Hartford called,” he said and Leona felt like she had heard an explosion. Her heart ached, and then literally crackled as it warmed with hope. “He called as soon as he got out. The press hadn’t even gotten a whiff of his release yet and he called for your number.”
“Oh my god,” Leona whispered, her eyes widening. Then she chilled again, recalling his parting words. For him, what happened between them was just sex and nothing else.
“I, uh, I was angry at him for hurting you, and I told him that you had aborted the baby.”
Leona stared at him without blinking, her chest heaving, and then she panted, her breath uneven as she began to hyperventilate. Before Damon could react, Leona’s hand crashed onto the side of his face as hard as she could manage and his head flipped to one side.
“You psychotic, meddling bastard! Why would you do that?” she screamed.
Damon stayed quiet, watching his sister shoot sparks from her eyes. He shook his head, suddenly feeling guiltier than he had even imagined possible. Wordlessly, he handed her a piece of paper with a Manhattan address scribbled on top.
Leona’s face crumpled up and she ran into her living room, grabbing a small bag in which she stuffed a few items of clothing from her closet, not even caring what they were.
Not bothering to change, she stepped out wearing white beaded flip-flops. Her hair
was tied in a high ponytail, her dark, lean legs in denim cutoffs. Her white top clung to her enlarged breasts and fell in wrinkles over her swollen belly, but she didn’t care. All she wanted was to get to Manhattan and tell Jake the truth.
He had called her, he hadn’t forgotten about her. He cared at least that much to get in touch with her as soon as he got released from the nightmare that had been his life. Her heart soared at the thought, at the hope, and at that point, it didn’t matter that Jake didn’t love her. She wanted him to know. She didn’t want him to hate her for aborting his baby one more second.
Damon grabbed his car keys off the coffee table and walked swiftly behind his sister. Opening the car door for her, he waited as she glared at him in anger and disappointment. “What are you going to do now? Leave me in the middle of nowhere so that I can’t go to him?”
“I’m going with you. I called for seats on the next flight. We have to hurry.”
Tears sprung to Leona’s eyes and without another word, she slid into the car while Damon dealt with her bag.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Five hours later, Leona stepped out of the cab in front of a large sprawling mansion that Jake now owned. The flight had been an hour long, but getting to Jake’s place had taken more time than her strained nerves could deal with. She walked over to the gate and asked for him while Damon came up behind her.
The guards at his gate, obviously looking over her state of crumpled-up clothing, began asking for details about her visit, and Leona was about to give them a scathing reply when Damon took matters into his own hands. Within seconds, the gates were opened and Leona walked inside.
Damon watched Leona while he asked the guards about Jake’s whereabouts and then stopped in his tracks as a tall, wide-shouldered man whom he knew was Hartford stepped out of the doors. He walked authoritatively towards a gleaming Rolls Royce parked right at the front.
Leona looked up from the ground while shielding her face from the sun, and had the first glimpse of the man she had left behind six months ago. Her breath stopped, her heart pounded, and Jake finally turned his head in her direction.