Filed to story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
Liam had shaken his head.
“It’s not the first time we’ve come across such things.”
“Mr Reeves himself offered up a full dinner meeting while we sort out mediation of the case between you and he. He’s trying to appear calm and rational, or as Bridie put it, showing his generous side, to show he’s not obsessive where you’re concerned.
“We’re going to stay for it all, the meal, the presentation. It should take about an hour or two with the mediation. I’ll drag that out a bit and have Lisa pipe in and push her own thoughts. His office is about 20 minutes from here, so that will give Bridie time to have you and the boys not only discharged but out of the state altogether, cross the border into Louisiana. Now if he tries anything at all after that.
“To force you back here or to him, he’ll be taking you across state lines and that’s a federal offense, so if he’s a smart man, this should keep him from doing that. Or have his lawyer stop him from doing it. So just sit tight and agree with everything Bridie says to the doctors here, we’ve got it all covered, and you’ll be home in a couple of days.
They’d not even eaten dinner. Bridie had turned up before that, and she’d been helped into her clothes and all her boys’ things had been packed up while Bridie had laid the law down with the doctors out there. Producing another neurosurgeon’s letter stating he was taking over Marilyn’s case, and she was being transported to his hospital not only at his request but at Marilyn’s as well.
It was actually her previous neurosurgeon that they’d managed to not only speak with, but bring on board as well, and she and the boys had been gone from the hospital in less than 15 minutes. Bridle was very efficient. She had simply put her foot down and stood her ground without flinching, had put that transfer form in Dr
Holdings”
hand and stated she’s not your patient anymore.
Marilyn had taken a call from Lisa just as they were about to cross the state line into Louisiana.
“Are you all good?”
she’d asked.
“Yes, thank you, your mother is..”
Lisa laughed, cutting her off. 1 know, just like my dad… they get things done quickly and quietly, are efficient.”
She chuckled
“Sorry I wasn’t there, but I’m a good distraction in that meeting with Calvin, getting all angry and ticked off, halting the meeting every now and then and taking it off??opic.”
“That’s alright, I just wanted to go home anyway.”
she told her, and Lisa knew this, right from the first encounter with that man. It’s all she’d wanted to do, was to leave and get away from him. Marilyn now wondered if she’d changed her name to help herself get away from him, so he’d never find her.
She had no idea if she’d known if she was pregnant with his children at the time. The accident had obliterated that part of her knowledge. But something else was now bothering her. If she’d left him because he was an abusive husband, then why had she called him from her car? What was her reason for doing that if she was trying to get away from him?
She knew driving and talking on the phone were not allowed, and that doing so could risk one having a car accident, so why had she done it? What was the reason behind leaving him, changing her name to hide from him but then calling him and risking leaving him a trail to find her later on.
Gone from him again
Was everything that had happened all just fated to happen? She now knew he’d not even been in the country but in Italy, where his ex??ife was about to land. He’d divorced her but gone after her at the same time. She couldn’t make sense of his behaviour towards his wife even back then.
Or had she really been running from a crazy obsessive ex??usband? She didn’t know the answers to those questions. All she did know was that she was not that person anymore and wouldn’t be going back to an angry obsessive ex not even if he was a billionaire and the father of her boys.
She was not going to subject either one of them to that kind of home life. No one deserved to live with the constant fear and worry of when or how one would set off a rage in that man. She didn’t even know if it would only stay aimed at her or if he’d turn it on the boys at some point. A lot of abuse moved from the spouse to the children. Everyone suffered in an abusive relationship. She was not going to do that to her children..
They stopped in Lafayette, Louisiana and were booked into the Hilton Garden Inn, under one of Bridie’s employees’ names, and Bridie smiled at her,
“There will be no tracking of us on our trip. Get some rest. We’ll leave after breakfast, stay in Chattanooga tomorrow night and then on to Bedford the next day. All travel bookings will be in no way attached to yourself or the Stevens family, so we’re not expecting any trouble.
“You do this a lot, don’t you?”
Marilyn asked. She had to for it to be this well planned out.
“Not me personally, but my brother??n??aw does. He helped me to sort it out. Our two firms work alongside each other at times.”
She smiled at her.
“Now get some sleep and try not to worry too much.”
“Mum?”
Callum asked as she saw them into their bed.
“Still being stalked is all.”
she told them,
“This way we can leave without anyone knowing.”
Both her boys were just looking at her, and she wondered what they were thinking, but they were just seven, and it was up to her to protect them, and from everything she’d seen so far of Calvin Reeves, they needed it as much as she did.
Calvin
He couldn’t believe it, as he stood there inside his office. She’d been removed from the hospital two hours ago. He understood at that very moment that Liam, Hamilton and Lisa had all known about this. They had come here to this very meeting knowing that Marilyn was in fact already in the process of leaving that hospital.
He looked at his watch and realised she’d left that hospital before this meeting had even started, while he had been in that conference room setting it all up. Those three had not once rushed anything at all about that meeting. Having casually sat and eaten, the chef prepared meals and mediated the charges against him
They were in fact all being dropped, or that was the agreement that had been reached, because Marilyn didn’t want anything to do with him. She just wanted to leave and go back to her life, something he now understood they’d helped her to do, and all the while they were sitting across from him, eating the food he’d had laid out for them.
Not one of them had interrupted his PowerPoint presentation on how he’d planned out helping her recovery either. They had all just sat there and let him go on with it, had even asked him questions about it, getting the finer details for themselves he’d thought.
