Chapter 28 #2
Julia struggled against her attacker again.
“Stop, Julia, it’s me, it’s Kyle.”
She twisted to face him, his hand still clamped over her mouth. He pressed a finger to his lips as he eased his hand away from her.
“Kyle?” she exclaimed a little too loudly for his taste.
He pressed his hand over her mouth again. “Shh, Julia, be quiet.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “What are you doing? Why are you in my bedroom at…” She glanced at the clock. “One in the morning?”
“It’s the only way I could see you. Please, you have to be quiet, though. I really don’t want your sister sending me to jail.”
Julia’s brow crinkled as she tried to piece his statement together. “Only way you could see me? What are you talking about?”
“You’re not answering calls, you’re not answering texts. And the restraining order against me and Grant was the icing on the cake. Julia, how could you do that?”
The words stopped her heart for a beat. “Wait, what? What restraining order?”
Kyle eyed her as the moonlight streamed in through her window. “We came to the hospital this morning, and Ethan told us you had filed a restraining order against both of us. He said we couldn’t get within fifty feet of you without being arrested.”
She tried to form words but found herself unable. Why had they lied?
“Julia, we have been trying to see you since last night. Your sister said we’d never see you again. I can’t handle that. I’m sorry about everything that’s happened, but please…you can’t ignore me. It’s killing me.”
“I’m not,” she said.
“You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
Julia shook her head at him. “Kyle, I didn’t file any restraining orders. And I’m not ignoring you. My phone is…”
Heat washed over her as realization set in. She grabbed Kyle’s hand as she kicked the covers back. “Come with me.”
“Shhh,” Kyle warned. “Your boyfriend is asleep on the couch downstairs.”
Julia eased the door open and crept into the hall. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You’ve got a funny way of–”
“Stop,” she warned with a wag of her finger before she inched down the stairs in her bare feet. Kyle followed behind her. She veered away from the living room, heading for the kitchen.
“Midnight snack?” Kyle asked as she headed for the counter.
“No.” She dug the phone from the rice bag before she skirted the counter and tugged open a drawer, searching for a charger. She found one and plugged it in, attached it to her phone. The display blinked to life, indicating the device was charging.
Julia sighed and shook her head.
“What are you doing?”
She flashed the charging phone to him. “My sister told me my phone was zapped. It’s not, clearly. She just didn’t want me to get any texts from anyone. She set this entire thing up.”
Julia pressed a hand against her forehead as the realization set in that they hadn’t been ignoring her. Her sister had orchestrated the entire thing to separate them.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Kyle said with a smile. “I really thought I’d have to drag you from here kicking and screaming.”
Julia screwed up her face. “You’re not serious.”
He offered her a blank stare. “Of course not. I’m just joking. Anyway, now that we’ve solved this little mystery, let’s go.”
He grabbed her arm and guided her toward the back door.
“No,” she said as she pulled back against him.
He offered her an incredulous stare. “Julia, you have to come home. We’re going crazy without you.
We only barely got Sierra to believe you’re still in the hospital.
But there’s no way we’re going to convince her to get on a plane in a few hours and go back to New Orleans without you.
She’ll have a meltdown and burn the airport to the ground. ”
“Oh, as opposed to you who would prefer to kidnap me again?”
“Kidnap is a strong word.”
“No, I can’t leave yet. I have to talk to my sister.”
“Are you kidding me? Your sister used this situation to manipulate you. She lied to everyone, including you, made up a restraining order, gave your rings back to my father, and told us you wanted nothing to do with us, and we’d never get near you again.”
Julia heaved a sigh. “Yes, I know. But she did that because I lied to her first.”
“Julia!” Kyle hissed.
“I can’t believe this. You are the king of crossing lines. You literally broke into my sister’s house tonight, and you’re blaming Alicia for capitalizing on the situation?”
“Yeah, I am., and I only cross lines that need to be crossed. Like this one. Clearly, you needed to know this. Now, stop being stubborn, and let’s go.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head as he tugged on her arm. “I need to talk to Alicia.”
“Fine, go wake her up.”
“No. Just go home, Kyle.”
Kyle stared at her for a moment before he shook his head. “I’m not leaving you with them.”
“They’re my family. They’re not going to hurt me.”
“I don’t trust them. I want to know you’re coming back.”
“If I don’t, you can break in here and kidnap me. I give you full permission.”
“That’s very funny, Julia. After you tell your sister I’m coming, and then I get arrested.”
She spun him around and pushed him to the door. “Just go home, Kyle.”
He reached the door and twisted to face her, grabbing her hand in his. “Tell me you’re coming back.”
She eyed him as he laced his fingers through hers.
“Please, Julia.”
“It’ll be fine. Now go, before someone catches you here, and they do arrest you.”
He twisted toward the door before he spun back and cupped her face.
“No,” she said as she blocked his kiss.
“Sorry,” he answered before he dug into his pocket and produced her wedding and engagement ring. “Your brother-in-law gave these to Dad. I’m giving them back to you because I expect you to come home.”
She stared down at them as he dumped them in her hand before he ducked out the door.
She pushed it closed behind him and collapsed against it, finally letting the turmoil of her situation sink in.
She tightened her hands into fists as upset raged.
She desperately tried to see her sister’s side of things as she crossed the room and navigated back to her bedroom, but she found herself unable to make sense of it.
She tugged on her clothes and returned to the kitchen, moving the charger nearer the kitchen table as she sank into a chair. Her mind roiled for hours until the first peaks of morning light hit the horizon.
A sleepy Alicia shuffled into the room in her robe and slippers, still yawning.
She froze as she spotted Julia dressed at the table. “Hey, Juju. You’re up early. You feel okay?””
Julia traced the grain of the wood on the table. “No, I don’t.”
“Do you need to go back to the hospital? Why didn’t you wake me?”
She pulled her gaze up to her sister. “No, I don’t need to go back to the hospital.”
Alicia swallowed hard as she crossed to her and perched on a chair. “Julia, what is it? You’re scaring me a little bit.”
Julia let her gaze fall again as she bit her lower lip. “I’m scaring you?”
She picked up the now-charged phone, filled with desperate messages and calls from Kyle, and waved it at her sister. “Phone’s working, Ally.”
“Oh, you got it to work. That’s…maybe we didn’t leave it long enough. When did you get it to work, just now?”
“It was never not working,” Julia answered.
“What? It wouldn’t turn on or charge. I tried it myself and–“
Julia tilted her head and shook it. “Ally, Kyle told me everything that’s happened since I was in the hospital. Now, I understand why Grant wasn’t around. You told them I filed a restraining order?”
Alicia winced. “Technically, you did.”
“What?” Julia barked out.
“I…may have asked the judge for a favor while you were still asleep just to get the ball rolling.” Alicia’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, Julia. I had to protect you.”
“From what?”
“You can’t be serious. Those people are dangerous.”
“They are not dangerous, Ally. What you did was…I know I lied to you about this, but…it didn’t hurt you or anyone else. But this…Kyle was extremely upset.”
“No wonder! He’s borderline crazy, Julia.”
“He’s not.”
“Really? After everything that happened, after Ethan told him he could be arrested, he still contacted you? Even a text can be grounds for us coming after him.”
Maybe her sister had a point. He had broken into her house.
Alicia’s features twisted with both guilt and upset bordering on anger. “That stupid doctor. I knew he’d be the problem.”
“Hardly,” Julia answered. “He was understandably upset.”
“And so what? He badgered you until you got upset?”
“No, he told me what happened and it became pretty obvious what you did. You lied about the phone. You lied about Grant taking Sierra home and not wanting to see me. And you lied to them about me.”
“I did what I had to do to protect you. Julia, you nearly died. Again. That family is toxic. They’re like a walking disaster. And I don’t want you anywhere near it.”
“You always try to shield me, Ally, but this time, it’s too much.”
Alicia’s eyes shimmered with more tears. “I’m scared, Julia. I can’t lose you to that chaos again.”
“It’s not your decision, Ally.”
Alicia stared at her, tears welling in her eyes. “So, what? That’s it? What about us? What about Luke?”
Julia heaved a sigh as she shook her head. “I don’t know. But what I do know is I have eight months left on a contract with Grant and a lot of things to settle during them.”
“To hell with the contract, Julia! Your life is worth way more than that. And I’m sure there’s a legal way around it.
Please, Julia. You can’t go back to that life.
I may have been wrong in doing what I did.
Maybe I should have done things differently, but I did it to protect you. I did it to save your life.”
Julia stared at her sister as she desperately clutched her hands, tears falling to her cheeks and her eyes pleading.
The rings she’d shoved into her pocket earlier seemed to press against her harder than they had before.
Would she be making the biggest mistake of her life if she returned to the Harrington fold?