Road to Recovery (30 page)

“
Robbie, stop, someone might
see us,” Tina, Robbie’s secretary, said, playfully swatting the
hand that was pulling her close.

“
No one is going to see us
back here. We’re safe. Besides, it’s been a week, and I’m missing
some of this,” he said, reaching for her breasts, and cupping her
roughly through her shirt.

Tina giggled and leaned in closer to
his touch. “When are you going to do it, Robbie?”

He laughed and started to kiss her
neck. “Patience, I’m doing it right now. And I know exactly how you
like it.”

Moaning, Tina moved her head to the
side for him to have better access as he started to kiss her neck.
“That isn’t what I meant. I meant, when you are going to break it
off with Brooke?” She giggled again and ran her hands up his
arms.

Robbie abruptly pulled away and shot
Tina a cold stare. “I’m not. I told you. I need her as my wife.
She’s exactly the type of wife I need to move my father’s business
to the next level. Exactly who my parents expect me to marry if I’m
to take over one day. You know that.”

When Tina started to pout, he pulled
her closer for another kiss and said, “It’s for appearance only.
You know you’re the one I really want. Once Brooke and I are
married, she won’t be working at the firm anymore, so we’ll have
the days together, too.”

Brooke started to gag, turned to move
and in her haste tripped on a stump and hit the bush. Straightening
herself up, she rushed back to the house. Only she didn’t make it
far.

Robbie, having heard the noise, came to
investigate and caught up with her. “Brooke?” But when she
continued walking, he grabbed her arm and yanked her around. “What
are you doing out here? Are you spying on me?”

“
Let go of me right now,”
she cried out in pain, her eyes full of tears.

“
No. You’re not going
anywhere.” He tightened his grip on her arm. “We are going to talk
about this, and you’re not going to say a word about it to anyone.
Do you hear me?”

“
You are hurting me,
Robbie.” Tears of humiliation and pain ran down her
cheeks.

He let go of her arm quickly, composed
himself, and tried to explain. “It means nothing, Brooke. You know
how stressed I’ve been. You’ve been working just as hard as I have
and we never see each other. It just happened. It won’t again, I
promise. Give me another chance,” he begged, and must have actually
thought she would believe him.

“
No. We’re done. I’m leaving
now.”

“
You’re not going into that
house, and you’re not going to say a word to anyone, do you hear
me?” He reached for her again. “And you can’t leave without me. We
came together.”

“
I’ll call a cab. Don’t
worry. I won’t say anything to your parents, nothing that might
tarnish the view of their precious child.” The tears ran unchecked
as she pulled out of his grasp and started to walk quickly toward
the house.

He caught up with her. “Where are you
going? I told you not to go in that house, especially looking like
that. They’ll know you’re upset and want to know why. We haven’t
resolved this.” His eyes turned cold, making her shiver.

“
We have resolved this. I’m
done. I won’t be made a fool of by anyone. But I need my purse and
my phone to call a cab,” she calmly explained, wiping a tear from
her eye.

“
No, I’ll take you home.
I’ll get your purse. Wait here,” he ordered roughly, then stalked
away and left her on the lawn. He came out a few minutes later with
her purse in his hand. “I told them you had a headache and I was
taking you home. No one questioned it.” He grabbed her arm angrily
and pulled her to his car. “Let’s go.”

The clouds seemed to come out of
nowhere. The only sounds in the car were the rain scattering on the
windshield and the wipers working furiously.

Robbie looked over at her, disgusted.
“Stop with the waterworks. They won’t work on me. I refuse to
believe you are actually upset over this.”

She stiffened in the seat next to him,
drew in a breath and wiped another tear from her cheek. “I’ve given
you everything I had. You held my heart and cruelly threw it
away.”

He laughed at her,
actually
laughed
.
“Are you serious? This has never been about love, Brooke. How naïve
can you be?”

Her eyes widened, filled with even more
tears. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head. “You of all people
should have understood what our relationship was about. It’s all
business, Brooke. Your family’s connections, along with mine, I was
going somewhere. You were the last piece of the puzzle,” he added
with a smirk.

“
You can’t mean that. You
said you loved me. I believed you,” she cried.

He sneered at her. “You’re pathetic on
top of being naïve. No one marries for love. It’s a business
contract. You have what I need. I know what I want, and I’ll get it
with you by my side. Once you calm down you’ll realize that and we
can move on like we were before.”

He stopped, looked at her again as he
drove through the pouring rain. “Don’t worry. I’ll be more discreet
in the future. I can’t have it reflect poorly on me, either,” he
said with a laugh. Then shook his head. “On second thought. Maybe
you can get together with Tina for a bit. She knows what I like,
what I’m looking for.” She sat there stunned, the sneer never
leaving his face. “Nah, you don’t have it in you. Too cold and too
frigid. It’s no wonder even your parents couldn’t love
you.”

“
Stop the car right now,”
she demanded.

He turned with a start, took his eyes
off the road and glared at her. “No. I said I would take you home
and I am. We have a lot to talk about and we’re going to finish it
tonight.”

“
There is nothing left to
say. We’re done.” She was crying uncontrollably.

“
Get ahold of yourself,” he
yelled. “Stop being so childish. You aren’t going anywhere. We are
going to make this work, one way or another.” His eyes bulged out
of his normally handsome face, transforming him into something
evil. She shrank back in fear.

She started to fumble with her
seatbelt, planned on jumping out at the next red light. When Robbie
realized her intent, he grabbed her hand to stop her and stepped on
the gas.

“
Slow down. You’re scaring
me,” she screamed at him.

He laughed and pressed his foot down on
the accelerator more, then swerved the wheel with his other hand,
keeping a firm grip on her. She jerked her hand away from his,
causing the wheel to slip out of his grasp, sending the tires
spinning on the wet roads. Overcorrecting the skid had sent the car
off the road—head-on and full speed into a tree.

***

When Brooke finished reliving that
night to Lucas, talking as if in a daze, he felt a rage burning
within. A rage he never experienced before. Rage toward the man who
did that to her and rage for the fact that she blamed herself for
Robbie’s death. Even after everything that happened that night,
after that bastard put his hands on her, tried to scare her, and
broke her heart.

He didn’t know what to say. Of all the
things he expected, it wasn’t this. Or that she had lived with this
for a year. But he had to know if she truly was alone. “Does anyone
know what happened that night? Does Mac?” Lucas asked.

“
He’s the only one, and now
you. I overheard my parents arguing last weekend. My father
suspected Robbie’s infidelity but never said a word. My mother
didn’t even care. She tried to brush it off, continued to defend
Robbie. But no one knows the details of the crash. Wet roads were
determined as the cause of the accident.”

When Lucas remained quiet, she added
pathetically, “You know what the worst part was? I didn’t even
remember all the facts until weeks later. The events of that night
were just bits and pieces. When I came out of the coma, I grieved
for him. I actually grieved for the guy that I thought I was going
to spend the rest of my life with. When all the memories came
crashing back to me, I still didn’t believe they were true. Not
until I saw Tina, and the guilt and sadness on her face when she
came to apologize. Then I realized what a fool I had really
been.”

She swiped at the tears now flowing
down her cheeks. “Then I was angry once the memories returned and I
realized what had really happened. He was right. I was stupid and
naïve for believing he loved and cared for me. And then came the
guilt, beneath it all, always guilt. However much of a bastard he
was, he didn’t deserve to die. If I had stayed in control we would
both be alive today. All I had to do was keep quiet, let him drive
me home.”

Lucas felt completely helpless. Part of
him was relieved she didn’t still love Robbie, that she wasn’t
holding on to some long lost love she wouldn’t find again. But the
other part of him was saddened. Saddened that she felt she was to
blame for that bastard’s actions. “You aren’t to blame. You didn’t
put yourself in that situation. He did. He did that all himself by
being unfaithful, by forcing you into the car, by driving too fast,
by grabbing your arm. You trying to get away from him…everything
you did was reaction. Reaction to his action.”

“
You’re sounding like a
defense attorney right now. Maybe you should have gone to work with
your family,” she said dryly.

He ignored her, and lifted his hand to
reach for her, but she stepped back, causing him to drop it
helplessly to his side. “Where do we go from here?” he asked,
holding his breath.

“
Nowhere. You deserve better
than someone who is as broken as I am. I don’t even know what love
is anymore. I thought I did, but I was wrong. I sure as hell didn’t
get it at home. And I obviously failed with Robbie.” She backed up
a few more steps out of his way. “I think you should leave now.
It’s better this way.”

Lucas knew there was nothing he could
say at that moment to get through to her, to reach her. He
remembered his mother’s words in his head—“she feels deeper.” Right
now it seemed as if no one could possibly feel pain as deeply as he
did at this moment, as hurt as he was. He wasn’t willing to let her
go, but forcing her wasn’t the way either.

In the end he respected her wishes,
grabbed his keys, and walked out the door without another
word.

The minute Lucas walked out her door
Brooke went to the kitchen and grabbed the wine she had chilling on
the counter. Straight from the bottle, she took her first gulp.
Several gulps later, she realized that the wine wasn’t going to
help her forget what happened. It was only going to get her sick
the next morning. She realized even in her distressed state of mind
she still did the practical thing. She put the bottle back down and
walked away.

Her back and thigh started cramping
badly. She knew it was because she was so tense, so she ran a bath
and decided to soak in it. The hot water momentarily soothed her
physical ache, but not her emotional one.

Unaware, tears flowed down her face,
one after another like a faucet into the bubbles. How long she
stayed there and cried she had no idea.

When she started to shiver from the
cold, she climbed out of the tub, dried off, and got ready for bed.
She was sitting on her comforter staring at the floor when she
heard her phone go off in the kitchen.

On autopilot she went to
retrieve it and read the text message from Lucas.
Good night.
Those two
words brought on a new flood of tears. Minutes, or hours later—she
wasn’t sure—she made her way back to her bed, crawled on top and
hugged her pillow as she drifted off to sleep.

Waking intermittently throughout the
night, she shed more tears. For the little girl who wanted her
mother’s love. For the man who betrayed her, for the pain and guilt
of Robbie’s death. More tears for herself, but most of all, for
Lucas, the man who never judged her. The man who wasn’t afraid to
hold her hand or give her a hug. Who always had a bright smile for
her and quick grin. Who made her happy—the man who loved her
through it all.

And she’d thrown it all
away.

***

The next morning, turning her head to
look at the alarm clock, she noticed her phone sitting there. She
had put it on silent the night before, not wanting to hear from
anyone else.

Picking it up, she saw she missed
several texts throughout the night and morning. She never responded
back to Lucas, and he never sent her another text after he wished
her good night. She did notice she missed several texts from Mac,
asking her if she was all right, and to call him. The very last
text coming in less than thirty minutes ago.

Swinging her legs over the side of the
bed, she forced herself to move, thinking a hot shower might help,
along with some aspirin. Though she doubted an entire bottle of
aspirin would dull her pain.

Before she could make it to the
bathroom, she heard knocking at her front door. She couldn’t
possibly imagine who would be knocking at her door at barely eight
o’clock on a Saturday morning.