I gathered my hands back together, as Tucker rounded the corner and headed in my direction. He stood over me, scratching his head and squinting his eyes like he was in deep thought. "I"m goin" to make a call and you are only going to say h.e.l.lo and tell them you are okay. Do you understand b.i.t.c.h?"
I nodded my head, but said nothing. He started reaching in his pockets and obviously couldn"t find what he was looking for. "s.h.i.t. This phone doesn"t have the number in it." He headed toward the stairs and ran up them, two at a time.
I reached for my feet and used my bleeding hands and wrists to free them. As I heard the door squeaking open, I ran for the shovel. I could hear him coming at me as I grabbed the handle and swung it around. It hit him across the jaw, sending him falling to the floor. I was breathing heavy and could feel my heart beating out of my chest, but I had no time to panic, as Tucker began to stand on his feet again.
I had never physically inflicted pain on anyone in my entire life, but my life and my unborn child"s life was in danger. With all of my might I swung that shovel again. He turned as a natural reaction to it heading toward his face and it got a chunk of the back of his head. He went down fast. His head hitting the floor as blood started forming a pool around him.
At this point I had begun crying my eyes out. The shovel felt loose in my hands and I let it fall to floor, thinking I had really killed him. He was a bad man, but I was no killer. My natural instinct was to check for a pulse, but thank G.o.d my adrenaline kicked in and made me rationalize with such an idiotic decision I was about to make. I could hear voices coming from the first floor and looked back down at Tucker bleeding out on the ground.
I climbed onto the shelf in front of me and started to push open the hatch window. When I got it good enough to slide my body out of, I grabbed a hold of the sides and dove for it. My feet dangled against the wall as I used all of my might to pull myself up and outside of the house.
I"d got about half through when I heard someone screaming and then felt the hands grabbing both of my feet. With one rapid pull I went flying back into the house, falling about seven feet down onto the hard ground. The pain of hitting the floor was agonizing and for a few moments I couldn"t even move. Aside from having the wind knocked out of me, I couldn"t shake the tremendous amount of pain coming from my stomach.
"Get her hands," someone yelled.
I struggled to move away from them, but it hurt to even try to roll. A boot came crashing into my jaw, sending my face and head in the opposite direction it was facing. A ringing started in my ears and although I knew the two people were talking, I could only hear the m.u.f.fled sounds of voices. I brought my hand up to my ear and it was wet with blood. I brought my knees to my chest and cringed in pain, both from my stomach and my back.
After at least five minutes of them not coming near me, and me lying there in utter pain, someone came over and kicked me in my back once more. I cried out, but there was n.o.body there to help me. I knew what was happening to my body, but I just couldn"t admit it to myself yet. This was probably going to be my last day on this earth and the fact that my last moments of life were losing the baby that I had wanted my whole entire life, well it was indescribably terrible.
It was as if all of the visions of me being a mother were disappearing right in front of my eyes. Just knowing that made me want to give up. They were destroying my heart, my future, my life.
I managed to put my hand over my bad ear and could hear a bit of what they were saying. The female was arguing with the male about taking Tucker to the hospital. The male was saying that Tucker would go to jail for setting fire at the barn and he would be locked up and convicted of my kidnapping as well. The girl was crying and pleading with the guy, almost begging him to reconsider. I heard one of them walking up the steps and then slamming the door closed.
At first I thought maybe they both had gone up and I just didn"t notice it, but low cries were coming from the opposite side of the room. While covering my face, I turned to see a redheaded girl hovered over Tucker. She was crying and rocking back and forth.
When she spotted me looking at her, I could sense the hate in her eyes. She stood up and walked toward me, but for some reason she just stood there over me, holding her hands over her mouth. She started backing away, shaking her head and repeating the word "no,no,no".
I tried to sit up and she turned around to start walking away. While still crying she turned one last time. "G.o.d, I"m so sorry. You weren"t supposed to get hurt. This wasn"t part of the plan. We just wanted the money. I swear." She went running up the stairs and I even heard the front door being slammed shut. Voices could be heard out of the open window and moments later a car started and pulled away.
I don"t know how long I waited before trying to get up, but it was at least ten minutes. Instead of attempting to stand, I crawled over to Tucker"s body to check for a phone first. After searching every pocket, I found the phone, under his body. I wasn"t worried about him waking up. With the amount of blood loss and the way his eyes were open, I knew he was dead.
Calling Colt first would have been pointless. I had no idea where I was. The only way for me to be found would be to have my call traced. I open the phone and hit the emergency b.u.t.ton.
"Nine one, one what is your emergency?"
"Please help me," I cried. "I"ve been kidnapped, bound and beaten. I"m in a bas.e.m.e.nt and I have no idea where I am." My voice began to fade and the tears were streaming down my face. "I"m having a miscarriage. Please help me."
The phone fell out of my hands as I collapsed onto the floor. Saying the words made it a reality. I just wanted to die, to just close my eyes and not feel the physical and emotional pain that was tearing through my body. How could this have happened to me. What did I ever do to deserve this?
I have no idea how long it was, but I finally picked the phone back up to hear the operator still there.
She told me they could search the vicinity of where the call was coming from and there were only a couple of residencies to search through. I stayed on the line and listened for the Ambulance. As it got closer I relayed it to the operator. When it was its loudest, I heard the doors slamming and soon a bunch of voices were in the house. I never hung up the phone, but continued to cry as the emergency crews came down to help me and handle the crime scene.
The paramedics were as gentle as they could be with me, while getting me onto the stretcher and carrying me up the flight of stairs. Police had already started arriving and the yard was full of officers. Once I was in the ambulance and the paramedic was trying to get my vitals, I reached over and grabbed his arm. "Please call my husband. My name is Savanna Mitch.e.l.l, my husband is Colt. Please find him."
"We know who you are Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l. He"s already on his way." I heard someone say before everything went black.
The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital. I was hooked up to all kinds of monitors. The buzzing in my one ear was constant, and the pain in my stomach was worse. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but my jaw was stuck shut. A hand on my arm caused me to turn my head. Colt stood there over me. Tears filled his eyes and everything that had happened to me came all back to replay in my mind.
"No! No! No! Please tell me it isn"t true. Please Colt. Tell me it isn"t true." I pleaded through my tight jaw. It was hard to talk, but I couldn"t help myself from expressing my pain. "Please, G.o.d, tell me this is a bad dream. Tell me this isn"t real. My baby.....our baby. Our.Baby."
He knew I was referring to our baby. I didn"t have to keep saying it. He couldn"t look into my eyes, but as the tears fell from his own, he shook his head from side to side, right before covering his face into his hands.
He tried to shush me, to get me to calm down, but the tears flooded my vision. "Try not to talk Darlin". They had to wire part of your jaw. Please don"t cry, Sugar. I"m so sorry Savanna. I"m just so darn sorry."
Our baby was gone.
There would be no calming down. No being grateful I made it out of there alive. I caused this to happen. The red head told me they weren"t going to hurt me. Me trying to escape is what killed my baby. It was all my fault.
My emotional breakdown became so uncontrolled that the doctors came and eventually sedated me. The last face I saw was Colt"s. The pain I saw in his eyes was worse than anything physical I was feeling myself.
I was in the hospital for nine days. I had a broken jaw, a busted ear drum, two broken ribs and had lost our baby. To make matters worse, they had to surgically go in and remove the deceased baby from my body. They said I went into shock, but I couldn"t remember anything after the ambulance.
A psychiatrist came in every day and sat with me, trying to console me and get me to be okay with everything that happened. Of course they insisted I was already having PTSD and that I needed to be on a medication regiment until they knew for sure I had recovered fully from what had happened to me.
Tucker had died from blunt force trauma to the head. I was never charged on account of it being ruled out self defense. They never caught the other two people and they didn"t have enough evidence to convict his mother of being in on the crime. With Tucker Chase dead our family knew that we wouldn"t be bothered anymore.
Our family was not sad to hear of his demise and I did know that someone like him didn"t deserve to be alive, but it still didn"t help with the repeated nightmares of me killing him. I couldn"t shake what I had done, not even with my therapists help.
For three weeks I stayed in my bed at the house. Colt flew my mother in to Kentucky and she stayed with me for two weeks. I barely ate and I never came out of my room. Colt tried to comfort me, but in my eyes I had taken his heart and ripped it to shreds. I couldn"t tell him the truth about what I had done. If he ever found out that everything was my fault, he would never be able to look at me, and especially be with me again.
Our s.e.x life was non-existent, in fact, after several attempts, Colt had stopped trying to touch me. I read all kinds of books about self help and losing children, but nothing filled the void of feeling my baby growing inside of me.
After two months, I started to come out of the bedroom. I missed Colt and even though I had this huge secret, I knew he was all I had left. The doctors said that the miscarriage had left a bunch of scar tissue and being able to conceive naturally could be even more difficult than it was before. With all hopes of getting pregnant again almost gone, Colt did his best to coax me into our old life again.
It took about a week for me to get back into my normal routine. I never went anywhere besides the ranch, but my therapist insisted it was a good start. Lucy would get my groceries and run errands in town so I wouldn"t have to. Colt spent more time working from his home office and when he didn"t he still came home for lunch and was always home in time for dinner. We still ate in silence, but we were together, taking baby steps to get back to how things used to be.
One morning I woke up feeling like I was at peace for some reason. Colt was still asleep next me and I reached over to kiss him. His lips brushed over mine and he woke up and wrapped his arms around me. It was the first time that I had wanted him since my accident. He slipped the nightgown down off of my shoulders and kissed me gently on my neck. "I miss you so much, Darlin"."
"Make love to me Colt."
He gently pushed my head down on the pillow and slipped the nightgown down off of my waist and then my feet. He removed my panties and ran his hands down my naked body. "Are you sure?"
"Please."
It was more like I was begging him to touch me, like I needed to feel him as close as he could get. I didn"t want to be alone anymore, in fact, I couldn"t bear it anymore.
His gentle hands stroked my lips right before he leaned down and kissed them. Colt cupped my breast and sucked on it, before removing his boxers and sliding on top of me. It had been so long for both of us. I didn"t want the foreplay, or to take our time. I needed him to be inside of me.
I reached down and felt the girth of his immediate erection. Just knowing he still wanted me made me hot between my legs. There was this burn for him that I needed to calm. I thrusted my hips up, touching his hardness with my naked skin. He groaned and positioned it so that he could slide right in. Colt moaned as he entered me. It was so tight and even hurt at first like our first time had. He went slow, his body trembling over top of me. I grabbed his naked a.s.s with my hands and pulled him into me harder. His strong arms held his body up from crushing mine and I ran my hands over the muscles of them. Colt"s gorgeous green eyes found mine and he stared into them as he thrusted faster, picking up the pace to signal he was about to come. His eyes closed tightly and his body tensed up over top of mine. I could feel him exploding inside of me, making me feel like I was full of his love. In hindsight, I knew it was just s.e.m.e.n, but at the time, it was pure bliss.
He rolled us over and stroked my hair as he placed gentle kisses all over my face. "G.o.d I missed this."
I wrapped my arms around him and began to cry. "I did too, Baby."
I made Colt breakfast that morning and we drank coffee on the porch while swinging and looking out at the pasture. Sam was already running around chasing squirrels. I felt euphoric, like I had overcome the treacherous last bit of months. When my husband left for work, I got myself inside and started cleaning the house, and thinking about what we could have for dinner. I turned my favorite music up and danced around as I worked. I had a great life and I wanted to be happy again.
A knock at the door startled me. I turned down the music and headed toward it. All of our family would open the door and call out for me, and I knew it wasn"t locked. I opened the door to two people in business suits. A black SUV was sitting in our driveway. "Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l?"
"Yes?"
I thought they were just there to go over something to close Tucker"s case.
"Can we come in Ma"am? Is your husband around?" A gentleman asked.
"He is out on the ranch somewhere. What is this about?" I asked.
They hadn"t come into the house yet and my vision of the second person, a woman, was obscured by the first guy standing in my way. "We really need you to get him to come home Ma"am. We can explain everything once he is here."
Before I could turn to grab my phone, I saw Colt pulling up on the golf cart. He must have seen them coming in the Ranch"s main entrance. As he made it up the steps the man moved to the side, leaving me to be able to see the woman, who was holding the hand of a child. Colt walked past them, until he reached where I was standing. "Can I help you with something?"
"Mr. Mitch.e.l.l? Hi, I"m Roger Nesbitt. I"m with the Department of Social Services. I"m sorry to just come by unannounced. We don"t get many of these kind of cases. Do you mind if we come in to explain?"
I was just staring at the little hand that was attached to the woman.
"Sure come on in." Colt opened the door and let the man in.
As the man came through the door, the woman smiled. "Hi, I"m Sarah Forrester and this is Noah. Noah, can you say hi to the lady." The little boy, who looked to be about three or four, came looking around the woman"s legs and I bent down to greet him, but what I saw in his eyes made me collapse.
I came to and noticed I was on the couch. Three adults surrounded my vision, while the little boy sat in the chair across from me. Ignoring the people talking to me, I got up and crawled over to where he sat. His hands were folded together and he was swinging his feet looking down at his pants. I kneeled in front of him and placed my hands over his knees, causing him to look up at me.
Those eyes...
Those beautiful green eyes that I knew so well...
Chapter 15.
Colt "Colt?" Savanna was kneeled down in front of the child. Her voice was weak and I could tell she was struggling. I knew what she saw because I saw it too. I was in too much shock to actually understand what the h.e.l.l was going on though.
I reached down and grabbed her by the arms, lifting her to sit beside me. She gave me a worried look and I tried to smile, even though I had no idea what to say. I saw his eyes and there was only one person in my life that had those eyes. They couldn"t be looking for me if this had anything to do with Conner.
"Mr. Mitch.e.l.l, we are very sorry to barge in like this, but last week there was a fatal accident on route ten. The driver and pa.s.senger of the vehicle died on impact, but the child survived. Since I can see the look on your face, excuse me for asking, but you do know Krista Nichols, don"t you?"
Oh G.o.d, it"s true.
I grabbed Savanna"s shaking hand and squeezed it tight. "Yeah, she was my ex. We ended things almost four years ago." I was trying to do the calculations in my head.
"I"m sorry to tell you this but Ms. Nichols and her fiancee were killed in the crash. We notified the next of kin, but the only person we had listed was her father. He just underwent a triple bypa.s.s and wasn"t able to care for the child."
Just because I needed more confirmation than a pair of eyes, I had to ask. "What does all of this have to do with me?"
The gentleman seemed uneasy with my question. "Were you not aware that Ms. Nichols was ever pregnant?"
I ran my free hand through my hair. "I wasn"t. I never spoke to her after she moved out."
"I"m very sorry we just showed up like this. I"m sure you can understand that this isn"t something we could discuss over the phone. Ms. Nichols listed you on the birth certificate as the father."
Savanna"s hand went limp and I didn"t know what to say or do to make her feel better. I glanced over at the little boy who was still staring down at his legs. My heartbeat picked up and something forced me up off of that couch. I stood over where the little boy sat and when he refused to look up, I crouched down and patted him on the head. He looked right at me, with the same eyes as mine. I was so choked up that I couldn"t say anything. He kept staring at me and finally his little voice filled the room. "My mommy says that I look like you."
I sat down in front of the little boy and just took him in. His perfect little fingers were still folded together across his lap. I couldn"t speak. There was no way this could be happening to me, no way I had a child and didn"t know about it.
Say something to the kid, you idiot.....
Savanna"s voice broke my train of thought. "What do we have to do next? Are there papers we need to sign? A paternity test?"
"Yes, all of the above Ma"am. We do require a paternity test if the father has no knowledge of the child, for legality purposes of course. The paperwork is standard. We have a list of his medical history as well as a psychological report from the hospital that treated him. It would be best if we took care of this as soon as possible. We would also need to know that you have room in your home for him, which obviously you do," the gentleman explained.
I stood up and held my hand out for the little boy. "It"s very nice to meet you, Noah."
He shook my hand and looked at my wedding ring. "Are you married to that pretty lady?" He pointed to Savanna. "My mommy was getting married before she had her accident." His eyes got sad and he looked down at his lap again.
"Noah, would you like that pretty lady, whose name is Savanna, to give you a tour of the house?"
He smiled and looked at her as she approached. "Okay."
Oh G.o.d! I needed to talk to my wife. How could I expect her to be okay with something like this?
She reached out her hand and he promptly took it, trusting her already. When I saw them getting to the top of the stairs, I turned to face the two agents. "After seein" him with my own eyes, I would be a fool to deny that he is my child. I will take any test you need and sign all of the doc.u.ments. I don"t know why she kept somethin" like this from me. She knew I always wanted kids."
The woman caught me off guard when she spoke. "When we visited with her father, he told us she didn"t think you wanted children with her. When she finally had decided to tell you, you were already engaged to be married to someone else. She thought telling you would ruin your happiness. By that time, she had met someone herself and they were raising him together."
"But my name is on the birth certificate?"
"Yes Sir, it was the first doc.u.mentation we pulled."
"How old is he?"
"His birthday is January 4, he is three and a half years old."
I started calculating everything in my head. "She was six months pregnant when she moved out? How could I have not known something like that?"
"Mr. Mitch.e.l.l we have had cases where mothers delivered healthy babies full term and never knew they were with child."
"Still, I should have been told. I missed out on so much of his life."
The woman opened her brief case and pulled out a bunch of forms. "I need you to sign these and we can do an oral swab on both of you today, if that is still okay?"
"Of course. How long until we know the results?" I asked.
"A couple days. In the meantime, we can pet.i.tion the court for temporary custody. In an emergency situation like this, the judge will usually speed things up. We could know something as early as tonight if we turn this in before noon today."
"You can use my office. The computer and fax machine are in there."