Vivian (19 page)

The sheet tangled around her, but she fought to grasp the gun as he came back toward her and the moonlight caught his face.

“
Darby!”

“
Give me the damn gun, Vivian.” He lurched toward her knocking her back again and ripping the gun from her hand. “You’re so weak!”

“
Darby! Get off of me!” She fought him. “What are you doing?”

He kept his body on her legs and her arms pinned with his. In his right hand, he held the gun he’d ripped from her and it pressed into her skin as he held her against the wall.

“
Where do I begin?” He pressed the metal of the gun further into her skin. “First, Adam took you from me.”

“
Darby, that was a long time ago. Please,” she pleaded. “I have to get him some help.” She was looking toward Clayton.

“
C’mon, let’s just take care of this now.” He took the gun and pointed it toward Clayton.

“
No!” She screamed and lurched to try and reach the gun, but he only came back with it and smacked her in the head with it.

Now her vision was slipping away with her consciousness.

“
You’ll die here with him.” She could feel his breath on her face and his hands on her bare thighs. “I want the money, Vivian. Where is all the money?”

He squeezed her thigh and the pain shot through her, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t see. It was getting harder to even breathe.

“
She hid all the money in this house, Vivian. I know she did.”

“
Don’t—have,” she managed and he squeezed her thigh higher and tighter.

“
You know why I hated Adam as much as I did?” His mouth was on her again, pressed now to her ear. “It was my father Stella Monroe had an affair with. That’s right. My bastard father left my pregnant mother for a married woman. Her nasty spawn was Adam.”

He moved his knee into her groin and she cried out.

“
Let me go. I’ll get the money for you.”

She felt his hands on her hips and her body was yanked from the wall and slammed down to the floor again. He held the gun under her chin and pushed up the sheet.

“
He took you. He got you. I’m done being the forgotten one.”

He straddled her, then sat up, but she couldn’t see now. Her eyes had swollen nearly shut.

She knew he’d sat up and then another shadow moved across them and Darby had been knocked to the ground. A white light exploded in the darkness with the crack of a gun.

Vivian had heard the scream and she knew it was her own, but she couldn’t see. She couldn’t feel.

Another set of hands were on her and she screamed again.

“
Vivian, it’s Sam. Honey, calm down.”

She scrambled toward him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“
The ambulance and police are coming.”

She couldn’t let go. Her body shook and she could feel the cold of the air around them, which meant the sheet had fallen away.

“
Darby! Darby! He killed Clayton. Darby…” she kept repeating.

Sam took her hands. “Clayton’s alive. But we have to get him to the hospital. You too.”

“
Darby,” she said his name quietly now.

“
I didn’t kill him. I want him to pay for what he’s done.”

“
Stella. Frank.”

“
I know.” He pulled her toward him as the flashing lights from outside illuminated the house.

Vivian watched them load Clayton into the ambulance. He was still unresponsive, but he was alive. She had to focus on that.

She held an icepack to her face as she sat on the sidewalk wrapped now in a robe and a blanket.

Amelia appeared from around the ambulance they’d loaded Darby into. She was running and crying as she fell down next to Vivian.

“
God, look at you. Oh, God!” She pulled her into her arms.

It was time to let the pain out and she began to sob against Amelia.

“
Darby. It was Darby.”

“
I know. Oh, honey, I know.” She rocked her back and forth.

Vivian pulled back. “My girls. Where are my girls?”

Amelia pulled her back to her. “With Dorothy.”

The paramedic moved toward them. “Ma’am, we’re ready to transport your husband. Will you be riding with us?”

Vivian nodded and Amelia helped her to her feet.

“
I’ll get you some clothes,” she said as Vivian walked toward the ambulance.

“
Thank you.”

She held out her hand to the paramedic to help her inside.

“
Wait!” Amelia moved toward the ambulance. “Husband?”

Vivian held up her hand as they closed the doors between them.

~*~

Clayton woke with a splitting headache. He had to force himself to open his eyes.

The room was dimly lit and unfamiliar.

He tried to sit up, but the pain in his head was so immense he only closed his eyes again.

“
Clayton?”

The angelic voice was one he recognized. Again, he forced himself to open his eyes.

Standing next to him was a vision—a glorious vision. His beautiful wife.

“
Vivian, what happened to you?”

She raised her hand to her cheek. “Darby.”

“
What did he do to you?” His eyes had managed to open wider to take in the bruises on her face and her neck. “Jesus, what is that?” He tried to reach for the mark on her collarbone, but she winced away.

“
Nothing. Don’t move.”

“
I don’t remember anything. I walked up the stairs, that’s all I remember.”

“
Darby hit you with a bat. You have a head full of stitches.”

“
Ah, that would explain this headache I have.”

She smiled at his joke, no matter how weak it was.

“
They’ll give you some more medicine. The nurse said they would.”

Clayton reached for her hand. “Some honeymoon, huh?”

“
I thought you died,” the tears in her voice made him ache even more than he already was.

“
I wouldn’t leave you that easily.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “Where is he?”

“
Sam shot him.”

He sucked in a deep breath. “Dead?”

Vivian shook her head. “No. He wants him to pay for what he did.”

“
Frank and Stella?”

She nodded and then moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “Dorothy told the girls you fell down and you are in the hospital.”

“
She’s quick on her feet.”

“
She’s worried about you. You’re her child too, you know.”

He managed a smile. “I do know.” He twisted her gold band between his fingers. “Did you tell her?”

“
No. Only Amelia. Which means that Sam might know.”

“
Everyone will know as soon as the girls know.”

She nodded. “They want to keep you for a few more hours.”

“
Doesn’t a bed in a hospital come with Jell-O?”

“
I’ll go find you some,” she said standing.

“
Mrs. North,” he called as she moved from the bed and she turned back toward him. “I love you.”

“
I love you too.”

Vivian stepped out into the hall. As soon as the door to his room closed she leaned against the wall and let the tears she’d been holding on to fall.

When they told her that Adam had died she got mad. The tears hadn’t come for days. But the moment she’d seen Clayton laying on the ground, everything inside of her wanted to release.

She had to remind herself that he was alive and he was fine. He’d been making jokes and keeping her comfortable.

She wrapped her arms around herself.

“
Mrs. North,” someone called.

She lifted her head to see Sam walking toward her.

“
I thought that might be the case,” he joked as he moved closer to her and pulled her into his arms. “Are you okay?”

“
I thought he was dead.”

“
I wish I’d have been five minutes faster,” he said, stroking her hair. “He’d texted me. I just didn’t know you two would be there, well…”

She slapped his arm, then pulled back and looked at him. “Thank you. If you hadn’t come…”

“
I did. This is over.”

She nodded. “He wants Jell-O.”

“
He’s going to have to wait. There is someone here looking for you.”

“
For me?”

A smile formed on Sam’s face. “Penelope is in labor. She wants to see you.”

Vivian’s heart began to race again.

Penelope was having her baby—Adam’s baby.

Vivian took a deep breath. She had to be supportive. She had to be ready.

For the past six months they’d all moved past their failed marriages to Adam, but he was still very much around. He was in her girls and in Penelope’s baby. Without Adam hiring Sam, Amelia wouldn’t have fallen in love. Had he not sent Brock, Penelope wouldn’t have anyone but Vivian and Amelia to love her and her baby. And though he hadn’t hand delivered Clayton to her door, without months of learning who she was and who she could be—she wouldn’t have fallen in love again.

“
Where is she?” She asked.

“
C’mon, I’ll take you down.”

Sam escorted her to Penelope’s room.

She was seated on the bed with the back raised and her hands rested on her stomach as she breathed in short pants.

“
Oh, what happened to you?” Penelope winced as a contraction obviously moved through her.

“
Just a little run in with Darby. I’m fine.” She moved toward the bed. “Are you ready?”

Penelope nodded. “But I had to apologize first.”

“
For what?” Vivian’s voice rose as she couldn’t think of one thing for the woman to apologize about, especially while she was in labor.

“
For marrying your husband. I’m sorry.”

Vivian smiled and held her hand. “Without Adam’s misunderstandings of
everything
, we wouldn’t have each other.”

“
You forgive me?”

Vivian shook her head and her heart nearly exploded with love for the girl who had sweat beading on her lip. “I forgive him.”

Amelia moved in next to her. “I think they’re ready for you to do this.”

“
I don’t know. I’m scared.”

They both took Penelope’s hand. “We’re a team,” Vivian said. “Remember?”

“
If we were a team you’d have invited us to your wedding,” Amelia jabbed an elbow into Vivian’s side.

“
You’re married?” Penelope’s eyes opened wide as much for the contraction she was having as the news of Vivian’s marriage.