Chapter 47
CHAPTER 47
KINSLEY
I look down at the unpacked luggage and groan.
“How hard would you judge me if I said I had no intention of unpacking that today, or maybe even tomorrow?”
Jace chuckles, coming up and wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Not at all because I, too, do not want to do that.”
“I applaud those people who are able to unpack the moment they get home. But I need that adjustment period between vacation and the real world.”
“Where you ignore both the responsibilities of the real world and shove down the urge to be back on vacation?”
“Exactly. To mentally prepare before jumping back into it all.”
I feel him nod before his lips brush against my neck. “Makes sense to me.”
“Thank god.” I spin, looping my arms over his shoulders as his lips meet mine. “Did I thank you for this weekend?”
“Only about a hundred times,” he chuckles. “And in more ways than one.”
“Well, let’s make this one hundred and one.” I press my lips to his. “Thank you.”
This weekend was exactly what I needed. What we needed.
Time to get away from all the monsters of our past who have found their way to our present.
For just the two of us to be together.
To find our way back to one another after years apart.
It was the perfect weekend with amazing people.
And it’s all because of this man.
“I love you,” I whisper, pulling back to look into his blue eyes.
Eyes I’ve dreamed of for years but never even knew it.
“I love you.” He kisses me again and I lean into his touch, only breaking apart when his phone rings.
I walk down the hall to the boys’ room while he talks, smiling when I see them trying to figure out where to display all the pictures they made with Jace’s parents.
“Hi, my little artists.” I fall onto Beckham’s bed, propping my head up on my hand.
“Mummy, do you think we could go to see Granny Rose today? Me and Beckham want to give her a present.”
“Oh? And what did you get her?”
“We wanted to give her the pink pearl necklace we found at the market. Granny Ellie said the metal it’s on is called rose gold. So we thought it would be perfect for Granny Rose.”
My heart swells. “I think she would absolutely love that. How about we ask your dad if he’s up for a trip to the shop?”
At that moment, Jace walks in and his face is a mask of stone.
I sit up. “Everything okay?”
He glances at the boys, giving them a small smile. “Yep. I just have to head out.”
“Aw, so you aren’t going to come with us to Granny Rose’s?” Beckham pouts.
“I can meet you there after my meeting, okay?” The boys nod. “Go get your shoes on.”
The boys scamper out of the room and down the stairs as Jace steps in, pushing the door almost closed before speaking. “That was the detective. They found Angie’s car and want me to come in to see if I notice anything out of the ordinary with it.”
“Why you?”
His jaw ticks. “Because there was a note left for me on the passenger seat.”
I shoot up to my feet. “You can’t go.”
“Kin—”
“What if it’s a trap? What if this is exactly what she wants? To get you alone?”
“She wasn’t with her car. They found it abandoned on the side of the road.”
I shake my head. “I don’t like this. It feels wrong.”
“Hey,” he whispers, pulling me into his arms. “It’s going to be okay. Maybe whatever is in that letter will help me think of where she could be. Then this will all be over.”
I lay my head against his chest, breathing in his cologne. His lips brush my temple and he speaks against my skin. “You should get going. I promise I’ll meet you and the boys at the shop when I’m done, okay?”
I pull back and nod, pressing my lips to his.
“I love you,” he whispers against my lips.
“Today and every day after.”
The bell above the door jingles as the boys sprint into the coffee shop, beelining for Rose.
“Oh my, this is a surprise,” she sings as they envelop her in a group hug.
“We got you something,” Beckham says.
Cooper holds out the pearl necklace and she gasps.
“For me? Oh thank you, my loves.” She peppers them with kisses. “Why don’t you go see if Mary will treat you two to whatever you want out of the pastry case?”
They don’t need to be told twice and take off across the shop. I bend, kissing her cheek before taking the seat next to her.
“Hi, sweet girl. How have you been?” Her hand squeezes mine.
“I’m better. I needed that time away.”
“Any updates on the case?”
“Jace is actually there right now. They found her car and he went to check it out. Apparently there was a note with his name on it so they want him to see if he notices anything that might give them any indication on where she is.”
“That’s good then. One step closer, right?”
“Yeah,” I whisper. “I just can’t help feeling like something isn’t ri?—”
“Mummy! Can we go to the new park down the road?” Cooper yells out as they run over to us, cutting me off.
“Please?” Beckham knocks his elbow into Cooper’s and they both fold their hands under their chins and stick out their bottom lips.
Rose chuckles and I smile. “Sure, let’s go.”
“I think I’ll join you. Walking is good for these old bones.”
The cool breeze dances through my hair as we walk down the cobbled sidewalk. The boys run ahead of us when the park comes into view while Rose and I take a seat at a bench facing them as they race around.
I smile as they run up the stairs and over to the slide, seeing who can get down the fastest before doing it all over again.
Glancing over at Rose, I find her eyes are already on me with a soft smile tilting her lips.
“What?”
“You seem happy, my girl.”
“I’m incredibly happy.”
“And how’s your head? No more migraines?”
“Not lately. I think with all the memories flooding back at once, it was too much for me to handle, but now that I’ve had time to recover it’s not nearly as frequent.”
“I can’t believe you have them back. How does it feel?”
I smile, looking back at the boys as they attempt the monkey bars. “I feel whole again. I didn’t realize it but a part of me was missing for all those years. I never thought this is what I’d find when my memories came back, but now that I have them…” My words trail off as I look at her.
“I am and will always be grateful for what you did for me and eventually for us. You showed me the love I’d always craved and never knew I had before it was all taken away. You stepped in and took a damaged girl and helped me become the woman I am today. These memories may have made me feel whole again, but Rose… you’re the one who kept me together all those years.”
Her chin wobbles and she bats away a stray tear. “I did not plan on crying today, this mascara is not waterproof.”
“I’m sorry.” I laugh, wiping away my own tears. “I just wanted you to know how thankful I am for you. I feel like I don’t tell you nearly enough.”
“You don’t have to tell me, sweetheart. I can feel it. In here.” She places a hand over her heart and another over mine.
I sniffle, placing my hand over hers. “I love you, Mum.”
“Oh.” Her face twists as tears pool in her eyes. “Now you’ve done it.”
I laugh, as she pulls me into a tight hug. “I love you too, my sweet girl.”
My phone rings and we pull apart, wiping at our cheeks. “Hi, handsome.”
“Where are you?”
I freeze at the panic in his voice. “We’re at the new park down the street from the shop.”
“Get back to the shop and lock the doors, right now.”
I shoot to my feet. “Jace, what’s wrong?”
“I’m on my way right now with some officers, just please?—”
“Mummy!” Cooper comes running towards us, his knees and arms scraped.
I bend down as I look him over. “Dear lord, what happened, sweetheart?”
I hear Jace calling out to me, asking what’s wrong. Cooper sniffles and points to the back corner of the park. “The lady pushed me.”
“What lady?” Rose growls, shoving up from the bench.
My heart stops as I look around the park. “Cooper, where’s Beckham?”
“The lady?—”
My instincts kick in and I yell for him to stay with Rose as I take off around the park. Rounding the backside of the big slide, I skid to a stop, my eyes widening.
I lift the phone to my ear. “She’s here.”
“Kinsley,” Jace yells.
“Hurry.”
I shove my phone into my pocket and take off in a sprint, chasing the retreating forms of a petite blonde and struggling little boy.
“Stop,” I call out as I push through branches. I can feel them cutting my skin, but I don’t slow. My legs burn, heart pounding as I quickly close the distance between us. “Angie, stop!”
Beckham calls out for me, his broken voice driving me to push harder. I break through to the small clearing where there’s a waiting beat up car.
Beckham reaches for me and Angie yanks him back, slamming him against the car. I see red when he collapses to the ground, holding his arm against his chest as he cries.
I don’t stop running, slamming my body into hers. We collide with the side of the car before falling to the ground. I shuffle to my knees, crawling over to Beckham.
“Becks. Baby, I’m here.”
“Mummy,” he cries, reaching for me.
“She is not your mother!” Right before our fingers brush, I’m pulled back by my hair. A scream barrels out of me as I’m thrown back.
I look up and freeze, finding the barrel of a gun pointing back at me. “Angie,” I whisper.
“You just couldn’t stay gone, could you? You had to come and fuck everything up for me, all over again!”
“What are you talking about?” I yell. “Angie, I didn’t do anything to you.”
“You took him from me.”
“I didn’t take anyone from you, he was never yours.”
She pulls the trigger on a scream and I stop breathing, curling in on myself. A blast explodes next to me and I cry out as debris pelts my arms and face.
“Next time, I won’t miss,” she grits out, stepping over me and pressing the gun to my head.
“Angie, please. What do you want?”
“I want the life you stole from me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I cry.
“He was mine. I was having his baby, but it wasn’t enough. I thought it would be. I thought that if I could get pregnant that he would stay for me. And he did after Beckham was born. For a little while he was mine again.”
She leans down, sneering in my face, “We fucked all the time.”
“Angie, ple?—”
“Please, Angie. No, Angie. Stop, Angie,” she mocks. “Shut up, you stupid whore.”
My body shakes as she stands up, throwing her arms around. The gun passes over Beckham as he lies curled up against the car.
“Angie, you’re scaring him.”
Her eyes dart to her son and her face twists. “He needs to grow up and stop being a little bitch. God, if I knew I was going to have a child as soft as him, I would have switched him out with a different one long ago. Although, his diabetes diagnosis did bring me and Jace close again there for a little while. So, I guess it wasn’t all that bad.”
I grit my teeth as anger holds together my breaking heart. He shouldn’t be hearing any of this. He’s a sweet, loving, strong, incredible little boy. I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing him just how wrong this monster is.
I slowly stand and she turns back to me, cackling. “What do you think you’re going to do, Kinsley? You’ve lost. I have the boy and soon I’ll have Jace. We will be the little family I’ve always known we will be and you will rot six feet in the dirt. Don’t worry, I’ll bring them every so often to visit you. As a reminder of the mistakes he had to make in order to find his way back to me.”
She scoffs as she steps closer. “Really, I should be thanking you. For a while there he was fucking anything that had a skirt. But you coming back into his life cut out a lot of that extra work for me. I was getting really tired of dealing with his trash.”
She takes another step, her head tilting. “Now all I have to take care of is you,” she tisks. “But don’t worry about your son. I can’t have any reminder of you for him to cling on to.”
My body freezes at the threat. “No?—”
“You have no idea what I would do for him,” she yells, slamming the butt of the gun into my head.
I crumple to the ground, holding my throbbing temple as blood coats my skin. There’s a flurry of crunching footsteps behind me and Angie’s eyes dart towards the sound.
They immediately light up and I slowly look over my shoulder, my stomach dropping.
“Jace,” I whisper.
His eyes harden when he takes in Beckham’s small form. “Angie, what have you done?”
She steps towards him. “What do you mean? I did this for you. Everything I do is for you. Yes, sometimes we don’t see eye to eye on things, but we can get past it. We always do, baby.”
I take the opportunity to inch my way towards Beckham. He recoils when I touch him, but when he realizes it’s me, he all but throws himself into my arms.
I prop my back up against the car, holding him to my chest as I watch Jace take a step towards Angie with his hands raised.
“You need to put the gun down.”
“But I need to take care of her first. Jace, as long as she’s around, we can’t be fully together. I have to make sure there’s nothing standing between us. You’ll understand.”
“Angie, this doesn’t have to happen.”
“What do you mean? Yes it does. I thought I took care of her all those years ago, but that’ll teach me to leave before making completely sure. I won’t mess up like that this time though.” She goes to turn towards us. “You’ll see. We’ll be so much better off without her. We can start over and finally be a family.”
I curl around Beckham, waiting for the hit, but it never comes. Jace calls out her name and I peek up, watching as he grabs her wrist. She looks back at him with a surprised expression.
“Okay. We can be a family. You don’t need to do this, though. Let’s get Beckham, get in the car, and go.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” his voice cracks and tears pool in my eyes.
“But what about her?”
“Let her see us. Let her go on knowing that she lost. That you won and get to have me all to yourself. Just like you wanted.”
My stomach rolls as he steps closer to her, sliding his hand to cup her face. She smiles at him before glancing at me. “How about we give her a little preview now?”
Before he can answer, she pulls his head down to hers, her mouth attacking his. Her eyes are closed so she misses it, but I don’t look away as much as I want to.
His face twists in disgust as he slides his other hand to the small of her back. It trails over her arm and down her wrist. She pulls back asking him what’s wrong and he sneers.
“You.”
Snatching the gun from her hand, he jumps back as multiple police officers rush out of the surrounding woods. They all scream for her to show them her hands and to get down.
“How could you?” she screams, jumping towards Jace.
An officer catches her and slams her to the ground. Jace hands off the gun and rushes over to us, collapsing to his knees and pulling us into his arms.
“Oh my god,” he cries, his hands running over both of us. “You’re okay,” he chants over and over, looking us over.
“I think he broke his arm. We need to get him to the hospital.”
“We’re getting you both to the hospital.”
“Okay,” I whisper as the adrenaline leaves my body and tears fall.
It’s a flurry of movement as we make our way back to the park where multiple police cars are waiting as well as an ambulance. Rose and Cooper sit off to the side and as soon as he sees us, he takes off running.
We fall to the ground and Jace pulls us all into his arms as the boys cry. “It’s going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay,” he whispers.
I look off to the side as they shove Angie into a car. Turning to Jace, he’s already watching me and I nod. “One day at a time,” I whisper.
He leans over, gently pressing his forehead to mine. “One day at a time.”