Taken Bride by Alta Hensley

4

Christopher

“I’m trying really hard not to scream and strangle you right now,” I say, clenching my fist to try to contain the rage that wants to erupt from inside. If she weren’t my mother….

Lucky for her, she is.

“You can be mad at me all you want,” she calmly says, not showing the slightest remorse. “But I did it for Ember. The girl didn’t belong here and never would. You were bringing home a broken person. I told you this, but you were being too selfish and wrapped up in your own world to see it for yourself.”

Her words are like a blow to the face. Maybe because they’re true. I was selfish. I did want my life back, and that meant forcing Ember to live it. Was she miserable? Was she lonely? Clearly, she had to be if she left on her own. She saw Richard and Scarecrow as a way out… a way out of the prison I put her in.

“So let her go,” my mother adds. “I know you want to go find her. I know you want to save her. But you can’t, Christopher. You need to allow that awful part of your past to remain just where it is now. Behind you. You deserve better, but so does that woman.”

“You’re right,” I say, clenching my fists and then focusing on releasing the tension as I let out a deep breath. “Ember does deserve better. She deserves to be happy, but she also shouldn’t be with those crazy men. I might have failed her, but I sure as fuck am not going to allow her to be with those two. She doesn’t deserve them either. I need to give her the option of an out. I have to at least try.”

“She wanted to go with them! Why can’t you listen to me? It was her choice!” I’m not used to seeing my mother get so frazzled, but then again, she’s not used to people not listening and not complying to her every whim either.

“She left because she felt there was nothing else to do. You mentally tortured her, Mother! You made her think she was losing her mind. And all but ignored her.” Sickness rolls around in my belly as I run my hand through my hair, trying to control the fury and the deep guilt inside me. “I thought I was protecting her, and all I did was…. Fuck. She deserved so much better.”

“You can be angry at me,” Mother says, calmer this time. “But I did what I did to try to fix a mistake that should have never happened. You brought your nightmare home with you.”

“No, Mother!” I shout. “I brought home my wife. I brought home a woman who doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She’s genuine, true, loving, and, frankly… the kindest woman I’ve ever met in my life. And she loved me. She truly loved me for who I am, rather than what I am. Money didn’t mean anything to her. The Davenport name held zero value to her. She loved me for me, and I’m standing here watching her slip between my fingers. Because of you, and because of me… I could lose it all.”

“She’s gone, Christopher. There’s no finding her. So be mad, grieve, or do whatever you need to, but she’s gone. Accept it and move on.” She takes a step toward the door to leave, then pauses and adds, “I’m not going to apologize for what I did. You’re my son. There’s nothing a mother won’t do for her son. My job is to protect you, and that is exactly what I did.”

“No. What you did was awful. It was cruel. Frankly… it was downright evil.”

She makes eye contact with me but shows zero emotion. It’s as if my words aren’t even being heard.

“And you’re going to help me make it right.”

“I won’t,” she says, stiffening her spine. “Good riddance.”

“You are going to help me,” I say with conviction. “Either you help me find her, or I call Agent Martinez right now and tell him that you assisted Richard in kidnapping Ember. You broke the law, Mother. You’ll go to jail for this.”

Her lips purse, and for the first time in this entire conversation, I see a mixture of fear and defeat flicker in her eyes. It’s brief, but I can see my words have finally sunk in a little.

“I don’t know where they are,” she snaps. “All I know is where the pilot flew them to. I can give you that information, but that’s it.”

Renewed hope surges inside me. “Good. At least we can start there.”

“You’re making a mistake, Christopher.”

“I’m fixing a mistake. I’m going to offer her options. I’m going to save her from her hell but will never bring her into another version of one again. Don’t worry, Mother,” I say with a sneer. “You won’t see her again. I’ll make damn sure of it.”

“Christopher—”

“Get me the location, now!” I interrupt with enough anger in my voice that she flinches. “I don’t want to discuss this any further. I have my wife to find. I have to make it right.”

Not saying another word, she leaves in a huff, but I know she’s going to do exactly what I demand.

I quickly begin sending texts off and emails to make arrangements to take some time off. It’s no easy task canceling all my upcoming photo shoots, and that alone should tell me something. I was practically burying myself with work when I had a wife at home who truly needed me. I should have been here with her. Had I been, my mother wouldn’t have had the power to play her twisted mind games on her.

Am I pissed at my mother? Yes. But I’m angrier at myself. I fucking know better. I know exactly how my mother operates, and I knew all along that she didn’t care for Ember. Did I really think she would treat her with any compassion or respect?

I can stand here all I want and rage at her, but Louisa Davenport is never going to change her stripes, and I didn’t want to face the truth and deal with it. I should have moved us into our own place right away, but if I’m being honest with myself, I was too busy with… me. And I didn’t want all the responsibility of Ember on my shoulders.

Yeah, I had been a bastard.

No wonder she left me.

The saddest thing of all is she chose that sick killer over me… which truly shows just how much I failed her.

A knock on the door pulls me away from my self-loathing.

“Christopher?” Marissa opens the bedroom door and peeks inside.

“I don’t have time for this,” I snap, seeing straight through this woman too. My guess is that my mother used her to fuck with Ember as well. “Convenient that you come up here right after I tell my mother to basically go fuck herself. Don’t make me do the same to you.”

She takes a step inside and lifts her hands up as if she means no harm. “Yes, Louisa asked me to come up here to try to talk some sense into you.”

“Don’t bother.” I give her a dirty look as I reach for a bag and start throwing clothes into it. “I expected better from you, Marissa. I don’t know why I did, but I did.”

“I didn’t come up here to do her bidding,” she says as she walks fully into the room and closes the door behind herself. “But I do think you should pause and think this through. You’ve always been impulsive—”

“Don’t stand there and act like you know me,” I cut in without even bothering to look up at her. “I tried to be nice to you. I tried to be… sensitive, considering you were an innocent victim in all this too. But I’m not blind. I know you want Ember out of the picture just as much as my mother does.”

“Do you blame me?”

“You act as if you and I were engaged or something. We were dating. It was far more casual than you’re making it seem.”

“You’re just being mean now,” she says as she walks around me so she’s in my line of sight. “And I don’t deserve that.”

“No?” I ask, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Really? You and my mother have been in cahoots from the beginning. Perfect example is right now. Why is it you’re here? Let me guess. My mother called you and told you to rush right on over here to be by my side. To try to console me and also tell me I’m better off without that ‘loon.’ And let me also guess, that when my mother tells you to jump, you always reply with ‘how high’.”

She takes a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling. “Yes. You’re right. But—”

“I don’t want to hear any more,” I say as calmly as I can, but there isn’t much more restraint in me, so I know I sound short and pissed.

And who the fuck cares how I sound?

I am pissed.

“Fine, I get it. You and I are over, and whatever we had is done.” She glances down at her feet. “But I did want to come up here and tell you I had no part in helping bring that Richard man here. I didn’t know your mother was doing that. The first I heard of it is right now when she filled me in on what happened and why she did it.” She takes another deep breath. “I know you’re angry with her, but do know she did all this because she loves you. She only wants the best for you.”

“She doesn’t know what love is, and I’m not going to have this conversation with you. So, if you don’t mind, get out.”

“Christopher, I just don’t want to leave here with you thinking I helped Ember leave. I may have been on your mother’s side, and I did want her…. Well, I didn’t do this.”

I still look at her skeptical, not sure I believe a word she’s saying. I was too nice in handling her. My own guilt and people-pleasing personality got in the way of thinking about Ember. I shouldn’t have had a drink with Marissa in LA, no matter how innocent—in my mind—it was.

And really, that is exactly why I’m here right now, wondering where the fuck my wife is.

I didn’t put Ember first.

Her feelings, her healing, her coping with a new way of life should have been my number-one priority, and it simply wasn’t. And now I’m facing the consequences of that.

“I mean it,” she says. “I didn’t like Ember. I wanted her gone. But not really gone. Not like this.”

It really doesn’t matter if I believe her or not at this point. I need to leave. I need to go hunt down my wife. And I need to walk away from this toxic life for my own well-being. I just hope to God I can find Ember and, when I do, that she won’t send me away.

I focus my attention on folding a T-shirt to pack. “I wish you luck in the future.”

“So, you’re really going? Do you actually think you can find them? If the police can’t, what makes you think you can?”

“I’m going to try,” I say. “I owe Ember that, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t. She deserves someone to fight for her, which is something I should have been doing all along.”