The Quarterback's Love Child (A Secret Baby Sports Romance Book 1) (7 page)

Chapter Twenty Four

Michelle

The car was parked outside the school gate, just like Harmony had said it would be at four. Everyone was inside the church hall preparing for the graduation party, the celebration which would mark my last day in town. I thought that I would feel sad about leaving, maybe even change my mind, but over the last few weeks, Faith, Harmony and Carl had kept my strength up. Without their friendship I couldn’t have survived in this town. They would all soon be going to college, all three of them had opted for colleges which were far away and they all had the same mission to be as far from Stowe Peak as possible.

If I’d had the opportunity I would have done the same. But I wasn’t allowed to apply, if I had, there was no way I would have had the funds to support myself during the four years. This was my only option.  The only blessing was the fact that I had my high school diploma.

Maybe I could use that to go to a local college?

But, as I rubbed my belly and thought about my fate, I realized that I would be starting a new life, not just with one child, but two.

I grabbed Mia’s hand as she asked, “Where we going?”

I smiled, “An adventure.” Her frown didn’t go away, so I continued to say, “A happy place.”

She replied, “Ice cream?”

She clapped her hands at the thought of getting one, a treat that she had rarely experienced. One that Dad had classified as being one of temptation, but Mom had given to us whenever he was away.

“Yes, like getting an ice cream,” I replied as I took her hand once again and led her across the road. I had a backpack, which didn’t have much in, a few clothes and nothing else. I couldn’t make it look as if we had run away, that would mean that the sheriff would catch up with us if Dad alerted him straight away.

Besides I hated my clothes, they weren’t ones for women my age. They were for beggars on the street who had to take what they wanted. Then it hit me like a flash of lightening that after today I would be on the street.

I had a shelter to go to, but even then it wasn’t clear how long I could stay there.

I had so many questions, but I knew that sending notes back to Harmony and Faith could result in the end of my escape.

I had over $500 in my pocket which was more than I had ever had in my life. It may not be a lot to most people, but to me it was like winning the lottery a hundred times.

The only time I had held money in my hand was when I’d gone to Christian camp and Mom had given me $10. I remember thinking that I didn’t want to spend the $10. The idea of having money and giving it away for the first time in my life felt like a stupid thing to do. But, as dad would say, temptation got the better of me and when we went on a trip and I was in a store, knowing that I could spend money, I didn’t hesitate in buying a little souvenir.

It was a horse, something that I had held onto for the last four years. It was in my backpack. A reminder of where I was and where I was going to; from now on any money that I had would be needed to buy food, clothes, milk, diapers, etc.

I would no longer have the luxury of deciding to buy something for myself. The ones that would get first dibs on what to spend it on would be my children.

As I stood by the car and Harmony’s cousin, Ben asked, “You ready?”

He opened the door and, as Mia dutifully sat at the back, I handed him my backpack and I smiled, “For the first time in my life, I am ready.”

“Good.”

I wondered if he thought that maybe I had changed my mind. I was a little late, but that was because I wanted to make sure that everyone was distracted with the party and no one knew that I was going to leave. It would only be a matter of time before mom realized that not only had I gone to Harmony’s house to get the macaroni and cheese that Harmony had purposely forgotten to bring and not returned. She would also know that Mia was gone, even though Faith had said that she would take her to the playground with the other little kids, which Faith had volunteered to do.

They would be my backup to make sure that no one would look for me, for at least an hour or if I was lucky maybe two. By then we would have crossed the state line, no one would have a clue who with or how, not even Carl. He would be the last one they would question. It was a perfect plan, one that I wished I could say to both Harmony and Faith a million thank you’s for devising it.

I couldn’t.

I just had to leave.

I wound down the window and felt the heat rush through my hair and I didn’t care as I inhaled for the first thing in my life, freedom.

Epilogue

Michelle

It was time for me to get my son back. I had lost him through my own selfish needs. I thought that by protecting him, he would never know the truth. The one player that he mentioned as his inspiration, the one that he had talked about, was really his dad.

I hated him.

I hated my parents.

I hated men.

They were my downfall and I promised never again would I let them take advantage of me. I would use them the same way that they had always used me. Carl had promised that as soon as he graduated, he would come back for me and we would be married. I had held onto that for so many years. When I lived in the shelter and got my first job, I was thinking that all of it was temporary. One day he would look for us and I would be rescued from this nightmare of a life.

He never did.

They were empty promises, the same ones that Isaac used to tell me until he got me pregnant. I had been a fool twice, once for being naive and the other in love. I vowed never to do that again. I had suffered a lot as a child.

I kept tabs on my small town through the media, a thing that I was never allowed to do as a child. I saw that my mom died and the temptation to go to her funeral was never there. She had allowed my dad to torture me from an early age, just because he was a priest. Nothing more and nothing less. I disassociated myself from her. It was as if I was reading about someone else. Someone that I used to see every day,
not my own flesh and blood
.

I’d never been so nervous before in my life. I sat and watched the morning commuters on their way to work, wondering why I had never had a simple life. They probably went to college like Noah had done, just like his father had done, and studied and worked. Some of them were couples who kissed as they walked in opposite directions, discussing meeting later on and their plans for the evening.

No man had ever loved me.

They had taken what they wanted from me and destroyed me.

Noah, my second child wasn’t like that and my eyes flashed the painful memories of my childhood and my resurrection as I started my new life at the women’s shelter. I thought that he would understand why I was the way that I was and perhaps forgive me for trying to destroy his relationship with Ava.

At least I could tell him something about his dad, which was more than I could offer Mia. That was an even more of a painful story.

When I saw that Carl had achieved his dream and he had been selected by one of the top teams during Draft Day, I expected him to come looking for me, have a search party set-up in order to find his true love.

It was the complete opposite. He was filmed at the stadium with his dad and a girl. They sat there and then I saw the title Carl Owen and his fiancée; he was selected to play pro for his team. The one that he had wanted to play for since he was a little boy. Everything that he had ever wanted had come true.

I was brought out of my nightmare by a voice behind me, “Mom, you’re here.”

I nodded, I had said on the phone that I was coming. He was as polite as he had been as a child. Nothing changed as he smiled, “You look well.”

I didn’t. I was stressed, working in the shelter that he was brought up in, paying back to them the life that they had given both my children.

“I don’t, I’m tired.”

He sat down nervously as I promptly stood and said, “Do you want a coffee?”

He nodded, “Black”

And I said, “No sugar.”

Even if I had tried to ruin his relationship with Ava. They were together and happily married with two children. A life that I had dreamed of, but sometimes, every so often I wondered if it was because my dad had never cleansed my sins. I pushed it to the side of my head and thought that no, what he did to me was wrong. I should never think otherwise, but at times I thought about what I did to Ava’s dad, the one man that may have truly loved me, and I regretted my actions in the past.

But time can’t change. All I could do was tell Noah the truth and hope that he would forgive me. I opened my mouth to speak, wondering if this was a good idea.

“So?”

He rose an eyebrow as he burnt his tongue on the coffee and quickly put it down.

“Are you going to tell me the truth?”

I nodded, I was going to tell him the truth, the one about the mistakes that I had made and the reasons that I had made them. Then, after all that he could hate me even more then he did now, or he could love me as he had done once before.

***

“Wow!”

He said as he tried to digest everything in. At first we kept being interrupted by Ava, who had it in her head that I was meeting him as some kind of trap. Even if I did want to break them up, I couldn’t, not any more. Besides working in the shelter had taught me that letting history repeat itself was a bad way to live your life. Especially when it came to children.

He was shaking when he said, “Now, I know why you kept it from me. Us. Mia? Her dad, Isaac, what happened to him?”

“We’ll leave that for another time. When Mia’s ready to talk to me, then I’ll sit down with her as I did with you and we will talk.”

He nodded, still trying to get it through his head. He brushed his hand through his hair as he laughed, “Carl Owen is my dad. Are you sure?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t even know that you exist.”

“Wow!”

He was speechless, as I would have been if someone had just sat down and told me my whole life history, one that had been hidden from me for so many years.

“He’s not married. He doesn’t even have any kids. So, why did you never get in touch with him?”

“I never followed him, but he must be retired now?”

“Yes, he got engaged or something a couple of times, but it never worked out. I remember that there was a rumor that he could have been gay. But, now I think I know why he never married.”

I didn’t see what that had to do with anything. I’d just come to tell him my story, but as he stared out of the window, I could tell that there was something else on his mind.

“That doesn’t excuse what you did.”

I nodded, “I know.”

“Ava could have had an abortion or something, because of your behavior. You’re my mom and I love you.”

He whispered as he came so close to me, “But being tortured, why weren't you the opposite? More accepting and vulnerable to the situation? Instead you were more like your dad. Mean. Selfish. Closed-minded.”

I rested back on my chair, I wanted to kiss him and tell him that no matter what I loved him and the sacrifices that I made were all done in the name of love. But the more I tried to think of the words to say, the more I reached the realization that Noah was right. There were no excuses. No reasons for my behavior and I could apologize a thousand times; at the time it had felt like the right thing to do. Looking back, everything about it was wrong.

“Sorry.”

I cried, but not to get sympathy, but because I had made so many mistakes and voicing them, hearing them out loud made me realize that.

He stood up, “Let’s go.”

I sat and grabbed my purse thinking that I needed to head back to the shelter. There was a woman that was coming in today, her husband was abusing her and she was a complicated case. One that I had said I would personally deal with.

“Because you need to come home with me. I’ll talk to Ava later. You’ll meet my kids and then I’ll talk to Carl. I should be able to reach him one way or another.”

I started to panic. The idea of coming face-to-face with Carl was a completely different matter. “Mom?”

I nodded, because I could see fire in Noah’s eyes. I knew that if I didn’t, he would be out of my life again for good and I couldn’t do that to him. I had to call the shelter and get someone else to take my case. I would deal with it tomorrow.

“I can’t.”

He held me up and commanded, “Mom, you need to stop running away and face everything. Today was just the beginning.”

I shouted back, “And the end!”

He shook his head. “Not while I’m still breathing. I won’t let it be the end. This is the beginning and I’m going to talk to Carl and you’re coming with me. Then, we’ll sit down with Mia, because I want to hear that story too. Then, after all is said and done, we’ll go back to Stowe Peak.”

I hated where this conversation was going, but I found myself with two options. Losing my son and daughter forever, or going back to the shelter and living a fake life, one that would involve not knowing the rest of my living family. I wanted to do that. I should have done that, but I found myself in this position.

The one that Noah was putting me in. I sighed, “Okay.”

He nodded and said, “Good. Tell whoever you need to, that you won’t be coming back for a while.”

I was going to say something in protest, but he repeated it, “For a while.”

Noah, as much as I hated to admit it, the way he spoke and acted was just like my dad. He had a way of saying things that no one could disagree with and I wondered if I saw this in him now because I hated my dad so much and wanted a way out.

I got on the phone to the shelter and said that I wouldn’t be coming back. It was strange that Tiffany said that she thought that was the case and had already started to sort out my cases. I wondered how she knew, when I didn’t have a clue. It didn’t matter, because as soon as I got off the phone, Noah held my hand and led me out of the coffee shop, the one that I had been sitting in for the last few hours. He smiled at me and said, “Mom, everything’s going to be alright.”

I nodded and said, “I hope so.”

He laughed and said, “I know for sure.”

###The End###

Disclaimer

The school, location and team in this book are figments of my imagination and are not meant to resemble any existing team or school. This book takes place somewhere in Montana.

The religious elements of the book are again, part of my imagination. They do not have any relation to any aspect of the Christian practices or beliefs.

To be released in November…

Carl’s story: The Quarterback’s Secret

Noah said that he had something to say.

I was impressed that someone as young as him would get in touch with me.

There was something familiar about him and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that we were twins.

He had the same sparkling blue eyes.

And dirty blond hair.

I thought that he wanted a heads-up about game plans; from time to time the new quarterbacks got in touch with the old ones.

They wanted tips on how to improve their game.

How to score more touchdowns.

But as he stood at my front door and I ushered him in, I knew straight away when I saw her standing behind him.

Michelle.

The one that left me.

The one that I couldn’t find.

Had come back.

I looked at Noah again and knew.

That not only was he a fan, but he had to have been my love child, too.

***Bonus Stepbrother Sports Romance Secret Baby Novella***