Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
IT HAD BEEN months since Elsbeth had taken Clark Preston’s life.
As she dressed for her trial, her mind was blank and empty. Judge Johnson, their old caseworker, and a few others they had named, had been arrested that night. John Snowden had never been found, escaping, no doubt, overseas to avoid extradition.
The night she’d killed Clark Preston, Detective Grady had bought pizza, and she and Forest had eaten their last meal in the dining room of that wretched house.
She never got that hug. Forest still wouldn’t touch her. He couldn’t touch her, but he never left her side. Always, Forest was there, supporting her through the darkest times, except when she needed a shoulder to cry on.
“You almost ready?” Forest walked into her room without knocking. He picked up her bag and swung it over his shoulder.
She adjusted her skirt and pulled at the pink blouse. “How do I look?”
“Like you can take on the world.”
Maybe she could. A sense of becoming something new loomed on the horizon. There was only this one thing to do before she could contemplate her future.
“I don’t know about the world,” she said, “but I’m ready to put this behind me. I hate this. I hate this happened to us…to you.”
“It’s the path fate chose for us, Elz,” he said. “We have to walk it.”
“But it’s hell.”
With the investigation, the questioning, and the series of pretrials that had followed, Elsbeth had pulled out of school.
She had taken her GED and sent applications to several pre-med programs. Forest had failed the GED twice before accepting he’d have to go back and complete his senior year.
He hadn’t wanted to go without her, but she’d convinced him it was the right thing to do.
That meant he had to leave her alone with her thoughts every day, his fingers fluttering over hers in an awkward good-bye.
Forest had finally revealed the reason behind his aversion to her touch. The conditioning instilled by John Snowden made him react in ways he wasn’t ready to process. She lost Forest’s hugs because of what John Snowden had done.
Self-defense.
That was the trial strategy. After the cops discovered videos buried in Clark Preston’s things, confirming the story she and Forest had told, there was little doubt as to the abuse she and Forest had suffered.
However, there were procedures. She’d been appointed an attorney.
Her case, he’d explained, would be dismissed.
She never told anyone how she’d planned Clark Preston’s death.
Well, she’d told Forest, but he wasn’t just anyone.
Premeditation was a word she understood—as well as the consequences associated with it.
They’d made a vow to take that secret to the grave together.
There were some questions about the knife.
The how had been hidden by the fog of her descriptions.
She’d been out of her mind, Forest had claimed, and in many ways, that wasn’t far from the truth.
Today’s trial would determine her guilt or innocence—or at least the official version.
Forest opened the door and led her outside to the crispness of the spring morning.
She stopped and inhaled. “It smells so new.”
He smiled. “It does, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. A new beginning, I suppose.” She spun in a circle, soaking in the sun. “I feel like we’ve walked through hell together and survived.”
“Something like that.”
“Is there hope for us?” Would the scars ever heal?
Forest pointed at the sky. “Do you see that?”
The heat of the sun warmed her face. “The sun?”
He shook his head. “No, the sky. Do you see the sky?”
“What about it?”
“It reminds me of you. Not this sky, but the summer sky. It’s a deeper blue, I think.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When I was in the basement, I would spend hours looking out that tiny window.”
“Forest…”
She hated the swell of memories brewing in his gaze. He had the palest blue eyes, and they shimmered now with a glaze of tears, turning them nearly silver.
“Let me finish.” He took in a deep breath and then continued, “There was always that small patch of the outside world. When things were at their worst, I would stare out the window and think of you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah,” he said with a half-laugh. “You kept me sane.”
“How?”
The summer had been hardest on him. She’d been forced to serve, but Forest had survived torture.
“They ruined me, but through it all, I kept thinking, Elsbeth is so strong. Your belief that things would get better was as endless as the summer sky. I wanted to be like you.”
“Oh, Forest, I’m not like that. I’m emotionally ruined.”
“You’re beautifully broken, and you were my summer sky, my light in the darkness.
” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.
“I was going to wait to give this to you, but I wanted you to see it before court. I want you to have something to look forward to.” The corner of his lip pulled up into a smirk.
“I might have peeked.” He shoved the envelope into her hand.
An official seal on the front had her heart beating. “It’s a thin letter.”
Thin letters were bad. Rejections came with thin letters.
“Open it.” A grin filled his face.
With shaking hands, Elsbeth ripped the paper and read the first line. “Oh my God!” She fell to her knees and sobbed.
He knelt beside her. “I’m going to build you a hospital, Elz. I’m going to build you the biggest and best hospital in the world. This”—he jabbed the paper—“is your future.”
“Oh, Forest, you can’t build me a hospital, but I really appreciate the thought.”
His face cracked a smile. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do. We’ll start with your tuition, and I’ll make the rest.”
Whatever. She didn’t care. She’d been accepted into one of the prestigious six-year programs. She was going to be a doctor. Her dream was becoming a reality.
Self-defense.
That was what the official documents stated, and because she was a minor, the records would be sealed. None of this would follow her into her new life.
Forest’s future would start tomorrow. He’d officially turn eighteen and be free of social services. He’d already put a deposit down on an apartment, and he had his bags packed. Nothing could hurt them now.
Forest might be averse to her touch, but she didn’t care.
Elsbeth hugged him tight. “It’s over, Bean! It’s finally over.”
She’d taken to calling him Bean more often than not, and he didn’t seem to mind. The nickname suited him.
Her lawyer pulled her aside after the hearing. “Congratulations,” he said. “I have something for you.”
“You do?” Her heart had never felt so full.
Elsbeth had no idea how she would meet her goals, but she knew two things. She wasn’t going to jail, and in a few short months, after she figured out finances, she would begin an entirely new path.
The grin on Forest’s face had her suspicious. Whatever was happening, he was in on it.
Her lawyer pulled out a stack of papers. “Well, your brother came to me with an idea.”
“Bean, what did you do?”
He grabbed the papers from her lawyer and held them to his chest. “Well, I thought you needed a way to wash away the past. And seeing how you’re going to be a doctor…” He gave her the papers.
She read the top of the page. “A name change?”
“Yeah.” He puffed out his chest. “I was thinking…why not put all of this behind you? Start out fresh. New name, new life, new you.”
“But I have no idea what name I would use.”
He took the papers and turned to the second page. “I was thinking Skye Summers.”
An odd-sounding name. “Why…”
But then his words about the basement came back. The summer sky that had gotten him through the toughest times. Her hope, as limitless as the summer sky, had brought him peace. His summer sky.
“Oh, I love it.”
Forest kissed the bridge of her nose. “My summer Skye.” He leaned back, his touch too fleeting. “It suits you.”
It did, and she loved what it meant—to him and to her. “And you’re my little Beanpole.”
He coughed into his fist. “Maybe not so little anymore, but I was thinking of changing mine.”
“How about Bean?”
“I like Forest,” he said. “Forest Summers.”
The expectant look on his face had her heart leaping.
“Like brother and sister?”
He nodded. “But you can call me Bean.” His gesture encompassed the sky. “It’s not a summer sky, but it’s nearly as blue.”
Her lawyer cleared his throat. “It’s a bit of paperwork, but we can get it done”
She turned to Forest. “You planned this, didn’t you?”
He curled his lower lip inward. “A birthday gift for my sister.” His expression turned troubled, and a flicker of doubt flashed in his eyes. “We’ll always have that, my summer Skye. Won’t we? We’ll always have each other?”
“Always, Bean. We’ll always have each other.” And she believed every word.
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The story of Forest and Skye continues in Heart’s Insanity, Book Two of the Angel Fire Rock Romance series.