The Lost One (Lost Series Book 1) (27 page)

“Are you okay, beautiful?” I hear the worry in his words and see his furrowed brow and concerned eyes. Cords pull at my heart and words scream at me,
Tell him…NOW!
I really want to, but I don’t want Jacob to ruin this day. I know I keep making excuses not to tell him, but at least I have told someone…Blake.

I remember I got a message.
Corban is crouched in front of me, waiting for my answer. He needs to know I’m okay.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m all good, just a stupid mistake. You know me and my clumsiness,” I giggle. I stand up, as does he, and I wrap my arms around him as he does the same to me. Comfort and calmness flows from him like a current. I know this man is always here for me and would do anything to help and protect me. Why can’t I tell him?

I guess perhaps I want answers from Blake first. Gather all the facts together first, then deal with the rest.

“I spoke to Mum before and we have decided to go to Central Park and head to lunch and probably some shopping.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him at the mention of shopping. I’m dying to have a look in Victoria’s Secret and find more of those gorgeous sets that I can lavish my body with
and give Corban something to drool over. His crooked smile crosses his face. I’m sure he knows what I’m getting at.

“I’ve also invited Rachel, you
wanna come?”

He laughs at my invitation. I slap him on the chest. “Sorry, beautiful, but I don’t think your dad would want to walk around shopping with you, your mum, and Rachel. I could take him to do something else if he wants?” he queries.

“Oh, yeah! He would like that…perhaps drill you with a lot of questions.” I smile at him. He runs his hands along my arms, taking my hands lightly in his.

“I will take him after lunch. Let’s go have a light breakfast and get ready for the park. Are you okay today with everything?”

“Yeah, I’ve been through this day plenty of times. It’s still painful knowing I lost Abby, but I know I need to live and be happy and do all the things we planned to do, but only I have to do them on my own now.” I look down at my feet, sadness fills my heart one beat at a time.

Corban’s
hand rests under my chin, lifting my face to meet his eyes.

“You don’t have to do it alone now,” he whispers before his lips hit mine. Our kiss intensifies with each moment. I’m not alone; he is right. It’s now me and him. We love each other and plan to be there for each other through the good and bad times. I know that sounds like a marriage vow, but that’s our silent, unspoken vow we have, I believe. I feel so complete with him in my life. Thank goodness for getting too drunk to make it up the stairs one night. Happiness consumes me and as our kiss proceeds. I soon find myself back in bed making sweet love with the man of my dreams.

****

We pick Mum and Dad up around lunch time and head to the park. I’ve already collected the balloons from the store. A range of different colours, all Abby’s favourite and all bright and vibrant like she was.

This morning’s text message was from Blake. All he replied with was:

Leave it with me.

I hope he comes back to me with something. I don’t want to live in fear. Jacob must be deranged to think Abby is still alive, and if she was, why wouldn’t she have tried to contact me or something during this time? He just doesn’t want to accept the fact he killed her. He ripped her from my life like you would rip an old Band-Aid from a wound. That quick and she was gone.

“What happened to your hand, Mel?” My stomach twists. Do I tell them I burnt it while cooking my boyfriend breakfast in bed and he distracted me for a second by sensually kissing me or do I tell them all about Jacob and Blake?

“I burnt it cooking breakfast this morning.” Corban coughs beside me. I quickly look up and glare at him. His face quickly straightens. But it’s too late; my mum doesn’t miss a thing when it comes to these kinds of things. She smiles at me. All the while, Dad is too busy looking out the window to take in the conversation. For that, I’m grateful. No father wants to know about his daughter’s sex life. I think we would both die of embarrassment.

“Oh, honey, you need to be careful. Let me have a look.” She takes my hand from my lap and gently
unwraps the bandage. As she inspects it, I feel Corban’s eyes on me, burning over me and setting my skin aflame. “Looks bad, darling. Perhaps we should see the doctor later?” She peers up at me. Her eyes telling me this is my chance to do something about the whole contraception thing before something happens. I nod in answer to her question.

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea, just in case,” I reply.
Smart thinking, Mum.

The car stops at the park. Mum quickly wraps my hand back up with care. We climb out, taking in the beautiful park, and its coloured leaves of orange, yellow and greens. It’s a breathtaking sight. Abby would have loved this place, especially now in the autumn.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Corban whispers in my ear as he wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me to his side. I hook my arm around him and we walk together, Mum and Dad following behind us, talking quietly between themselves.

“It’s breathtaking,” I breathe. Looking around, my eyes connect with every tree and every fallen leaf around my feet. It’s like a continuous sunset you walk through. The light breeze is as refreshing as gentle kisses all over my exposed skin. I love this place. It’s calming and peaceful in every way.

“Just like you,” he says lightly, leaning over to kiss my rosy pink cheek. I close my eyes for an instant, taking in the beautiful moment.

We walk around for a little bit before we come across a small bridge. Mum and I look at each other, instantly knowing this is a perfect place to release these balloons. We all stand on the bridge against the rail, looking over at the view of the lake. I can’t put into words how special it is.

It’s a new beginning. A new chapter in my life and I have Corban who fills my body with love and affection.

We don’t say things aloud. We each take a balloon or two and silently speak to Abby. I know she hears our thoughts and prayers.
Corban stands behind me, his hands wrap around my waist. He doesn’t say anything; knowing he is here for me is enough.

I look up to the bright blue sky and close my eyes, picturing Abby, laughing, vibrant and full of life. I think of our eighteenth birthday and when we swapped our gifts. I gave her the locket, which she never took off for anything. It was a unique locket I found in an antique store. She loved old things, and the moment I laid my eyes on this necklace, I knew it was all her. Every carving on it was perfect just like her.

It is a love heart-shaped locket on the end of a belcher chain. It has a charm of a wing on it with a blue stone. Blue was her favourite colour, so I had no doubts she would love it. It has beautiful flower engravings on the front of the locket and I got her name engraved on the back.

It was the only thing of hers the police officers found, along with all her blood around the apartment. My heart clenches at the thought. I scrunch my eyes up tighter, trying to push the tears back. When I open them, they are blurry with water. I still have the locket at home in my jewellery box. Once the officers gave it to me, I never took it out of there, but I always wear the ID bracelet she gave me. It’s the last thing she ever gave me and I will cherish it forever.

I don’t want today be a sad day from now on. I want to remember those fun times we had. The dancing around the living room to all the old school and nineties music. I smile at the thought. When she told me about her first kiss with some class nerd behind the science block at school, and I told her she would have nerd germs now. We were only fourteen at the time.

I look toward Mum and Dad who talk between themselves, sharing moments and memories they have of Abby. I look up at my red and white balloons and let them go. They dance in the wind as they float away.

I love you, Abby. You are forever in my heart.

I wipe away the single tear on my cheek as I watch the red and white dots dance further into the distance until they are just black dots. Mum and Dad have just released theirs and walk over to me.
Corban steps back while Mum, Dad, and I wrap our arms around each other. Supporting each other. They aren’t crying. They are smiling and have a new look about them. A change. A new beginning as well.

This is what we needed, all of us.
To let go of that anger of losing her. To move on, but never forget her. She is engraved in our hearts for time and all eternity.

We all walk around chatting. We talk about things Abby and I did as kids, the trouble we got into. Mum even reminds me of a lot of things we got into, especially the day we both got into her makeup and painted ourselves with red lipstick. It took a day or two for the red to finally disappear from our faces.

After we finish our stroll through the park, Jonas comes to get us. Rachel and Axel are in the car. Dad and the boys strike up a conversation about hunting or tattoos; I’m not sure. Rach is telling Mum about all these shops we have to go to today. She also asks about my hand and she, as well, doesn’t miss a beat like Mum. It’s scary how much this girl reminds me a little of Abby.

My phone beeps, alerting me of a text message. Scrambling through my bag, I pull it out and automatically the world around me freezes and the air in my lungs stills. I catch my breath. There on the screen is a picture of me at the park as I was just releasing the balloons. I open the message and it’s from that same number with a message attached to the picture.

Where is she? I know you know…

“Mel, are you okay? You look like you have seen a ghost.” I finally pull my eyes from my phone and quickly lay it in my lap, so no one around me sees the message, especially
Corban.

“Um…yeah, just a message from an old friend from Philly,” I breathe out. I’m struggling to make a full sentence and my chest is tight with every kind of emotion running through it. I don’t want to get upset and alert anyone about what’s going on, not today anyway.

“Where have we decided to go for lunch?” I ask, trying to steer the attention away from me. Corban’s hand reaches over taking mine. Squeezing it, he lets me know he is here when I’m ready to talk.

I look at him and he nods.
Did he see my message?

His cold eyes divert to my phone and back to me. His cheeks begin to redden with anger.
Yep, he saw it.
My eyes burn into his and I slightly shake my head to tell him not to make a thing of this till later. I crush his hand in mine until he gets the message and leans over placing a kiss on my forehead.

“We will talk about that message later.” His voice is stern and full of anger, but there is also a hint of concern. Fear rolls over my body like a blanket. Am I seeing a different side to him? I nod again, unable to speak.

I remove my hand from his. I want out of this car now. I know I’ve done the wrong thing, but he doesn’t need to be this angry at me. I was always going to tell him. I’m sure he will be seeing red once I tell him the whole story.

I decide to block him out and turn my thoughts to having Mum here and deal with him later. We head to Jerry’s, since it’s one of my favourite places, and stuff ourselves till we can’t fit another mouthful in.

Afterwards, the boys go one way and us girls head to the shopping strip. I decide to check my bank account to see what I can afford today.
HOLY HELL!
How did I get five thousand dollars in my account?

Another message comes through while I look where the money came from. It’s from
Corban.

Happy shopping! Love you, beautiful x

Corban! Why would he do that? I don’t need his money to be able to afford things.

You didn’t need to do that. I would have been fine with my money, but thanks xx New shoes, here I come! LOL! Love you, too!

Sometimes I don’t get his mood swings. Maybe it’s a sorry for how he reacted. Whatever the case, I guess I will be getting some spending done today!

Mum, Rachel, and I have spent the whole afternoon walking and buying new outfits, shoes, and basically anything we could carry. Mum didn’t ask about my extravagant spending, which is good. I made an appointment with my doctor. She could only see me late this afternoon, so we have been having a ball while we wait.

I spot a beautiful boutique across the street with a stunning turquoise dress in the window. That will get Corban excited and it will go great with the Victoria’s Secret, cream colour, lacy set I bought earlier.

“Come on, ladies, that dress has my name written all over it,” I laugh, struggling a little with all the bags in my hands. I feel like a tourist trying to get as much shopping done as I can so I can do something new tomorrow. I love having Mum with me. She was even picking out some very random lingerie sets for me earlier, and she even bought one for herself! I nearly died picturing the thought of her and Dad…
ewww…let’s not think about that.

I step in the door and am automatically floored by the site in front of me. Athena.
This is her work place, just great.
I look to Rachel who smiles weakly at me.