Chapter Eleven
Leah was bored waiting for Cain to arrive back home. She’d already gone to the library looking for a book to read, only to find none. She didn’t want to read a horror story, nor did she want to find a romance.
Wandering through the house, Cain had given several of the maids the day off, and she didn’t have anyone to talk to. The soldiers, although polite to her, didn’t like to be caught chatting with her because Cain wasn’t very nice to them.
She refused to get anyone in trouble just because she felt bored. Frank had already told her what he wanted to talk to Cain about. Frank had asked Cameron to marry him, and he was going to talk to Cain about being his best man.
Frank already asked Leah if she would be a bridesmaid. Cameron was nervous to ask, and Leah was excited for her friend. She knew Cameron didn’t have many friends, but she’d be the best bridesmaid she could possibly be.
Staring out Cain’s bedroom window, she looked over toward the pool. With her boredom growing with every passing second, she knew there was only one thing she wanted to do, and that was to go for a swim.
She changed into a costume and then made her way downstairs, nodding at the guard that patrolled just outside. It was getting cold, and it wouldn’t be long before taking a swim would be a bit of a pain.
Stepping into the pool room, she moved to the control panel on the wall and turned on the heat. Within seconds she felt a change. Removing her towel, she made her way toward the pool and stepped inside.
She felt the water around her, and then when she was comfortable, she began to swim from one end of the pool to the other. Back and forth she went and tried to alleviate her troubled thoughts. Frank advised her to stop wasting time and finally tell Cain how she felt.
His advice sounded great on paper, but it wasn’t going to work. Cain was not like Frank. He wasn’t looking for love, and he certainly didn’t love her, although Frank was under the impression he did.
At the sound of a bang, Leah stopped swimming, pushed her hair off her face, and glanced around the pool. There was nothing. No sound. Just stillness. She was sure she heard a bang.
“Cain?” she asked.
Leah didn’t frighten easily. She spun around, hoping to see something, only there was nothing. There was no way she was hearing things. She frowned, and then shook her head and started to swim.
There was the sound again, and she stood up, glancing around.
“Who’s there?” she asked. Every sense she possessed went on alert.
She knew something wasn’t right, and she had to get out of the pool. Leah began to walk, and just as she reached for the edge of the pool, something grabbed her ankle. There was no time to scream for help, as she was suddenly dragged under the water.
In the frenzy of trying to get free, she didn’t see who it was. Then, as she felt that panic start to erupt within her, she knew whoever it was was trying to drown her.
Kicking out was no good. The water made it impossible for her to lash out. She needed to get to air, and that panic set in once again. Reaching out, she gripped the person’s short hair and tugged hard, knowing she had to gain the upper hand.
This is what Ben had always taught her. When or if she was ever attacked, she shouldn’t be afraid to hurt. They had started it, and it was all in self-defense.
Her grip must have been a warning to them, because in the next second, they let her go. She broke from the surface and took a breath. Without waiting for the person to attack again, she rushed to the side and lifted herself up. She spun around, and her ankle was caught again, and she yanked, hard.
Leah cried out as she fell, scraping her back on the edge, and at the same time she knocked her elbow up as she fell back into the water.
This time, she was able to get away, and then she saw him: Danny Knox. He was in the pool and attempting to drown her.
“You!” she yelled.
They had both broken the surface at this point.
“Me.”
He went to hit her, but she moved out of his way and he didn’t see the punch headed his way. She didn’t stop, and hit him until she heard something crunch, and she knew she’d taken out his nose.
With him now in pain and bleeding, she got out of the pool, scrambling away from the edge. That little bastard had been trying to drown her. She rushed toward the door, ignoring her towel as she tried to get the attention of the guard.
Danny surprised her as he banded an arm around her waist and pulled her back. He did so with enough force that she fell into one of his father’s ceramic ornaments. It smashed as it hit the floor, and she fell next to it.
She was able to miss being cut by it, but Danny wasn’t done. Before she could get away, he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her across the room. This time, she fell onto a coffee table made of glass. She wasn’t quite so lucky in not getting cut.
“So, you think I was just going to let you get away with it,” Danny said.
Pain erupted up her arm, where some of the glass had embedded.
He kicked her in the back, and she cried out. Tears filled her eyes, and as he went to bring his foot back down on her back, she moved out of the way.
There was pain from the cuts, but she needed to get away. Right now, Danny had the element of surprise, and it was pissing her off. She tried not to make a sound.
Getting to her feet, she faced him. “Get away with what?” she asked.
“Do you think all of this is going to be yours?” He gestured around him.
“What the fuck does that even mean?” He made no sense to her.
“You come into my dad’s world, shaking your ass, kicking me out of my own home, and you think I was going to let that happen?” Danny asked. “You’re not taking any of this from me.”
She laughed. “You think I want this? You think I’m the one taking it away from you? Look in the mirror, you piece of shit. You’re a fucking rapist. You’re the one that lost this, not me. I didn’t lose anything. You lost it all by being an asshole.”
There was no way she was going to allow him to blame her for all his fuckups. This was all on him.
She held the piece of glass in her hand, and even though the edges cut into her palm, she glared at him. Danny was going to kill her. She knew that.
He wanted her dead, and now she was going to have to do something she never had before—fight to the death. She wondered what Cain would think. Would he hate her? Danny was his son.
And then Danny attacked, rushing at her. She slammed her fist, but he surprised her by capturing it, and then he flipped her over, pinning her to the floor. He’d grabbed the piece of glass from her hands, and now it was poised against her neck.
“There’s no one to stop me,” Danny said. “Don’t worry, Daddy Dearest is going to thank me one day. He was never going to pick a cunt over me. He will never pick you over me. You’re nothing but a piece of ass to him, and now it’s time for you to say goodbye.”
Leah didn’t know what to expect, but seeing Cain suddenly there, grabbing Danny, she froze in place.
What if Danny was right? What if he did pick his son over her? They were fleeting thoughts, because she watched as Cain took the blade of glass and thrust it into Danny’s neck.
“I will never choose you over her. Never.”
Cain left the piece of glass in Danny’s neck, and then let him go. Time seemed to stand still, but then the life ebbed out of Danny’s eyes, and he collapsed onto the ground.
Cain held out his hand, and she got to her feet and rushed into his arms.
“He was going to kill me,” she said.
“I’ve got you. I would never allow that to happen.”
His arms felt so good as he stroked her back.
Leah pulled away from him. “How did you know?” she asked.
“I got the alert while I was with Frank. Danny had knocked the guards out and took off. I knew he was coming here. I got here as soon as I could.”
“I know. Thank you,” she said, and then she cupped his face and was about to kiss him, only Cain pulled back.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I will never choose anyone over you, Leah. I didn’t expect it, but you mean the world to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you.”
The tears that had started as panic had turned into relief.
“You do?” Leah asked.
“Yeah, I do. I love you more than anything in the world.”
And he’d killed his only son for her.
“Marry me,” he said.
He was just full of surprises tonight, and she smiled at him and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
And with that, he kissed her.
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
“Why did we agree to this?” Cain asked, dropping onto the blanket in his backyard.
He looked over to his wife, who held their baby girl in her lap. She offered him a smile.
“Because we’re good friends, and when you want space, they have offered to do the same for us,” Leah said.
His son, Gabriel, ran around the garden making airplane noises, with Rupert, Frank and Cameron’s son, chasing after him. Their children had become friends from birth. Cameron had turned out to be very good for Frank. His friend finally found the happiness he deserved.
Louisa, Frank and Cameron’s daughter, was on the mat, playing with one of her many dollies. His daughter, Trudy, played with her.
Where their friends had two children, he and Leah didn’t stop at two.
There was little Mark, running around, playing with the bubbles he made, and baby Michele, who he reached for and kissed the top of her little head.
Marrying Leah had been the right thing to do. Loving Leah was something he couldn’t control.
He’d been terrified of starting a family, but Leah had been excited. She wanted a big family. There was a time he thought Leah was cynical and she didn’t believe in family or expectations. However, he had come to see that his wife did have a dream, growing up in the foster care life. She dreamed of finding a man who was going to love her for her, and they’d have lots of children. She was constantly trying to make memories.
Leah was there to make Christmas, birthdays, and every holiday in between, special.
Birthdays always came with a hand-baked cake, and Frank taught Leah how to decorate cakes over the last ten years, so she had gotten really good at it.
Then there was Christmas. Leah made sure the house was fully decorated. She wanted a traditional Christmas, and she always had something cooking or baking.
He loved the change in Leah, because he knew she had finally settled down. He was the love of her life, just as she was his.
He’d be with her till the very end, and whatever she wanted he’d gladly give to her. He truly never thought he could be this happy, but as long as he had Leah, he didn’t need anything else.
The End