She wasn’t ready to deliver the baby. She had studied up on it, but hadn’t purchased all the supplies. She’d been fearful that if she made any unusual purchases, it would tip off the police who may still be looking for someone who’d kidnapped Cassie for her child.
Minutes passed and again the same cries. Why wasn’t she asking for help?
What if the baby wasn’t Chad’s? Perhaps Chad wouldn’t want Cassie if he knew the truth. If she showed up with a child now, would he throw her out on her face? Would Chad believe that she’d been held captive all this time … maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe that was the answer. She could drug Cassie again, take her to another city, and leave her at the hospital and then when she came back with a child, a month early …
Another yelp sounded from the room, this one louder than the last. She walked over to the door and slid the metal trap door on the bottom aside. She slid the tablet through the door.
You’re only eight months.
Is this really Chad’s child?
Cassie’s voice resounded through the wall, a peal of pain, holding back a scream. “No! It’s not Chad’s baby. I was pregnant when I came here. That’s why I talked him into marrying me. I’m not playing your game anymore. I am in labor and need to go to the hospital. I’ll go away. I’ll never come back. I don’t care about him, or you, or anything here. I just want to leave with my child.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chad paced the floor of his house. It was so quiet. He’d managed to make it through the last couple of months without trying to kill himself again, but the nights were unbearably lonely.
What should he do about Michelle? He didn’t want Michelle, but at the same time, he felt bad for her. He could help with the baby … he could be like its uncle or something. Had Michelle changed? Now that she was a mother, had she realized that love wasn’t about control?
Cassandra would be due in a few weeks … if she was still alive. He had to believe she was, but what if she wasn’t … No, he couldn’t do it. He felt nothing for Michelle. He could never love her again. He could never love any woman ever again. So if he didn’t love her, would it be okay to help her? To help her child?
He walked outside to clear his head, but nothing was clear. Michelle hadn’t even looked at him today when he came inside the store. Maybe she was over him, too. Maybe he could help.
He would just talk to her … maybe offer to help watch the baby after it was born. At least it would give him something to look forward to since he probably wasn’t going to have the opportunity to have a child. He couldn’t imagine putting himself out there to be hurt ever again.
He jumped into his truck and drove to Michelle’s house. The house was dark when he pulled up, but her car was there so he knew she was home.
***
Cassandra knew it was Michelle, and yet she still refused to talk. Maybe that was a good thing; maybe it meant she would let her go? She’d planned to pretend she was going into labor, hoping she would come in here, and she could somehow overpower her. But then she’d felt the sharp pains and knew it was time.
“Something doesn’t feel right. I need to go to the hospital!” she screamed out in pain. Still, nothing from behind the door. She intentionally released a scream that would wake the dead.
***
Chad rang the doorbell and then waited, not sure if he was doing the right thing offering to assist Michelle.
A few minutes passed and Michelle finally approached the glass storm door. She was wearing sweatpants with a long sweatshirt that hung loosely, concealing her belly.
A smile lit her face. “Hi, Chad.” She opened the door. “Did Brandy talk to you?”
She hadn’t invited him inside. Maybe she was over him. Good, it would make this easier. Her question threw him, though. “What do you mean? Talk to me about what?”
She shrugged, opening the door wider for him to enter. “Come on in. I just thought maybe she’d suggested you come over here.”
Chad shook his head, laughing. “Brandy would kill me if she knew I was here. She hates you.” He took a seat on the chair facing the sofa and noticed Michelle carefully slid down across from him. “So, you’re due soon, I take it?”
“I still have a few weeks.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean Brandy hates me? We got along great over dinner.”
That surprised Chad. Brandy wasn’t typically able to conceal her feelings. When she thought something, she said it. She rarely held back, and she’d always made it abundantly clear that she didn’t like Michelle. Maybe she was trying to be civil since they were going to be in-laws.
“Well, that’s good, since you’re gonna be her sister-in-law soon. Imagine, Tom settling down. I just didn’t see that coming, but he said as soon as he passes the bar exam, they’re gonna get married, right?”
Michelle adjusted herself on the couch, pulling a pillow on her lap. “Why are you here, Chad?”
She’d completely ignored his question. She was the same old Michelle. Everything was about her. It actually made him smile. “I just wanted to talk, Michelle.” She smiled in response. She may be self-centered, but she wasn’t her usual overconfident-self. “Have you told the father?”
Her eyes fell to her stomach. “No, and I won’t be telling him either.”
“That’s wrong, Michelle. He has the right to know.” His mind instantly transported to his wedding night and Cassandra telling him about her father not knowing about her until she was two.
Michelle looked up, and her eyes were glassy. “I don’t even remember his name. I went rafting, hoping you were there. You weren’t. So I just went with Mark and a group of guys. One thing led to another, we all went out drinking, and I woke up the next morning in a hotel room. I don’t even know which one I slept with.”
“Oh, Michelle … why would you do such a thing?”
“You,” she said, her voice cracking. “You ran off with her, and I wanted to get you back. I wanted to forget you. I wanted —” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Chad was overcome. Michelle was sorry? He stood up, walked around the table, and sat down next to her, wrapping his arms around her. They’d been together forever, and never once had she said she was sorry.
She rested her head against his chest and started sobbing. She never cried. Michelle was one of the hardest women he’d ever met. It was what had attracted him to her at first. He needed someone strong then, but not now. He was stronger. He’d learned to handle his grief without drugs and alcohol, to lean on God when he felt overwhelmed. He didn’t need this. He didn’t want to feel sorry for Michelle.
Her hands climbed his chest, finding his face, as she pulled herself up in front of him. “I’m sorry, Chad. I’m sorry for everything.” She pressed her lips to his neck and then moved up his jaw to his lips, but paused. “I’m sorry I pushed you into the arms of another woman.”
Another woman? Cassandra wasn’t another woman. He pulled back from Michelle. “I love her, Michelle. She’s not another woman; she’s the only woman — ever. I shouldn’t be here. I just thought —” He jumped up from the couch.
Michelle grabbed his arm and pulled herself up beside him. “What did you think, Chad?” she whimpered.
This was no act; she was genuinely distraught. “I don’t know.” He exhaled sharply. “I just thought maybe I could help.”
She pressed her body up against his. “I don’t need your help … I need you. I love you. I want you to be the father of my child.”
Chad could feel the solidness of the child she carried between them. He wanted to feel Cassandra’s body, not Michelle’s. He wanted to feel the life of his child inside of his wife. He buried his head in his hands. “I can’t. I can’t, Michelle. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here.” He walked toward the door.
“No!” she screamed. “Don’t leave me. Please, don’t leave me!”
“Michelle, I really am sorry, but I can’t do this.” He walked out the door.
***
<
br /> Tom’s fingers trembled as he tore open the envelope with the official state seal of North Carolina embossed on the front. This meant everything. He could retake it. But if he passed, he could move on with his life and start practicing, and even better, it’s what Brandy had said she wanted before she would agree to marry him.
His heart raced as he read the scores. He passed! He passed the bar exam! He was so excited that he could barely keep his composure, but he couldn’t fully appreciate his victory because he hadn’t shared it with Brandy yet. Now they could get married.
He called her several times but kept getting her voicemail. Michelle had said she was taking Brandy to dinner, but they should have returned home by now. He alternated calling her home and mobile every fifteen minutes. Getting a signal in Nantahala was hit or miss. But he usually caught her on the home phone. The ringer must be off.
He decided he would go to her … surprise her for once. They never spent time at her house; she’d seemed embarrassed. Whenever he picked her up, she would always wait for him on the porch. She constantly complained that her house was barely more than a shack in the middle of nowhere. Her mother had allowed her to live there when she took off with her newest lover. The woman was a tramp.
She had hardly been there for Brandy as a child, and even now that Brandy was an adult, she hardly heard from her. At least it was better than when her mother had lived there and had different men in the house. Brandy had confessed how uncomfortable it’d always made her feel, admitting how from the time she was thirteen, her mother’s boyfriends would solicit her with offers of money or presents.
For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t just move in with him. He’d assured her they could remain completely platonic until they married. He’d even offered to elope like Chad and Cassandra had done. But Brandy insisted that he pass the bar exam first, securing his job at the firm before she stepped into his life. She didn’t want him blaming her if anything went wrong in his career, the way her father had blamed her mother for his failed football career. If her mother hadn’t gotten pregnant with her, he would always grumble, he would have gone to college and made something of his life.
Tom assured Brandy constantly everything was fine. Even if he hadn’t passed, he could always retake it, but he was certain he’d passed.
He wanted her to leave the ROCK, and more importantly, leave Chad. He didn’t entirely believe her when she’d said she only felt for him as a brother. He’d seen the pain in her eyes when Chad was at the police station, almost as if she’d felt guilty. And then her showing up at his house that night after she had insisted she couldn’t stay with him overnight, something she hadn’t done since.
Tom crawled down the road leading to Brandy’s house, careful not to run over anything. Leafless trees canopied the road, their barren branches stretching out as if to smother an unsuspecting vehicle passing below. No streetlights lit the dead end dirt road, and Brandy refused to turn on any of the outside lights because of the utility bill.
The house was dark and sinister looking. How could she stand this place? Perhaps she would agree to come home with him tonight. They could leave this weekend and get married. There was nothing stopping them now. It surprised him how he suddenly wanted to get married; he’d never wanted a family. But after witnessing Chad lose Cass and then his sister’s pregnancy, he’d realized life was too short not to seize the moment.
Also, as an attorney, his firm expected stability, and Brandy was beautiful and wonderful. She wasn’t bossy like his sister. He understood why Chad had refused to take Michelle back. The woman was preposterous. She’d purposely found someone who looked like Chad and allowed herself to get pregnant. What had she been thinking?
Wanting to surprise Brandy, Tom extinguished the lights as he rounded the bend that ended at her driveway. He’d stopped to pick up a bottle of champagne and flowers, realizing he was never romantic enough; she would appreciate his unannounced visit.
He approached the door silently. Only one light inside the house was on, and it cast a ghostly glow over the parlor. It was unusually quiet, even for a winter’s evening. Would she be sleeping already?
A bone-chilling scream pierced the air, causing him to drop the bottle he held.
No thoughts entered his head as he slammed through the door, just adrenaline pumping through his veins. So this is what it felt like, he thought briefly, as he charged through the house, heading for the stairs. This is what it felt like when the woman you loved was hurt. Someone was attacking Brandy in her own house. He wanted to scream her name, but knew he couldn’t.
The scream sounded again; it came from downstairs. He turned on the first step and headed down to the basement, careful to be as quiet as possible. He stopped. He needed a weapon. Chad could go in there without a weapon, but he couldn’t. He looked around, climbing back up the steps, hating that he had to leave her for a second.
By the front door … a shotgun. Of course, Brandy was a country girl; she would keep a weapon. Obviously, she hadn’t had a chance to retrieve it. The perp must have climbed in through a window or been waiting for her when she got home.
Tom slid noiselessly down the steps again, and then he heard Brandy’s voice from behind the wall, yelling at someone to calm down.
He pushed the door open a fraction. Brandy’s back was to him, and she was leaning over a cot with someone strapped to it.
“Oh, dear God!” he shrieked, hardly recognizing the scream that escaped his lips. “Brandy?” he questioned, not believing his eyes, had she just found Cassandra?
She whirled around, eyes wide, a gun in her hand trained on him.
Cassandra let out another piercing scream.
“Brandy?” Tears sprang to his eyes. “Why?” He didn’t recognize the girl standing in front of him, gun drawn and eyes that were wild, cold, and callous.
“Shut up, Tom!” she commanded, waving the gun at him as if he was to sit, but he had a gun as well, a much more powerful one at that.
“Tom!” Cassandra screamed. “Help me!”
Cassandra looked horrible, drenched with sweat, her hair a stringy, tangled mess. Her eyes were sunken into her face, and she was as pale as he’d ever seen her, her normal olive colored skin was pasty and chalky looking. Brandy had held her captive this entire time?
“Why, Brandy?” he asked again, not able to make sense of the situation.
“She’s a temptress … like my mother, like your sister, like all women. It’s not even Chad’s baby. She never loved him, just like Michelle never loved him. I’m the only woman who’s ever loved him!”
Tom leveled his gun at her. “Step away from her, Brandy, and put down the gun.”
Brandy turned the gun off him and back on Cassandra. “I’ll kill her, Tom. She seduced you from the beginning, too. I saw the way you looked at her. I’ll kill her right now. I don’t care anymore. I wanted the baby for Chad, but now that I know it’s not his, I’ll kill her.”
Cassandra strained against the straps holding her. “It is Chad’s baby, Brandy! I lied, hoping you’d release me. I’m going into labor early, and if I don’t get to a hospital, the baby will be breech. It’s not ready to come at eight months. I’ll die; the baby will die.”
Brandy looked away from Tom long enough for him to make a split-second decision. Crossing the room in an instant, he brought the butt of the gun across Brandy’s head. He hated doing it; he loved her, but she wasn’t the woman he thought she was, and Cassandra was dying.
She fell but refused to quit, immediately crawling across the floor and grabbing the gun. She lifted her arm, taking aim. Without thinking, he threw himself on her, knocking the arm with the gun and sending it flying against the wall. His fist came down hard against her face. He’d never been in a fight, had never hit anyone, and he’d hit Brandy. He ached inside but knew if he hadn’t, Cassandra and he could both be dead.
He pulled himself up, keeping his eyes trained on Brandy while stepping backward toward Cass
andra. Tom removed the binds. He needed to tie up Brandy, call the police, and then get Cassandra to a hospital.
Cassandra rolled from the bed the second he released her but then doubled over in pain. “Tom, oh God,” she cried, falling into his arms.
“I’m so sorry, Cass, but we have to get you out of here.”
He knelt over Brandy, tying her hands the best he could, then led Cassandra out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. Obviously, she wouldn’t be able to escape, since she’d kept Cassandra captive all these months. How could he have been so blind … how could Chad? Oh, God, he had to call Chad.
Tom helped Cassandra up the stairs, gently setting her down on the sofa.
“Tom, I think it’s too late. The pain is unbearable!” She winced as another jolt shot through her body.
Chad first, he would know what to do. Tom dialed his home. It rang four times, and then the recorder picked up. He hung up and dialed his mobile. Chad picked up on the first ring. “Hey, Tom.”
What could he say to Chad?
“Tom? Is that you? Michelle called you, didn’t she? Nothing happened, I swear. I just wanted to see if —”
Cassandra screamed.
“Tom … is that Brandy? Is everything okay?”
“It’s Cassandra, Chad … I found Cassandra. She’s in labor.”
“Oh, God, Cassandra? Oh, God, let me talk to her. Where are you?”
“She’s in pain, Chad. I need to get her to the emergency room. She’s going into labor.”
“Where are you?” Chad demanded.
“At Brandy’s,” he admitted.
“I’m on my way. Don’t move her. Have her lie back on the sofa and try to keep her calm.” Tom heard the roar of the engine through the phone, and then Chad hung up.
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