Accidental Heartbreak (The Accidental Series, Book 2) (19 page)

“
Entitled?” Shayla
said with raised eyebrows.

Carter sighed,
realizing he’d chosen the wrong words. “Okay…I think I deserve that
much. Better?”

Shayla took a sip
of coffee and stared down into her mug.

“
No comment?”
Carter asked.

She glanced up at
him. “I really don’t want to talk about my life on the street. You
know how painful that was for me.”

“
I only know
because you
say
it’s painful. I need details,
Shayla.”

“
Why? Why
now?”

“
Because I want
our relationship to be deeper.”

Shayla sighed.
“Carter, I can’t—”

“Why not?”

“
Because I
can’t.”

“
I broke down and
told you about my brother. You can’t be the same way with me?” he
asked, playing the brother angle when he was fully aware he hadn’t
told her everything about his brother, his name being the most
important.

“
I want to talk to
you about it but—”

“
Then talk to me,
baby,” he coached.

Her eyes floated
up and down his face, staring at his lips, then his eyes again. She
took a deep breath. “Where do I start?”

“
When you were on
the streets, where did you sleep?”

“
I was at a
homeless shelter in the beginning…then I started staying under an
overpass, and after that, I slept anywhere I fell, pretty much. It
really didn’t matter. It’s not like one place was more comfortable
than the other.”

“
But why would you
sleep on a sidewalk if you could stay at a homeless shelter?”
Carter asked and he felt his throat tighten with the question. This
was more painful to talk about for him than it was for
her.

“
Because
sometimes, those shelters were even scarier than sleeping on the
street. I’ve had things stolen from me after I fell asleep, and
then I was stuffed between people I didn’t know. The shelter was so
crowded, I had to sleep on the floor sometimes.”

“
And these scars
on your face.” Carter traced them with his index finger. “Where did
they come from?”

Shayla trembled.
How could he find her attractive with scars on her face and body?
His bringing attention to him only made her feel worse about her
appearance. She wished she would’ve put on some makeup before she
came downstairs.

“Shayla?”

She locked eyes
with him, remembering where the scars had come from. She was
running through the woods trying to get away from some strange,
deranged man when she’d tripped over a small pile of old trash that
was illegally dumped there, twisting her ankle.

“
Talk to me,
baby,” Carter said touching her face.

“
Um…I got a lot of
these scratches while running away from someone…” Shayla said, her
voice cracking. Eyes watering. Hands trembling. “I thought he was
going to hurt me, so I took off running through the woods. It was
dark and I really couldn’t see where I was going. I was running
into so many tree limbs and bushes. I fell, twisted my ankle and
hit my head on something and blacked out.” Shayla wiped her eyes
and Carter held her hand to comfort her. “When I woke up, he was
gone.”

Carter felt anger
build up in his heart. His lips quivered and he felt so much rage,
he was starting to see red as he thought about what had happened to
his wife. If he could only find this guy who chased her…he’d beat
him into an unrecognizable pulp. He took a sip of coffee while
seriously thinking about this then asked her, “How did you end up
on the street where I found you? On Trade Street?”

“
Um…I was cold. I
hadn’t had anything to eat in days. So I thought that maybe if I
went to an area that was pretty crowded, I could get more help. So
I went to Uptown, but when I got there, I realized I had no desire
to ask anyone else for money,” she said tearfully. “I didn’t want
any help…I just…I just wanted to die.”

“
You wanted to
die?” Carter forced out, lips trembling again.

Shayla nodded and
took another deep breath. “I didn’t want to deal with the pain and
misery anymore. So I got as close to the curb as I could. I had
every intention on stepping in front of a bus.”

“
What?” Carter
asked frowning. Distraught.

“
I was depressed,
hungry and at that point, my life had no meaning.” Shayla wiped her
eyes. “I saw the city bus coming down the street towards me, so I
stood up with the intent of lunging myself in front of it but when
I was ready to jump, I collasped. Two days later, you were
there.”

Carter’s throat
tightened. “You were going to commit suicide?”

“
I didn’t see any
other way out, and I didn’t care at that point. I’d given
up.”

Carter felt
something die in him. “And you…you laid there for two days before I
came along?”

“Yeah.”

“
No one stopped to
help you?”

“No.”

Carter closed his
eyes tight, then looked up at the ceiling, trying to make sense of
all of this.

“
If I had died, no
one would’ve missed me. As it was, I didn’t have anything…no
clothes but the raggedy clothes on my back, no food, everything I
owned was stolen from me, my
fiancé
committed
suicide. I had nowhere to live…had to beg for money to survive.
After all that, I just wanted to end it all.”

Carter felt a
blazing anger in his chest, not at her but at himself. All the
things she went through on the street were his fault. If he had
taken care of her like his brother had asked him to, he could’ve
saved her from all the trauma she experienced – another reason for
Shayla to hate him when she found out the truth.

Since he was in
the office, Carter went on and checked a few emails, sifting
through stacks of paperwork. Busy work. Work that kept him from
thinking about the things Shayla told him. Instead he mulled over
his own selfish choices. He could’ve tried harder to help his
little brother. There was no reason why two grown, rational men
couldn’t resolve their differences. He could’ve comforted Jacob
somehow, mentored him, helped to mold him into a man, to further
his career and give him brotherly advice. Instead, he let things go
as they were.

That same
lackadaisical attitude continued after Jacob died. He looked for
Shayla for a few days then let things go as they were, simply
turning his back. If only he had listened…

“
Carter,” Julie
said interrupting his thoughts, peeping around his door. “Should I
order some lunch, or are you leaving early today?”

“
Um…” Carter
rubbed his hand across his head and glanced at the clock. “It’s
twelve o’clock already?”

“
Yeah. Time sure
is flying today, isn’t it?”

“
Yeah.” He checked
his watch to verify the time. He rubbed his head again and sighed.
“Julie, come in for a minute.”

Julie stepped in
the office, shut the door behind her. “Is everything okay?” she
asked him, standing in front of his desk.

“
You remember when
I went to Hawaii?”

“
Yeah. Everybody
was shocked that you actually took a vacation.” Julie
grinned.

“
Well, I got
married. I’m sure that’s even more shocking.”

Julie’s eyes grew
big. “You got married?”

“
Yeah.” Carter
handed her a framed wedding photo, a picture he kept in the top
drawer of his desk since he didn’t want the office to know that
he’d gotten married. Now, he didn’t care. He wanted everyone to
know.

“
You got married!”
Julie screeched, staring at the wedding photo. “She’s beautiful,
Carter.”

“
Thanks.” Carter
set the picture back on his desk. “Her name is Shayla…best thing
that has ever happened to me.”

Julie placed a
hand on her hip. “Now is this the same Shayla who sent you those
beautiful yellow roses?”

“Yes,” Carter said,
smiling. “She’s the one.”

“
Well
congratulations!” She handed the picture back to him.

“Thank you.”

“
Why didn’t you
tell anyone? I could’ve set up a party and everything.”

“
Nah…I didn’t want
all the fanfare. I wanted it to be something I only shared with
her.”

“
Aw,” Julie said,
placing both hands over her heart. “That’s so sweet. I’m so happy
for you.”

“Thank you.”

“
You’re welcome,”
Julie replied. “Should I order lunch?”

“
Not today. I’m
leaving in a little while.”

“
Got to get back
home to the wife, huh?” Julie said, then winked at him.

“Do you have anything I
need to sign before I go?”

She thought for a
moment and said, “No, but I sent you an email about an hour ago
from Thomas Corbitt…looked important so you might want to tackle it
before you leave.”

“Will do. Thanks,
Julie.”

“
No problem.
Anywho, I’ll get out of your hair now.”

Before she could
completely close the door, he said, “Oh, and Julie, send out a
reminder to everyone about the mixer tomorrow night.”

“Will do, Sir. Should I
mention anything about your new wife, or did you want to spring it
on everyone when they arrive?”

“Probably would be a
good idea to tell them in the reminder.”

“Alrightly. I’ll get
right on it,” Julie said glowing with excitement and glad she would
be the one to tell the news to everyone.

Carter took the
picture from his desk again, feeling a burst of anger with much
contrition. He felt a tightness in his chest as he thought about
Shayla, her hard life and the thoughts of his sweet, innocent wife
being beaten and so damaged, the only way she saw out of her
situation was suicide – same as his brother – and that made him
sick to his stomach.

After responding
to the email that Julie brought to his attention, Carter shut down
his workstation, slid on his shades and walked out of the office,
instructing Julie to call him on his cell if she needed to reach
him for any reason.

Standing outside
now, he looked up at the sky with his bloodshot eyes hiding behind
dark frames. It was a beautiful sky – a soft, light-blue canvass
dressed with thick, cotton-white clouds. The smell of food filled
Uptown streets. So did crowds of people as they hurried to fill
their midday cravings and head back to work for another four hours
of mind-bending labor.

Carter placed his
hands in his pocket and proceeded to the corner of Trade and Tryon
Streets. He felt the need to revisit the location where he found
Shayla, seeking closure, but there would never be any real closure
unless he confessed to her who he really was. This was a secret he
couldn’t keep any longer, for the sake of their marriage and his
own sanity.

The walk indicator
light signaled him to proceed across Tryon Street, passing a group
of business men. He continued pass Independence Center and on to
the location where it happened, where he found her. He noticed a
few people sitting on the benches near the area, but in his mind,
he could see Shayla lying there. The image of her cold, dirty and
so close to death was embedded in his mind like a recurring bad
dream. He could recall yelling for help, the crowd gathering and
the loud sirens hollering. He could feel her cold hands, frigid
purple lips, her lifeless state.

His eyes watered
behind his shades thinking about this – about how he could have
prevented all of it. He reflected back to when he told his Mother
about Jacob’s suicide note…

“
How
did this happen to our family, Mother? How did this happen to us?
Jacob is dead…my only brother is dead!” Carter said, his head
hanging low.

“
Jacob
didn’t want anything to do with us—”

“
Yeah,
because you drove him away! Me and Jacob used to be best
friends…like brothers should be. Then you kept filling his head
with all this garbage about me being better and how he should be
more like me. He was his own person. He had his own life. He didn’t
need to be me!”

“
I was just telling
him the truth!”

“
How? By making him
feel unworthy?”

“
Call
it what you want, but the truth of the matter is, you will never be
anything in this world if you don’t have money. Jacob didn’t
understand that and that’s why he took his own life – he didn’t
have money to do nothing and he realized that I was
right!”

“
No,
you weren’t right, Mother. You were wrong!”

“
If I was so wrong,
why did you turn out to be so successful? Hunh?”

“
Because you brainwashed me into thinking that having money is
all there is—”

“
Money
is all there is! Can you imagine how pitiful you would be right now
if you didn’t have money – if you didn’t have your
career?”

Carter
sighed and shook his head., “I don’t know what happened to you. The
truth is, we were happier before the money, Mother. When the money
came, you changed. You loved it more than you ever loved me and
Jacob, and the only reason you put me through college and made sure
I had a successful life was not because you wanted me to be happy.
You wanted me to make sure that you stayed happy and financially
stable for the rest of your life. It’s not right! You destroyed
Jacob and it’s not right! You belittled him every chance you
got…told him he was no good, that his father was no good and that
he would never amount to anything. You destroyed him! And you
destroyed this family!”