Page 27 of Save Us
“O-Oliver?” I croak again.
“Is in time out for the moment. Normally, I believe in a man dealing with his own business behind closed doors, but losing my granddaughter is not an option,” he answers rather stiffly. “He let his temper rule his head and I can’t have that. You are a member of the Steele family, and no one is allowed to threaten the life of anyone in my family!”
A grace of a smile appears on my face, just before he suddenly turns cold on me.
“That is not to say I’m not extremely disappointed in your behavior, young lady. I daresay if I had been in Oliver’s position, I would have reacted in much the same manner!” His words have me looking away, feeling both angry and hurt. “However, he needs time to cool off, to stew a little, and to come back a little more mollified. Then he will be ready to be a husband to you again.”
“No!” I try to shout but am unable to give much of a voice to my words. “I can’t, I won’t…”
Panic begins to set in when I think of being handed back over to that monster; a man who tried to kill me.
“Calm down, Beth, my dear,” he says as he cups my chin with his hand, all the while smiling arrogantly at me. “Take this time to recuperate, to rest, and then you and Oliver can try again.” I begin to shake my head, but he stills it with a firm grip on my chin. “You can, and you will, my dear.”
He then reaches down to kiss the top of my head, making me want to vomit and scream all at once. However, I remain silent, for whatever I say or do will be futile.
“Leo, take care of her and let me know when she is ready to get out of bed,” he says as he heads over to the door to leave.
“Yes sir!” Leo replies through gritted teeth and with an angry look in his eye.
My grandfather won’t have noticed his wrath because he thinks my bodyguard is far too beneath him to warrant such attention.
As soon as the old man closes the door with a soft click, Leo rounds on me and grabs my hand so tightly, I can’t help but sob. He then looks at me with such affection, it takes my breath away.
“Oh, God, Beth,” he whimpers in such a way, I have to swallow back a solid lump of emotion or else I’ll explode with sadness. “I never should have left you to face him alone. He’s lucky I didn’t see him when your grandfather’s PA called to order me over to the hospital. I would have killed him!”
I give him wide, worried-looking eyes over him speaking so bluntly; we’ve always been so careful over the years. What if someone’s watching and has just heard him say all these things against Oliver? What if they’ve seen him touching my hair? I can’t lose Leo too!
“Don’t worry, I’ve already scanned the room, and there aren’t any bugs or cameras,” he reassures me, and my body instantly relaxes. In fact, my head feels a little dizzy with the relief.
“God, you’re such a mess, sweetheart,” he cries before forcing a sad smile to his face and stroking his hand over my hair. “This is all my fault, Beth!”
“You couldn’t have known, Leo,” I whimper, “I just…I couldn’t…I don’t want to have his children, Leo! The only child I want is the one I already had and lost, all on the same day!” We sit in silence to contemplate my sad admission before I eventually have to ask the inevitable. “What’s the damage? Honestly?” I close my eyes, bracing myself for it.
Leo sighs heavily, then looks away for a moment or two before bringing his eyes back up to mine with a somber expression on his face.
“Two cracked ribs, multiple cuts and bruising, internal bleeding, and a broken wrist. They had to remove your spleen, Beth.”
“Oh,” I breathe out with my throat feeling like it’s closing more tightly by the second.
“Apparently, you were lucky he didn’t kick you a little further to the left, otherwise, he could have damaged your reproductive organs,” he explains, but all I can do is nod my head in acceptance over what’s happened to me. “Still, I bet you don’t feel too lucky at the moment!”
My nodding soon turns to my head shaking from side to side, before eventually breaking down into floods of uncontrollable tears. Leo throws caution to the wind and wraps his arms around my shoulders, pulling me in closer to offer comfort, something I could never get from Carl. We’ve never held each other this closely before, but it feels like my own mother or father cradling me, which is exactly what I need, my own surrogate papa bear.
“Where is Oliver now?” I ask in between some heavy sniffing.
“Well, if I had my way, he’d be dead in a bush somewhere, but from what I’ve been able to gather, he’s still in New York,” Leo replies and begins to laugh. “He’s probably still pissed from the way your grandfather tore strips off of him at the hospital. Mr Steele was fuming!”
“Not enough to keep me from him forever though, huh?” I mutter bitterly.
“No, I guess not,” he replies quietly before planting a small kiss on top of my head.
Xander
Rosalie’s funeral was about as comforting as one can imagine a funeral to be. Everything was black - the clothes, the mood, the music, even the speeches, which took place just before she was lowered into the ground. Rosie and I hung far back from everything, giving our presence but without exposing my little girl to anything harrowing, like a coffin being lowered into the cold, wet earth beneath our feet. In fact, as soon as the weeping began, we took a fast walk out of there to look for butterflies.
At first, Rosie flits about not really acknowledging any of the graves, not until she comes across a wooden cross with the name ‘Beth Penn’ written clearly in the middle of it. Some freshly picked flowers are lying up against the slightly raised earth, catching my little girl’s eye. I just know she is going to come up with a myriad of awkward questions. I choose not to say anything, just let her look over it with a five-year-old’s natural curiosity. Her brow furrows deeper and deeper as more and more questions are forming inside of her head; her sponge-like brain being thirsty for knowledge.
“Is that Mommy’s grave?” she asks while pointing toward it. “It has her name on it.”