My Broken Soldier (Love Conquers Life Book 2)

by Alison Mello

  “Carter, come here, son. I’m going to show you how to properly carve a turkey. Someday this will be your job,” Troy calls to me, and I gladly walk over to get my turkey carving lesson.

  A few minutes later, Patty announces that dinner is ready. The plates are on the counter, so everyone takes a plate and picks what they want. We were torn over whether to put the food on the table and do it family-style, but we decided that would be tight since Patty made so much food. There’s turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, glazed carrots, and green bean casserole. Plus, she has cranberry sauce, two types of pickles, and olives all out on the table. It all looks so good. I don’t even know where to start.

  When everyone is seated, Patty and I stand at one end of the table. “We want to thank you all for joining us today,” I say. “Patty and I are very excited to have our first Thanksgiving together with all of you. We’re also happy to announce that Patty has informed her landlord that she will be moving in with me.”

  Sandra gasps. “Don’t you two think it’s a little soon for that?”

  “Actually, we don’t, especially with everything that’s been happening with Ben.”

  Her stepfather wrinkles his brows. “What’s going on with Ben?”

  “Hasn’t mother told you? He’s been stalking me. He broke into my apartment and keyed my car.”

  He looks at her. “Why haven’t you told me? Are the police looking for him?”

  “Mother, you told me you talked to him about the situation. I can’t believe you lied to me!”

  I’m seeing red and I can tell Patty is too.

  “It wasn’t a topic I wanted to discuss with the holidays here, so I had to tell you that.”

  Her mother is on the verge of tears, and my poor parents are trying to figure out what to do.

  Patty gives her mother a disgusted look before she says, “Excuse me. I need a minute to compose myself.”

  She runs out of the room, and I feel awful because I can tell she’s on the verge of tears.

  Bella stands. “For once, can you think of someone other than yourself?” She looks at me. “I’ll go check on her.” Bella storms out of the room.

  Richard looks at Sandra. “What have you done?”

  “Please, Richard, can we talk about this at home?”

  “You better believe we will. You owe your daughter and all of these good people an apology for making dinner awkward.”

  “I’m sorry everyone. I just wanted to enjoy dinner with my daughter.”

  She shuts up after that, and everyone continues eating. I’m really hoping Bella can get Patty to come back into the dining room, but I have a feeling she’s embarrassed and won’t want to. I take another bite of my food as I look around at everyone eating in an uncomfortable silence.

  My mom is the first to speak. She’s awesome. “This is really good. Patty did an excellent job.”

  As she’s finishing her statement, Patty walks back into the room. “Thank you, Mia. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

  She takes her seat next to me. I lean in to kiss her. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, honey. How is dinner?”

  “It’s perfect.”

  I sip my beer as she starts to eat. She closes her eyes and moans.

  I laugh. “Is it good, baby?”

  “It is, if I do say so myself.” Her smile has returned, and it makes me so happy. Damn her mother for almost ruining our day.

  My mom takes her empty plate into the kitchen to start cleaning up. Derek picks up his plate and helps clear the table as our guests finish their meals.

  The table is almost cleared when Richard says, “Patty, I’m really sorry about how today went. Your mother and I are going to take off. We need to have a discussion about what’s going on. Clearly, she needs to fill me in on whatever it is she was supposed to tell me.” He looks at her with total disappointment. “Thank you for having us. I’ll call you next week to discuss this situation with Ben.”

  Patty nods. “Thank you, Richard.”

  They leave the room, and Sandra says absolutely nothing to Patty as she does. We all get to work cleaning up the leftovers. Patty packs some food for her father and my parents to take home. When the house is clean and the leftovers packed, we sit around the living room, catching up and enjoying dessert.

  “Pumpkin, I’m sure you don’t really want to talk about this, but I really would like to know what that was all about with your mother.”

  She sighs. “You’re right, I don’t, but I’ll tell you anyway. She had an affair with Ben’s father, Anthony. Ben supposedly has pictures of them together, and he’s bribing her with them. I told her she needed to talk to Richard and tell him what was going on or she wasn’t invited over today. She called and told me that she spoke to him and that they were working it out. Obviously she lied.”

  “I feel bad for her only because Richard looks pissed, and if they had a chance of working it out, it’s probably gone now,” I add, squeezing Patty’s hand for support.

  “I’m sorry that it came out the way it did. It made everything very awkward, and that’s not how I wanted our first Thanksgiving to go.” She shakes her head.

  “Well, I guess that explains why Sandra looked so nervous when she first got here,” Derek says.

  “I was trying to figure out why they were sitting in the living room by themselves, but now it makes sense. She was worried about someone saying something to Richard about Ben and the situation.” She looks at my mom. “Mia, thank you for trying to break the tension during dinner. I also saw you talking with them before dinner. It was really sweet of you.”

  “Oh you sweet girl, it was really no problem. At one point in time I really enjoyed being around her. We were even friends, but she changed over the years.”

  “Speaking of that, how come I don’t ever remember us all being at the lake house together as kids?” Patty asks both her parents and mine. “You both own a lake house side by side, yet I don’t remember going there.”

  Troy smiles. “We bought those lake houses with the intention of us spending a lot of time there together with our families. At first your mother was fine with it, and then over time she hated it. We were spending time there when Carter was a baby. A few years after you were born, your mother stopped wanting to go. It caused a little tension between our families for a bit. Then, when your mother and I divorced and you got a little older, we would go out there for the weekend, but because Carter is a bit older than you, he didn’t want to go out there as much anymore at that point.”

  “So our family was spending less time there,” Jackson adds.

  “We should plan to spend some time there this summer.” Patty’s eyes light up with excitement as she looks at me. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”

  “That would be great, baby.” I lean in to kiss her. “Anything you want.”

  She looks back at her father. “Why did you guys divorce, Daddy? No one ever really talked about it.”

  “To be honest, I felt like your mom wasn’t happy, and it was making me unhappy. I had a suspicion that she was having an affair, and if so I didn’t want to wait for things to get ugly. We sat down one night and talked it out. A few weeks later, we were in a courtroom signing divorce papers, and about a month later she was with Richard.”

  Patty sighs. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I love mom, but she can’t be so cruel. I’m glad I take after you.”

  He looks at me proudly. “Me too, pumpkin.”

  A short time later, everyone is leaving with their leftovers. We say good-bye to our parents first, and once they’re gone we confirm our plans with Derek and Bella. We’re going shopping first, and then we’re heading to Derek and Bella’s to play cards. We close the door and then ditch the beer bottle and my wine glass in the kitchen.

  “I’m beat,” Patty says, leaning on the kitchen counter. We hear a knock on the door and figure someone forgot something, so we go back to answer it. It’s one of the staff members.

 
“Thanksgiving delivery for you.”

  He hands me the package and walks away. We open the box to find a small bouquet of flowers with a note.

  My dearest Patricia,

  I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. Although the picture of you and Carter came out quite nice, I hope you understand that you will be mine once again. Thank you for posting your plans for tomorrow. I look forward to seeing you.

  I love you Patricia.

  Your Ben

  I look at Patty. “We need to call the police.”

  She nods her head. “I want to go tomorrow, Carter. He can’t rule my life. I won’t let him.”

  “I understand, but we need to make sure they’re keeping an eye out for him.”

  I take out my phone and call Officer Phillips. He answers immediately.

  “Officer Phillips, it’s Carter Montgomery. I’m sorry to bother you on Thanksgiving, but we got another package from Ben and he said that he plans on seeing her tomorrow at the toy store.”

  “No, problem. I have the locations and the times. We’ll be ready. You tell Patty not to stress. I want her to go there and do her thing like it’s any other day.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup. I have a few calls to make so that we can be prepared. You have a good night.”

  “You too.” I cut the call and look at Patty. “He says to go there like it’s any other day and enjoy yourself. They’ll be prepared.”

  “Really? I thought he would try and convince me to stay home.”

  “Nope, he has a plan. That means we need to get some rest.”

  To be continued with…

  Forever My Soldier-Love Conquers Life 3!

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  Acknowledgments

  I always give a shout out to my husband and son. They are my world, and they’re so supportive of my work. No matter what the scene is, I can talk to hubby about it and he will talk me through it. I’m so glad we have the warm weather back so we can walk and talk like we did all last summer, when I started this journey. Don, thanks for working so hard. Your dedication allows me to stay home and do what I love. You’re the best husband a girl could ask for, and I love you to the moon and back. My little guy is always curious about what I’m working on. He was so excited to write his first short story for school. He couldn’t wait to get home to ask me for help. I can always count on them for continuous love and support.

  To Karen, Cassie, and Elizabeth! I swear I have no idea what I would do without you three ladies in my life. No matter what I need, you three are always there to support me with my writing and the promotion of my books. I have never met them, but I can always count on them. I often send them Facebook messages, and one of them is always quick to respond and help me out. You’re each amazing in your own way, and I love and appreciate each of you. Thanks for all you do for me. You three totally rock.

  A quick shout out to my growing street team! Thanks for sharing and pimping my books. I love seeing your tags and checking out the contests you’ve signed me up for. Thanks for all you do! You guys rock!

  About the Author

  Alison Mello is a wife and stay at home mom to a wonderful little boy. She lives with her amazing family in Massachusetts. She loves playing soccer, basketball and football with her son.

  After having her son, Alison started reading again and fell in love with Contemporary Romance. Reading made her happy and gave her something to do when she had downtime. As she started to read more, she started to noticed things she really enjoyed in a book and things she didn’t. She began to have ideas for writing one of her own. One day she literally woke up and started writing. She realized that if there was ever a time for her to write, it was now. She had a part time job to give her something to do. The hours at work were slow and she was bored with what she was doing, so while her son was off enjoying his friends over summer vacation she got started.

  Alison finished the first book in two weeks and decided that she really enjoyed writing, so she kept going. She already had ideas in mind for books two and three, so she kept writing. That is how the Learning to Love Series was born. Somewhere along the line, one of my Beta readers convinced me that Michael, a character from Finding Love, needed his own story. That is when Alison added the fourth and final book. Alison hopes you enjoy her books as much as she enjoyed writing them.

  She’s so glad she started this writing journey and hopes you will stay with her for the ride. Chasing Dreams is scheduled to release in April and the first two books of the Love Conquers Life series will be out this summer!

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