Miracle

by Kimberly Shursen

  “Faith is beyond reasoning; she’ll do what it takes to stay with Clint.”

  She bowed her head, feeling broken and helpless to save Mira. “There has to be a way.”

  “I have a plan.”

  Charlie wiped the tears off her cheeks.

  “But I have to have both you and Clint’s full cooperation.”

  Charlie felt a glimmer of hope. “If you bring Mira back, what will happen to Faith?”

  “She’ll go to where she should have gone six years ago. She never fully passed.”

  “And if you can’t bring Mira back?”

  “Then it will be Mira, not Faith, who leaves this world.”

  Charlie would never accept the possibility that she could lose Mira. “I can’t talk about that,” she choked out.

  After Winston explained his plan, Charlie left the hospital and started for the hotel. Her stomach tied in knots, she had no idea how to convince Clint to go along with Winston. From what Winston told her, there was little time left to save Mira.

  “Mira, it’s Mommy,” she whispered to no one, trying to hold back her tears. “If you can hear me, hang on. Please, baby, just hang on a little longer.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ON HER WAY TO THE HOTEL, Charlie rehearsed how she was going to approach Clint about Winston’s proposal. She started over and over again, changing up words and softening her tone.

  She parked in front of room 27 and checked out the parking lot, paranoid there might be spying eyes. In reality, she didn’t give a damn who was watching. The only thing that mattered was bringing Mira home.

  She arrived fifteen minutes early and unlocked the room with the key Winston had given her. It was small, no bigger than Mira’s room with a full-sized bed, a wobbly end table that held a brass candlestick lamp, and a lopsided dresser with a television on top complete with crooked rabbit ears.

  In the bathroom, Charlie noticed a dark brownish yellow ring around the bathtub. Winston was meticulous, and it had to drive him crazy to stay in a place like this.

  Every two minutes she pulled back the floral curtains that hung over the front picture window, watching for Clint. When she heard a door slam, she peeked out and saw Clint getting out of his truck.

  Her nerves on edge, she opened the door and waved. “I’m in here.” The moment he walked in, she threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  He took her hands from around his neck and stepped back, “He isn’t your cousin, is he?”

  She went to the end of the bed and sat down. Folding her hands together, she placed them in her lap. “He’s… a medium. A psychic.”

  “What?” Clint’s face turned an angry red. “And just what tree did you find this guy sleeping under?” He shook his head. “I told you absolutely no—”

  “I know.” She looked down. “I’m sorry, but—”

  “No!” Clint shouted. “No buts, Charlie.”

  She sat up straight, her adrenalin pumping. “Don’t you dare raise your voice to me. That child in our home is not Mira.”

  Clint tossed his arms up in the air dramatically. “You brought a total stranger into our home?” he leaned over toward her, his eyes filled with contempt. “I found him in Mira’s bedroom, Charlie,” he shouted. “Her bedroom! Do you know what he could have done to her? Are you fucking nuts?”

  She jumped up from the bed. “I’m fucking right is what I am, Clint Abbott.”

  “And that’s what this guy, Winston, or whatever the hell his name is, told you? That he’s right?”

  “He said that last night when he was in Mira’s room he was able to connect to Faith’s mind and he—”

  “Oh, for God’s sakes. Faith?” Clint turned around, grasped the doorknob and threw open the door. “I’m not going to listen to this bullshit.”

  Charlie grabbed his arm and forcefully turned him back around. “You are not leaving this room until you hear what I have to say.”

  “No way am I going to listen to any more of your nonsense.”

  He was pushing her to her limits. “Really? For some reason, I thought we were partners in this marriage.”

  “So did I. But once again,”—he laid a hand down on her shoulder and smiled a sarcastic grin—“Charlie did what Charlie wanted to do and didn’t give a damn about anyone but herself.”

  She pointed at herself. “Myself?” Charlie was beyond anger. “This is not a partnership. It’s a dictatorship ruled by Mr. High and Mighty who won’t open his pea brain and see the truth.”

  “For God’s sakes,” Clint spat, glaring at Charlie. “Just tell me what you have to say so I can go get my daughter.”

  Charlie had had it with him. “Screw you!” She stomped to the bed, snatched up her purse, and grabbed her coat. She marched past him through the open door. “Just go get your divorce and be on your merry way.”

  He put a hand on her back. “Wait.”

  She whipped back around. “Don’t touch me,” she told him, tears streaming down her cheeks as she started for her car. “You’re an idiot.”

  “I’m sorry.” He followed her. “Please, Charlie. I’m sorry.”

  Charlie stood still for a few seconds, debating on whether to leave. She turned back around. “I’m warning you. Don’t mess with me.”

  He nodded with that puppy dog look in his eyes. Charlie stood still for a few seconds and then went back into the room.

  “Look,” Clint began as he closed the door, “I know something’s not right.”

  “Then why are you acting like such a shit?”

  “Because what you’re telling me is…” Clint paused.

  “Nuts?” As hurt as Charlie was, and how badly she wanted to tell Clint to go straight to hell, she had to use this opportunity to try and convince him to do what Winston suggested.

  After she told him about Winston seeing Mira, and how Winston felt she was giving up on ever coming home again, Clint walked to one of the two chairs on either side of the picture window and sat down. She needed to let him process what she’d just told him about Faith’s imaginary world and how Mira looked when Winston saw her.

  He sat hunched over, staring straight ahead at nothing as if in a trance.

  “Clint?” she finally broke the silence.

  “What?”

  “What are you thinking?”

  His expression was deadpan.

  “It’s just so out there. How am I supposed to believe that after six years Faith has come back from the dead?”

  “I wish I had the answers.”

  “This kind of stuff happens in movies I won’t even watch because they’re total nonsense.”

  “But what if Winston is right?” she asked.

  Clint shook his head. “I don’t know, Charlie. Honest to God, I don’t know.”

  She walked to the chair and knelt down in front of him, covering his knees with her hands. “I don’t want to fight.”

  “Me, either.”

  “I miss us, Clint. I miss you being next to me at night. I miss talking to you.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I miss my best friend.”

  He leaned over and kissed her lips briefly.

  With their lips locked in a fiery kiss, Clint stood and brought Charlie up to him. He slowly walked her backward to the bed and laid her down on the spread. His breathing labored, he quickly took off her clothes. His eyes moved lustfully over her neck and breasts as he hurriedly stripped naked.

  Breathless, she grabbed his hands and pulled him down on top of her. “I need you.”

  God, she wanted him. She didn’t want to think about anything but the moment.

  Charlie writhed beneath him as Clint kissed her nipples, her fingertips, and then worked his way down to her thighs. She couldn’t wait any longer and guided him inside of her.

  Moving together rhythmically, their bodies pressed together as one, she arched her back in anticipation as Clint moaned with pleasure. When they climaxed together, the passion and lust was so intense, it left her breathless.


  A few minutes later, Charlie lay in his arms as Clint stroked her back.

  Content, Charlie looked up into his eyes. “I’m glad you messed with me.”

  “I like messing with you.” He brushed his lips over hers and rolled out of bed.

  “Are you leaving?” she asked, disappointed.

  “I have to pick up Mira.” Clint pulled up his jeans and grinned. “I’ve never seen you so—”

  “Aggressive?”

  “I liked it.”

  Making love had released the tension they’d both needed.

  “By the way, how’s Shannon Patterson?” Charlie asked.

  “Don’t know.” He pulled a sweatshirt over his head. “Don’t care.”

  “Well, you do care or you wouldn’t be the person I married.”

  “It seems Shannon told the nurses we were a couple. And then asked them to call me.”

  “I kinda figured out that she had it bad for you. Why else would she lie about me pushing her down? It was obvious that she wanted me out of the way.”

  “I’m pressing charges.” He sat down in a chair and pulled on a boot.

  “For what?” Charlie laughed. “I don’t think there’s a law against having a crush.”

  “She shouldn’t be working with children.”

  “Or good looking fathers.”

  Although Charlie didn’t want to ruin the moment, she needed to know that Clint was on board with Winston’s plan. She got out of bed and started to get dressed. “In order for Winston to bring Mira back he wants to take Faith away from Sheffield.”

  “Away?” Clint stopped what he was doing, his eyes growing wide. “What does that mean?”

  Charlie continued to dress, approaching the issue with facts instead of emotion. “Since Faith knows he wants to bring Mira home he has to try and break her will. He says he needs to be totally alone with Faith with no interference.”

  Clint put on his coat. “I don’t like it.”

  Charlie went to him and took hold of his hand. “If we don’t try, we’ll never see Mira again.”

  Clint jerked his hand out of hers, his blue eyes grew dark. “Damn it, Charlie, you’re asking me to choose between Mira and Faith.” His stare was fixed and unblinking. “First, I had to choose between my wife and child, and now you want me to choose between Mira or Faith.”

  For the first time since Faith had come into their lives, Charlie felt sorry for him. Clint had bonded with Faith.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Clint’s eyes clouded over. “I don’t want to lose either of them.”

  God, she wished she could take away his pain. What he wanted was impossible.

  “What am I supposed to tell Faith?” Clint asked.

  Charlie’s heart was heavy and she was fearful of what was going to happen, but was sensitive to what Clint was feeling right now. “Nothing.”

  “So just send her away with Winston and that’s that.”

  “I wish it were that simple. We may never have Mira back. Winston made no promises.”

  “I don’t know what to do.” Clint put his hand over the door knob. “What if we lose them both?”

  Tears burned the back of her eyes thinking about the possibility, but she had to stay strong. “It’s a risk we have to take in order to have Mira back.”

  “And how can you be sure that it’s Faith in our home and not Mira?”

  “Mira would never turn against me, lie about me hurting her, or try to split up the two people who care about her more than anything or anyone else in the world.”

  Clint stood stoically. He was thinking, trying to fix this so that everyone was happy and that was never going to happen.

  “It wasn’t Faith that we brought home from the hospital,” Charlie tried to reason. “And it wasn’t Faith that we took turns staying up all night with, putting her in a tub and trying to get her fever down when she was sick. It wasn’t Faith who rode with you through the fields on the four-wheeler, loving every moment of being with her daddy. And it wasn’t Faith that we tucked in and said prayers with every night.”

  Clint tilted his head back, drawing in a deep breath. “This is killing me, Charlie,” he said emotionally. “Just fucking tearing my heart out.”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and pushed her cheek into his back. “Faith needs to be released and at peace, and Mira needs to come home.”

  “But how do you know Faith will be at peace? What if she goes back to that place and is alone forever?”

  “Winston said that it’s the connection between Mira and Faith that’s keeping her soul alive. Once the bond is broken, Faith will be released.”

  “He assured you that he can break their connection?”

  “No.”

  Clint turned around to face her. “Then it’s a crapshoot.”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “And you’re willing to gamble Mira’s life,” he stated.

  “I’m willing to risk trying to bring her back to us. And I’d never forgive myself if we didn’t try.”

  Clint opened the door and started for his truck.

  “Mira’s all alone and afraid,” Charlie pleaded. “She has no one and needs us right now.”

  He opened the door to his truck.

  “Just do me one favor,” Charlie said, standing in the open door.

  Clint put one leg in the truck and then looked back at her.

  “Call her Faith when she’s least expecting it.”

  “What good will that do?”

  Charlie had an idea that she hoped would work.

  “Just do it. For me. For Mira. For our family.”

  Clint was silent as he slid behind the wheel, started the truck, and drove off.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  SHANNON TRAMPED AROUND HER CAR that was parked in the Abbott driveway. Clint hadn’t visited her in the hospital, and she’d been there three long grueling days. She’d called his house multiple times a day, but he never answered. Damn him. She could have died.

  After she was released, Shannon purchased size-twelve men’s tennis shoes and three pairs of thick socks. Normally she’d wear a size eleven woman’s shoe, but her feet were wrapped and swollen from the burns. She looked like a freak waddling around like a damn duck, and the pain was incredible in spite of the meds. But nothing was going to stop her from confronting Clint.

  She pulled up her coat sleeve and glanced at her watch. Shannon cupped her hands over her ears. Even with the thick wool hat, the lobes of her ears were freezing, and the end of her nose felt prickly. A few minutes later she hobbled up the steps and checked the back door. When she found it unlocked, she slowly opened the door. “Clint?” she called and stuck her head in further. “Mira? Anyone here?”

  Oh, hells bells, she’d earned the right to be in the house that would soon be her home. Plus, Clint wouldn’t like her standing out in the cold.

  After she wiped her clunky old man shoes on the rug, she looked around the kitchen. Seeing the room was spic and span, she felt a pang of jealousy. Had Charlie been here while Shannon was in the hospital? Is that why Clint hadn’t come to see her?

  She noticed a man’s coat that was too small to be Clint’s hanging on the rack. Shannon had heard through the grapevine that Charlie’s cousin had been brought by ambulance to the hospital. She’d bet a pretty penny that this was the so-called cousin’s coat. She also knew that this Winston guy had been found in Mira’s bedroom. It made Shannon sick to think what he might have done to that child. Something about this guy just didn’t add up. No one in Sheffield had ever heard of him, not even the old-timers who knew everyone’s family.

  She glanced out the back door window and, when she didn’t see Clint’s truck, Shannon frantically began to search the stranger’s coat, but only found a package of gum. If she could find a clue as to who this guy was, she’d have some ammunition to use against Charlie.

  When she spotted an envelope sticking out from the inside pocket, she pulled it out. Her eyes mov
ed quickly over the return address: Charlie Abbott, Route 3, Sheffield, Iowa. Bingo. Her eyes landed on the time stamp dated two weeks ago.

  Anxious, she glanced out the window again. When she didn’t see headlights, she took out the letter. After she finished reading Charlie’s words, she put the letter down on the table and slapped a hand over it. She knew it. The guy was a fraud. Charlie had lied to Clint.

  Charlie had written Winston saying that she thought her dead daughter Faith had taken over Mira’s body. Shannon let out a cackle. Oh, this was good stuff. Cheerleader Charlie was a total train wreck. She was crazy as hell, and now Shannon had proof.

  She stuffed the letter back into the envelope, and pushed it into her purse. When the door opened and Clint appeared, she gasped. “Oh my goodness, you scared the bejesus out of me.”

  “Mira, go to your room,” Clint said firmly and watched her scamper away. He turned to Shannon. “Just what the hell are you doing in my house?”

  “I… I just wanted you to know I’m okay.” God, he looked so mad. Why?

  He opened the door wide. “I can see that you’re fine. Now leave.”

  Shannon’s heart felt like it dropped into the pit of her stomach. “But—”

  “You’re the one who took Charlie’s clothes, aren’t you?” he accused.

  “Took whose clothes? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “If you don’t get out now,” Clint told her, his face crimson, “I’ll call the police.”

  “But I just wanted to see you.” Shannon was crushed. “Don't you know how much I love you?”

  He put his hand on her back and shoved her. “Out.”

  Embarrassed, she stumbled out the door. “That Winston guy.” She turned back around. “He’s not who you think he is. In my opinion, you need—”

  “I don’t need your opinion. Just leave me and my family alone.”

  She shoved the palm of her hand into the door before he could close it, her hurt feelings turning to rage. “I’ll make sure that Charlie never sees Mira again. You know that don’t you?”

  “And I’ll make damn certain you never have a job ever again with any DHS anywhere.” Clint slammed the door, and Shannon heard the click of the lock.