Abby comforted her. “You don’t have to think about any of that right now… you have time to work out just the right way to handle it. You should never make a decision when you are emotional, you told me that. I’m reminding you. Just take some time to soak this in and calm back down from it, and when you’re feeling better, then you can work out the details. Right?”
Alexis wiped at her face and shook her head silently. “Well, at least now I know why I’ve been an emotional wreck the last couple of weeks. I have been upset about Lucas, and that’s not like me. I’ve been feeling so down and sad and… lost…” she sniffed, “and, it’s really not like me at all. It makes perfect sense now.”
“From what I understand, pregnancy will really throw you for a loop and most of the time turn you into someone you never were before. You’ll make it through this, and I’ll be with you the whole way. I’m right here for you, always.” Abby hugged her tightly.
She cried a bit more and after a while the grief and stress was too much for her to bear and she fell asleep beside her sister, who was still holding her hand.
Abby was still there when Alexis woke up, but she was busy in the kitchen. She had cooked up a big meal and insisted that Alexis eat as much of it as she could stomach, and then she helped Alexis get ready for work and sent her to her office. Abby told her that the best thing for her just then was routine, since so many things were taking her out of her comfort zone and it felt like her whole world was crashing down around her.
Alexis had to agree that any kind of normalcy just then would be good for her, and she did as Abby said and went to work. The humdrum of the phones ringing, the people talking, the hustle and bustle of the old familiar sounds of her office comforted her and she let herself get lost in it. It was a lifesaver for her, and she realized that she hadn’t been calm or relaxed since the arraignment.
She walked past a news stand on her lunch hour and happened to glance over, but when she did, what she saw made her stop right in her tracks. There were three different magazines and a newspaper, all of them featuring photographs of Lucas, and in every one of the photographs he was with a different woman, out on the town, having a good time.
Anger and pain boiled up in her and she swore under her breath, cussing him out; if only in her mind. When she got back to work, she decided that she definitely needed absolute confirmation of her pregnancy and she made an appointment with her doctor to do a blood draw. He was able to see her that afternoon, and that was a huge relief to her. She sat in the waiting room, anxious and fidgeting, and after what felt like a double eternity, she was called back and put into an examination room. The nurse came in and drew her blood, and then a few minutes later the doctor came in to discuss her results with her.
“Well, my dear, you are definitely pregnant. Do you know about how far along you might be?” he asked, jotting down notes.
She knew exactly to the day how far along she was and she told him the date of conception. He wrote that down and gave her a due date eight months off from then. He checked her for general health and told her that she needed more rest and to eat a more healthful diet, and then he let her go.
Alexis left the doctor’s office in a terrible state. Raw emotion was ripping through her and she volleyed between being devastated and crying, and being furious with Lucas for getting her into such a mess to begin with. She should never have gotten stuck with his case, and she certainly never should have wound up carrying his baby. She thought back bitterly to the night of the Oscars s and wondered how different her life would be if he hadn’t won the Oscar that night.
She climbed out of her car and stomped into the house, slamming the door behind her, and slamming her purse and keys down on the table. She glared hotly at the spot where her purse had landed, and as she looked at it, she noticed that there was something different about her table.
There was a piece of paper on it that hadn’t been there before, and she furrowed her brow curiously and reached for it, picking it up with a ginger touch. It was folded in half. She opened it and as she read it, her eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open.
It said simply, “Tell Lucas to pay for the drugs he got, or there will be dire consequences.”
Not quite able to believe what it was that she was looking at, she stared at it for a long moment before she looked up slowly and realized that not only was there a threatening letter left on her table, but there had been someone in her house. Someone had left the note on her table. She turned around in a circle, looking all around her as if she might still see the person in her home.
Panic and adrenaline filled her veins and burned at her muscles, and fear clutched its icy fingers around her heart. She had no idea how anyone had gotten in or why they were leaving a message for Lucas with her, but she wasn’t about to take any chances with her safety.
She slid her hand into the inside pocket of her jacket and pulled her phone out, holding it close enough that she could dial the police with the touch of a button if she needed to. She walked through her home room by room until she had been through all of it, and she knew that she was in fact alone.
Then she went to all of the doors and windows and locked every one of them and turned her home alarm on, wishing that she had been more careful about regularly setting it before. She finally took a breath and sank down into the cushions on her sofa, trying to figure out what she was going to do, and looking at the note in her hand again. She read it over and over, trying to make some sense of it, but the only thing that was abundantly clear to her was that Lucas had been involved with a drug dealer, and her suspicion of his guilt was proven.
She pulled her phone out and dialed Lucas’ number, though she hated doing it, and got no answer. Her call went to his voice mail. She left him an urgent and emotional message and told him to call her as soon as he could. She ended the call and then looked up Warren’s number and called him. That call also went to voice mail and she left an urgent message for Warren to call her back as well.
Alexis sat on the sofa a while, reading the note, checking her phone, and listening carefully for any sound or misstep in the house, and after a long while, she felt sure that there wasn’t going to be anyone coming back for her. The message had been delivered, and she was merely the messenger. She called the police and an hour later a detective showed up on her doorstep. She let him in and explained to him how she found the note and told him about the case and that she had called Warren and Lucas.
The officer told her that there wasn’t much that could be done because there wasn’t any sign of forced entry, and anyone could have left the note, but he filed a report and left, and she sat back on her sofa in the living room again, hoping that either Warren or Lucas would call her, though she was betting on not hearing from Lucas at all.
Late into the night, she finally felt safe enough that she went to her bedroom and fell asleep; though her sleep was light and not restful, and she had locked her bedroom door and kept the phone right beside her.
It was the phone that woke her from her light sleep in the morning, ringing as a call came through. She grabbed for it and saw that it was Lucas. She was astounded that he was calling her back, and she tried not to sound too surprised when she heard his voice coming through the phone to her.
“Alexis? It’s Lucas. I got your message, are you alright?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.
She lowered her eyelids and scowled that he would call her back for this, but not because he wanted anything else to do with her, but the scowl faded and the seriousness of the situation came to the front of her mind. “Lucas, I was out of the house yesterday, and when I came back there was a note on my kitchen table. I don’t know who was in my house, or why they left it, but it was really scary. I even called the police, though they didn’t do anything to help me.” Her mind ran through the entire scenario from the night before.
She heard panic in his voice then. “Someone was in your house? What happened?”
“Well, it looks like th
ere was no forced entry, so whoever it was knew how to get in without making it obvious to the police; nothing was broken or stolen. Nothing was out of place, except for the note that was left on my table. The thing about the note is that it was a message to you.” She said, her tone getting edgy. She was angry that anyone had bothered her about him, though she did understand how it could have happened; her being his attorney.
Confusion colored his reply. “The note was… a message for me? Why would anyone leave a note in your home for me?”
“Oh, maybe because I’m your attorney, and judging from what was in the note, they were certain that I would see you and be able to get this message to you sometime soon.” She was growing more irritated, the more she thought about it.
“What does the note say?” he asked worriedly.
She opened it up and read it to him, and heard him gasp quietly on the other end of the line. “But that doesn’t make any sense at all!” he proclaimed adamantly.
“Oh, it makes perfect sense to me. I’m your attorney, they knew you’d be talking to me. They know I’m defending you for charges of possession, and that’s because they know you had the drugs in your possession, and now they want their money from you! They want to be paid for their drugs! I knew you were guilty in this. I knew it!
All this while proclaiming your innocence, and all along the drug dealers have been waiting for you to pay them for what the cops took. Is that who you met in your office the night it all happened? Was it the drug dealers? Did they bail out before you paid them because the cops showed up?” She was growing more and angrier as she went on, and she knew that part of it must be the hormones from the pregnancy, but she wasn’t about to stop. She didn’t care what it was that was making her angry; she only knew that her house had been broken into and a threatening letter had been left for her, and it was because of him, and his lies.
His confusion quickly became frustration. “I’m not guilty! I told you that! I don’t do drugs, and I didn’t have any drugs at my house; at least, as far as I knew there were none there! I don’t know who those guys were in my office. I was just told that they were waiting to meet me and that was it.
I don’t know who left you that note, but even if I was going to pay off these people, I don’t know who they are or even how to get any money to them, so it makes no sense at all for someone to leave you that note and demand money! I don’t know any drug dealers! I have no idea what any of that note is about or who gave it to you! You’re supposed to be defending me, Alexis, how can you defend me if you don’t believe anything that I’ve told you?”
“You’re so full of it! Use your head and think about this a little bit! Someone is going to get hurt because of this, and you don’t care about that at all! You need to turn those drug dealers in and stop them before someone gets hurt or killed! Stop trying to protect your ego and your image, and do the right thing for once!” she snapped at him angrily.
“I am doing the right thing! I’m defending myself and standing up for the truth!” he shot back at her, his temper flaring.
“I can’t believe you’re still spouting off about your supposed innocence when I have proof of your guilt right here in my hands in the form of this note! The police have overwhelming evidence, and there’s just no way or no reason for you to deny it!
Do what you should have done when the prosecution offered you the plea bargain, and turn the drug dealers in! You have an obligation to do the right thing!” she raised her voice and the forcefulness of it surprised her.
He was just as loud as she was, and all it did was make her angrier. “I am not calling the police to turn anyone in because I don’t know who I could turn in, Alexis! I don’t have any drug dealers, and I am doing everything right, including defending myself, which is why I didn’t take the plea bargain! I can’t believe you still think I’m guilty in all of this!
"My trial is coming up and you think you’re going to defend me and convince a whole jury and a judge that I’m innocent when you don’t even believe it yourself! Look, I don’t know who left that note for you, but it wasn’t anyone I know, and I don’t know what else you can do with it except turn it over to the police!”
She felt rage boiling in her and she couldn’t take it any longer. “No, this isn’t for me to handle. It’s your crime, it’s your problem, it’s something that you have to handle! Damn you! My life was perfect before this! My life was exactly what it should be before you committed your drug crimes and wrecked my entire life! I have far too much going on myself to try to figure this out, this one is your problem to fix, so take that responsibility and fix it! Now!” she yelled at him
He began to protest again, but she was so furious with him by that point that she hung up on him and tossed the phone aside on her bed. Tears burned at her eyes and she covered her face with her hands and cried, letting out all of the frustration and anger in her, exhaling it bit by bit with each sob, until she fell back asleep.
Chapter7
Alexis readied herself for work the next morning, showering and dressing in one of her pants suits with a powder blue blouse and the matching suit jacket. She pinned her hair up to the back of her head in a bun and skipped wearing eyeliner in case she wound up crying again.
It was awful to her that she was feeling so much emotion so strongly, but there was no way out of it. She had woken up thinking of the baby growing in her belly, and she had examined her belly in the mirror carefully before she showered, and again after she showered. She stared at it like there was some strange alien life form hidden in the depths of it, and she couldn’t quite make herself believe it.
There was no outward sign of any change to her body. She peered at the scale and saw no change in her weight, and that coupled with no obvious change in her form had made her wish that there was no positive result on the pregnancy tests and that it had all been just a strange misunderstanding. She knew it wasn’t, though. Sighing, she slid her phone into the inside pocket of her jacket and walked through the kitchen, picking up her car keys. Her mind was on the decision she had made regarding the baby and Lucas. After her phone call with him, she had decided that she wouldn’t tell him about the pregnancy.
If he was found guilty of his charges, and there was an excellent chance that he would be, he was going to go to prison for a long while. As long as the prosecuting attorney could possibly get him behind bars for, because Harvey was hell bent on making a public example out of Lucas, and he would do everything in his power to make that happen. The judge had a reputation for being harsh on violent offenders and drug dealers and users. She knew that it would not go well at all for Lucas if he was found guilty, and she knew that he’d be put away for years before he ever saw the outside world again.
She didn’t want a druggie father for her child. She didn’t want a prison inmate for the father of her child. She had worked hard all of her life to make herself successful and to become all that she could. He had put her at probable risk of losing much of what she had worked so hard for, and she knew that she wanted to give her child every possible benefit and chance at a happy and secure life.
It was obvious that having him involved in it in any way would only bring on more trouble and heartache for the child. She wasn’t about to impose a life like that on any little one. She felt that it was her responsibility to keep the fatherhood of the child she carried a secret. No one but her sister would ever know who the father was, and Abby would never betray her by telling anyone. She just had to look forward to a life of raising the baby on her own, with some help from her sister.
Alexis was angry at herself for the pregnancy even happening. It had always been a constant priority of hers to be as responsible as she could, and the fact that she had gotten pregnant from a one-night stand with a client she was actively defending was a glaring example of her substantial failure at being the responsible person she prided herself on being. All of those thoughts and many more simmered in her mind as she walked out to the garage to leave for work. Sh
e opened the back door of the car and set her briefcase in it, and then reached for the driver’s side door handle, but she was stopped suddenly by something that had closed tightly around her neck from behind.
She gasped and blinked in shock, and it took her a moment to realize that there was a hand squeezing her throat. Panic and adrenaline shot through her and she cried out loudly and reached for the hand to try to pull it from her neck. Something cold and hard pushed against the back of her head and her whole body stiffened.
“Do you feel that?” a cold gravelly voice asked near her ear. Shivers ripped through her body and she shuddered involuntarily. “That’s my gun,” the voice continued. It was male, and difficult to discern anything else about because he was speaking just under his breath and she couldn’t tell much from that. “You try to run, or move, or escape, or scream, and I will put a bullet through the back of your head and end you. I want you to know right now, there’s no real compelling reason for me to keep you alive, so don’t do anything stupid.”
Her heart pounded wildly in her and she looked around the garage with wide eyes, trying to see if there was anyone else around or if it was just him, and she hoped to see something that she could use for a weapon of some kind to get away from him and his gun, though the gun made things much more difficult. “What do you want?” she gasped as his hand squeezed harder around her throat.
He chuckled a little. “Money. There was a note on your table, and there was a request on it for money, and that money hasn’t been paid. You were warned that things would be bad, and no one heeded that warning, so here we are at the next step.”
Her breath was raspy and shallow as she tried to pull away from the man behind her as much as she could. He only pressed the gun harder into the back of her head. “I said don’t move!” he demanded, and she relented, stopping her subtle struggle.
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