Unleashed (11 page)

For the last four days, Hank was showing no mercy to Samantha. She began to get frustrated and couldn’t help but feel like it was more than work that was frustrating Hank that made him take it out on her. She felt like there was no possible explanation for this treatment and she started to count down the hours until Emma came back. She didn’t know how much longer she could do this, she was so glad that Emma would be coming back on Monday. Too bad it was Saturday and she was called in for a reason that still remained unknown.

She had been sitting at her desk for an hour and couldn’t help but feel like she was being tested or even punished. By whom? She had no idea. But she knew that there was a reason for everything and if that was the case then she decided it was best if she just allowed her karma to come. If that means taking this treatment from Hank, then so be it. Anything was better than what she knew she deserved. And she deserved a hell of a lot. Including the karma she’d get for what she’d done to Emma.

For the next few days, Emma and Zack enjoyed their time together as much as possible. After he was done with conferences, they would go on dates, watch the sunset and the amount of times they made love, they’d even seen the sun rise together. Emma knew that she was leaving tomorrow and wasn’t sure that she wanted to leave just yet. She thought about postponing her flight for a couple more days, but Emma knew she eventually had to leave.

She finally found out that his last name was More, and she told him her last name as well. Occasionally he would call her Miss Sanget to be funny, but she cringed at the sound of it since that was what Samantha would call her at work. On the last night of her stay Emma decided to make the best of it. They made love again after they had dinner on the beach, and they laid on the bed with the sheets half covering their naked bodies. With their legs intertwined, Emma began to cherish these moments she’d grown accustomed to with Zack. She couldn’t help but feel sad knowing that tonight was their last night and then she’d have to go back to that hell hole called her office.

Zack could feel Emma tense up and he kissed her temple trying to relax her. He’d hoped he’d created a comfortable enough environment for her to tell him what was on her mind. They’d just had amazing sex, as usual, and all of a sudden it seemed as if she was about to shut him out. He couldn’t allow it, nor would he allow it. Zack began to feel as if he needed to keep her open to him because for some reason every day he’d spent with this woman, he’d grown to enjoy everything he’d learned about her. Somehow her flaws were cute, and surely in the long run they might become annoying, but as of right now, he took his fulfillment in just being with her.

Zack began to wonder about the real reason Emma came out here for vacation. Every time he talked about his job, or the reason why he came out here and explained it was for his business, Emma seemed to shut down and avoid discussing her line of work. He felt there was a reason for it, and maybe if she spoke to him about it she’d feel better.

“Emma?” he asked quietly while nibbling on her earlobe.

“Hmm?” she sighed at the warmth of his tongue.

“Why’d you really come out here for vacation?”

Emma immediately tensed up and began to move away from him slightly.

“What’s wrong Emma? Tell me. Is it your job?”

“I’d really prefer not to talk about it.”

“So it is your job. What happened? Were you fired?”

Emma looked up at him as he held her in his arms. She shook her head. “No. I wasn’t fired.”

“So then what is it about your job that stressed you out so much that you needed to take a vacation?”

Emma sighed, “Because my assistant is sleeping with my boyfriend.”

Zack’s body tensed up this time instead and moved away from her, “You have a man?”

Emma realized what she’d said and quickly rephrased, “No. Not anymore, he’s my ex now. It’s a long story.” She placed her head back down on his chest and Zack lifted Emma’s chin up with his finger.

“We have nothing but time” Zack stated as he kissed her lightly. “Tell me what happened. I think you need to talk it out. A vacation is nice to help the pain temporarily, but talking it out is a lot more beneficial.”

Emma bit her lip and nodded.  She told him everything about her relationship with Kevin and how well she thought it was going. Zack nodded his head and listened to her intently. He also wiped the tears that formed in her eyes as she talked about the betrayal that Kevin and Samantha had infringed upon her. “---I didn’t know they were sleeping together until we broke up. I mean I found out he was cheating and didn’t know with who. But to find out it was with someone as close as my assistant? Words cannot describe how hurt I was. It felt like someone stabbed me in the heart and in the back at the same time.”

Zack ached for her as he watched Emma speak about her asshole of an ex. He knew that every relationship wasn’t perfect, but he also knew that Emma was able to admit when she was wrong. But in this case, she wasn’t wrong. She had just loved the wrong man. Though she thought that she was being needy, clingy, or even too wife like, she had no idea how many men yearned to find a woman as loyal as her. Kevin was an imbecile who would get what’s coming to him. As Emma stopped speaking and just let the tears fall, Kevin kissed her forehead and pulled her closer. “Karma is a bitch Emma. Kevin and Samantha will get what’s coming to them. You have to remember that you shouldn’t want to try and get revenge on them because that anger will consume you. Plus, it doesn’t work that way. It happens when you least expect it. You deserve better than a pretty boy newscaster anyways. I’ve seen his segments, he’s not all that. I mean, he is good looking and what not, but he’s not worth all the pain he put you through…Do you still love him?” Kevin didn’t know why he had to know the answer to that question, but something in him made him ask her.

Emma closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She sighed deeply and shook her head. “No, I’m no longer in love with him, but I’ll always care about him. I think I was more in love with the idea of being in love, than actually being in love with the man. You know?”

Kevin nodded at Emma because he truly did understand.

“I mean, at one point, I definitely was in love with him. But after he started to become distant and I started to question myself and our relationship, I think that’s when I started to love the idea more than the man. He treated me like crap and I still pretended that it was ok. It wasn’t ok. Never again will I let a man take advantage of my love like that. That’s a promise.”

“Good, because you deserve more than that Emma.”

“Yeah, I know. But I just wish I knew who I was supposed to be with. If not Kevin, then who? I really wish God would send me a sign. This love stuff just isn’t for me I guess.”

“What’s meant to be, will be. Always remember that Em.” For some reason he became protective of Emma at the moment. Seeing her hurt, did something to him that he didn’t quite understand. When he’d seen Jessica cry he felt bad, but it was more pity than empathy. With Emma, he felt a surge of protectiveness that engulfed him, wishing he could punch Kevin’s jaw. He knew that she would be leaving soon and he needed to remember what he had with her. Instead of showing her his empathy with his eyes, he showed her with his body. Tonight, it would be different. It would be a goodbye. And they both took each other to new heights. A vacation neither of them would forget.

Emma woke up in the morning before Zack and snuck out of bed. Leaving a note behind her saying, “Thank you for everything Zack. You made this the best vacation I’ve ever had. Waking you up and saying goodbye would’ve been too hard to do. Love Emma” she rushed to put on her clothes and get to her hotel. Somehow she didn’t look too bad considering the amount of sex they’d had last night, but if she didn’t make it back to the hotel in thirty minutes, and get out of there within an hour she’d miss her flight which was leaving in three hours.

Emma made her flight and looked out at the runway which was sitting beside the beautiful Pacific Ocean. She held her breath as the plane began to speed down the runway and as the plane lifted off of the ground, Emma shed a tear.

Zack woke up and felt around for Emma’s body. When he felt her side was cool, he opened his eyes immediately and realized she was gone. He felt a sense of loss when he saw her clothes and belongings were no longer in his room. He sat up in bed and stretched, trying to understand why she wouldn’t say goodbye to him. He felt like she’d just disappeared without a trace. He didn’t even know where she lived. He just knew she was a mediator and that her last name was Sanget. Pulling back the sheets he heard of piece of paper crumple. Looking back to where the sound came from, he saw there was a note under the sheets and by the pillow that she laid on last night.

When Zack read it, he couldn’t understand why he didn’t want it to end. He felt the urgency to go after her. But in his head, his own words replayed. “What’s meant to be, will be.” Yeah, he understood that, he even agreed with it, but something told him that women like Emma didn’t come around often. He intended on finding her again when he arrived back in the states after his business in Hawaii was completed. There was no way he was going to let a good woman like Emma Sanget go without even trying.

As the next few weeks passed, Emma dealt with being back at the office and pretending like everything was perfectly fine at work with Samantha. Sometimes it’d be too hard and she’d have to isolate herself for a little bit and send up a prayer that God would give her the strength to deal with this woman. As badly as she wanted to fire Samantha, she kept in her little secret hoping that karma would really visit her before she had to. The times when she felt really low, she would think back to her times with Zack. The way that he would hold her and adore her body. In her head she kept hearing, “What’s meant to be, will be.”

Zack dealt with deals and going from hotel to hotel for the last few weeks and was ready to get home. His dad’s words no longer held the same meaning because he was doing a damn good job at building assets to the family’s franchise. He had every intention of sleeping in for a good three days when he got back home, but something stirred in him and reminded him that he hadn’t had sex since he’d been with Emma. Emma…his mind drifted off to the place that remembered her body next to his. He would gladly be going home in a few hours and after he got his days’ rest, he’d set off to find Emma Sanget. It was a promise he intended to keep to himself.

Samantha hated that Emma seemed so damn cheery. She’d play along with Emma wishing that somehow she’d be able to crush her spirit just a little or even catch a glimpse of Emma hurting. But there never seemed to come a time when Emma would show weakness or pain. It was like Kevin never happened. How was it so easy for her to get over the man that she claimed to be in love with? It made no damn sense to her! Every time that she would go home, she felt like she didn’t want to be there with Kevin. She would always be suspicious every single time his phone rang or buzzed. She didn’t care that he was hers.

But for how long? How long would that last? Until Kevin decided he was going to do the same thing he did to Emma to her. There were nights when she wondered why she did it but then she remembered how Emma had hurt her all that time ago and refused to let Kevin go until Emma cried like she did that night. Eventually she was going to tell Emma everything, and she was going to do it when it would hurt her the most.

Emma began to feel pains in her stomach when she went to sleep at night. She thought it was just her period coming, but it’d been late. Thinking back, she actually couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten her period. Lying on her side on her bed, Emma rubbed her stomach unconsciously. She kept thinking and realized she got it the week before she found out about her Kevin’s infidelities.

Something in her got her feeling nauseous and Emma ran to the bathroom to throw up. Holding her stomach still Emma shook her head at the fear that started to consume her. Emma realized she might be pregnant.

Looking through her bathroom cabinets and any little places that she would hide pregnancy tests, Emma remembered that she had went to a fundraiser a few months ago that handed out Clearblue and First Response pregnancy tests samples. She searched for the pocket book that she had used that day and found the tests in the back. Taking a deep breath she ran to drink some water to help her pee faster and went to sit on the toilet to take the test.

Three minutes later…

After she waited and walked around her place a couple of times, Emma ran back to the bathroom when she saw that four minutes had passed. She closed her eyes and walked over to the sink where both tests sat face up. She covered her mouth when she saw that the sticks confirmed what she feared might be true.

But how could this be possible? Then she remembered that there were times when she and Zack would get so caught up in the moment that they started sometimes without a condom and even once the condom popped. She truly didn’t think anything of the incidents but now she saw that there was a true side effect.

Emma was single and pregnant.

Zack rested for the next couple of days after he got back to his house in New Jersey. He stretched and saw that his emails were piled up and he had about twenty missed calls, but he did not care. He felt relaxed and he decided that today, he could go into work.

He got up and got dressed, preparing for a long day ahead that started at nine. He had around thirty minutes to spare to get breakfast from the deli and a Frappuccino from Starbucks. He drove like a madman and made it just in time for opening. He saw the manager of the store, Steve, opening up the shop for him.

They shared a brief update on each other’s lives and then went to work because they knew customers would be coming in soon and they had to be prepared. The other workers and mechanics at the shop stopped in his office when they got in to see how he’d been while he was gone for the last month and a half. His dad had filled in for him and checked on the shop while he was away and he had left an extensive write up about what they’d done over that time period. But something tugged at him in his body to look for Emma first. He knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on work if he didn’t at least know where she resided and he was feeling as if he needed to.

Zack googled, “Emma Sanget – mediator” and immediately her picture popped up as one of the top mediators in New York. She worked in New York City on West 35
th
street. She was close to all the hustle and bustle of the New York tourists and workers. That must be nice, but it also seems chaotic.

Zack always loved the city but he also enjoyed being able to rest in a quiet neighborhood. He wondered if she lived in the city as well or if she stayed in one of the boroughs. Or could she possibly live in Jersey as well? His mind raced with thoughts and he decided to call in and surprise her.

Dialing in the number that appeared on the screen, Samantha answered the phone, “Emma Sanget’s mediation. This is Samantha speaking, how may I help you?”

Zack cringed at the voice of the bitch who had hurt Emma so deeply, but he put that aside and talked to Samantha as a business man. “Good morning Samantha, I would like to schedule an appointment to get Miss Sanget’s opinion on what I should do about my family’s franchise.” He wasn’t lying completely, they did have a family business/franchise.

“Very well Sir, her next opening will only be able to be about thirty minutes tomorrow, at twelve. All other inquiries lasting longer than that will be available in about two weeks.”

Zack nodded, “Twelve is fine.”

“Good, may I have your name?”

“Gregory More.”

“Thank you Mr. More. Please arrive at least fifteen minutes before the scheduled time so that you’re able to fill out paper work. See you here tomorrow.”

After Zack hung up he put his hands behind his head, leaned back, and smiled. Five weeks had been way too long since he’d had a dose of Emma. Tomorrow, he intended on getting his fill and also telling her what he really wanted from her. Especially now that he knew they lived so close, he intended to try and see what was really going on between them.

Emma woke up and told Hank that she’d be late to work because she had a doctor’s appointment. Hank as usual was concerned but understanding, but this time Emma decided to keep her secret to herself. She took a quick shower and ate a little muffin because the queasiness from the nerves and the pregnancy were starting to kick in.

When she arrived at the doctors, she stayed in the car in the parking lot for a couple of minutes resting her head on the steering wheel. She knew that it had to be Zack’s baby, but the doctor would have to confirm that by telling her how far along she was in the pregnancy. Taking a deep breath, Emma got out of the car.

After her checkup was completed, Emma waited on the treatment table and played around with her phone in her hand. She heard her doctor’s heels walking towards her room and held her breath. There was a quick knock and then Dr. McKnight opened the door with the manila folder in her hand that held her results.

“You are indeed pregnant Miss Sanget. Congratulations. You are a couple days over five weeks along in your pregnancy. You have an option of seeing the baby through a transvaginal ultrasound, or you could wait for a week and then have a transabdominal ultrasound. Transvaginal is a little uncomfortable, just warning you. But next week you’ll be able to see what looks almost like a bean and a heartbeat. So it’s up to you.”

“I think I’ll wait until I can use the abdominal ultrasound. Haven’t had something up there in a while, and I’d rather the first thing not be a stick with a camera.”

Dr. McKnight laughed with Emma and nodded her head. “Definitely understood. So I’ll see you next week. Remember to follow all of the suggestions and rules of this pregnancy that I talked to you about earlier. Here. I have pamphlets and other sites you can look on for any more information. Prenatal vitamins are definitely essential, especially because you’ve still been having caffeine when you didn’t know you were pregnant so let’s get you back on track.”

Emma smiled back at her doctor and nodded her way through the rest of the conversation. Driving to the office was something she didn’t want to do. She didn’t know if she could pull off acting nonchalant around everyone today. She wasn’t even sure if she could speak about what was happening inside of her right now. A baby? She wasn’t even ready for one. She promised she’d never have a child until she was married to a man that she loved. Yes, she truly did enjoy the passion she felt with Zack, but what if it was purely sexual? And she didn’t even know where he lived, what his family was like, nothing! They barely knew anything about each other.

Hank watched as Emma walked into the office like a zombie. Not wanting to question her, he allowed her to go through the motions of the day. He learned that Emma was one who would tell you what was wrong when the time was right. He knew right now the time wasn’t right and instead just told her that she could take it slow and if she needed him he’d be there.

Samantha could sense that there was something wrong with Emma as soon as she walked in. Emma didn’t even give Samantha a second glance as she waved good morning. Instead she just walked past. Samantha took the opportunity to try and finally see if she could find a weakness in Emma and walked into her office with the paper filled with appointments and phone calls. This week hadn’t been too busy since she’d gotten back because Hank was helping out, but she was sure that Emma wouldn’t mind talking to her like she used to. Samantha knocked on the door and heard the faint “Come in” from Emma’s tired voice. Samantha opened the door and walked over to Emma’s desk.

“Yes Samantha?” Emma asked.

Samantha immediately could feel something was wrong. “Here’s your appointment. You only have one tomorrow, I tried to keep it light like I was supposed to until next week. You also have a few phone calls…”

“Anything else?” Emma asked with no emotion.

“Is everything ok Miss Sanget? You seem a little out of it.”

“Yes, I’m fine. Just feeling a little sick, that’s all. But if that’s all there is, I’d like to be left alone for the rest of the day unless it’s urgent. Thank you.” With that Emma turned back to her computer and placed on her headphones.

Samantha gaped at Emma, never experiencing the standoffish side of her before. She walked out confused as ever.