CHAPTER TWELVE #3
“We think that it had to do with firing him after catching him falsifying some documents on a case he was working on. What I didn’t tell you is that it got physical and I stepped in with a beat down.
The more we looked into him, the more disturbing things we found on him.
He also had a big dislike for the Thornes, so that might have pushed him even further over the edge.
” Mitch speaks, up but doesn’t elaborate any more than that.
“So, he’s in prison?” I ask, wanting to make sure no harm can come to Halo.
“Kevin Jenkins is dead. When the police finally closed in on his location and had him surrounded, he blew himself up before they could get in there and retrieve him. The medical examiner did a thorough job and did the test twice to confirm it was his body,” Mitch explains the details to me.
We sit there quietly for a while, just taking everything in.
I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear all of this when I came over here.
It put things in a different perspective, but I still need to keep my walls up.
Levi has the ability to crush me and all my resolve, with a simple look or touch, and I need to be strong.
I’ve lasted being away from him for over two years, and I don’t want to look back.
“Why Levi? Why didn’t you tell me about the threat? We could’ve avoided all this… heartache if you’d just let me in. Look at this mess you created.”
He drops his head and looks at the floor towards his bare feet. If it were possible, he’d curl up into a ball.
“I was scared,” he whispers. I must’ve heard him wrong.
“Scared? Of what?” The Levi Thorne I knew was never scared of anything or anyone for that matter. He was always on the quiet side of things, but that didn’t mean he was a pushover and would let someone steamroll him.
“My whole life I’ve only had to take care of myself.
Me. If I messed up, I always had Linc to rely on to help me fix things when I was hurt or in trouble.
Then I met you, and you turned my entire world upside down.
You became everything to me. Every breath I took was in some way to make sure you were taken care of.
I lived, ate, slept and breathed for you,” he pauses.
“I realized that I was walking in everyone else’s shadow and doing what they thought I should be doing.
It was like waking up for the first time in my life.
You gave me a purpose, and I promised myself that I’d do whatever it took to be the man you deserved and the best version of myself for you.
” He turns and finally looks at me. “When I first received those letters and then the photos, my mind went to a dark place. A place I hadn’t been to since I was a child.
The thought of losing you and then our child turned me into another person.
You didn’t know this but I had six guys watching you at one time.
Four of them while you were in the apartment.
Every photo had my nightmares coming back and I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time of our fight in the restaurant. ”
The sound of his voice tears open my heart hearing his struggle. I try to put myself in his shoes and it breaks me apart.
“When I got the letter demanding I leave you, I made a rash decision. My thought was that we’d have a public argument, and that would give us some time for the team to catch the guy, or guys, behind all this.
Never did I think that the next time I saw you would be two and a half years later.
I know now that it was truly wrong, but at the time the thought of someone taking you away from me, because of one of my cases turning someone into an enemy, had me going into overdrive.
You are the most precious thing in my world, and if something were to ever happen to you because of me, I’d die.
And then to add Halo in the mix, it sent me over the edge.
Dr. Blake and I have been working on what I can and can’t control, and I think I’ve made some real strides. ”
“You could’ve just told me and I would’ve played along, Levi. We were supposed to be partners. We made vows to be one,” I sharply say. “I get that everyone has catered to you since you were a kid but when we got married, we became team. When you hurt, I hurt, that’s how a marriage works.”
His sad eyes make me ease up on my anger, but I’m still mad that he shouldered this alone and brought us to this point.
“I know that now, and after you left the restaurant, I knew I’d blown it and made the biggest mistake of my life.
I thought you’d come back home after a few hours, and then we’d discuss it and I’d tell you everything and then we’d make up and come up with a plan.
I had no idea the downhill snowball that started after it. ”
“Well, you should’ve known you can’t make decisions for others Levi.
It’s like playing Russian Roulette,” I snap.
“Everything would be different and now look what you’ve caused.
Your daughter doesn’t even know you but what few pictures she’s seen at Grandma’s house,” I fume.
“I haven’t seen my best friend in years and she doesn’t know my daughter! ”
“I know, don’t you think I know that?” His voice is shaky and he pulls at his hair.
“Every day that went by, I wanted to go back to that horrible moment and choose to do things differently. I drank myself stupid for weeks on end to pass out, just so I didn’t have to replay everything and live with the consequences.
Your father made sure to rub it in, don’t worry. ”
“My father?” What did dad have to do with this?
“Saylor, your father has hated me from the moment I met him and is a constant thorn in my side,” he sneers.
“That is not true Levi, and I think you need to watch what you say about him or I’ll walk out that door and we won’t speak again. You’ve never even met him,” I demand, pushing his hands off my knees and get up from the sofa.
“It’s true,” he defends. “When he came to the hospital, after I woke up, he told me how I wasn’t fit to be in the same room as you.
That I’d never equal up to the man you deserved.
I knew he was right but I at least wanted to try, the thought of not being with you wasn’t an option for me.
Adam told me that one day you’d wake up and leave my pathetic ass for a real man who didn’t have such fucked-up issues.
That if I couldn’t even take care of my biological parents, then how could I handle someone as precious as you.
” His voice cracks at the end, and my heart clutches.
I’m speechless. Why would dad say that to Levi?
Dad had been out of touch for almost a year when I met Levi.
When I tried to phone him, he never answered any of my messages or sent any correspondence to me.
I’ve grown used to it over the years but I have my grandparents, Everly and her dad as a support system.
“I thought when the threat came in that I was man enough to handle your care and safety, and thought my plan was the best. I wanted you out of the spotlight for a while to secure the threat, then I’d be able to show you that I truly was the man you deserved and could count on.
I handled major court cases with people’s lives on the line.
You’d think I could keep my wife and child safe.
” He looks as though his heart is breaking in two, right in front of me.
“Levi—” I say, but can’t finish. I need some distance to think everything over. I can’t be in this room any longer with this man. I need to process all these details that have been thrown at me.
A thought crosses my mind. “Why the divorce then? If this was just an elaborate plan to lure out the culprit, then why did your father come to the jail and serve me divorce papers, demanding I sign them?”
A flash of anger crosses his face and his eyes narrow at my questions.
“Saylor I never told him to do any of that. I was just as shocked to learn about it when I woke up three months later. I never told him that I wanted a divorce from you. He did that all on his own without my permission. Daniel and I have not spoken since; I told him he was dead to me at the hospital after what he did. There was no coming back from him knowing you were pregnant and didn’t help you.
As far as I’m concerned, I hope to never see or hear from him ever again.
Everyone feels the same and has little to do with him.
After a while, Mom couldn’t be under the same roof and separated from him.
He’s lucky I didn’t run him out of the state and ruin his career. ”
“So, you didn’t want to divorce me?” I sound pathetic asking, but I want to hear the words.
“Never,” he breathes out. “Saylor, we aren’t divorced. You are still very much my wife.”
“What? But I saw the papers and was told they were filed. Brody said—”
“Dean and William found out and put a stop to them immediately, then had the documents sealed. They never made it past that point, and I had the courts erase every bit of evidence of those documents from their mainframe when I woke up.”
Now this is too much.
“We’re still married?” I screech.
“Yes baby, we are. You are still very much my wife and I’m still very much your husband.” He closes the distances between us and places a hand on my hip as I chew on my thumbnail, thinking about what he just said.
My head was already about to explode before this, and now I can’t even begin to comprehend this new information.
“But me and Brody have—” I stop before I say we’ve been together intimately for the last month. This is a straight up nightmare for all parties involved.