The Good Sister (18 page)

Lindsey was back and THE MAN was relieved. He had no idea where she went, or what really went on while she was gone. He didn’t like not knowing. He didn’t like it when he had no tabs on her. But most of all, he missed actually seeing her. Even if he could only find snippets in gossip columns, or pictures from the local charitable foundation that she sponsored. Whatever he could find always helped get him through his day. She looked better now, and seemed a smidgeon less skeletal looking. She even had some color in her face.

When Elliot finally a
nnounced his run for governor, the man’s heart leapt with joy. They’d soon be all over the local county and state newspapers. Maybe even become national news. It was fantastic. 

“Where did she go?”

Noah sighed. He’d already told Tessa that Lindsey returned home about a half dozen times. She didn’t seem to believe him. “She lives on the East Coast, with her husband. She simply went back home. But I’ll still come to see you, Tessa. I won’t abandon you.”

Tessa folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. She relied on him, but she wanted to talk to Lindsey. Lindsey had visited her every evening, on her way home from work for two weeks straight, while Noah could only manage to swing by every few days. She was holed up in the shelter with her six kids and it was amazing they stayed away from Dean thus far. Dean got released from the hospital, but there was an ongoing investigation into what happened between Dean and Tessa. He was uninjured, unfortunately, for Noah. But at least, Tessa didn’t have to live with the additional fear of being prosecuted for murder. Now, however, as Lindsey often explained to him, he had to keep the pressure on Tessa so she would not go right back home to it. It boggled his mind. Why? Why would anyone return to such hideous treatment? It made no sense to him.

Tessa wasn’t all that relieved to be away from her home. She was torn. Noah realized Lindsey was correct, that there was a fifty percent chance Tessa would go right back. He wished he could do something about it. He wished he could change it, but didn’t know how to.

So, in order to avoid thinking about Lindsey, his mission was to make sure Tessa did not return to Dean. When she waffled and carped about living in the shelter with her six kids, he offered them his house, despite Lindsey’s advice otherwise. He couldn’t help it. While discussing what she should do, Noah simply said they could stay with him, just to keep them from going back to an abusive household.

Soon after, Noah had six kids and a middle-aged woman moving into his house. It was not exactly what he meant to do, but even he could see they were browbeaten kids. They were unnaturally quiet and seemed so fearful of him, he had no hesitation in deciding he had to do that. He owed it to them and happily discovered that his dogs were also helpful in comforting them. The kids spent hours out playing with and holding them. The dogs seemed to offer connections that they could find nowhere else.

Lindsey called Noah two weeks after she left so abruptly.

“Lindsey?” he answered immediately, interrupting his consultation with a couple about their dog’s cancer. He pulled a “Lindsey” and stepped out by pretending it was his sick friend.

“Yes? Hi.” An awkward pause floated over the distance.

“How are you?”

“Fine. Is Tessa okay? Did she go back to Dean?”

“No, she didn’t go back. And she’s not okay, but she will be. She would sure appreciate a phone call from you. How could you promise her so much and then just abandon her like that?”
And me.
The thought startled him. No. He wasn’t abandoned by her. He was simply annoyed when she got so weird with her husband and left without another word to him, despite all the time they spent together.

“I don’t have time. Not anymore. Look, you have got to quit calling me. And tell Penny the same goes for her.”

“Why? Why can’t we call you? I only called because I had some questions about work. You didn’t exactly leave me with any notice. What the hell was that about?”

“That was me going home. Just stop calling.” She waited a long moment, then said softly, “Please, Noah. Just stop.”

He leaned his head into the cabinet. Damn, why did Lindsey always get to him? Fine. He would quit calling and make sure his sister did too although he didn’t know Penny was also trying to contact Lindsey.

“What happened with you and your sister?”

“What needed to happen. I’ve got to go now. Goodbye.”

He stared at the phone but she was gone. Just like that. He slammed his fist into the cabinet.
What the fuck just happened?

Lindsey walked into their bedroom after a quick workout down in the exercise room. She wished she could go to a gym, just for the company. She saw no one but the house staff, Elliot, and now, Cal. He was temporarily set up in their downstairs office. They were working on renting some office space downtown, but for now, Cal was there all the time. She hated it. She had to stick even closer to her room. And sneak around him. He was too
handsy, and way too forward. Elliot wouldn’t like knowing that, but would have gotten even more furious if she ruined his relationship with the manager of his campaign.

She felt more isolated now than before she left for Washington. Elliot decided their separation wasn’t a good thing, although she worked extra hard to please him after they returned.

She was on her way to the shower when she stopped dead in her tracks. Elliot stood by the window, staring out, unmoving.

“Did you fuck him?”

She froze and her entire body shuddered. Her heart nearly dropped out of her chest like a stone to the ground. Who? What happened?

“What? Elliot, I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
Cal?
Was he talking about his touchy-feely manager? But that wasn’t her fault. She did nothing to encourage him. She only spoke to him in Elliot’s presence, or when the situation demanded it.

He turned slowly. His expression was blank, but his eyes sparked with anger as they held her gaze. He took a step forward and she stepped back. He paused, rubbing a hand on his chin as if contemplating something. She licked her lips. Something was really, awfully wrong. He was way too calm. Way too controlled. She knew the signs. But what had she done? And worse, what was he going to do?

“Who? The man who calls your cell phone almost daily! Is that his signal? He calls once and you call back from the pay phone?”

Her breath stopped and her mind went numb.
He must’ve followed her
. One time. She did it only one time. She walked to the park and used one of the old relic phone booths. She called simply to get Noah to leave her alone, to prevent something just like this from occurring. She started shaking her head no. “I simply wanted him to quit calling me. I think he had a crush on me. It wasn’t reciprocated. I told him to never call me again. Call him. Right now. Go ahead. That is all we discussed. I insisted he leave me alone.”

He stopped up short and stared at her hard. Her breathing increased and her hands grew moist. Did he believe her? Would he leave her alone? What? She almost screamed. What was he thinking?

The minutes dragged on and on, but he didn’t move a muscle in his face. He didn’t react as if he’d even heard her. What? Where was Elliot going with this?

Then… he rushed forward. It was so fast, she barely blinked and it happened. One second, he was there watching her, and the next, he was coming for her.

She turned and started for the door, but wasn’t fast enough, much less strong enough. He tackled her, pushing her head first to the ground. Her chest fell to the floor with him in a breath-sucking “thump!” All the air left her body. She clawed at the carpet as he took her hair in his fist and jerked her head backwards, bringing her body up towards him. He stood up, and dragged her with him. She screamed and kicked at the carpet. The hair was nearly ripping out of her scalp.
Oh God, stop it! Stop it! Please let the pain stop!
She twisted away from his grasp and he suddenly paused before lifting her up almost over his head. She hung helplessly over him before he took his knee and planted it directly into her stomach. She screamed out and he threw her. She fell against the end of the wooden bed frame. Her head slammed into it. Sliding down to the floor, the shock began disorienting her.

He was on top of her, pinning her as he wrapped his hands around her throat. He squeezed and her breath stopped. Her lungs started to convulse. He was choking her. He intended to kill her. The fever was hot in his eyes, and she clawed at his hands. The
implosion in her chest was the most painful moment of her life. She closed her eyes as all the air left her, hoping her life would soon end too.

Then he let go. He was breathing hard, and his eyes sparkled with insane excitement. She swallowed a lungful of air as he slammed his fist into her jaw. He did it again to her chest. It cracked against her ribcage.

“If you fucked him, I’ll kill you. You know that, don’t you? You are mine.”

There was no tone to her voice. Her throat was on fire, and there was no sound. He shook her repeatedly. No! No! No! She didn’t fuck him. But it didn’t matter because he didn’t care. He had already decided. Maybe it didn’t matter anymore when he did it. He would kill her one day, no matter what. Was it now? This time?

She clutched the carpet and tried to crawl away, but couldn’t get traction. Tears flowed everywhere, over her cheeks and chin, dripping onto the carpet. The rug burned her knees and palms as she struggled to crawl away. He grabbed her waist to hold her still before his fist connected with her stomach.

She couldn’t take it. She couldn’t withstand it. Not anymore. It was too much pain. The pain ripping through her finally erupted with a garbled scream that escaped her burning throat.

He suddenly slammed her head back into the bed again. She lost all sense of time and space, quickly fading from the scene. She willingly let the blackness take over. She didn’t feel him anymore. She felt nothing. Numbness. Oblivion. It was overwhelming. She couldn’t take anymore. She couldn’t stand it anymore. She couldn’t live through it anymore. She was ready and willing to die.

Rolling over, her eyes fluttered open. It was dark. There wasn’t a spark of light. He locked her in the closet. Again.
Fuck.
She groaned as she felt around with one hand. Yes. She was in their small linen closet. It was just big enough to step into and he stuffed her into the bottom of it. He only did so when he was really mad and his rage had him close to killing her. She touched her head. Gooey liquid was smeared on her forehead and now her finger too. Everything hurt. Her throat still burned and stung, along with her head, her stomach and her legs. Even her scalp stung.

She couldn’t fully stretch out in the tiny closet and he had padlocked the door. He put the lock there himself a year ago during the heat of another rage. He threw her in there, and held it shut as she beat relentlessly in protest. He drilled right through the wood and installed his own lock. He left her in there for only an hour that time. She knew there was no getting out. No yelling for help. It was in their bathroom. Which was, no doubt, locked
along with their master bedroom door. He would just tell the staff she was ill and not to be disturbed. They would never dare. She would remain there until he cooled off. She curled back into a ball. Breathe. In and out. In and out.

You are not here. You are not locked in a closet. You are not here. You are not here.

But… she was. Why deny it? She allowed this to happen to her. She returned to him. She never even tried to leave. The tears filled her eyes and slid down her face. Silence. There was no use in calling or screaming or crying. There was no Will Hendricks waiting to rescue her from her dark hole, simply because she told him not to. She told nobody, so she deserved the consequences. The pain in her head, her chest, her back, her neck, and her insides was the punishment, the torture, and the result of her choice to return.

She reached down and pulled her knees up to her chin as far as her aching, bruised body would allow.
Let me die. Let me go. Let it be over now. Please
.

That was when her denial stopped working.

Noah might have gone too far by moving Tessa and crew into his house. But he was glad he did. As time passed, she grew marginally stronger each day, and he was glad she was there and no longer in danger. He made sure she got extra police protection now that Dean was free. The response from the police was a surprise to him. They didn’t blow it off, not any of it as Lindsey suggested. It was as serious and felonious as any other crime of violence. So, Tessa and her six kids were under Noah’s care and doing okay. Or as okay as a woman could be who had nothing and no one in the world but strangers to rely on. After being left in the lurch by Lindsey, and with Jessie on full bed rest, he offered Tessa the temporary position at the vet. He wanted Jessie to return as soon as she could with no intention of having her replaced. But he figured Tessa could handle the tasks, or at least a limited version of the tasks until he could find something more permanent for her. However, when he suggested it to Tessa, she looked at him as if he just started speaking in foreign tongues until he explained his plan.

“Are you on drugs, Dr. Clark?”

His eyes brows furrowed in puzzled confusion at her response to his plan. “What? No. Why would you say that?”

“Because no one does that! No one but you would put up a woman and her six kids at your own expense and then offer me a job. Not to mention your time, your dogs, and your kindness and care. My God, you can’t do this for everyone who happens to be down on their luck.”

He put a hand gently to her shoulder and she flinched, but let him keep it there. Progress. It reminded him of how jumpy Lindsey was at first with him. She eventually learned to trust him and calm down too. “You were far worse off than just down on your luck, Tessa.”

“Perhaps, but still. It’s more than decent of you. I’ll try to do your job. I can’t say as I’ll be any good at it. I’ve never worked before. I left my daddy’s farm, and went straight to Dean.”

“You can do it. I’ll teach you.” Huh. That was so strange. She sounded a lot like Lindsey.

“Is she coming back soon?”

He frowned. Tessa would not let Lindsey go and desperately wanted her to come back. “No, Tessa, she’s not coming back anytime soon. You might as well forget you ever met her.”

“Forget I met her? She saved my life, Dr. Clark. She saved it! I never had anyone I could go to. Not until she came to me. Not until she lied to Dean, and got away with it. If a woman like her, who understood what I lived through, could stand up so brashly to Dean, well, it made me consider that maybe I could stand up to him too.”

“Her charity work was the thing that brought out the most emotion in her I ever witnessed. I have to admit, I told her to leave your situation alone. I was wrong, Tessa. I see that now, and I’m sorry, I almost didn’t help you. She was right.”

“Charity work don’t make a girl like her seek out a woman like me. She recognized it only because she lived it.”

“Lived it? No. What do you mean?”

“The scars. Her past relationship. She told me. I wouldn’t have told her otherwise.”

“No, Tessa you misunderstood. She does charity work with a battered woman’s shelter near her home.”

“I didn’t misunderstand the burn scar on her arm. I didn’t misunderstand it; she lived it.”

He jerked back and his breath faltered.
No. Not Lindsey… no
.

He stared at Tessa, but was unable to think one coherent thought. Suddenly, Lindsey’s entire personality started to click through his brain like still photos in an album. Lindsey getting so startled anytime he came near her and flinching whenever he touched her shoulder unexpectedly, just as Tessa did. Lindsey being too scared to move, to make coffee, or to answer a phone. Lindsey taking ten calls a day from her husband, no matter what she was doing, or who she was with. Lindsey begging him to let her continue doing it. Lindsey standing before Elliot and lying about her entire month spent working for him. Lindsey being held against her husband, and unable to move her head back. Lindsey… with scars? He shut his eyes and his entire body collapsed with sadness as he stared at the floor.

“She… told you she was abused?”

“Yes. A long time ago. She managed to get out.”

No. She got you out.
Noah knew it with as much certainty as he had blue eyes. Suddenly, finally, he knew exactly why she became so frantically determined to help Tessa. It was really a way of helping herself, because she had no intention of helping herself. He fisted his hands and his heart pounded loudly inside his ribcage. My God, she even said it to him, and he paid no more attention to her than he did to Tessa.

Oh, for
God’s sake, Noah, this is everywhere. In every small or large town. You know women being beaten. You talk to them every day. You just don’t know it. Not usually. I just want to help this one woman.

A knot formed in his throat.
Shit
. He was close to crying. The tears welled up behind his eyes and started choking him. He managed to miss every single flare she sent off. Even after meeting the disturbing, dominating, awful man, he still didn’t see what was plainly before his eyes.

And now, she was there with him, all alone, and not one person knew. He jerked up from his slouched position and stood up in a rush. “I’m sorry, Tessa, I have to go. Come to the clinic tomorrow morning and we’ll talk more then. Right now, I have to be somewhere.”

She watched him wearily and her eyes grew wide and then dimmed. “It wasn’t in the past for her, was it? It is now. She is me.”

He licked his lips. “Yes. She is you.”

Tessa shook her head. “I don’t understand. How could a woman like that put up with it? She…”

“Doesn’t look like a victim? That’s just the point, isn’t it? It can be any woman you talk to every single day. It’s everywhere. And no one wants to see it, or get involved.”

“She did though. She got involved. Why? Why did she help me?”

“Because she can’t help herself. You must stay away from Dean. You must keep your kids away. You must get well and make a new life now. If not for yourself, or your kids, then do it for her. She wanted that for you. She risked everything to make that happen for you. Now, you know why. Don’t waste it.”

Tears filled Tessa’s eyes, and Noah realized he had not yet seen her shed a tear. Not over her browbeaten kids, or having to go to the shelter, or because Dean was still alive. Nothing. The thought of Lindsey helping her touched her so much and she shook her head. “Only if you promise to help her.”

He started for the door. “That’s exactly what I intend to do.”