Sandi Lynn - Forever Us

I could barely swallow. It felt like my throat was closing up. I needed to get to my phone that was in the kitchen. As I turned around and tried to run, Phil grabbed me from behind and threw me on the floor.

“Please stop struggling and enjoy what I’m about to do to you. I promise you’ll love it and then all this struggle would’ve been for nothing.”

I lay there, kicking and trying to hit him before he held my wrists above my head with his hand, and he fumbled with the button on my jeans. The tears were falling from my eyes as I looked around the room. While I was struggling, thoughts of Connor and Julia flooded my mind. Suddenly, the door flew open and Connor pulled Phil off of me and punched him as hard as he could. Phil went down and Connor got on top of him. He grabbed Phil’s shirt and continuously punched him in the face, again and again as he screamed.

“You son of a bitch! How dare you touch my wife?” he said with each punch.

Detective James ran in and pulled Connor off of him. Justin followed behind and handcuffed Phil.

“You’re nothing but a piece of shit, and I’m going to make sure you rot in jail for the rest of your life for what you’ve done!” Connor yelled.

He turned and looked at me and was instantly by my side, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly. “Are you okay, baby? I’m so sorry we weren’t here earlier. Did he hurt you?” he asked as he looked me over.

I stood there, shaking, unable to wrap my head around what had happened as I stared at Connor in a daze. The only words I could muster up were, “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Chicago?”

He looked at me and pulled me into him, holding my head against his chest as Justin escorted Phil out of the penthouse. Detective James walked over to me and asked if I was okay. I nodded my head as I looked at him.

“You can relax now, Mrs. Black. He won’t be bothering you anymore.”

Connor led me over to the couch and continued to hold me. “Baby, I’m so sorry he did this to you,” he kept saying as he kissed my head. “Why didn’t you tell Justin you left your art studio?”

“I was going to, but he wasn’t there,” I said, still shaking.

I lifted my head from his chest and looked at him as I began to calm down. “How did you know I was in my studio?” I asked.

Connor stared at me and started to speak with apprehension. “There never was a business trip.”

“What?” I said in confusion. “I need a drink.”

Connor got up from the couch and walked over to the bar. He took out a glass and poured some whiskey in it. He couldn’t hand it to me fast enough as I grabbed the glass from his hands and threw it back, letting the soothing burn take over my body.

“I found out Phil was the one responsible for sending you the messages. That night he came over to have me sign those papers, he was acting strangely, and I could tell by the way he was looking at you and watching you, something wasn’t right. The next morning, I had Paul do some investigating, and he found the phone Phil used to send you the messages. Apparently, he bought it and had it activated in Chicago so it couldn’t be traced here to New York. I called Detective James and showed him the evidence. He said it wasn’t enough to put him away for a long time, and if he physically tried to harm you, he’d go away for many, many years. So, we came up with this plan to get him here alone with you, knowing he’d try something. But it wasn’t supposed to get as far as it did, Ellery, and I’m so sorry.”

As I sat there and listened to how Connor and Detective James set this up, tears started pouring from my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me or warn me?” I asked.

“Baby, please, don’t cry,” he said as he sat down and grabbed my hand.

I pulled away and got up from the couch. “Don’t touch me.”

“I couldn’t tell you because if you knew, you would have acted differently, and we couldn’t run the risk of him catching on. It was bad enough he was suspicious of the emergency Chicago trip and that he wasn’t going.”

“So you were just going to let him rape me?” I screamed.

Connor got up and started to walk towards me. “NO! I wasn’t. How the hell could you say that?”

“Because he damn well got close enough! What the fuck, Connor? You didn’t think I deserved to know what the hell you and your boys were planning. This is my life, my fucking life, and you should’ve included me,” I screamed as I broke down and fell to my knees.

“Ellery, please try to understand,” he said as he kneeled down in front of me.

“Understand what?!” I screamed. “I need time away from you so I can think.”

“Don’t say that, Ellery. Please, don’t say that,” he begged as a tear fell from his eye.

I got up from the floor and wiped my eyes. “You keep things from me, even though you promise you won’t. I need time away from you because if I don’t get it, I will hurt you.”

“Baby, please!” he yelled as I tore up the stairs.

I slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it. I took a suitcase from the closet and started throwing some clothes in it. When I was packed, I called a cab and took my suitcase downstairs. Connor was sitting on the couch with his face buried in his hands. When he heard me, he looked up.

“I’m going to the beach house, and I’m taking Julia with me. Do not, and I repeat, do not come there. This marriage is hanging by a thread right now and, if you come there, I can promise you that it will be over. I need time.”

“How much time do you want?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know,” I said as the tears wouldn’t stop flowing and I walked out the door.

The door shut and, just like that, she was gone. I walked over to the bar to get a drink. I picked up the glass and threw it against the wall. I grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took it upstairs. Whiskey wasn’t my drink of choice, but it was right in front of me. I reached the top of the stairs and stepped inside Julia’s room. As I looked around, tears started falling from my eyes at the thought that I wouldn’t see her for a while. In an instant, my life had unraveled right before my eyes because of my stupidity. I sometimes questioned how the hell I was the CEO of a billion-dollar company. This was not how I planned for things to turn out. Ellery didn’t even know that I called Peyton and told her not to come over. She’d find out soon enough after she called her.

I lay down on the bed and replayed the night over and over again as I brought the bottle of whiskey to my mouth. I wasn’t going to let Phil hurt Ellery in any way, but Justin slipped up when he let her leave the penthouse. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, hoping she’d left me a message of some sort. But she hadn’t. I wanted to know how much time she wanted and needed because I couldn’t give her time. She was my wife and the mother of my child, and I wanted them back home. As I drank the last drop of whiskey, I threw the bottle across the room and watched it shatter as it hit the dresser. As the effects of the alcohol clouded my thinking, I felt myself slipping backwards to a time I never wanted to remember.

The nightmare of what happened jolted me awake. I looked over at the time and it was five o’clock in the morning. My head was pounding and my skin was drenched with sweat. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and prayed Ellery had either called or messaged me. She hadn’t. The ache in my heart was back with a vengeance as it screamed in agony. I rolled over and fell back asleep.

* * *

“What the fuck is going on?!” Peyton’s high-pitched voice startled me from an alcohol-induced sleep.

“Jesus Christ, Peyton, this is my bedroom. Get out!”

“I’m not going anywhere, buddy. Are you hung over? You look like shit!”

The last thing I needed right now was Peyton. I stumbled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. “If you don’t mind, I need to take a shower.”

“Go ahead, but I’ll be downstairs making you a pot of coffee, and then we’re going to have a little talk.”

I stood in the shower and let the hot water beat down on my body. As I put my hands up against the shower wall and closed my eyes, thoughts of Ellery and Julia consumed me. I stepped out, got dressed, and headed downstairs for some much-needed coffee. Peyton had a cup poured and sitting on the table across from her.

“Sit down, now!” Peyton commanded.

“Can I get some aspirin first?” I asked as I shot her a look. “Have you talked to her?”

“Of course I talked to her, and I was with her last night as she was crying her eyes out at Mason’s place. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“It was the only way to trap him and stop this nightmare. I was afraid that if Ellery knew, she would give something away and he would get suspicious. It just wasn’t a chance I could take.”

“So, to end your nightmare, you created another one for Ellery. Am I right?”

I took two aspirin from the bottle and chased them down with a bottle of water. I sat at the table and glared at Peyton.

“No, you’re not right. To end one nightmare, I created two more. My nightmare and Ellery’s nightmare. And I have no clue how to end it.”

“Leave her alone, that’s how you can end it. She’ll come to you when she’s had time to think about everything. I know you’ll go crazy, so I’ll text you to let you know how she’s doing, even though you don’t deserve to know.”

“Thank you, Peyton. I owe you big time.”

“That’s right, you do. In fact, I believe I’ve done this quite a few times. You owe me, Connor Black.” She smiled.

Peyton got up from the chair, walked over to me, and kissed my head. “You seriously need to sit and think about how you’re never going to keep anything from Ellery again. Because next time, you may not be so lucky, and she’ll leave your dumb ass for good.”

As I sat in the chair and finished my coffee, I stared out the window. The clouds were starting to roll in and a storm looked like it was brewing, much like the storm that blew through my life last night. I needed to get to the office and keep my mind off of Ellery, but I missed her and Julia so much. I picked up my phone and sent Ellery a text message.

“I know you said not to contact you, but Julia is my daughter too, and I want to see her. It’s not fair that you took her away and won’t let me see her.”

About twenty minutes later, she replied.

“You’re right. I’ll send Julia to the penthouse with Mason tomorrow and then you are to send her back the next day.”

I didn’t respond because I would’ve told her that our child wasn’t a ping-pong ball, and she didn’t deserve to be bounced around like that. At least she was letting me see Julia and that was more than I thought she’d do. I would give her the space she wanted, even if it ended up killing me.

* * *

The days were long and the nights were longer. I hadn’t spoken to Ellery in over a week, and every day, another piece of my soul died. Mason dropped off Julia a couple of times, and Peyton had been keeping me informed about Ellery. I had to keep the rumors at bay about Phil and tell everyone that he decided to leave Black Enterprises for personal reasons. I paid Detective James a great deal of money to keep all this quiet, and I made a huge donation to the New York City Police Department. After working all day and into the evening, I would go home and drink myself to sleep. Peyton told me that Ellery was okay, but that she was sad all the time. It killed me to hear that because I was the cause of her sadness and pain, and I didn’t think I’d ever forgive myself for what I’d done to her.

I finished up everything that needed to be done at the office, so I got in the Range Rover and started driving. While I was stopped at a light, I looked to my right and saw a place that I hadn’t thought about in a very long time, Club S. I didn’t want to go home, so I decided to stop in there and have a drink. The club was hopping, the music was loud, and there were wall-to-wall people. I walked back by the bar and saw there was an open table. I sat down and was immediately greeted by a waitress.

“What can I get you?” she asked.

“Give me a scotch, make it a double, and bring me three.”

“You got it, sweetie.” She smiled as she walked away.

While I sat in my seat, I looked around at the area that I had frequently visited before I met Ellery. The waitress came back and set the three glasses down in front of me. I drank them and wanted more, so I signaled for her to get me three more. As I was downing the fifth glass of scotch, I heard a familiar voice.