Love Sick

Unraveling

Teresa

I watched in shock as my fiancé gently rocked our son inside the hotel room. The sun was peaking over the ocean as I looked around the suite that we had booked next to Eva and Chris since the house was no longer safe with the gang attack.

Evan had a swelling bruise running from his cheek bone to his nose, and the ice I had applied to his face hadn't reduced the swelling dramatically. He had ignored my previous two requests for him to inform me about what had happened while he and Chris were out looking for Emily Swinton. He gently rocked Gideon until our fussy newborn had soothed himself, sucking on his hand to tell me he was hungry.

"Why won't you tell me what happened? I'm a big girl, I can handle it." I groaned, taking him and positioning his tiny body against my breast, gasping as he latched. He ignored my comment and moved beside me, massaging my shoulders. "Evan." I groaned, wiggling out of his grip to face him and reach up and stroke his chin, watching the sadness pass his face.

"Teresa, no." He whispered, but I simply adjusted Gideon and raised my eyebrow at him, looking back down at my son who was contently feeding. "I don't want to upset you or scare you, especially after everything you've been through." He explained, dropping his eyes nervously at his hands, clearly upset over my questioning.

"Evan, babe, listen to me. I'm already upset, but I'm also a big girl. If we want to start a life together, and raise our son, we have to trust each other and share our burdens!" I cried, watching him look up at me and chew on his bottom lip, his eyes watering.

"Teresa, for the beginning of our entire relationship you wouldn't share anything with me!" He cried, but I huffed and slowly rose to my feet, pacing painfully until I could formulate the words about his valid point. "I know, but look where we are now! Things are different, and I'm sorry that I'm forcing this on you now, but we can't just think about ourselves anymore! Listen, Evan, I know this is hard-."

"Do you?" He interrupted abruptly, making me exhale calmly and glare at him. "I do. I once had to tell an officer that someone had raped me, when I really didn't want to. But this is about more than us, we have Gideon, and it is my job to know about any looming threat to our son or our family. Okay? I'm a lot less delicate than you think I am." I countered, watching him exhale and nod in agreement, reluctantly pulling my closer to sit, clearing his throat.

"Chris and I were walking through the area where the kidnapping had taken place, and I had my radio but I didn't have it on the correct station. It was dark and a man came out of nowhere and began following us, I unholstered my weapon and told him to stop, but he kept coming. I called for backup and told Chris to run, but he didn't listen. The guy came at us and tried to stab us with his dagger, but I managed to knock it out of his hands, he elbowed my face with the struggle. I would have stayed longer to help with the case but then Chris said that you guys were in a drive by." He finally revealed, my chest contracting with the thought of his life being in danger.

"See, better." I exhaled, adjusting my hold on our son before pulling him close, reveling in the fact that he was safe. "I'm just worried that everything I do will hurt our chances of keeping Gideon during this nasty custody battle with your psychotic sister." He shuddered, the same fear crossing my thoughts as we gazed down at our feeding son.

"We should get a lawyer, Chris. They'll probably make us testify and I don't want them taking my son from me because Cassandra can ask a couple questions. Something bigger is going here, it doesn't make sense for her to come out of the blue and try and take our baby. I know she's after something bigger- how did she even find out?!" I cried, removing my content baby from my breast to burp him.