Reese (18 page)

             
“You are no mother of mine. No mother would ever set back and let her husband do the things that you did. A mother would have killed the man who dared touch her daughter the way Stephen Thorne touched me.” My gaze shot to the man standing white as a sheet beside of my mother. “No mother would stay married to the man who attempted to rape her daughter repeatedly.”

             
“What do you want?” Stephen asked, his voice not much louder than a whisper.

             
“Oh I want nothing from you. I just needed to face the two of you one last time. Kind of like putting my past to rest so that I can move on with my future.” I watched as his shoulders seemed to ease from under a great pressure. “You have nothing to worry about from
me
, if that’s what you thought.”

             
Greg stepped up beside of me
, his hand on my arm lending me the support that he had been too busy to give five years ago
. “You will, of course, have to deal with me.” Stephan nearly fell over when he realized that I had not been the real
danger to him. Greg Daventry had the power to make Stephen Th
orne’s career obsolete. The hot
shot stock broker would never work on Wall Street again if that was what Greg decided.
And considering all of the insider information he had acquired over the years a little while in a federal prison seemed likely…If that was what Greg decided.

             
The thought nearly made me smile. It wasn’t a good kind of smile either. More sinister and evil. The picture of Stephen Thorne, The Pervert, becoming the victim to some big biker was vindicating. But I was not going to turn into that person. Revenge was not something I wanted to consume me. Not when I had so much love in me now.

             
My gaze went back to my mother as I put a hand over the life growing under my heart. “I will never be like you.” I
murmured,
more to reassure myself than anything else. “I will not be the mother that you were. My child will come first with me
; now and always
. I will be there every day for it, no matter what.”

             
“You…Yo
u’re pregnant?” Sharon frowned. Her beautiful face was drawn and pale.

             
“Yes. But you will never be a part of your grandchild’s life. Never. There is no way that I would ever let you in the same room as her.” I took a step back, wanting Kieran’s arms around me once more.

             
I was finished with the couple standing defeated before me. My grandfather could do what he wanted with them. W
ith the loss of Stephen’s high paying career, Sharon Daventry Thorne would not have the money to accommodate the lifestyle that she was accustomed to. And her expensive drug habit would no longer be easily afforded.

             
“I suggest you go home now, Throne.” Greg instructed Stephen. “You might want to talk to a lawyer. In the morning you will have a completely different life to worry about.”

             
I didn’t watch them leave. Tuned out the sound of my mother’s heels clicking on the hardwood floors as she dejectedly made one last exit from my life. Instead I turned into the arms of the man I loved and let him enfold me in his strong arms.

             
I was safe.

This is Terri Anne Browning’s
first
published work.
Find her on face book and let her
know how
you liked Reese and the first installment of Safe Haven.