by Lane Hart
“Yes, you! I can’t believe you did this to me!” I tell him as the tears start to fall. “You knew how devastated I was when Grant was arrested, the hell I went through, how I blamed myself and how much I missed him! He should’ve been in the delivery room with me, holding my hand. Not you. And he wasn’t…because of you!”
“Don’t do this, Sam,” Hunter says when he takes a step toward me.
“She told you to get out,” Grant speaks up and reminds him, stepping in between us.
“I live here!” Hunter yells back at him.
“Not anymore,” I tell him. “I want you to move out by this weekend, because Adalyn and I are staying here. I can’t lift anything heavy yet, and I sure as shit won’t hurt myself doing it for you.”
Turning my back to him, it takes several long moments, but I finally hear the door shut; and then silence falls over the apartment.
“Thank you for believing me,” Grant says from behind me.
“I still haven’t forgiven you for ignoring me for ten months,” I spin around and snap at him.
“I know, and I’m willing to do anything it takes to make it up to you and Adalyn. Can I hold her again? I didn’t want to while that asshole was here in case I needed to punch him again.”
Still stunned over all this new information, I nod my agreement; and Grant disappears down the hall. He comes back a second later with her in his arms. Seeing him holding our daughter is the sweetest thing in the world. I hate he’s missed the first few weeks with her, but she’s so young she won’t remember. Only Grant and I will.
Even though I was angry at him for ignoring me, I never once thought he deserved to go to prison for what we did. And I don’t care what the law says or anyone else. Us loving each other wasn’t wrong.
I don’t know how yet, but I’m going to find a way to make this all up to Grant. It’s the least I can do for him after learning it was my friend who sent him away to prison.
…
Grant
Before last night, the three hundred previous nights, my choices were sitting on a cold, concrete floor or lying on a bed consisting of a sheet over several rows of planks after having a bland, tasteless meal with hundreds of my fellow inmates burping, farting, jerking off and stinking to high heaven.
If I could have wished to be anywhere in the world, I would’ve wanted to be here, in Sam’s apartment. I may not have even known it existed until yesterday, but it’s paradise, and I can’t stop smiling.
I just ate a delicious, steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup, and now I’m sitting on what has to be the most comfortable piece of furniture ever made next to the woman I love, with my beautiful new daughter snuggled in my arms.
“I know it couldn’t have been easy, and I’m sorry for leaving you alone while you were pregnant, but thank you for giving me something so wonderful that I never knew I always wanted,” I tell Sam.
“She looks like you. I knew she would before she was born,” she says with a sad smile.
“Yeah, I guess she does,” I admit, rubbing my fingers over her dark hair.
“How bad was it?” Sam asks.
“How bad was what? Prison?” I ask, looking up at her face for clarification.
“Yeah. I assumed it was pretty bad.”
“Prison was a lot better than the county jail,” I tell her honestly. “And other than being crowded and uncomfortable, mostly it was just so damn boring. I never realized how slow time passed until I was in there with nothing to do to keep me occupied. There was only time to think, and that only made me feel even shittier.”
“Time passed slowly out here too,” she replies. “I couldn’t wait for Adalyn to be born; because I thought that once she was here, I would stop thinking about you.”
“Did it work?” I ask.
“No,” she answers, lowering her eyes. “From the second she was born, I thought about you, even more, wishing you were here and wondering why you wouldn’t write me back or try and call me.”
“I’m so damn sorry, Sam. Believe me, all I thought about was you! How I ruined things and let you down when I got arrested. That was the worst night of my life, having to leave you, knowing those men saw you…” Shaking my head, I tell her, “There was no way I could let them show those pictures of you in a courtroom full of people, especially if I would still get convicted and end up serving even more time.”
“So, you think you would’ve lost at trial?” she asks. “Because I’ve been wondering what if…”
“I would’ve lost, and I probably would’ve served a year in jail waiting for the trial anyway, even if a jury eventually found me not guilty, I still would have lost an entire year with you. You and her,” I say, nodding down to the sleeping angel in my arms. “There was no good choice, just a shit one, and even shittier one.”
“And your license?” she asks.
“Long gone.”
“All those years you worked so hard…I’m sorry, Grant. I should’ve stayed away from you or been honest the first day,” Sam says, tears falling down her cheeks for my loss.
“It was my license to lose, so the responsibility is completely on me, sweetheart. I don’t want you to ever think it was your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Neither did you,” she argues.
“To us, it wasn’t wrong, but there was a law. I broke it, and they had evidence of that. End of story.”
“I still can’t believe Hunter could hurt you, hurt me so badly,” she says with a shake of her head.
“He was in love with you, and you didn’t feel the same way. He was desperate.”
“I should’ve realized…”
“The past is always twenty-twenty,” I remind her. “Stop second-guessing yourself now. It’s over and done, and I want to move forward. With you and Adalyn.”
“I do too,” she agrees with a small smile. “Do you…I mean, would you want to stay here? With us?” she asks hesitantly.
“Of course I want to stay here!” I assure her, so enthusiastically that Adalyn jumps because my raised voice startled her.
“Good,” Sam replies on an exhale.
“I should probably sleep on the sofa, though, right?” I ask her, not wanting to be presumptive.
“Yes,” Sam agrees, almost too quickly, which is a little disappointing. But I haven’t spoken to her for ten months until yesterday while she carried my baby and gave birth to her all without me giving her an opportunity to tell me I was going to be a father. It was shitty of me, and I don’t expect her to instantly forgive me or let me back into her bed anytime soon. Not that I would turn her down if she did. It has been a lonnnng ten months. I’m sure we’ll get back to that place eventually, but right now I’m perfectly happy sleeping on the couch.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sam
Grant’s watching Adalyn while he thinks I’ve run out to get some groceries. He panicked and was a little worried at first at the idea of being alone with her, but I assured him that she had just breastfed and been changed, so all he had to do was hold her if she cries while I’m gone for an hour. He said he would just hold her the whole hour to be safe.
I trust him with our daughter, even if he just met her yesterday. It wasn’t his fault he was locked up in prison.
No, that was all thanks to the man walking toward me. Or boy, I should say.
After tossing and turning in bed alone all last night trying to figure out what to do to help Grant, I finally had an idea. Unfortunately, it’s not one I can actually afford. That’s when I decided to send Hunter a message, asking him to meet me outside the grocery store today because I really do have shopping to do. Adalyn needs diapers, and I told Grant I would buy him a cell phone so we can keep in touch since there’s not a landline at the apartment.
“Did he stay with you last night?” are the first words out of Hunter’s mouth.
“That’s none of your business,” I tell him, crossing my arms over my chest with my purse hung over my shoulder. “If you ever
cared about me, here’s what you’re going to do,” I start. “You’re going to give me every cent in your trust fund by the end of the week.”
“What? Why would I do that?” he huffs.
“Because ten months ago when I came to you upset, crying, telling you I was pregnant and didn’t know what to do, you said you would help me. And I admit, you have, but you did so by hiding the fact that you’re the one who hurt me, no, destroyed me, by having Grant sent away. Now you’re gonna help fix it.”
“I’m not helping him!”
“Yes, you are!” I yell at him, uncaring who around us hears it. “You owe me this, Hunter. Call it asshole tax or whatever you want, but if you don’t help me, I swear to God, I won’t stop until I make your life as miserable as you’ve made mine!”
Hunter stares at me silently for several seconds.
“If you ever cared about me then you have to help me, to make up for what you did!”
He heaves a heavy sigh before he says, “Fine. But only on one condition.”
“What?” I grumble.
“I want you to promise we’ll still be friends.”
I barely restrain myself from laughing in his face.
“I’ll try,” I lie, because while there’s no way I can ever forgive him, I do need this money from him. Desperately.
“Okay,” he agrees. “I’ll bring you a check tomorrow when I come by and pack up the rest of my things.”
“Fine,” I agree, but cringe at the thought of Hunter and Grant in the same room together again. “Just, text me beforehand, okay?” I ask, so that way I can send Grant out first.
“Yeah,” he says before he turns around and walks away.
“Hey, Hunter?” I call out, and he stops and looks over his shoulder, his brown eyes so hopeful that I almost hate to burst his bubble. Almost. “How much money do you have?”
His shoulders slump, and then he says, “Right now? Only eight grand.”
“Where did all your money go?” I ask in confusion. “I thought you said you had more than a hundred thousand last year?”
“Tuition and living expenses aren’t cheap,” he replies.
That’s true, since he’s given me over twenty thousand in tuition, plus his own. Although, that still doesn’t add up. But eight thousand is a good start and more than I have, so I can’t complain.
“Okay, that’ll do. Thanks,” I tell him, and then I head inside to quickly grab my groceries.
Part one of my plan has worked, if Hunter actually delivers, which I believe he will if he loved me as much as he claims. Now it’s time to do some research for part two.
…
Grant
“Does she always smell this good?” I ask Sam as we relax in the living room, watching reruns of sitcoms while I bury my nose against Adalyn’s neck.
“Yeah, she does,” Sam responds with a laugh that’s so sweet I nearly cry when it hits my ears.
“She smells like you, coconuts, and baby and…happiness,” I tell her. “Was she…did we conceive her at prom?” I ask.
“Most likely,” Sam answers, her cheeks turning red at the reminder. “When everything happened, you being arrested and all, I forgot about the morning after pill until a few days later.”
“That’s a good thing,” I tell her, sensing that she blames herself for not getting the pill instead of me for not using a condom. “If you had, we wouldn’t have her here with us right now.”
“I’ve never regretted getting pregnant,” she says. “Just that you weren’t there.”
“Good,” I say. “Because she’s too perfect and beautiful to ever regret.”
“I was worried you would be angry when you found out,” Sam admits.
“Angry? Why would I be angry?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she says with her eyebrows drawn inward. “It was just that the more time when I didn’t hear from you, the more I worried that you blamed me and were not the man I thought you were.”
“I promise I was never angry at you or blamed you, sweetheart. I blamed myself for hurting you. And I blamed Hunter for being such a jealous prick that he would have me locked up for it.”
“I didn’t know that, though. If you had just read one of my letters and responded, you could have saved me a lot of heartache,” she snaps before she gets up and walks off to the bedroom, leaving me alone with Adalyn.
“I hurt Mommy badly, but I’m gonna fix it,” I promise my daughter, who is cuddled up to my shoulder sleeping when I give her a kiss to her temple. “At least you forgave me. Mommy will too. She has to, right?”
Thinking about my new family reminds me that I’ve barely spoken to my parents. Ben let me use his cell to call them on the way to his house the day I was released, but I just wanted to let them know I was out. I’m grateful for the simple flip phone Sam picked up for me earlier today. It beats not having one at all, and I hate not having the money to buy one myself. All of my savings went to an attorney and paying to move and store all my things in Virginia Beach with my parents. So currently, I don’t have a penny to my name. My mom offered to deposit some money into a checking account for me; and while I don’t like the idea of taking money from them, at this point, I have no choice. It’s sort of hard to look for a job without a car. That’s also in Virginia, but my parents are planning to drive it down this weekend when they visit.
I should probably go ahead and give them a heads up that they’re grandparents before they arrive. I didn’t get into all that on the phone when we briefly talked the other day. I hadn’t even met my daughter at that point and was still trying to wrap my head around everything.
Gently pulling my phone out of my pants with my free hand while trying not to jostle Adalyn and wake her, I free the device from my pocket and then dial the number that I know by heart.
“Hello?” my mom answers right away.
“Hey, mom. It’s me.”
“Grant! I was just thinking about you, wondering how you’re doing as a free man,” she says, making me smile.
“I’m good. Great, actually.”
“Really? I was worried you would be depressed and down in the dumps getting back to the real world.”
“Oh, I probably would’ve been if not for the beautiful girl in my arms…”
There’s a five-second delay before Mom says, “Come again?”
“Adalyn also just spent a nine-month stint in confinement too, and believe it or not, her living quarters were even smaller and more crowded than mine.”
“Oh my goodness! There’s a baby? You have a baby?” she exclaims between gasps when she quickly puts it together.
“I have a daughter,” I admit, unable to help my grin as I watch her sleep. “She’s gorgeous, just like her mother, and Sam’s been kind enough to let me stay with her, to spend more time with both of my girls.”
“Wow, Grant, that is…I just…I’m so excited for you! And now I can’t wait to see you this weekend, so I can meet my granddaughter!”
“I thought it would be best to tell you the news in advance instead of springing it on you and dad in person.”
“Oh, your father is going to be so happy too. What a wonderful surprise! Did you suspect?”
“No, I had no idea,” I reply. “Sam told me the morning of my release, and I met Adalyn the next day.”
“Adalyn. That’s a great name.”
“Yeah, it is. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And to think that she came from the worst.”
“God works in mysterious ways,” my mom declares.
“I guess he does. Although, I would’ve preferred to have been with Sam during the pregnancy instead of rotting in hell.”
“I know, sweetie. I’m still as mad as a hornet about what happened. Your father and I never thought you did anything wrong, especially to deserve such a harsh punishment.”
“Sam and I agree,” I say. “But that’s all over with now. We can look forward to the future, together, and with our daughter.”
Even as miserable as prison was, I wouldn’t trade a second of it if it meant missing out on sharing a child with the woman I love. Never did I imagine I could love one person so much, and now there are two people in my life that I adore more than anything.
Some may pity me for everything I’ve lost, but I would tell them not to because I’m an incredibly lucky man.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sam
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Mr. Stevens,” I say to the criminal defense attorney when he enters the conference room I’ve been waiting in. The frown on his face says he’s not nearly as happy about being here as I am.
Shit.
“Our firm offers free consultations, which is why I agreed to sit down with you for a thirty-minute meeting; but based on the intake information you provided, there’s nothing we can do to help you or your…”
“Boyfriend,” I supply since I’m not sure what other word to use.
“Right,” the attorney sneers. “If a judgement has been filed, our options are limited. He’s served his sentence. Therefore, I don’t see that there’s anything I can do to for him. His case is over and done.”
“I understand that,” I tell him since, after Grant was first arrested, I did quite a bit of legal research on my own. “But with this new information about the ill-intent of the state’s main witness, I was hoping that would be enough to have the case reopened.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Elliott, but it’s not. The actions of the witness, while self-serving, did not impact the case in chief. Mr. Matthews…”
“Dr. Matthews,” I correct to emphasize the importance of the consequences of this case. “He has a doctorate in physical therapy.”
“Dr. Matthews had sex with a student while maintaining a position as school personnel. You told my assistant that he knew you were a student and that there was evidence of the intercourse. The case was a slam dunk since age is not a defense.”
“But marriage is, right?” I ask, remembering reading something about that exception.
“Were you married to Mr…Dr. Matthews when you were having intercourse?” the attorney asks sarcastically with an arched eyebrow.