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I remembered that Mark was worried about a muscle in Derringer’s hind right leg when we'd worked out earlier. Trey stood up now, starting to pace. “Mark of course ran to your cottage. The front door was locked, but your front window was wide open. Someone had taken the screen out to gain entry. Mark climbed through the window. Luckily he got to your room in time…” Trey’s voice broke off suddenly in anguish. He turned away from me as if he didn’t want me to see the emotion on his face. He put both of his hands behind his head, clasping them behind his neck.
“He saved your life, Tylar. Charlie was on your bed, choking the life out of you. Mark got to him, pulled him off of you, and beat the shit out of the maggot,” he hissed.
“You were naked from the waist down. We didn’t know whether Charlie…”
“No!” I cried. “He didn’t—please say he didn’t!”
It all came flooding back to me in that moment. I felt nauseated. Trey came right to me, sitting down on the bed and taking my hand into his. Oh, it felt so good to be touched by Trey again. My Trey. I had tears in my eyes. I remembered that night all too well now.
“No, he didn’t. We know that now, sweetie,” he said gently. “The hospital did tests and you weren’t sexually assaulted.”
Well, I wouldn’t say that, but I knew what Trey meant. Charlie hadn't raped me with his dick.
“When you got to the hospital, I stayed by your side the whole time. Mark stayed at your cottage until the sheriff’s deputies arrived. Charlie was arrested and he’s in jail now, where he belongs. Mark gave a full report to the sheriff. Obviously it was Charlie who left those things at your cottage. We don’t know why.”
I knew that I could fill in some of those details, although not all of them. Trey still had hold of my hand. His fingers brushed lightly against my thumb. He did not meet my eyes.
“Tylar, the initial tests the hospital ran on you to determine if Charlie had raped you…well…I know your secret now.”
What was he talking about, my secret? My secret what? I looked over at him; he stared at our interlocked hands.
“It appears as if Mark doesn’t know. Do you plan on telling him or have you decided to terminate the pregnancy? I know that it's none of my business, but you're seven weeks along. You need to make a decision one way or another, don’t you think?”
Pregnancy? Oh my God!
I'd suspected something was wrong with me, but I hadn’t figured pregnancy into the equation. My periods were late sometimes; I'd been under tremendous stress recently. There was just the one time that we hadn’t used a condom. It was that night in the stable, that magical night that had suddenly turned ugly and humiliating, at least for me.
Wait a minute…
Trey believed I was pregnant by Mark? How could he possibly think that? Logic would dictate that even if I'd slept with Mark (which of course I hadn’t) the timing would still be suspect as to which of them had fathered the child I was carrying.
Was it possible that Trey had no memory of the night in the stable, the night our baby was conceived? I studied his face; he was clueless. Oh no! It would almost be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. I was insulted to think Trey thought I'd have slept with another man so quickly after waiting 21 years to part with my virginity. He was watching me now, his blue eyes looked pained. What gave him such pain, I wondered? Was it the fact that he thought I was carrying another man’s child? Was it simply the thought that I'd been with someone else? I liked that he felt pain right now. I wanted him to feel it. I'd felt it that night in the stable, that night he’d drunkenly forgot.
I whispered, “Of course I intend to have this baby.”
His face fell. I crushed him with those words, I could tell. I didn’t see Trey as having an opinion one way or the other as to a woman’s choice when it came to the subject of abortion. He'd probably never had reason to be concerned about that volatile topic. But when the issue was about me making that decision for myself, it certainly appeared as though he had an opinion, and he wasn’t happy with the choice that I'd made. He looked defeated. Good, I wanted him to feel that way.
“I take it that you haven’t told Mark yet, otherwise I'd find it difficult to believe he'd allow you to continue riding.”
I didn’t answer him. I really didn’t know what to say.
“Tylar, how you choose to handle this situation with Mark is clearly your business. However, I can't permit you to ride the horses or care for them. There's a liability issue at stake here.”
Of course, Counselor.
Trey stood up to leave. Part of me wanted to blurt the truth out to him, but the other part of me stubbornly remained silent.
“As soon as you’re well enough, some detectives will be here to question you, Tylar. They have also collected evidence at your cottage. Hopefully we can determine Charlie’s motivation in attacking you and if there are others behind it as well.”
I was certain that there was at least one other person behind it. I hoped the detectives were grilling Charlie thoroughly. I needed some answers too.
“Take care, get some rest.” He left the room.
CHAPTER 32
I was released two days later from the hospital with strict orders to remain on complete bed rest for the next several days. My pregnancy wasn't at risk. True to Trey’s word, two detectives had come to the hospital to take my statement. I told them only what had occurred that night. I didn’t tell them that Charlie had attacked me when I was 13; as far as I knew, Trey had not put that together yet either. I didn’t want to delay my departure by having to stick around Bristol. I'd made plans and was eager to leave town.
Denise had picked me up from the hospital. She offered to let me stay with her and Ray, but I really didn’t want to impose. I'd be fine back at my cottage. Denise had cleaned up the aftermath of the assault as well as the investigation where they had dusted for fingerprints all over the cottage. She saw to it that my bed had clean sheets and blankets on it. My front window had been repaired with a new screen. Everything was in order.
