Beautifully Unfinished (2 page)

“NOOOOOO!” Lucy protested, but she was too weak to fight him. He held her closer to him and quickly headed for the door. Lucy buried her face in his neck and cried.

As Tucker carried her down the stairs, Lucy could hear the blare of the music and the noisy chatter of all the party guests. Then suddenly everything went quiet, and Lucy knew all eyes were now on her. A low hum started and Lucy felt mortified. Now they all knew what had happened to her.

“It’s okay, Lucy,” Tucker kept whispering over and over as he stepped out into the night air. “I have you.”

“Lucy,” Riley’s voice came through the night, as Tucker made his way down to his car. Lucy just wanted to die. Now that she heard his voice, she suddenly didn’t want Riley to see her like this. She could hear him running towards them. “Tucker, what the fuck has happened?”

“She was attacked,” Tucker explained as he opened the back door to his car and carefully placed Lucy inside. “I am taking her to the emergency room.”

“Wait!” Riley said as he reached the car. “What do you mean she was attacked?”

“Christ sake, Riley, do you really need me to spell it out for you?” Tucker said as slammed the door and hurried to the driver’s side. “Look, I am not standing here discussing it with you. She needs to be seen by a doctor. Now either get in or get out of my way.”

Riley stared at Tucker for a moment before he climbed into the front passenger seat. He turned around and looked at Lucy, who was curled into a small ball on the back seat.

“Luc,” he said as he reached out to touch her, but she pulled away. She closed her eyes unable to look at Riley. She felt dirty, broken and so ashamed. Why would he ever want her now? She pinched her eyes closed tighter and placed her hands over her ears. All she wanted to do was shut out the world. She knew things would never be the same again.

2016

Lucy sat staring at the screen for what seemed like forever. She was looking through the pictures from her latest photo shoot. As she was on a deadline for the magazine that had commissioned them, and she needed to make the final selection of which photographs she was submitting.

“Hey, Lucy,” Alison, her assistant said as she breezed into Lucy’s studio. “Have you selected your photos for Gloss yet?”

“I have narrowed them down,” Lucy sighed, looking up from her computer at her assistant, who was holding out a cup of coffee for her. She smiled gratefully as she took it from her. “Thank you, Ali, I so needed this. I feel like I am seeing dots instead of photographs. They have all become one big blur. Right now, I have no idea what the hell I am going to send the magazine. I hate this part.”

She took a long, welcomed sip of the coffee before she turned back to her screen and set her mug down next to her.

“Lucy,” Alison said as she sat down in the seat next to Lucy and stared at the screen. “You know you are over thinking this too much. You always do this to yourself. Your photographs are all amazing. It doesn’t matter what you send them; they are going to love it, so stop worrying.”

“You always say that, Ali,” Lucy laughed.

“And I’m always right,” Alison replied with a sigh. “You are way too hard on yourself. At times, you are your own worst critic.”

“I just want things to be perfect; that’s all.” Lucy shrugged.

“Trust me,” Alison said as she stood up. “They will be. You just need to relax.”

Lucy smiled to herself as her assistant turned and left the room. Lucy knew Alison wasn’t wrong, but she was a perfectionist, and that was just how it was.

She had just pressed send on the email to the magazine when her intercom sounded. She reached for the speaker on her desk and pressed the button.

“Hey, Ali,” Lucy said as she closed down her computer and opened her laptop. “If you are checking up on me, you will be pleased to hear I have sent the damn email. You can stop stressing now.”

“That’s good to hear,” Alison said, but Lucy could hear an edge in her voice, and she instantly knew something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?” Lucy blurted immediately, then held her breath. “Has something happened?”

“Lucy,” Alison began nervously. “There is a call for you. It’s a nurse in a hospital in River Springs. She says it important.”

“Put her through,” Lucy said as she could feel the blood drain from her face. Lucy knew there was only one reason she would be ringing her, and it was a call she dreaded. She picked up the receiver of her phone and waited for Alison to connect the call, the whole time chanting in her mind.
Don’t panic, don’t panic
.

“Hello, is this Lucy Chance?” The woman asked when the call came through.

“This is she,” Lucy replied, blowing out a deep, steadying breath. “It’s my dad, isn’t it?”

“Ms. Chance,” the woman said, and Lucy held her breath once more. “My name is Clare Warren; I am a nurse in Mercy Hope Memorial, in River Springs. Your father was admitted to the emergency room this afternoon. He was involved in a shooting and was wounded.”

“He was shot!” Lucy exclaimed, as hot tears stung her eyes and her heart hammered rapidly in her chest. She quickly blinked back the tears, now was not the time for crying.

“Please don’t panic, Ms. Chance,” the nurse quickly said. “Your father has been taken to the OR, but his condition isn’t believed to be life threatening.”

“So he is going to be okay?” Lucy asked as she breathed out a sigh of relief. “He isn’t going to die, right?”

“We believe so, yes,” the nurse replied, and Lucy could hear the smile in her voice. “Ms. Chance, before your father was taken to surgery, he requested that I call you. He asked that I let you know what was happening but said there is no need for you to come here, that he was fine. However, as a nurse, I must tell you, that even though your father’s injuries aren’t’ life threatening, he still faces a long, difficult road to recovery and I think he really could do with the support.”

Lucy could feel her heart race in her chest once again. It had been nine years since she had left River Springs. Nine years since that night. She had tried to go back many times over the years, but in the end, she just couldn’t face it. Now her father needed her; she had no choice.

She remembered the day she left as if it was yesterday.

It was ten days after the football party. She hadn’t left the house since her father took her home from the hospital six days earlier. She had been given sedatives to help her relax, and she had spent the morning sleeping, as she had every day since she had come home.

She was woken to her father’s raised voice coming from downstairs. At first, she couldn’t make out what he was saying, but when she got up and quietly made her way to the landing, she could hear him, and he wasn’t happy.

“I don’t understand,” he snapped angrily. “You have the rape kit; you have the moulds from the bite marks on her body. The cuts and bruises, how can you tell me you aren’t going to press charges?”

Lucy could feel her legs buckle beneath her. She sat down on the top step and held onto the banister rail to try and keep herself grounded. They weren’t going to charge Trent? She could feel her stomach heave.

“Trent doesn’t deny he had sex with Lucy,” Huge Bowman, the Assistant District Attorney explained. “Hell, Tom, he even admits he got a bit rough…”

“A BIT ROUGH!” Her father yelled. “He bit her eleven times, some of the bite marks needed stitches. He is a fucking animal.”

“I know, Tom,” Bowman tried to appease her father. “I know Lucy, and I know she isn’t that kind of girl. But we have a party full of witnesses that said Lucy was a willing participant. They say she walked upstairs with Trent. Hell, one girl said she walked in, and Lucy was performing oral sex on the boy.”

“And it’s all a fucking lie,” Tom insisted. “What about Riley? Surely he was able to tell you what happened.”

“I spoke to him,” Bowman replied, and Lucy lifted her head at the mention of Riley’s name. “He said he didn’t see anything; he was out back with the coach.”

Lucy had heard enough, she stood up and returned to her room. When she reached her room, she packed her bags. She couldn’t stay here any longer. She would never be allowed to forget what had happened to her. Trent would still be here, and she could never walk the streets in peace again.

That was the day she went to stay with her aunt in Nebraska until she started NYU in the fall.

“Ms. Chance,” the nurse said down the phone, and Lucy realised she was still talking to her. “Ms. Chance.”

“Yes, sorry,” Lucy said, shaking the ghosts from her mind. “Yes, of course, I will go there. Just, just don’t tell anyone I am coming, please. Especially not my dad.”

“Certainly, Ms. Chance,” the nurse replied.

“Thank you,” Lucy said as her mind went into overdrive and she began to make plans for her trip home. “I will be there as soon I can.”

Lucy said goodbye to the nurse and hung up the phone.

She sat for a moment, staring into space, trying to take in what had happened. She didn’t even hear Alison come into her studio.

“Lucy,” she said startling her. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Lucy replied with a smile.

“Then why are you crying?” Alison asked.

Lucy reached up and touched her face; she was surprised to find it covered in tears. She quickly wiped them away and forced another smile. She needed to get things sorted to go home to her father.

“Alison, I need you to cancel all my appointments for the next couple of weeks,” Lucy said she forced a smile on her face.

“Is everything okay?” Alison asked, as she gave Lucy a concerned look. “Is your dad okay?”

“He was shot,” Lucy said as she stood up and started to pack up her belongings. “He is okay thankfully, but I need to go there and be with him. I don’t know how long I will be gone for. Can you keep things ticking over for me here?”

“Sure,” Alison nodded. “Anything you need, just let me know.”

“Thanks, Ali,” Lucy said, giving her a grateful smile. “I need to go home and pack a bag before I hit the road.

“You’re going to drive?” Alison asked as she followed Lucy to the door of the study.

"I will be there in a couple of hours,” Lucy explained. “By the time I book a flight, get through security and all the rest of the crap that comes with flying, I won’t really save any time. At least this way I will have my own car and not some crappy rental.”

“Will you be okay driving back alone?” Alison asked, but Lucy knew that she wasn’t just talking about the drive. Alison didn’t know the full story of what had happened to Lucy and why she never went home, but she knew something bad had happened.

She knew Lucy loved her father. She called him every evening and skyped him a couple of times a week. Alison had met him every time he came to visit Lucy, and she was very fond of Tom Chance. Still, Alison knew there was a reason why Lucy never went home, and she knew it was something big.

“I will be okay,” Lucy replied as she stopped, turned back to her assistant, and gave her a hug. “I will call you when I reach the hospital.”

“Okay,” Alison said, but still she looked worried.

“Stop worrying,” Lucy said, giving her a big smile. “Go home to that beautiful man of yours.”

“Oh,” Alison said suddenly. “Speaking of beautiful men, shouldn’t you call Steve and tell him you are heading out of town? Maybe he will want to go with you, you know, for support.”

Lucy didn’t reply. Instead, she just gave Alison the same look she always gave her when she knew her friend was not going to like what she was about to say.

“Oh, Lucy, no,” Alison sighed. “You broke up with him? Why? It was going so well,”

“I just wasn’t feeling it,” Lucy shrugged.

“You barely gave him a chance!” Alison exclaimed. “You never give any of them a chance.”

“That’s not true,” Lucy protested, but she knew Alison wasn’t wrong. She had liked Steve; she really had, but he wanted to move things on between them and she just wasn’t ready to take that step. She sighed to herself as she wondered if she would ever be ready to take that step?”

“Please don’t be mad at me,” Lucy said, as she gave Alison a pleading look. “I will call you when I reach my dad, I promise.”

She hugged her assistant one more time before she headed for the door.

When she reached her apartment, she quickly packed a bag and set it down in the hallway. She wished she had time to shower, but she didn’t want to delay any longer then she had to. She decided a quick change of clothes would have to do.

Once she had selected a crisp white shirt and a pair of black jeans from her wardrobe, she stripped and threw her dirty clothes in the hamper before she put on her clean underwear, then pulled on her jeans. As she slipped on her fitted shirt, she walked to the full-length mirror in her room.

She stared at her reflection and sighed. Lucy was a natural beauty. She had piercing dark blue eyes, her mom’s elegant nose, and the perfect smile. Her face was framed by soft, wavy blonde hair that fell over her shoulders effortlessly.

Lucy knew she was pretty, however when she looked at herself, pretty was not what she felt. All she could see was the sad, broken girl, who was still ashamed of herself and her body. She still felt sickened by the scars that were there, the ones that reminded her every day, just what Trent McAlister had taken from her.

She pulled back her shirt and stared at the bite mark on her chest. Though the redness of the scars had long since faded, the scar was still there, reminding her every day what he had done to her.

She ran her fingers over the rough ridges on her skin and choked back the lump of grief in her throat. She quickly pulled her shirt closed and buttoned it up.

Whether she was ready or not, she was going back. Her dad needed her, so she needed to do this. It was time for her to go home.