Hell For Leather

~ Secrets ~

Hope y'all are prepared for this.... **TRIGGER WARNING: The topics in this chapter may be a little triggering for some readers so please read with caution! **

Jaeger's POV: 

I stared at Evie while she paced back and forth in front of me, all color that had been in her face drained away from her face as she gathered her thoughts. I knew whatever it was that she was going to tell me was bad from the way her hands and voice shook when she finally started talking after several long minutes. "A few months ago I got the sensation that I was being watched. At first I didn't think much of it at first until I woke up one morning and there was a gift on my door step. At first I thought it was Nolan, the man you-- err, escorted from the diner the other day. He was always prone to leaving things like that for me on my doorstep. Until I opened it and realized that the gift was nowhere near the caliber of gifts a man like Nolan Thibodeaux would leave me." She paused and closed her eyes for a moment. I wanted to get up and pull her to me again but I didn't dare move rom my spot on the couch. When she spoke there was a tremor to her voice. "Flowers, my favorite candy, even jewelry would show up randomly. I never accepted any of them, I didn't want to encourage Nolan by doing so so I would donate them to friends and the flowers to the retirement home where I sometimes visit. Then the phone calls would start, at first I assumed that they were telemarketers but no one said anything."

"At first there was silence then the amount of calls I get in a day increased until now I get them three times a day. It's been three months and now this modulated voice keeps telling me different things, commenting on my looks; how pretty I look or would ask me questions about whether or not I ate or not. General stuff about my life." Her voice cracked when she said these next few words that had me all but vibrating with rage. "A few weeks ago they started getting really lewd about their comments, what they would do to me and how they would do it. Earlier before we left to have supper with my parents I got a call saying that I belonged to them. And--" A hard swallow as she stops her pacing and glances at me her eyes wide. "And that I wasn't allowed to let another man touch me again." I cursed and shot to my feet and going to the front window to peer out the window. My instincts were roused that something wasn't right here. How did he know about what was going on in the house? The street was empty and there was no one roaming the streets at this time of night. I roamed the house checking all the locks and the windows to ensure there was no one else getting in. 

In the kitchen I noticed that the window above the kitchen was wide open. Frowning I closed and locked it fighting the urge to grab some hammer and nails and nailing every window in this fucking house closed. When I returned to the living room I noticed that Evie was no longer standing up sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. From the way her shoulders shook she was crying. Feeling something crack within my chest I walk over to her and crouch in front of her. I tug at her hands with mine until she drops them from her face, when she looked at me her eyes were red and her cheeks were blotchy from her tears. "There's more to this story then what you told me isn't there? You can tell me, Evie." I watched as she took a shuddering breath and looked down swallowing hard and muttered something I didn't catch. "E, look at me please. Whatever it is can't be that bad." She refused to look at me for a long moment before finally closing her eyes for a second before opening them and peering at me with an expression that was both sad and heart broken all at the same time. "I had a miscarriage after you left, Gray. My parents don't know and even after all these years I still haven't told my parents."

Yeah okay, so not what I was expecting her to say.

Unable to trust my own legs I sat down on the coffee table as the blood drained from my face. I couldn't believe what I'd just been told. Miscarriage? No, it simply couldn't be true. The denial was on the tip of my tongue, ready to spill from my mouth but I swallowed the words as I looked at the woman in front of me. She was no longer crying but from her stillness and the way she was looking at me she was waiting for some kind of reaction from me. I simply shook my head at her unable to formulate words. She must have seen the disbelief on my face because she sighed and stood up and left the room for a long moment before coming back a couple minutes later with something clutched in her hand. Silently she sat back down and handed it to me without looking me in the eye. It was an aged sonogram picture. At first I stared at the pictures for a long moment lankly unable to see anything until I focused on the little white blip in the middle of a black field. What had me feeling icy cold from head to toe was the date of the sonogram. It was taken exactly two months after I'd left town to start my new life.