Free Sweetest Torture (Sweetest Kill Book 2) by S.B. Alexander

Dean.
    It only hurt a little more when he
didn’t call after the first week.
    A little more after the first
month.
    When I found out that we were
having a little boy. The pain was just a slight stab in the heart.

Chapter 19 - Six Months Later
    Mom and Dad divorced.
    Apparently she filed after I went missing, and Dad refused
to let her help in the search efforts she decided that she couldn’t take him
anymore.
    Mom is happier sans dad. She sings in the car on the way to
the store. She swears. The first time I heard her curse I nearly peed my pants
with laughter.
    She stays with Joss and Jaxon. I think Jaxon is really happy
to have her support finally.
    Josslyn just loves her.
    Alexis is still pretty much living with me. She keeps her
own space, but no one seems to really like it when I am alone. And to be
totally honest even 6 months later and at 8 and a half months pregnant, alone
is the last thing I want to be.
    The nursery is all decorated. We did yellow and blue
pastels. I didn’t want to do anything too boyish at first, but Alexis and I got
carried away.
    I started doing my photography again shortly after I
returned. At first it was hard to focus, but Alexis helped me get through the
first few jobs without panicking and feeling like something was going to
happen. It’s nice to be earning money again. Not that I needed a whole lot, I
still had my savings and money from additional photos that were ordered from
previous jobs before I went missing.
    6 months later, I still have not opened his envelope.
    Ryan comes by often to check on me. He never mentions Dean.
In fact after a while I start to forget that he is Dean’s brother.
    He and Alexis started dating shortly after my return. I was
a little sad in some ways, because I always thought that Alexis would become my
sister in law, but my brother is so busy with Joss he has no real desire to
settle down with just one person.
    Ryan is good to Lex though. He showers her with gifts. He
sits with us and watches movies. He helped us build the nursery. He is the
baby’s uncle, he even buys boxes of diapers and onesies when he is out. I think
he does it for a reason to randomly drop by.
    But never does he talk about his brother.
    I don’t know if he does it for Dean, or if he does it for
me. Alexis says that he is angry with his brother. But she doesn’t say much
more than that. I can always tell that she wants to though. She’s angry at Dean
for leaving me alone. I am too, but we are all more upset to find that Stella
is with him, and he hasn’t made contact since the last day I saw him at the
hotel.
     
    ***     
    I go into labor when I am 38 weeks. It’s mid-June, hotter
than hell outside and I am cranky.
    I am yelling at the guy Ryan hired to mow my lawn. Ryan and
Alexis are sitting outside drinking ice tea and trying to get me to calm down.
Laughing at me, which only makes me laugh in return and then I get angry at the
guy for laughing as well.
    My water breaks in the middle of me telling the poor
teenager that if he didn’t start picking up the left over grass I was going to
shove it down his throat. I might have been a bit hormonal.
     
    The tears that run down my face as soon as I realize what is
happening is too much for Ryan.
    I am crying to Alexis about having to do this alone. When he
starts swearing and calling his brother an asshole among other choice names. He
starts pacing the room saying something about Stella needing to solve her own
damn problems. I want to ask him what he means by that, but suddenly a strong
contraction hits.
    “Ow, shit Lex this really hurts.”
    She holds my hand while we lay on the couch, waiting for the
contractions to come closer together. When they do, we grab my hospital bag and
go. Calling mom on our way.
    Once we are in the hospital room, mom is wiping down my
forehead with a cool cloth and Alexis is holding my hand. Ryan is sitting in a
chair. He’s not staying in here while I give birth, but his support until