Charity's Secrets (28 page)

Melissa
nods and nervously checks the door to make sure they're not coming yet.
"Someone is stalking Charity, at least I'm pretty sure they are. I keep
seeing the same guy whenever she's around. The first time was when I was in New
York helping Charity with your surprise. I saw him again here when Justin
brought her home for a few days. I thought she saw him too, but she didn't seem
to recognize him. When we sat down today, he was across the street. I'm sure it
was him—and I'm sure he was watching us."

The
cold is already biting at Lena's hands, so she stuffs them into her coat
pockets. "How do you know he's not following you?"

"I
don't, not for sure. But I never saw him before New York, and I only see him
now if Charity is around," Melissa answers convincingly.

"Keep
an eye on her," Lena says after thinking about it quickly. "Don't
tell her, but keep her safe until help comes."

Melissa
is scared again. "What help? What are you going to do?"

There
is a sparkle of something wickedly sinister in Lena's eyes. "I'm going to
fix things, all of it—including her stalker."

"JUSTIN, OPEN THE FUCKING
door! I know you're in there and you
know I won't go away until you let me in." Her voice carries in through
his door easily. Lena waits in the silence of the hallway with an unbreakable
resolve.

She
pounds on the bell and beats her knuckles on the face of the door again,
growing more impatient with him. The door starts shaking on its hinges.

Less
than an hour ago, she had used their systems at Panther to break into the
apartment building's account records and locate which apartment he was staying
in. There were several possibilities, and it was easy to figure out which one
has current, active utility use. When she came here; it wasn't to knock and
give up, she is prepared to break in if she has too, but that would seriously
piss her the fuck off if Justin lets it come to that.

He
isn't ready to see anyone yet, she knows that. His heart is broken into a
million pieces, and that's exactly what he spent most of his life avoiding.
Justin will have no idea how to deal with his pain and get past it like most of
us would, he has no practical experience with the emotions of betrayal. Whether
he likes it or not, he needs help, her help.

"Dammit,
Justin, I've been your friend way too long for you to not trust me. I love you.
You're my family, and I would never steer you wrong," she tells him
softly.

Inside
the room, Justin is sitting on the couch with his shoulders slumping over
toward the ground. He knows she's right, but he hasn't been able to move for
hours. Even now, the ache in his chest takes his breath away and leaves him
unable to stand. There is no going forward, but he can't go back either. He's
stuck on the couch, stuck in life.

Since
he's been with Charity, she has become his life. Without her there is a
debilitating emptiness that slowly expands and consumes everything around him.
He cannot find a future to head toward now.

Nothing
to eat or drink has passed his lips in the two days since Sunday when he
discovered what Charity had done. His head is pounding from the dehydration and
stress.

"Justin,
please," she pleads through the door.

He
needs her to help him make sense of this, why Charity would hurt him this way.
Justin finally pulls himself off the couch and heads for the door, feeling an
absolute weakness fighting him. When he reaches the door, he grabs the deadbolt
and turns it out.

From
outside she hears the clicking and gets herself prepared, but she was not
prepared at all for what was inside the open door, this hollow shell that
resembles her best friend.

"Christ,
Justin!" Lena rushes into the apartment on a mission.

"What?"
he scoffs.

"Don't
be an ass! You look like shit. You're so dehydrated your lips are
shriveled." Her arm locks around one of his and she drags him deeper
inside, sitting him down on the couch. She starts him off with a glass of water
while she checks the refrigerator for something better. It's completely empty.
"Are you fucking kidding me here?"

Justin
finishes gulping the water. "I wasn't planning on being here," he
growls defensively.

Lena
fills the glass again and hands it back to him. As he drinks, she studies him
while shaking her head.

"Say
it," he orders, feeling better already.

"Why
don't you?" Lena snaps. Justin's expression is confused. "You want to
ask how she is. Sure, you're trying like hell not to, like you don't give a
shit, but it isn't working. You're mad as hell, no doubt, but that doesn't mean
you don't still love her and you aren't very worried about her."

"So
then just tell me," Justin growls. "How is she?"

"Terrible!
Worse than you. Do you know that she can't stop crying? Tough bitch like her
and she's broken."

She
sees the tears that comes to his eyes. He can't stand that she’s hurt that it's
him hurting her.

He
slowly runs both hands into his hair, combing his fingers through its
thickness. Then he stops and grabs fistfuls, yanking it hard in
self-punishment. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" His injured eyes catch her.
"Why, Lena? Why the hell would she do that? What the fuck was she
thinking? The only reason to go to my mother is to hurt me."

"That's
not true, Justin," she chirps quickly. "Has she ever done anything to
hurt you, do you really think she's capable of that?"

"There's
always a first time!" he shouts angrily.

Lena is
quickly pissed off. "Do you love her? Before all this, wasn't your heart
all in and she was everything to you?" He nods. "And wouldn't you
have done anything for her, anything at all—even
destroy
yourself if it
would make her happy?"

"Of
course! I was living for her. I would have done anything!"

"Well,
she might even love you more than that, Justin. Just like you, she was willing
to hurt herself for you, if it was something to make you happier, more
complete.
And she proved it!
"

He
looks stunned. "What do you mean?"

Lena
softens her voice. "You learned something new about your father last year,
after all that time. What if you're wrong about your mother? What if things
happened the way they did for reasons, Justin?"

He
doesn't have any words.

Lena
continues, "You would never go and find out on your own. You're too
stubborn and way too angry, but she could find out for you. She could find her
and talk to her and if you were right all along, nothing had to change. If you
were wrong though, if there was something you didn't know all this time, she
was willing to risk losing you and damn near killing herself with sadness—if it
would lead to your happiness. You are worth more to her than she is to
herself."

Justin
is trembling all over.

"I'm
going to tell you something else, something she made me promise not to, but I
think you should know." Lena has a quiver in her voice rising up from her
chest. "It's me you can blame for this."

His
eyes grab her tightly.

"I
found her name a long time ago. I had it and was too afraid to do anything with
it," she says. "When Charity came into your life, when I was sure she
was the one and you had finally understood that, I gave her the name. I
couldn't bear it anymore, and I told her she could do what she wanted with it I
would respect her decision if she wanted to let you just live as you were or if
she wanted to seek your truth for you."

"She
had the strength to finish what you couldn't," he whispered.

"She
didn't want me to tell you that, so that I would be able to get to you and give
you the message, tell you what she found out from your mother."

His
trembling got worse. "You know—you know what it is?"

"I
do, but I won't tell you. It's too big, and you have to hear it from Charity
and your mother with your own ears. Justin, it changes everything you know, and
when you hear it, you are not going to be mad at Charity anymore. You're going
to love her more than you ever did."

Justin
drops his face into his hands. It makes him look devastated, but maybe also
relieved.

"I'm
so sorry I caused this. I hate seeing you both this way. You need to go to her
Justin; go to her, fix this and put any anger you have on me instead of
her."

"Is
she upstairs? Is she home?" he asks in a quiet, reserved voice.

"No.
I took her to her parents. I didn't want her alone, not in her condition. I've
never seen so much hurt in someone’s eyes." Lena begins to cry at the
memory of Charity's pain.

Justin
nods. "That's good. Better she has their support right now."

"There's
something else you need to know," Lena begins through her gentle tears.
"Melissa told me she saw someone when you had Charity home a few weeks
ago, someone she thought had followed them from New York."

Justin
perks up. "Yeah, I remember when that happened," he says nervously,
anticipating bad news about to be told.

"Melissa
saw him again, this morning. She's sure this guy is after Charity," Lena
tells him. "It scared the shit out of her and I'm afraid this has to do
with our work with Senator Lewis."

Justin suddenly
stands, towering over Lena ominously. Smoke pours from his nostrils under
weighted breaths while his massive chest heaves. His hands flex into hammers.

Without
warning he bends and grabs the coffee table in front of them and lifts it over
his head. Justin throws it in one single motion and it sails twisting through
the air in the room until it collides with the sheetrock wall about ten feet
away, embedding into the hole it makes. Pictures come flying off the wall,
crashing and shattering on the floor as the building seems to rumble.

His
chest is still cranking and his breath still smoking.

"What
are you going to do?" Lena asks, calm and unaffected from having seen him
furious before.

Justin's
deep voice growls. "I'm going to her. She's mine! Nobody touches her—I'll
fucking kill them where they stand!"

Suddenly
he grabs Lena by the shoulders and stands her up so their eyes are even.
"You don't tell her I'm coming, understood?" Lena nods. "I don't
want her acting different and tipping this guy off.
I wanna kill him myself!
"

NOTHING
HAPPENED LAST NIGHT
after
he’d arrived in PA. Justin had stayed in his car down the street where he had a
view of Charity's parent's house. Melissa was there, sticking to her side as
Lena had told her to do, her car parked right in the front.

A move
is going to be made soon. Justin was surprised it wasn't last night, since
Melissa had seen the stalker now for the third time. He couldn’t afford to drag
this out much longer. It wasn't a very professional job and that had Justin
wondering why, if it's supposed to be this way. Maybe it was just to draw him
out, make him vulnerable to an attempt. Or maybe it was a message that they
could take her any time if he doesn't back off.

Either
way, they've gone too far, crossed a line that should not have been crossed.
Charity is off limits and it's time to show them that.

The sun
came up into a clear sky this morning and the air is crisp. His window is down
a crack to keep the windows from fogging up and he's ice cold because of it.

Nothing
has moved for quite a while in the house. It seemed to be holding its breath
waiting for its occupants to wake up, being careful not to disturb them. Now there
are people moving around, heading to the kitchen at the back of the house.
Justin can almost smell the coffee he knows they are making and he's desperate
to wrap his hands around a hot cup of his own.

Charity
appears in the front window unexpectedly and Justin's heart pangs for her. She
touches her face, and he realizes there's a tissue in her hand.

She's
still crying.

That
breaks him. One of his hands grips his chest right over his heart and he's not
even aware that he's doing it.

Melissa
appears next to her, wrapping an arm around her like a good friend. Charity
drops her head to Melissa's shoulder, spent. She's in agony and it's agony to
watch her and not be able to stop it, at least not yet.

That
was it for an hour, until the front door opens and the two girls come spilling
out, still fixing their coats and gloves. They jump into Melissa's car and it rumbles
to life coughing out white from its tailpipe.

He
waits.

Their
car begins to roll away, but he does nothing, even when they reach the end of
the street and turn. There's no fear of losing them. As soon as he arrived last
night he snapped a GPS locator on her car. They aren't going anywhere he can't
find. It was better to wait, not just so they don't see him, but to see if
anyone else follows them first.