Mr. Always & Forever

by Ashlee Price

  I open the closet and shove my things inside my suitcase.

  “Ingrid.” He grabs my arm.

  I shake his hand off. “Don’t ever touch me again, and don’t you even think about coming near Alexa again. Maybe I didn’t hate you before, but now I do. And I’m not going to let you hurt me anymore.”

  “You’re making a mistake, Ingrid.”

  “No. I’m making things right. Now, get out of my sight!” I point to the door.

  “What?”

  “Get out!”

  He picks his robe off the floor, grabs his phone and goes to the door, glancing at me over his shoulder.

  “Go to hell, Conner Blake.”

  I shut the door and lean against it with my shoulders still shaking. Then, as my tears break free, I slide down to the floor. My hands gripping my hair, I break into a sob, lamenting my crushed dreams of a happy family, my foolishness.

  The worst part is that I still don’t have my heart back, and a voice in my head is telling me I never will.

  ~

  “Mommy, you’re back!” Alexa rushes over to me as soon as I step inside Janine’s apartment, a huge smile on her face.

  I scoop her in my arms, whirling her around before hugging her tight. “Oh, sweetheart, I’ve missed you!”

  “Mom, you’re squishing me,” she complains.

  I let her go, stroking her hair. “Sorry. I got carried away.”

  “How was your trip?” Janine asks, coming out of the bedroom.

  “Fine,” I lie.

  Janine comes closer. “Wait. Have you been crying? Your eyes look red.”

  “They’re not,” I protest, throwing her a reprimanding glance.

  “Where’s Conner?” Alexa asks. “Is he back at the apartment? Can we go there now? I have a lot of stuff to tell him about Luna and Lulu.”

  She glances at the mouse cage on the floor.

  At the excitement in her eyes, my heart sinks and a lump forms in my throat. I swallow it, though, and summon my courage as I kneel before her.

  “Alexa…”

  “Where’s Conner?” she repeats, some of the excitement in her eyes diminished.

  She knows. Of course she does.

  “Conner isn’t here,” I tell her.

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s not coming back, sweetheart,” I blurt out.

  Janine gasps. The corners of Alexa’s mouth droop along with her shoulders, and her small eyebrows bunch together.

  “What do you mean?” she asks softly, on the brink of tears.

  I stroke her hair. “Honey, Conner was never meant to stay. You know that, right? He was only staying with us for a little while.”

  “Temporarily,” Alexa says. “So, he’s gone now?”

  I nod.

  “Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrug. “But Mommy’s here, and Mommy’s not going anywhere.”

  Alexa steps back. “Did you two have a fight?”

  “What?” I stand up slowly. “No, sweetheart.”

  “Are you lying?”

  I scratch my forehead.

  “You are lying. I can tell,” Alexa says, her eyes narrow.

  “Fine,” I admit, having no other choice. “We had a small fight.”

  “So you made him leave?” Alexa asks.

  I put my hands up. “I did not make him leave.”

  “He wasn’t gonna leave. He told me so.”

  I roll my eyes.

  Great. Just great.

  “And he wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye or telling me why,” Alexa adds. “You made him leave, didn’t you? Because he made you angry? Because he made you cry?”

  I give her a look of disbelief. Am I seriously having to defend myself to my six-year-old daughter?

  “I did not make him leave!”

  “You’re lying!” Alexa shouts back. “Bring him back!”

  I sigh, shoulders heaving. “Alexa, I can’t…”

  “Until you bring him back, I’m not going back to the apartment with you!” Alexa turns her back to me, marching to the bedroom.

  My hands roll into fists. “Alexa, come back here! Alexa! I’m your mother, for goodness’ sake. You can’t…”

  She slams the door.

  I let out a deep breath, rubbing my temples. Janine throws me a sympathetic look.

  “I thought she wasn’t going to rebel until she was fifteen,” I tell her.

  Janine shrugs. “What can I say? She’s wise beyond her years. And sassy beyond her years.”

  I sit on the arm of the couch, hands gripping my hair. “What am I going to do?”

  “Bring Conner back?” Janine suggests.

  I narrow my eyes at her.

  “Okay.” She raises her hands. “So, that’s not an option?”

  “No,” I confirm. “He’s gone for good.”

  “Am I allowed to ask why?”

  I say nothing.

  “I’ll take that as a no, but the fact that your eyes are red means that you didn’t want him to leave.”

  “I did. I just…”

  “See, you made him leave!” Alexa shouts from the bedroom.

  I stand up, shoulders drooping. “Can we just not talk about this?”

  “Okay,” Janine says.

  I glance at the closed bedroom door. “Can Alexa stay here with you for a while?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that? Of course she can. Not that she’d have it any other way.”

  I look at Janine. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re her best friend or mine.”

  “I’m your best friend and hers.” Janine squeezes my shoulder. “Give it time. She’ll be fine, and so will you. You’re both strong women.”

  “She’s a girl,” I correct.

  “You’re both strong.” Janine pats my shoulder. “And stubborn. You’re very alike, actually. You really are mother and daughter.”

  “I used to think that bond was enough,” I confess. “Now, I’m not so sure.”

  Hands on my shoulders, Janine turns me around. “Go get some rest. I’ll bring Alexa to you the moment she asks.”

  I place my hand over hers. “Thank you.”

  I leave her apartment and walk slowly to mine, my feet and my heart heavy. As soon as I’ve closed the door behind me, I drop to the couch and sit staring at the wall.

  It’s so quiet. And so empty.

  When did the apartment feel so empty?

  I bury my face in my hands, the tears falling again. I was hoping Alexa would stop them. I was hoping she’d hug all my broken pieces together. But of course she thinks I made her father go away. And she doesn’t even know Conner’s her father.

  Thank goodness for that. If she did, she might never speak to me again.

  Yup. I’m the bad guy.

  And now I wonder if I made a mistake, because it sure feels like it.

  I grip my hair.

  What was Conner trying to tell me? Why was he trying to leave me?

  Just then, I hear footsteps outside the door.

  Alexa?

  Quickly, I get up and go to the counter, ripping off a paper towel so I can wipe my tears. I walk to the door, and as I’m reaching for the knob, it turns.

  The door opens. A man in black stands in the doorway.

  I cock my head to one side. “Who are…?”

  The man presses a handkerchief to my mouth and nose. I stumble back, falling to the floor. A pair of shiny shoes is the last thing I see before everything turns dark.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Conner

  It’s too dark, I think with a gnawing suspicion as soon as I enter the house where Tiffany is staying. I had to break the back door to get in.

  It’s past sunset, and the sky is already turning from purple to black, but no lights are on. The fridge in the kitchen doesn’t seem to be humming, either.

  No power.

  Seeing the phone hanging on the wall, I grab the receiver.

  No dial tone.

  Someth
ing is definitely wrong.

  My heart hammering in my chest, I find a flashlight in the kitchen drawers. I pause, then grab a knife as well. One in each hand, I search the rest of the house.

  In the living room, I find the TV cracked in the middle, pieces of a shattered vase in front of it. The books from the shelves lie scattered on the floor.

  I swallow the lump in my throat.

  There was a definitely a fight here. The question is: Who won?

  I shine the flashlight around, and seeing red drops on the floor, I panic.

  Blood.

  There are more drops on the stairs, leading all the way up.

  I hurry upstairs, keeping my senses sharp. I follow the trail, ending up in the bedroom, where I see a man lying face down on the floor, a puddle of blood around his knee and a bigger pool around his chest.

  What the hell?

  “I killed him,” Tiffany’s voice startles me.

  Shining the light on her, I find her shaking in the corner of the bedroom. Her face is pale and her hands are stained with blood. A bloody knife is lying in front of her.

  Carefully, I approach her. “What happened?”

  “He tried to kill me,” Tiffany says in a quivering voice that’s barely above a whisper. “So I killed him.”

  Grabbing the bedsheet, I bend over to pick up the bloody knife from the carpet.

  “How long have you been here?” I ask Tiffany.

  She shrugs. “Hours.”

  I set the knife down on the table beside the one I got from the kitchen. Then I kneel down in front of Tiffany.

  “Are you hurt?”

  She points to her swollen ankle. My eyes grow wide as I shine the light on it.

  “He grabbed it when I was trying to get away from him,” Tiffany explains. “He twisted it, but I managed to stab him so he let me go.”

  It looks twisted, already red and swollen.

  “Did you call 9-1-1?”

  She shakes her head. “My phone’s in the living room.”

  I take out my phone and call the emergency hotline to report the breakin. After the call, I stand up.

  “I’ll look for something cold to ice your ankle,” I tell her.

  I’m about to walk off when she grabs my leg. “No! Don’t leave me!”

  I nod, sitting beside her. “Come here.”

  I pull her into my arms, rubbing her back as she sobs.

  “Shh. It’s alright now.”

  I let Tiffany sob for a while, then offer her my handkerchief. She wipes her tears and blows her nose on the square piece of cloth until she finally calms down.

  “Who is this man?” I ask her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “When you called me, you said you were in danger,” I remind her. “You said someone was coming to get you. What made you say that?”

  She blows her nose again. “It’s because Margot warned me.”

  “Margot?”

  “The fiancée of Damien Shore,” Tiffany explains.

  I tense at the name.

  “After I interviewed them together, I asked if I could interview just Margot. I wanted to get to know her, because people know about him but not about her. Plus she’s like the star of the story, the Cinderella. I wanted to see why Mr. Shore fell in love with her.”

  “And?”

  “Mr. Shore was reluctant, but he agreed. He made all the arrangements. I interviewed Margot at a restaurant with her bodyguards at the table. At first it was just a regular interview, but we ended up talking about a lot of things, fashion mostly. She seemed to be knowledgeable. She knew about my blog. I guess we became friends.”

  “And Margot called you?”

  “Yes. After I got back, she called me saying that someone was coming to kill me. She was whispering and she sounded scared. It was a short phone call, but the message got across.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat. “Who did she say was trying to kill you?”

  “Her fiancé.”

  The flashlight falls from my shaking hand, clattering to the floor. I pick it up.

  “She said Damien Shore was trying to kill you?” I clarify, although I already know the answer.

  Tiffany nods.

  I glance at the dead man. “Which means that man was sent by Damien Shore.”

  She gives another nod.

  “Why didn’t you run away and hide after Margot warned you?” I ask her.

  “I wanted to, but where would I go?”

  “To your apartment in Los Angeles,” I suggest.

  “What if the killer was already waiting there?”

  Good point.

  “And you didn’t call the cops?”

  “Would they have believed me?”

  Another good point.

  “I just stayed here and prepared for the worst,” she adds.

  I look at her. I thought she was just a pretty face. But she does have a brain behind that face.

  “You prepared to fight?”

  “I got a few lessons in self-defense back when I was still a model,” she informs me. “A lot of men wanted to grope me, you see.”

  I nod. I can understand the impulse.

  “And here I thought all you knew how to do was pick the right clothes.”

  She chuckles, then blows her nose again.

  I turn to her. “Do you know why Damien Shore would want to kill you?”

  Tiffany shrugs. “Maybe he changed his mind about having his story published. I mean, he and Margot don’t seem happy. Or maybe he just didn’t like my clothes?”

  I pause, thinking.

  “You used to be a runway model, right?”

  She nods.

  “And Damien Shore is a fashion magnate. Did your paths ever cross before?”

  She falls silent.

  “Tiffany?”

  She draws a deep breath. “I went to his office once. I thought he had a job for me, but he just flirted with me and then told me he wanted me to come home with him. He offered me a lot of money for it, too, but I refused. When he grabbed me, I kicked him in the nuts and left.”

  My eyebrows furrow. “He tried to assault you?”

  Tiffany nods.

  “And you still interviewed him for your story?”

  “I thought since he was getting married he wouldn’t try anything funny. Also, he said he was a changed man. You heard him.”

  Alright. Maybe Tiffany’s smarter than she looks, but she’s still not that smart.

  “And yet look what happened now,” I remark, glancing at the body.

  She cringes and squeezes her eyes shut.

  A moment later, I hear sirens approaching. I stand up and look out the window to see the red and blue lights in the distance.

  “Don’t worry.” I squeeze her shoulder. “You’re safe now.”

  “But what about you and Ingrid?” she asks.

  I kneel beside her. “What do you mean?”

  “Margot said Damien Shore was after all of us.”

  I stand up, gaping. I figured he’d be after me, but why Ingrid?

  “I’m sorry I forgot to tell you that at the start,” Tiffany says.

  I turn towards the door and walk out of the room.

  “Conner!” she calls after me.

  I ignore her, rushing down the stairs.

  Damien Shore is after all of us. He’s already tried to kill Tiffany. He’s already succeeded in killing Ed. That leaves only me.

  And Ingrid.

  ~

  “Ingrid’s gone,” Janine confirms my fears as soon as I get to her apartment. “Alexa wanted to apologize to her so I brought her here, but when we got here, the door was unlocked and Ingrid was gone.”

  I clench my hand into a fist and punch the wall.

  I’m too late. I never should have let her come back to Boulder alone.

  “Conner!” Alexa shouts, rushing out of the bedroom.

  Seeing her tearstained cheeks, I frown.

  “Sweetheart.” I pull her into my arms, hugging her
tight.

  For a moment there, I thought I’d never see her again.

  She squeezes me in turn. “I knew you’d come back.”

  “Did you know?”

  “You’ll bring Mommy back, too, won’t you? I made her go away, but you’ll make her come back, right?”

  I stroke her hair. “You didn’t make her go away, sweetheart.”

  “Then why isn’t she here?”

  Good question.

  Ed is dead and Tiffany almost got killed. Yet Ingrid’s missing.

  Why was she taken?

  My phone rings and I take it out of my pocket.

  “Is that Mommy?” Alexa asks.

  “I don’t think so,” I say as I stand up, answering the call. “Hello.”

  “Conner Blake,” the man on the other end says my name.

  I grit my teeth. Damien Shore.

  “Where’s Ingrid?” I ask him. “What did you do to her?”

  He laughs. “Nothing… yet.”

  My jaw clenches. “I swear, if you hurt her, I’ll…”

  “Oh, you should know by now that you can’t touch me, Mr. Blake. Haven’t you learned your lesson? Besides, you’re in no position to make threats. I’m in a position to make demands. And I demand that you come to me tonight—or your precious girlfriend will die.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat. “Say the time and place and I’ll be there.”

  “Be at the airport in half an hour.”

  The line goes dead.

  Janine approaches me. “Was that…?”

  I nod.

  “Was that Mommy?” Alexa asks.

  I place my hands on her shoulders. “Alexa, I promise you that your mother will come back to you safely.”

  She nods. “You’ll bring her back with you, right?”

  I don’t answer that, but I plant a tender kiss on the top of her head. “I love you.”

  I turn to Janine. “I think the two of you should go back to your apartment. Lock the door.”

  Janine nods, gripping Alexa’s shoulders. “I’ll keep her safe.”

  “Thank you.”

  I walk to the door.

  “Wait,” Janine calls after me.

  I turn around.

  “Take care,” she says.

  I nod.

  “And it was nice to finally meet you,” she adds.

  I give a weak smile. “Same here.”

  Alexa waves her hand at me and I wave back before I step out of the apartment, smiling at her even though my heart is breaking.

  I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again, but if it means Ingrid will be safe, that’s fine.