A Fire That Burns (9 page)

Austin grabbed her suitcases and began to fill it with her clothes. She
threw everything in carelessly and as the clothes lay haphazardly in the
suitcase she realized that she could leave and make everyone convinced even
more so that she was guilty, or she could stick around and prove Natasha wrong.

She could run away from the truth or run after it. For once Austin
didn’t want to run. As much as she was hurting and feeling alone, it wasn’t
enough for her to flee this time around. She loved Tyler and she would make it
her last job to prove to him that he was marrying a liar and a cheat. She
couldn’t allow him to marry someone that had deceived him for so long and
cheated him out of so many truths.

She would make Tyler see sense, maybe then she would leave with a clear
mind, a clear conscious, and a clear idea of her future.

Maybe – maybe not.

Chapter Sixteen

atasha knew she couldn’t do much more than she had.
She had laid her mind games to rest for a bit to exact the miscarriage story,
and so far she was grateful for being such a good liar. She had Tyler signed
off from work with compassionate leave and her family and Tyler’s were all
there for the grieving mother-to-be. Even Austin’s mother had given condolences
and even spent a moment to speak about how she was completely done with her
daughter. Natasha had to withhold from smiling at how everything was now
falling into place.

There was just one person that didn’t seem to be reacting to all of this
– Austin. She had made no signs of leaving town and Natasha knew she wouldn’t
be done until she saw the back of Austin as she left this place once and for
all.

After claiming she needed fresh air, Natasha took off towards Tyler and
Austin’s
little
creation. Right now she was going to sabotage the house
and take away the one thing that kept Tyler and Austin bound together. She knew
if there was no house then there was no need for the pair to be together at any
time. He barely spoke about her now, didn’t even make it seem like he wanted to
go to her. No, Tyler was void of anything now when it came to Austin, Natasha
knew she had won, but she wanted to secure this for good. She peeled away a bit
more of the wallpaper to the dining room, cracked a window to create a new
draft, left paint drops on the newly varnished flooring and then kicked the
rest of the can over. She loosened the faucets so they dripped, she smashed
several of the windows, turned the heating up, took down curtains and just
because she could, she made a few dents in the walls. She did petty and
damaging things. Anything to reverse the effort that was complete already in
the house and it was working as Tyler became more and more frustrated with the
house.

Walking into what would obviously be the master bedroom; she looked
around and saw the work that still had to be done. She was more or less
tallying up ways in which she could end this little hobby of Tyler and Austin’s
once and for all, and right now she had a long list of ways to stop that.

Natasha knew she could begin losing Tyler from her life. The presence of
Austin could well suck him back in and she knew it was do or die now. Even though
he was looking after her during this difficult time, Natasha could feel the
distance gathering between her and Tyler. He might not show any cares for
Austin and what was going on with her, but that didn’t mean he was doting on
her. He was just
there
. If there was one thing Natasha knew about
herself, it was that she was a sore loser and by sore, she meant she never lost
to anyone and never to Austin.

Today was not going to start that.

She knew that Tyler had now fallen for her
lies,
she knew it wouldn’t be hard to finally push him over the edge and watch as
Austin’s hopes for repentance with Tyler –
and to add to the enjoyment her
family
- were finally dashed. The wheels were already sent in motion, the
final result was vastly coming towards them all and by the end of it,
Austin
Pearson would be public enemy number one in this
town.

Now she had to go and fix the last little bit of her plan publicly.

Mission ‘
Get Austin out of town
’ was very nearly complete – and
if it wasn’t, well she had to fix that.

Chapter Seventeen

WHEN
the Pearson siblings
thought of how their life would pan out, this was not what any of them had
thought it would be like. Here they were reunited with their sister, closer
with their father, and almost forgotten by their mother. They had watched their
mother battle with her emotions and her restraint. They had seen her almost
cave to accept Austin back, and now they had seen her cut all ties and all
because of Natasha Truman.

They knew they could follow the status quo and agree with the town, that
because one person had said it, then it had most certainly happened. Except
hearing their sister deny the claims with such strength they knew they couldn’t
turn their backs and let her have everyone against her - especially with Tom so
adamant to stick with her claims. At the end of the day, it was Austin’s words
against Natasha’s. It was a shame that the majority of the town had already
condemned Austin.

 
Tom had listened to the gossip
and the stories as they morphed from one thing to another. He fought back
claims that his sister was an evil monster who should leave town before she did
any more damage and he hit back at people who were ignorant to what was really
going on when he had seen it quite clearly enough.

They witnessed that Tyler falling for the words that left his fiancée’s
lips and he was still pretty much caught under the stories she was feeding him.
Being pregnant, not being pregnant. The loss being a simple miscarriage, then
it wasn’t such a simple miscarriage. Even they could sit and assume that Austin
had caused this to happen with the sheer display of grief that Natasha spoke
with. They could fall for how truthful Natasha made it that Austin had pushed
and bullied Natasha to lose the baby.

If there was one thing they had hoped for, it was that Austin would
slowly embrace Point Arena life and begin to love being back. However, what
happened was the exact opposite. They had never seen her oppose a lifestyle,
but she stuck it out as not to lose out all over again. Even now with the
recent turn of events she seemed to be sticking her heels in and disregarding
her better judgment of fleeing.

While sitting in the local diner, they had never seen Austin more
uncomfortable and try to keep the lowest of profiles possible. If she could,
she would simply disappear. She had barely left the house recently, not even to
go near the house to do renovations and the Pearson siblings thought it would
be nice to take their baby sister out to take her mind off everything. The
moment they walked into the diner they could tell their idea of a treat had
backfired and Austin withdrew into
herself
more with
each new pair of judgmental gazes that fell upon her.

“You can’t hide away forever,” Sienna pointed out as Austin looked like
she was ready to become one with the wall of their booth. They had been here a
while and Austin didn’t speak, barely moved and made no interaction. It was too
much and Sienna hated it.

Looking up she sighed, “They all think I did something I didn’t do. That
isn’t going to change.” She looked around and everyone got back to their meals
and left the idle gossip alone for a moment knowing she had heard them. “Seems
the jury has well and truly spoken and there isn’t a damn thing I can say to
change that.”

“You know you’re innocent,” Tom said as he rested his hand on Austin’s.
“This will blow over.”

“When, eh?” she asked him. “When will it? When I leave again? When I
admit to doing something I didn’t do?”

“First, you’re not leaving,” Dean told her forcefully and gave her a
stern look. As the oldest brother he felt it was down to him to keep the family
together as it was, but right now he felt it was his duty to keep Austin from
fleeing all over again. “You leave and you are guilty.”

“What is the point of living here when I’m not even able to go shopping
because they don’t
serve
murderers?” she asked and then sat up and
pointed to the waitresses, “They’ve avoided our table more than five times even
though we’ve made it obvious that we are ready to order. I didn’t expect this
to be a walk in the park, me coming home, but I had at least hoped I would feel
like I belonged somewhere again. There’s nowhere for me to call home now. Don’t
you see that? I ruined my chances of that leaving and now this, this isn’t
going make it better. Everyone hates me and mom-” she paused and dropped her
head, unable to finish her sentence. She sniffled as she felt Sienna’s arm come
around her body and she snapped out of it. “This isn’t home anymore. I know
that now.”

“Hey,” Daniel started, “This is always your home, Aus. That is final. It
doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, this is your home regardless.”

“It doesn’t feel like home,” Austin muttered, trying to rid the tears
that were waiting for their newest debut.

“You know it’s not the truth, Aus, and if you keep faith that this is
where you’re supposed to be you can get through this and everything will work
out okay,” Sienna told Austin confidently and looked over at the bar. “Right
I’m going to go and grab a waitress. If they won’t come to us, I might as well drag
the bitches over here myself.”

Before she could get out of the booth, she saw two girls about to go
past so she waited for them, but they were both whispering too loudly and not
walking quick enough. “I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public if I had
done that to another woman.” one of the girls said behind her hand, her eyes on
Austin.

“I know right? Some people are just so heartless,” the other girl said
in agreement. “My mom said she can go down for murder for it.”

“Good,” the other showed her agreement.

Austin looked at her brothers and sister harder as she tried to not lose
it; her eyes were watering with hurt, her throat burning with the encroaching
onslaught. She was ready to admit defeat to everything and disappear for a lifetime
and not just six years. “Can we leave now?” Austin asked them quietly, “
Please
?”
She was desperate now.

“I guess we better go,” Daniel said as he was beginning to feel just as
uncomfortable now and respected his sister’s wishes. He didn’t want to keep his
sister here when it was just destroying her more than ever.

Sienna, however, was seething and wanted to wait for the girls to come
back out so she could slam them for their idle gossiping, but Dean was pressing
for her to get up and allow Austin to get out of the booth.

“There she is!” Natasha shouted as she headed into the diner and charged
towards Austin as she stood ready to flee. Within moments Austin went from
looking up in confusion to hearing the resounding sound of a slap as it rang
out against her cheek.

Immediately, Austin lifted her hand up and cupped her face as heat
spread across it and the tingle of the slap remained. She looked in horror at
the woman as she stood almost hyperventilating with anger at her and Austin
knew this day, this life, was about to get worse.

“Natasha!” Tyler shouted as he followed his fiancée into the diner and
immediately saw what she had done. He couldn’t even look at Austin anymore but,
he wouldn’t condone her being publically attacked. “Stop this now!”

“No!” Natasha bellowed back and turned to face Austin once more, “I’ll
make sure you pay for everything you have coming to you! You killed my baby!
You’re a murderer, Austin and I will make sure no good comes to you. You need
to pay! Don’t expect freedom for long.”

“Whoa,” Dean said as he came to stand between the women. “Do you have
proof that she did such a thing?”

“Plenty,” Natasha said with absolute glee to her tone. “She told me she
didn’t want me with Tyler and she would do anything to make sure of that and
that’s when she pushed me.”

“Where?”
Sienna countered as she stepped forward. “Where did she push you?”

“At the house you all have been working on,” Natasha responded with
ease. “I went to talk to her, to make amends for Tyler’s sake. I found her
upstairs and we got into an argument and she pushed me down the stairs and then
left me there. She didn’t even care about me.”

Shaking her head, Austin felt
herself
snapping
more and more. “You liar,” she whispered, “Why are you doing this? Why are you
spreading these lies? I have done nothing to you.” Austin’s voice was nothing
more than a disbelieving whisper and she couldn’t change that. She was in shock
and she was horrified at how this woman managed to feed lies to everyone and
not look guilty.

“They’re not lies so why don’t you face up to this,” Natasha told her
back. “No one wants you here, Austin!” Natasha screamed so that the entire
diner was watching. “Can’t you see that? Your brothers and sister probably
can’t wait to see you leave and are just biding their time as good siblings.”
She then laughed at her, “When my father catches up to you they’ll probably
help put you in jail for killing my baby and I hope they throw away the key.
You’re a selfish monster and you come back here expecting life to resume. Can’t
you see that there isn’t a place for you here anymore, Austin?”

Austin had no idea how to respond to this. The thought had crossed her
mind about her brothers and Sienna and that was why she didn’t look at them,
not even Tom. She couldn’t even look at Tyler and she guessed her lack of eye
contact made her look guiltier. Do nothing and she was the coward – even more
so in Tyler’s eyes. React and completely lose her nerve and she was the evil
one that everyone had assumed she was in this turn of events. And if she was
going to be arrested then that would be the end of her, she knew it and
apparently so did Natasha.

It was
a lose
-lose situation entirely for
Austin.

Sensing her dismissal combined with her quiet
behavior
,
Natasha decided to provoke Austin a little, and even if it didn’t get the
desired effect, she still knew Austin would be hurt by the end result.
"You never liked me and you always made sure that was known! You even told
me you were back to get Tyler back!"

Austin stood looking at Natasha and could not believe how this woman
spread lies so easily. It was as easy for her as breathing. She couldn't
understand how her conscience allowed her to continue going on like this
without even breaking a sweat.

"It's okay though because he doesn't love me anymore anyway!"
Natasha placed the final part on her master plan and with dramatic ease she
turned to leave. She was more than positive that Tyler would respond to save
face. After all, being chief of the police department, he was one of the most noted
and respected people in the town – even more so for surviving the love of his
life leaving him – and he wouldn’t damage that.

“I do love you,” Tyler told Natasha as he grabbed a hold of her. In
front of the crowd he pulled her back, “It is you I want.”

“Prove it,” Natasha told him fiercely. “Prove it or I’m gone, Tyler, and
she’s won. The woman that killed your baby will have won.”

He thought on his toes, not rationally, but he spoke under pressure.
“We’ll move the wedding forward.” Tyler immediately
replied,
no delay or hesitation. “To Friday, we’ll get married Friday. In four days
time, we’ll get married.”

Lighting up immediately, Natasha near enough threw herself at Tyler, “Oh
thank you!” she said and kissed him heavily. Pulling back she was all smiles
with elation and the sense of ownership. Her earlier display of violence and
grief dispersed.

Tom saw Austin’s heartbroken expression and then grabbed her hand,
“C’mon, Kiddo. Let’s go home.”

“See that, Austin?” Natasha yelled out sanctimoniously, “He loves
me
!”

Austin started to cry even before she was out of the diner and was
thankful for her brothers and sister acting like a human shield for her when
hers had depleted and failed on her. Getting into the car she wiped the tears
away and tried to control her demise while she was in plain sight, but when she
looked up all she saw was Natasha with her arms wrapped around Tyler’s neck,
reaching up to kiss him, she lost her cool all over again.

“Don’t look, Aus,” Daniel guided his sister to look away when he saw what
was going on. “It won’t help you.”

Austin knew they were right, but it was like driving passed a car crash.
You knew you shouldn’t watch, but there was something ghoulish about it that
just made you look one too many times. She gulped as they were finally out of
view and her gaze didn’t have to track its progression any longer. She knew she
had truly lost everything now and she knew that, that was it. Tyler had finally
proven that he didn’t still love her and he had moved on completely.

She had killed their relationship six years ago and she had been
replaced. Regardless of
who
it was, Austin felt like
she deserved this. This was her punishment for the deceit she carried. She
would never be able to bare her soul to Tyler now. He had hardly stuck up for her
and defended
her,
he had just broken her heart more
and rightly so.

The rest of the journey was quiet and tense. She watched the houses pass
and as the house her and Tyler were renovating came into view she had to look
away as she thought bitterly about it now. She looked up at their parents’
house and remembered growing up so happily. She remembered the times her and
Tyler had messed around, how their friendship had bonded, shaped, and
strengthened, and she remembered their first kiss – the one thing that made
their destiny together be written in the stars forever.