Back To Seattle

Chapter 24

Everything seemed to happen so quickly. Derek stayed with me, holding my hand as I made my report to the police. I told them everything, from when the abuse started, up to his presence at my mom's house.

They assured me he'd be out by the end of the day, and I got the call that evening to say that house was clear and secure. Derek arranged for a locksmith, and we got the locks changed.

It had been weird being back there, seeing that he'd been in the house. It gave the forgotten rooms a chill it never had before. The ghosts of my childhood and my more recent ghosts merged. I had to get rid of the house as soon as possible. Derek had offered to help with that as well.

I hadn't told him, but I started to imagine the house on the cliff. The one we could design and live in together. Make it perfect for us.

It felt like we barely knew each other sometimes, and then other times it was like I had known him forever. I must have asked him close to a hundred questions just in the past few weeks, desperate to find out more about him. I wanted to try. I wanted this to work, if not just for the baby. Even if I didn't yet believe I deserved someone as good as him, he reminded me every day of how much I was worth. He made me feel loved, beside my doubts.

And then the lawyer called. Jordan had signed the divorce papers, and it was only a matter of months for it to go through the courts. It was a sense of relief I had been begging for.

After the report to the police, a restraining order had been put out against him. He wasn't to be within 100ft of me. The only expectation was if for any reason he'd need life saving treatment at the hospital, but it seemed like an unlikely circumstance.

And today, Derek and I, we would see our baby again. At twenty-one weeks, we were ready to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.

Waking up beside him still felt like a dream, something I didn't deserve. According to the therapist, this was somewhat normal. I'd spent the past years of my life either waking up alone or beside someone I couldn't trust. Now, I woke up to safety, and warmth.

I watched as he slept. It wasn't a rare thing. Nightmares still plagued me, and I often woke while he was still asleep, though he'd never stay asleep for long. The morning sun peaked through the gaps in the curtains, shedding a strip on light over his face in the dark room.

I once believed myself to be unlucky. But upon returning to Seattle, it seemed most of my luck was being cashed in.

The luck of meeting him in that bar on the first night. To then finding him again at the hospital. To having him care for me, look out for me, right from the start. And then being pregnant with his child. I may have once thought it to be inconvenient, trying to separate from the man who made my life a living nightmare, whilst pregnant with another man's child. But not anymore.

Right on cue, I felt the small movement in my stomach, and I lowered my hand with a gentle touch. My little baby was squirming around inside, apparently awake now that I was. It was a reminder of how alive I was. How much I had to live for.

I truly felt like I had found my home, my place to be, and my purpose. I was going to be the mother, and protector, of this new life. It always put a grin on my face, thinking about my baby, the future, Derek. It felt positive – and my therapist assured me this was the right direction to be going on.

Soft touches of lips on the back of my neck made my skin tingle, and I leaned back against the touch of Derek's arms around my middle, his chin nestling in my shoulder. His soft whisper drifted against my ear. "Good morning."

"Hi," I whispered back.

My hand continued to drift over the bump of my stomach, tracing the fluttering feeling of the small life inside me. Derek's hand moved on top of mine and he stopped my movement.