Forest's Redemption

She ran out into traffic because she thought I knew.

That was all it took - the suspicion of me knowing the truth about what happened to her. She didn't even want to wait to make sure that I really did know.

She just ran.

She tried to leave me again all because she thought I knew.

"Is this better?" She asked while adjusting the camera on her side.

"Yeah." I smiled while she took a few paces back so I could see her better.

She looks tired. She looks really tired.

She spent her whole life working herself to the bone to make sure she would never need to go to a free clinic ever again. I had to argue with her about my medical insurance instead of hers paying for all the specialists we consulted and the huge operation that was allegedly a must for her to carry our baby to term.

The amount was inconsequential to us both, but she wanted her own medical insurance to pay for everything because she said there was once a time in her life when going to see the best doctors in the world was beyond her wildest dreams.

She said she was so afraid of being a statistic that she promised herself she'd rather die of working too hard than die of something like starvation, drugs or being left for dead on the streets.

Those were realities I never had to fear, but she was staring them in the face every single day.

The few times she needed a doctor while growing up, I wanted to take her to the best hospitals and doctors, but she refused. She was too proud to ever let me help her to that extent.

So she went to free clinics.

I'd want to at least drop her off, but she refused with so much aggression that I had to let it go.

She wouldn't let me buy her clothes. She insisted that the second hand clothes she could afford were fine because she knew how to tailor them to fit her better.

She wouldn't let me buy her groceries or sanitary products or perfumes and make up and all kinds of fancy accessories I could see her eyeing everyday because she said she could do it all on her own. She returned everything I bought for her because she said she wasn't a leech.

Mom was able to pay for all her books, school supplies, extracurricular activities and school trips under the guise of it being covered by her scholarship. She had to do that after Charlie asked her for a part time job at her kindergarten. As much as it's good to have a part time job, that would have derailed her. It would have meant less time for studying, no time for any extracurricular activities and she would have faded into the crowd when she was meant to stand out.

Charlie was always meant to stand out.

I saw that in her eyes when she spoke to our entire class in a language that none of us understood. I was just a boy, but I decided that day that I would do whatever it took to help her stand out.

"How do I look?" She stared at the camera with strong but delicate eyes and tampered nervously with the hem of her hospital shirt.

The top and pants she wore looked worn out, faded due to years of ware and tear, but at least they looked clean.

She did everything right.

She refused to give up, worked her butt off until she earned enough to make people go dizzy in the head. She kept the promises she made to the little skinny girl with curls that looked too heavy for her to carry.

She made it so that she would never need a free clinic ever again and yet, here we are. The fancy hospitals and doctors couldn't be trusted so we fled to the one place she promised herself she would never need again - a free clinic.

Life tends to come to a full circle no matter what you do to prevent it.

The washed out grey walls behind her washed out the already faded light blue hospital clothing she was wearing. I could see cracks in the walls, the tiles and equipment that didn't look good enough to be touching my wife, but I bit my tongue.

She looks thin.

Much too thin.

Even if she weren't pregnant, she would still be much too thin.

There was air of fragility in how she smiled, tilted her head, waved at the camera and fidgeted with her shirt.

She's still scared and she's not bothering to hide it this time.

I left this woman to fend for herself for more than two months. And my excuse was that I called and texted her, but she didn't respond.

"You look beautiful, Charlie." I stifled the regret that was burning my throat. "You always look so beautiful."

She went go sit down on the long chair next to her and started swinging her legs nervously.

She asked me to also switch my camera on, but I told her I couldn't do that yet. She'll worry when she sees my bandaged up shoulder, my dirty face and messed up hair.

My stomach is still turning from the fact that that man escaped.

And she's in danger, but I can't tell her about all of this because ... because she'll try to leave if I tell her. She will abandon all reason and logic and try to get as far away from me as possible all because I know.

I'm going to kill him, tear him limb from limb and leave nothing for his family bury. I'll kill them as well if I have to.

I know from experience that death should always be the absolute last resort, but I'm going to kill everyone who has tried to hurt her ... everyone who is trying to hurt her.

Gosh, I can still see it.

There was so much blood. Her whole dorm room was drenched in blood. It was on the walls, the floor, her bed, her books and some was even on the ceiling.

And the bones ...

There were bones sticking out of her body. Chunks of her hair was lying on the floor and that knife ... that knife he used to carve the life out of her was left on the bloody floor.

Her face was swollen for an entire week. She was black and blue the whole time she was in that coma. So many of her bones and ligaments had to be reset and put in a cast. Wounds needed to be cleaned and changed and her hair ...

She had to cut off all of her hair.

She loves her hair.

Why wouldn't she want me to know?

She should have screamed at me, hit me, thrown things at me. She should have told me again and again how I failed her ... how I was supposed to come see her that day ... how I promised her I'd come see her that day because a month had already gone by without us seeing one another.

Which means more than three months went by without us seeing one another ... it took me more than three months to get up and go see her.

She was right to break up with me.

I deserved it.

And now ...

I can't look at her without seeing all that blood, her mangled body, her hooked up to a breathing machine ...

If she sees my face she'll know.

I can't let her see me yet; not when I can barely face myself after what I found out.

I've been angry at her all these years. I tried to hate her, to regret ever meeting her because a part of me died when she ended things. I was so hurt. I thought I was going to go crazy. I thought she was a monstrous person who could never love me the way I loved her because of the things her parents did to her.

I convinced myself that she lied to me each time I held her, kissed her, laughed with her and gave myself to her.

I convinced myself that Charlotte Ericsson was incapable of love long before we met and that's why she tore my heart out with no remorse.

I told myself those lies each time I hugged Lauren, each time I cheered her up when she was crying, each time I helped her with a task a college kid or even a highschool kid should have been able to complete.

Subconsciously, I compared Lauren to Charlie over the years in an attempt to convince myself that I was wrong for loving Charlotte.

I noticed how Lauren was always ready to be fragile and protected while Charlotte would never do such a thing. I noticed how Lauren followed me like a shadow that had no existence beyond my own and knew that Charlie could never be such a person. She would never follow someone blindly and forsake herself or her dreams. She loves me, but she would never make me her God the way Lauren did.

Each time Lauren spoke about how girls spend too much time on hair and make up and pamering themselves, I convinced myself there was some truth to what she was saying because Charlotte loves doing her hair and make up.

I told myself Charlie was the evil ex-girlfriend who broke me and had no problem walking away while I struggled to pick up the pieces.

Turns out, I was the villain in the story all along.

I'm the idiot boyfriend who fell for fake tears, panic attacks and the blonde girl's dumb act all because my girlfriend was 'too strong to need me' the way Lauren needed me.

She was right to break up with me.

I don't know when it happened, but at some point I started taking her strength for granted. Instead of admiring it, I started thinking of it as an obstacle that I couldn't overcome.

I started thinking of her as an invincible person who needed no one; not even me.

I took it for granted that on the rare occasion that she did need someone, she only ever came to me or mom. I took it for granted that she only showed me her flaws and shared her dreams and fears with only me.

I was her person but because she wasn't fragile enough, I let the most pathetic excuse for a woman drive a wedge between us. I saw what she was doing. I knew Lauren had feelings for me. I also knew Charlie would have never approved of my friendship with her if she saw how the girl tried to flirt with me.

I knew all that, but turned a blind eye to it because the struggling, dumb blonde needed my help and I wanted to save her.

I should have ...

I should have been a better boyfriend.

We were trying for a baby. I was going to propose. We were about to buy our first house together. We were going to take Greyson Corporation to new heights. We were on the cusp of adulthood and on the cusp of making every single one of our dreams come true and I let it slip away for Lauren?

The absurdity of it makes me want to rip off my skin.

Does she think I'll blame her for not telling me back then? Is that why she doesn't want me to know?

Or maybe ... maybe she knew all I'd see whenever I looked at her was all that blood.

Maybe she knew I'd want to scream and roar from pain and anger each time I saw her because if I had just gone to see her that day like we agreed, he would have never ... she wouldn't have those scars...

She wouldn't have those nightmares.

'Forest don't leave. Please. He's hurting me. Please don't leave me.' That's what I've heard her say through her cries when she was having one of her nightmares.

Does she think I'm going to let her down again? Is that why she doesn't want me to know?

"I won't be able to hide my pregnancy anymore." She said absentmindedly. "Clothes can only hide so much. People will be able to tell in a few weeks."

"Good." My voice came out more strained than I wanted it to. "You're pregnant and yet you haven't missed a beat. You work out, you work your butt off at work and you still insist on making me and Christian breakfast three times a week. You're doing it all and you're pregnant on top of it. People should know just how remarkable you are."

She smiled sadly and with so much fatigue that it almost dragged her entire body to the floor.

"That doesn't matter." She smiled right into the camera. "A pregnant woman is a liability. The firm will try to divide my clients amongst the higest earning partners since I have so many high profile clients. They'll hire a senior associate for me whose only objective will be to steal the little remaining clients I'm allowed to keep and that associate will make sure to ruin my reputation. I'm good at what I do and I have brought that firm millions, if not billions of dollars worth of work, but I haven't cemented my place as a partner yet. I haven't gotten enough true allies yet." She looked down and smiled again as if pitying herself. "Lawyers are vultures by their very nature." She muttered softly. "They will all try to fatten themselves by taking everything I've worked for."

"Charlie", I called to her, "look at me."

She looked at the camera and all that pity, sadness and concern was suddenly wiped away from her face.

She was hiding herself again.

"Greyson Corporation outsources no less than 15 million dollars worth of work to your firm annually. Our shareholders, partners and allies are responsible for more than 75 million dollars worth of work to your firm every year. You will go on maternity leave for two years. You won't touch an inkling of work during that time unless you want to and when you return to work, everything you worked for will still be in place. I don't care how old and prestigious that law firm is, I will tear White & Co. from the ground up for you."

"You know" she chuckled, "I might have to take you up on that. Jona clearly loves working with you much more than he loved working as a lawyer. The plan was to make him my senior associate. He has the skill and experience of a partner and no one at that firm would dare steal my clients while Jona is handling my practice. But I can't ask him of that anymore. Jona has given up A LOT to help me build my career. He should have made partner by now, but he settled for being my assistant."

I watched her eyes glisten as she tried to hold back her tears.

"I don't know why he's done so much for me." She smiled to herself. "He never stops to think about himself where I'm concerned. I was going to repay all his kindness by appointing him as my senior associate. Within a year or two he would make partner, but I don't think he wants that anymore. He may love the work, but he hates the politics that comes with being a lawyer. I'm not going to ask him to abandon his dreams again to help me make mine come true. This is the one time I may have to rely on the power my husband and his family wield to protect my practice."

"It's our family." I reminded her. "And it's your power and influence as well. Wield it however you see fit, Charlie. Use it to put your enemies in their place and to get rid of those who need to get rid of. Remind them that you are Mrs Greyson and one single command from you can wipe away more than half of that firm's client base. Okay?"

"Okay." She smiled a bit more confidently before what can only be described as a suffocating silence tried to suck the air out of the tiny consultation room she was in.

She didn't need to tell me what she was thinking because I was thinking it too.

What about the prenatal supplements Dr Shetland prescribed? Were those also meant to harm Charlie and our baby?

Was it really okay for Charlie to exercise for two hours every day even though she's pregnant? Was it okay for us to have sex as much as we wanted to?

We've both become more insatiable since she got pregnant.

I've cancelled an entire day of work more than a few times to make love to my wife the whole day.

What if we were hurting the baby everytime we ...

Our master suite and house are plastered in pictures of our baby's sonogram. We've been tracking our baby's growth since he or she was a month old. We have those sonograms in our wallets. We both have recordings of our baby's heartbeat.

And all of it was a lie.

We missed five months of our baby's life and we'll never get that back.

We'll never know what our baby looked like at five weeks, ten weeks, eighteen weeks. We'll never know even though we did everything we could to protect our baby and get to know them as much as possible before they were born.

Whose baby's heartbeat have we been listening to everytime we fought over this procedure? Whose baby's sonograms are in our house?

What if there are actual complications that Dr Shetland never told us about? What if we could have resolved those complications a long time ago? What if we're too late?

We fought so many times.

I made her cry. I apologised and held her, but then we'd fight again. Sometimes I couldn't look at her because the thought of her dying ... I can't live without her.

Was the fighting and strain on our relationship for nothing?

"They're taking long." She took a deep breath and looked at the door. "They took my blood and did all kinds of things when I first got here. What if something is wrong, Forest? What if-?"

"Then we'll face it together, Charlie." I told her calmly. "We'll face everything together. Everything will be fine if we hold on to one another."

She bit her lip and nodded.

"Christian is acting strange." She changed the subject. "He's nice to me. It's unsettling. I want him to be mean to me again. Him being nice is making me anxious."

"Jona told me you've been hiding a lot of things from me concerning Christian." I replied as calmly as I could.

"Jona tends to exaggerate when he feels I've been wronged." She tried to brush it off. "Christian grew up with some dirty abandoned kid always at his house, eating his family's food, sharing his only parent's affection and hogging all of his brother's time and attention. He has every right to hate me, Forest. He has every right to resent me and to be tired of me. I accepted that fact a long time ago and decided that I'd repay his tolerance no matter how he treated me. He could have been much more awful, but he wasn't. But now he's nice to me and-" I saw a scowl appear on her face", "I don't know what it means, Forest. There are tol many moving parts and I'm struggling to keep up with everything. I know I shouldn't be thinking this, but my paranoia is unrelenting after everything that's happened. What if he's nice to me because he's planning to hurt me, Forest? What if-"

She put a hand over her trembling lips and stopped herself.

"I'm sorry." She straightened her posture. "Like I said, my paranoia is getting the best of me."

"We'll keep our distance from him from now on." I told her something I probably should have said a very long time ago. "You and our baby are my priority, Charlie. I've always detested how Christian treated you. I could never understand why he treated you so badly when you were his biggest cheerleader all his life. He has never shown you any gratitude or showed you the respect, love and admiration you're owed. Despite that, you always gave him what he needed to reach the goal post. I'm grateful for what he did. I'm grateful to him for saving you and I'll always love him because he's my brother, but you come first. You'll always come first."

She shook her head.

"Family comes first." She forced a smile on her face. "You're the one who taught me that family is everything. I may not have had a family, but you have the greatest family in the world and through some miracle, you and your mom wormed me into that family. How selfish would it be of me to break up the family that saved me?"

"Charlie-"

"No." She said defiantly. "I'll keep a close eye on him, but he's not going anywhere. He's my family. I'll protect him, I'll help him and I'll love him, but I'll be careful. That's all there is to it. We protect our family, Forest. That's what Greysons do."

This woman ....

I had to cover my mouth with my hand.

What did I ever do to deserve a woman who is as beautiful, as kind, as smart, as loving, as downright exceptional as her?

Why would her own parents hurt her the way they did?

Parents dream of having children like Charlie.

Why does he want to kill her?

Why doesn't he love her?

She deserves to be loved. She deserves to drown in love and care and praise.

I am in absolute awe of my wife all the time.

"Let's focus on you and the baby right now." Was all I could say before there was a knock at the door and Charlie told the person on the other side to come in.

Two people walked in with exhausted, but sympathetic smiles.

"Mrs Greyson", the tall girl qith chocolate skin immediately went to hug Charlie and I saw my wife flinch before feigning calmness, "I'm your biggest fan!" The girl exclaimed. "I've been reading everything about you since you launched an entire investigation into our country's medical industry. I've read the articles that claimed that you've received death threats and that there were even attempts on your life, but I never thought ..." She put her hand on her chest and trailed off. "I never thought fellow doctors and nurses would try to hurt you." She tried to talk slower.

"We're one of the good ones!" She pointed at herself and the old man who was standing next to her with an amused look. "My resident doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body. I promise! And I'm a God-fearing woman. I would never-"

"Okay, Anne." The old man laughed and stopped her. "I think we get your point. Mrs Greyson," the old man extended his arm, "I am Dr Kendrick O'Neil and this is my very energetic intern, Anne Clarke. We'll be your doctors today."