A Fire That Burns (19 page)

Chapter Thirty-Five

HAVING
made it back to the
hospital after hours of mindless wandering, Tyler hadn’t dared go near the
room. He just sat in the corridor, pensive and quiet. He wanted to go in there
and make up for lost time. He wanted Austin back, and he wanted the truth. God
damn it, he wanted that beyond anything else in the world right now. He also
wanted Austin unhurt and happy, but he had to deal with the fate life had given
them.

“I don’t think it’s wise you being here,” Tyler heard Jane’s voice carry
through the air, drifting closer to him. The moment his eyes were set on her
hardened expression he shot up to his full height. “It was your fiancée that
seems to be the one that caused this. What I just witnessed makes her a hell of
a lot guiltier in my eyes.”

“I didn’t do this though. I wasn’t behind anything. I didn’t mean for
this to happen when I left that house,” Tyler defended as he felt his nerves
fraying and his willpower to just carry on was reaching an end. He was being
punished for Natasha’s actions – present and past – and he wanted that to stop.
He had no idea what had happened now, but he was sure what he was going to hear
wasn’t going to suit him.

Jane crossed her arms over her chest, “It was your fiancée’s mother who
came by today and set Austin off.”

Tyler looked over at Austin as she lay uncomfortably watching her
brothers and sister interact, “What do you mean? Why was Diane here?”

“It wasn’t to drop flowers off,” Dean cut in as he came out of the room
and approached the pair. “Mom, she’s restless and we don’t know how to calm
her. Every time we think we’ve managed to she gets worked up again.”

Tyler looked between mother and son and felt his heart begin to pound so
loudly his hearing became impaired. “What did she do?” Tyler asked before Jane
could speak, his tone heating as no one seemed to want to tell him. He hated
being the outcast.

Jane’s face knitted with worry as she looked passed her son and into the
room. “She just needs to be left to rest that’s all she needs right now. We
can’t do much more than be her support,” Jane commented absentmindedly as she
tried to work out how to help her daughter the most.

“Can someone please tell me what the hell happened?” Tyler cut in
exasperatedly as no one seemed to hear his pleading. He was panicking now, his
mind conjuring up worst case scenarios and torturing him to the point of
insanity. “
Please
.”

Jane looked at Tyler and saw how worried and devoted he was and she knew
she couldn’t keep him at arm’s length forever. With a sigh, she finally spoke
to him, “Diane was trying to make a plea with Austin to leave when she was
better. Told my daughter that her family were here out of guilt, that you’re
here out of guilt,” Jane started and looked back at Austin. “Diane was standing
over Austin’s bed literally torturing her with her vile words and the next
thing we knew Aussie’s blood pressure’s spiked and the doctor stepped in.”
Looking to Tyler’s distraught features, Jane knew he had to hear it all, not
only
the pieces he wanted to hear
. “Austin told me
that Natasha wasn’t pregnant at all. That when she asked Diane the look she
received said it all. Ever since she hasn’t been able to calm down enough to
rest like she should be.”

“I don’t know what’s best for her right now,” Dean spoke up, his tone
full of worry and concern for his baby sister. “I just want to get past these
couple of days and get her on the road to recovery.”

“Mom,” Daniel called out as he left the room with Sienna and Tom right
behind him, “Aussie wants to talk to Tyler.” Everyone looked at him and he
shrugged, “She saw him out here and said she needed to talk to him
now
.”

Looking to a man she had deemed
a son years
ago, Jane smiled a little. She had to give him the benefit of the doubt, “Don’t
stress her out.”

“I won’t, I just want my life back,” Tyler admitted softly, “That’s
all.”

“Go then,” Jane gave him a warm smile, trying to give him the confidence
to take this opportunity and use it wisely. The moment she closed the door, she
prayed she was doing the right thing.

Standing in the room, he found that suddenly his throat was dry, his
words sticking to his mouth. Clearing his throat, he tried to muster the
strength and courage to do this right. He allowed his gaze to fall upon
Austin’s after trailing up her body and he felt his heart slam into his chest
harder than ever. His procrastination to say or do anything caused Austin to
speak first.

Austin’s eyes narrowed on Tyler for a moment, “Did you know she lied
about the baby?” she breathed the words out in one nervous exhale. “And did you
know that Diane sent Natasha away?”

“No,” Tyler told her honestly. “I didn’t and I still don’t know what to
think. It’s like everything is getting crazier by the minute and now look where
we are. I know that Natasha looks guilty and I will get to the bottom of this, Aus.
I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live a life with her when she built it on
lies. She stole you from me. She made you leave me. I made you leave me. I
can’t do this life without you anymore and I will do whatever it takes to get
you back.”

Tyler watched Austin fight with her inner demons for a moment. He could
see the struggle she was in, he knew he had to nip her doubts in the bud now or
let her get lost to them forever. He had to speak now or forever be a mouse
instead of a man. He didn’t want to carry on being the fool of Point Arena.

“I understand this is hard for you, but this is hard for me too, Austin.
I lost out too, and now I can’t stop blaming myself for the reason why you
left,” Tyler said, his tone going up an octave or two with his heated frustration.
“I pushed you to leave; I helped you on your way. I didn’t know why you left,
so I blamed you. I thought you left because you didn’t love me, but it was you
thinking that I didn’t love you. It was never that. I was young and thought
that if I didn’t take my chances then I’d lose them all.” Tyler took a
shuddering breath, his eyes dropping in shame, “I did lose them all. I lost the
one thing I loved most, I lost you.”

Austin gave him a tired, painful grin. “I came back didn’t I?” she asked
him and looked him in the eyes. “It might be passed a simple apology, but I
really did come back because I’ve missed you and always loved you. I can’t stop
my heart from wanting you, Tyler, as much as I could want it to, it never
will.” She didn’t realize she was crying as she spoke, “It’s always going to be
you, no matter who you love.”

“It’s always going to be you,” Tyler started and saw her losing grip on
her emotions entirely. “I love you, Austin, and I will spend every day proving
that to you. I will make sure everyone knows the truth. I will make you realise
that I meant nothing I said when I said I hated you.”

“You don’t have to,” she told him doubtfully. “Really, there’s no need.
You’ve got a life.”

Having to smile at her disbelief, Tyler knew he was going to have to
fight to clear her name, to make her stay, to make her believe that Natasha and
him
were through. He had to make her realize where his
heart had been, because it hadn’t been in Point Arena. It had been right there
with her. “When you’re more up to it, Baby Girl, we need to chat. A proper chat
that is,” Tyler told her as he stood in his spot, never closing the gap at all.

“I know,” she told him sincerely. “I guess you, of all people, deserve
to know the truth.” She looked down as her eyes burnt with tears again and
exhaustion swept through her. “I thought that baby would bring you back to me,
but it didn’t. It proved that I had lost you for good.”

Tyler’s hands on the end of the bed gripped tightly, “Not right now,
Aus. I need you to get some strength back and get better. That talk can wait.”

“Just know that I wished I had told you,” Austin told him ashamedly, she
regretted her actions. “Every day I wished I had.”

Watching her, Tyler wished he could just look after her as if they were
nineteen again. He wished he could swoop in and hug her and kiss away her woes,
but for now, he had to just sit and watch from the sidelines. “You get some
sleep and I’ll come by when you want me too. I have something I need to take
care.”

Austin knew that Tyler hadn’t changed much in the time since she had
left, “Tyler?” she weakly called out when he put his turned to leave.

“Yeah?” he asked quietly as he tried to keep his voice smooth as though
not to show her he was breaking down.

“Don’t do anything you’ll regret,” she told him exhaustedly and finally
closed her eyes.

Tyler looked back and watched her for a moment. He lowered his head as
he left the room and didn’t speak to any of the Pearson family, he just walked
out, ready to find the truth and clear up his messy past.

He knew he was going to lose everything but he wanted the truth – from
Natasha and from Austin.

Chapter Thirty-Six

FIVE
days?” Tyler
questioned at first, “It’s taken you five fucking days to come back!” he shouted
looking at Natasha as she stood in front of him. He had literally become
literally crazed, spending every waking moment on a manhunt. It had been five
days since he had watched his life burning down before him. He had spent the
last three days following up on every lead possible to find Natasha. He hadn’t
even seen Austin. He just became obsessed. So much so, when he came to
Natasha’s parents’ house he had brought backup. He was more than happy to find
her walking up the front yard to the door.

“Mom thought it was better for me to get away,” Natasha replied and made
her tone of voice almost whiney trying to gain some sympathy. She was still a
victim
in her world.

“Bullshit,” he bit the bullet and waded in with interrogating the truth
out of her. “Why did you ever have to lie?” Tyler asked her brokenly, “About
Austin, about being pregnant, just about everything. Was that all I was worth?
Was I only worth a bunch of lies to get back at someone?”

“No, never,” Natasha gasped, putting on a convincing act as she stepped
towards him. “It wasn’t about you, it was about me. I said I was pregnant to
get you to stay with me! That was me, not you!”

“Well you sure made it feel like the fucking other way around!” Tyler
told her, not tempering his anger for that moment. He had become a fireball of
emotion and now he had the person he needed, he was unable to hold back.

“Fine,” Natasha sighed and knew she had to tell him the truth to be able
to get anywhere. “I was jealous when I saw how happy she was that night. Talking
about that baby like it was the best news ever.” Natasha began and looked at
Tyler and saw him trying to remain strong as he was finally delivered the
truth. “I heard her say she was going to you and would take you home right away
so she could tell you. She couldn’t wait to tell you, you were going to be a
dad and I snapped. I wanted that happy smile off of her face once and for all.
I told her that you had bought me a necklace just like the one you had brought
her that she worn every fucking day and when she fought back I just pushed her
out of my way. She fell awkwardly onto the back of a bench. I told her I would
tell you that she said to stay out late and I did. Next thing I know Point
Arena was without Austin Pearson. It was like all my dreams had come true.”
Natasha hadn’t meant to make it sound like she was gloating, but it did, and
she was ashamed of that fact.

“And the house?
All the evidence points to your involvement,” Tyler asked her through
gritted teeth. He was trying to keep his anger on a leash because otherwise, he
knew he was going to lose it completely. “Why did you ruin that too?”

“I thought if you saw things were going wrong you’d see it as bad omens
and cancel renovating it, but you didn’t. You still went back there. I didn’t
mean for it to burn down with her in it, but it just happened like that, and it
wasn’t supposed to! This all just happened.” Natasha could feel her mentality
slipping. She knew no one would believe her when she said she didn’t mean for
the house to catch on fire. That was the God’s honest truth here.

Tyler wasn’t buying it at all. He was enraged, in pain, and after blood
now. “But that wasn’t just my house. Austin’s family was working on it too. It
wasn’t just mine and Austin’s to take away! You could’ve killed all of us. You
nearly killed Austin!” Tyler near enough bellowed at her.

“But that house meant more than I did in your life. Like Austin always
did and I hated it like I hate her!” Natasha snapped at him. “I have never felt
more replaced than I did learning she was back! I saw the way you became, how
all you wanted was to see her. She came back and everything changed.”

Tyler was almost seeing red as he listened to her ever word carefully.
“Austin had every right to come back to this town. This is her home and six
years shouldn’t matter. She had to almost die to get her own mother to love her
again. That’s on you too, Natasha. How is that fair?”

And just like that, Natasha lost the victim act and reacted how Tyler
had hoped. “She deserved it! She ran, why
should she
be the one to get easy absolution when she was the one that ran away without an
explanation?!”

Tyler’s surroundings came back to him all of a sudden and he looked
around at everyone as they stood watching. Point Arena residents were once
again rendered silent by an outbreak of hysteria, but this time no one was near
death. They were out to gather the newest town gossip and Tyler decided to give
them what they were looking for. “I hope you all heard what really went down.
So you can all finally gossip and hate the right person. You all made Austin
feel like a monster, not serving her, speaking about her behind her back and
all on hearsay! I thought this town was better than this, but you just proved
we are nothing but hypocritical assholes!” he saw everyone begin to look
guilty, but the images of Austin in the hospital didn’t relinquish forgiveness
for him. “I’m as bad, if not worse, but I’ve lost more than anybody and all
because of one woman. So you can have her. Natasha Truman is a liar and an
arsonist. Hell she’s a fucking murderer too and someone that deserves
everything that is coming to her.” He looked at Natasha as she stood crying and
Tyler couldn’t feel any sympathy for her. “You now have a foolproof and legit
reason to gossip now!”

“I can’t believe you would do that to me,” Natasha sobbed at him,
covering her face in embarrassment. “We were supposed to be married and happy
now if it wasn’t for Austin.”

“Thank fuck for Austin,” Tyler cut into her sentence happily and he felt
absolute triumph as he saw the cop car turning up outside. Tyler acted on his
ever emotion, “Natasha Truman, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of
Austin Pearson and the assault of Austin Pearson in 2006. You are also under
arrest for property damage and arson. You do not have to say anything, but
anything you do say
will
b-”

“Tyler,” Natasha interrupted as she began to sob, “I won’t survive in
jail and you know that!”

“You should have thought about that before you decided to sabotage that
house and push a pregnant woman. Your actions always have a way of coming back
to bite you in the ass.” Tyler told her with no remorse as he allowed the
officers from his precinct to come over to the pair and take Natasha away.

He just watched as a part of his life devastatingly and very publicly
ended. However, Tyler felt free for the first time in years as he watched the
police car leave and jumped in his own car.

***

Tyler had driven like a bat out of hell to make it to the
police station, he had alerted Robert, Natasha’s father, to their newest
convict that needed processing. Apparently, seeing Natasha wasn’t what he had
expected.

“I am not locking my daughter up,” Natasha’s father argued as Tyler
walked in with Natasha in cuffs. “That’s practically barbaric.”

“Well it’s a good thing I’m locking her up then isn’t it?” Tyler asked
back rhetorically. As he went to book her, Robert stepped in to stop him. He
cowered as Tyler gave him a fierce look of warning. “I wouldn’t dare if I were
you.” Tyler replied with a tone so low it screamed danger. “If you prevent the
course of justice I will have your badge so quick you won’t know what’s hit
you.”

Trying to rustle up some power, Robert ignored the other officers in the
room and stood his ground, “You do that, and I will make sure you lose your job
as well, Tyler. I don’t care who you are to my daughter, I will make sure no
one ever touches you.”

“Go for it,” Tyler dared, not caring about his job. There were other
matters here and getting justice served for Austin was one of them. “It’ll be a
felony against you if you don’t do this,” Tyler threatened, his tone hard and
unwavering. “I will make sure you go down for stopping this.”

“Tyler,” Natasha sobbed, trying to fight him off of her. The
unfamiliarity of being on this side of the law scared her. She had some idea
what was going to come from this – disappointment, humiliation, condemnation.
This wasn’t a matter of being drunk and disorderly, or stealing from the local
grocery store. This was a real matter of life and death.

“I am going to process you and then you are going in the lock up,” Tyler
told her, his tone tiring out on him with exasperation and all he wanted was
Natasha locked up and out of his sight.

“Tyler,” Jeremy, one of the newest cops, stepped in. He had been a
friend of his in high school, was also close with Austin during that time and
had taken his time to find a career path he wanted. Now he was here, he was
going to prove himself. “I’ve got this sorted. You don’t need to worry about
this. I’m sure we can handle it.”

Releasing Natasha, he allowed Jeremy to take over and he looked to
Robert, “I don’t want to hear you even so much as interrupted her being booked
into the system.” He looked around the office and approached one of the guys
that had been there as long as he had, “Hey, Steve, I need you to do me a
favor
.”

“Sure, Tyler, what is it?” he asked, frowning a little as he noticing
how the stress seemed to be aging Tyler’s appearance. He had been one of the
longest running officers and was more than a little friendly with the
Armstrong, Pearson and Truman families.

“I need your help building this case,” Tyler hated requesting a man so
known in Point Arena to take on this task, but he trusted Steve and he needed to
trust someone that would do what is right. “Everything on the fire at the house
the other night needs to be logged along with the confession from Natasha.”

“Is that all?” he asked doubtful, standing up ready to help out.

Tyler ran a hand round his neck and sighed, “I need you to pull Austin
Pearson’s medical records and get a confession from Natasha about the night
that Austin was seen at the local ER for a miscarriage. I’m going to email a
list of people that are character witnesses to her confession earlier, but I
want this case sealed tight.”

“I can’t believe what’s happened, Tyler,” Steve commented
disappointedly, “But I am ready to get this all straightened out and help
however I can.”

“Thanks,” Tyler said appreciatively and then left so he could check on
Natasha getting booked. He was pleased when he saw her complying and her father
remaining on the sidelines, clearly calling around for professional aid.

Looking up, Natasha’s eyes were darkened and filled with tears, “I hate
you for doing this to me.”

Tyler chuckled. He couldn’t believe it had taken so much time and
heartbreak for him to see her like this. “Well it’s a good thing that I hate
you for what you’ve done,” he saw the words hit her but he was void of emotions
towards her. He was completely spent. “I have never been more disappointed and
embarrassed of being a part of a family than I am right now. I can’t believe
what you’ve become, Tasha.”

“She deserved it,” Natasha snapped at Tyler and saw that was the final
straw. She watched him remain silent and just leave her behind, ignoring
everyone entirely as he left.
 
Apparently
the guilty sang like canaries.