A Beautiful New Life (25 page)

“What the hell was that all about? What happened?”
Jordan
saw the bruises starting to form on her wrist.

“He attacked me after work...on my way home…he surprised me.” She was bawling. “I wasn’t paying attention and he surprised me
…
I sprayed him.”

Jordan pulled her in his arms. “
It will be okay. It has to be.
”
He
stood there by the door holding
her, trying to calm her nerves. When she quieted
,
he led her to the kitchen and
they
made dinner together. They sat close to each other holding hands while they ate. They did not want to leave each other, not even for a moment.

“
You know, we don’t even
know what Mark thinks he knows.
I really
don’t
think we
need to worry
too much
about him
. If he
had
go
ne
to them, they would have been here by now
.
Word traveled fast about our engagement.
Besides,
he was always
a
loose
cannon.
You’re
n
ot the first person he attacked, b
ut he’s the Mayor’s nephew so they let him be so long as no one gets seriously hurt.
And
what you did to him wasn’t serious. It has been said that the Mayor is hoping someone puts a real hurt on him because he is getting tired of his antics.”

“So you think we’re in the clear.” She held his hand tighter not wanting to relax and lose a moment with him.

“They’ll probably watch us
for a while, but yes, I think we are in the clear.
”

“So all that love making was for nothing?” She was trying to relax as Jordan had.

“For nothing?
I will show you for nothing.” He grabbed
her, flipped her over his shoulder,
and carried her to the bedroom.

The next morning they got up and headed off to work. Megan was going to wa
lk but Jordan thought it best that
he take her. “It’ll look better if you felt he was a
real
threat be
cause he might hurt you
.”

“So then shouldn’t I go to the police about him attacking
me?”They
got into his car now and Jordan pondered what she had said.

“I didn’t think of that. We probably should have
gone
last night.” He slammed his fist on the steering wheel.

“It’ll be alright. If they question us about that just tell them that I didn’t want to and begged you not t
oo either.” She rubbed his arm.
She hated seeing him this frustrated.

He only got this frustrated when something bad involved her. He was so protective. It scared the hell out of her that he
c
ould someday pay the ultimate price for her. Was she worth
it?

They arrived at Louise’s work and Jordan gave her a kiss goodbye. He held her a little longer than normal and then whispered in her ear. “Don’t look now but there are two men standing by a black sedan. They are part of the security detail.
I’m
only telling you this so you are aware of who they are. Just ignore them and if they talk to you just act natural.” He pulled away now and held her face in hi
s hands. “
I love you.”

“I love you too Jordan.” He hugged and kissed once more and she got out of the car and walked into work without incident.

It was an unusually warm morning and she had on a short sleeve shirt
,
you could see the bruises on her arms from the incident with Mark. She now thought maybe it would have been better to
wear
a long sleeve shirt
, so
as soon as she got to her desk she grabbed her jacket
b
ut before she could
put it on
Edith came by and noticed the bruises.

“What happened to you?” She came over and held the jacket so Louise could not put it on
to cover her bruises
.

“Oh
you scared me. You’re in early today.” Louise sat in her chair and folded her arms to her chest trying to hide the bruises.

“Not so fast little one. What happened to you?” She was kneeling beside her now.

“I really don’t want to talk about
it.”She
tried to turn to her computer but Edith pulled her chair around and out from the desk.

“Who did this to you? Did
Michael
do this?”

“Oh my god, no.
Michael
would never hurt me.
No,
don’t
say that.
DON”T
you
ever say that.”
Louise never thought for a moment that anyone would think Jordan had done this.

“
Was it Mark
?” She was not going to give in.

She told Edith
of the run-ins she had
with Mark
outside of work
. How they ha
d come less often when she
and Jordan moved in together
, b
ut she was only assuming that the word of their upcoming nuptials had set him off and he started to follow her again. He even came to the house and then yesterday he had followed her home and attacked her. She told Edith about the pepper spray she had made and used on him.

“I should’ve reported him but he had never done anything more than follow me before or catch me off guard and
talk to me
.
Sometimes
he would
stand a little to
o
close for comfort. I’m so stupid.” She buried her head in her hands and thought hard to make the tears come. She would be damned if she was going to waste tears on him.
But
she had to, to make it convincing.

Edith patted her on the shoulder. “You aren’t stupid my dear. You’re just too good hearted that you didn’t, couldn’t think the worst of someone who…well is pretty pathetic if you ask me.”

Edith surprised
Louise by
her
kindness. She wondered if she had
been wrong about
her. She was sure she was one of them. Had she had the wrong
Edith?
She now wondered if she could confide in her. She never had any other friends here. She missed having a woman to talk to her. She missed her best friend Fran. Had they all but given up hope on
her?

“Well if you need anything you just let me know.” Edith hugged her and turned to go back to her desk

“Wait. There is something.”

Edith stopped. “Yes dear what is
it?
”

“Well
…
I don’t know how to say this?”

“Just say it dear.”

“Well I don’t want it to come out wrong. I need you to be open about what I am
g
oing to say.”

“You know sometimes the best thing to do is just get to the meat of the subject and bypass all the side dishes.”

She laughed. “I like that. Okay here goes.” She fiddled with her jacket that Edith handed back to her. “Will you be my maid of honor?”

“Really you want this old lady to be your maid of honor. I’m sure you have someone else you can ask.”
She laughed.

I do but she is someone I am not supposed to remember.
Louise thought but she said. “I really haven’t developed any close relationships since I’ve been here. I guess a part of me was waiting for my memory to come back and now that it still hasn’t
…
” 

“Well are you getting married soon? Oh my do you need to get married?’ Edith’s eyes were lighting up again as they had the day she found out they were getting married.

“No, no.” Louise laughed. “I’m not pregnant.”

“Well just a wedding will do then I guess. Maybe you will meet someone much prettier to stand up for you. But if not I’ll be honored.”

“Thanks Edith.”

The days continued to crawl by. The
security detail
w
as
everywhere Louise and Jordan were.
Like Jordan said, w
hether they were together or
alone
,
the security detail would follow them.
They
had been interviewed
, not about the accusations made by Mark
,
but by the ones made by Louise. Why would he attack her? Has he done this before? Why had not she said anything to anyone?
Repeatedly
they asked her these questions, treating her
like
she was in
an
interrogation.
T
hey were trying to break both of them and hope that one would falter and let some other piece
of information
slip
,
b
ut they stuck to their story.

Louise arrived home. “Hey you’re home early.” She went over to him sitting on the
couch, bent down,
and gave him a kiss.

“Did anyone follow you home today? “ He pulled her down to the couch. They have been careful to have their conversations in whispers afraid of the house
was
bugged.

“Actually now that you mentioned it, no I don’t recall seeing anyone.” She sighed deeply hoping this was behind them now.

“Well I think we should leave next Friday as planned. I still need to get
the
keys to your
car
and make sure
I know where
it
is parked so we
aren’t
wasting time and risk getting caught.
I’m
going to wait until dark to sneak off to the parking lot and try them so I won’t be home until late. I wanted to let you know so you don’t worry.” She gave him that look. “Okay that was wrong I know you will worry until I get home but you need to try and not worry.” He pulled her close and kissed her. “I promise to make this happen. We’re getting you out of here.”

Tears threatened, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Jordan’s words she had shrugged off weeks ago now hung around her like bees to a hive. She had been so positive until
the incident with
Mark happened.

The next day Louise came home to an empty house. Knowing Jordan was putting himself in danger to help her made the emptiness unbearable. She made dinner putting his serving in the microwave. She took
hers, sat on the couch,
and flipped through the TV. It was all repeats again. They must be waiting for last season to
be released
on DVD. That was her story anyway.
She
and Jordan had discussed how it was that they got TV, internet, and news but they were never able to connect with the outside world.
It was
like
they were a world of their own with only allowed communications in and none out.

Jordan finally made it home just after ten. He nudged Louise awake where she slept on the couch. “Hey your dinner’s in the microwave? What time is it?”

“It’s late. Go to bed, I’m going to grab a bite of my dinner and then I’ll be in.” He kissed her goodnight and went to the kitchen.

“Where you able to get the key?”
She
followed him in to the kitchen and sat with him while he ate.

“
Yes, but I couldn’t find your car
.”

“
What
?”

“
Maybe t
hey use the vehicles.  Hell for all I know they
could be the cars
on the used lot in town.” He took a sip of his
milk
. “
But s
ince your key
was
in your box I assume
d
they
hadn’t
use
d
your
car
for anything.”

“So what does that
mean?”
She
got up and paced the tiny kitchen. She wanted to cry, to scream out. Why, when it felt so close that they were leaving, did everything seem to fall apart?

“Well when I didn’t find your car, I checked a few that were out there and believe it or not the keys were in the ignition.” He said. “So we can just take the first one we come to.” He finished the last bit
e
of food on his plate
,
got up
,
and put his plate in the sink. He turned to Louise and pulled her in his arms. “Come on let’s go to bed.”