Chapter 31

Sonia eyed her husband. He seemed to be pretending to read the newspaper. His eyes stayed focused on the same page and paragraph.

"Call her," Sonia blurted out.

Ron snapped out of his thoughts. "W-what?"

"I said call her."

"Call who?"

Sonia rolled her eyes. "You know who."

"No! I'm not calling Rebecca."

"You miss her don't you?"

"I'd miss her if she was a decent daughter but the way she's acting-"

"She IS a decent daughter."

Ron took the last sip of his coffee and stood up adjusting his tie. "Sonia, are we going to keep taking about this?"

Sonia shrugged. "Well, we could forget about it and Rebecca could be out of our lives completely but I know deep down you don't want that. She's your little girl. You're princess. Just remember that."

With that, Sonia picked up the table dishes and headed to the kitchen leaving Ron thinking about his daughter.

David was in his office when Rebecca came in that afternoon. She was smiling and handed him a rose.

"What's this for? And besides I think I'M the one who is supposed to give YOU flowers."

Rebecca laughed. "I know, but you have to admit that it's sweet for a girl to bring YOU flowers huh?"

David put the rose down on his desk, went to close the door and put his arms around her. "Not just any girl. You."

Rebecca blushed.

David sighed and looked nervous.

"What's wrong?" Rebecca asked searching his face.

"I need to ask you something, but I know it probably isn't the right time, but I haven't done it right."

Rebecca's heart raced. "What?"

David got on one knee and stared up at her. "Rebecca Michelle Lambert, will you do me the honors of being my wife?"

Rebecca's tears streamed down her face like water. "Yes! Of course! You know that!"

David felt teary eyed. "I know but I just never asked you. I just assumed you wanted to marry me."

She pulled him back up. She kissed his lips and held him tight. "You are and will always be the only man for me. I love you. I want to spend my entire life with you."

David kissed her forehead and looked into her eyes. "I'm going to buy you a ring and I want you to start thinking of a wedding date."

Rebecca gasped. "Oh my god!"

David laughed. "What? You don't think I'm serious?"

Rebecca kissed him hard and squealed. "This is the happiest day of my life. I want to marry you as soon as I can!"

"Then set the date and I'll be ready for you."

It was past midnight and Eddie still hadn't gotten home. This had been going on for weeks now. Amy seemed to stare out the window every time she heard a car driving by. She had reasons to be suspicious about Eddie's long working hours. She'd called his office before and there was no answer and twice she'd call his cell phone and there was too much noise in the background that she would have guessed he was at a nightclub instead of working.

Amy got up and paced the room back and forth. She didn't want to seem like a jealous girlfriend but she felt that sometimes what goes around comes around. She recalled having cheated on Nathan, which was something she will always regret and now maybe things were turned and Eddie was cheating on her.

It wasn't until after one that morning when she finally heard Eddie's car pulling up. She quickly ran to bed and pretended to be asleep. She heard his footsteps as he came in. He headed to the bathroom as he did every night to shower. Amy tossed and turned until he was finally out of the shower.

Eddie crawled into bed with her and put his arms around her. Amy stretched her body pretending to have been asleep the entire time.

"Hi babe. What time is it?" Amy asked.

"It's past one, but go back to bed."

He kissed her cheek and turned the other way. Amy wanted to cry but she didn't have full proof yet that he was cheating. But what was he doing all this time?

Later that week, Amber had been stuck closing the bookstore since her boss was out of town. She hated working so late, but at least they gave her the chance to go to her classes during work time.

She smiled at the customers but couldn't help but feel rotten for what she did to Gabriel. She had to admit she had very strong feeling for Gabriel. He was charming and so kind, but yet why did David still have such a hold on her?

She grabbed her purse and turned off all the lights. Once outside, she fumbled with the keys trying to find the right one to close the store. After locking the door she turned and almost jumped when she saw two figures standing in front of her. It was Neil and Jeff.

"Hello blondie," Neil said.

Amber was trembling with fear. "W-who are you?"

"Let's just say we are some of Gabriel's old friends," Jeff responded sarcastically.

"So what do you all want?" Amber asked nervously.

"Well, we'd like Gabriel to come back and work with us, but lately he's been trying to 'change' his life around. I think you have a lot to do with it blondie," Neil replied.

"Me? No I don't. He changed his life for the better," Amber said.

Jeff laughed. "I don't think so honey. Now looking at you close up, hell I'd change my life too. Maybe if you show us that sweet body of yours we might become saints like Gabriel."

Amber looked both ways and found a way to escape. She quickly took off running as fast as she could and searching for her mace spray in her bag as she ran. She could hear the men running behind her. Luckily Amber had been a track champion back in high school and was a good distance away from them. She felt slight relief when she found her mace spray. The night was so dark and she was too far from her car now. She had regretted leaving her cell phone in her car.

She kept running until she heard a screeching sound of a car. She paused and realized it was the two men. She ran again but this time they caught up to her. Neil, being the strongest grabbed her and threw her on the ground. Amber hit her head and yelped.

"You shouldn't have run away from us bitch! Now you're really going to get it," Jeff shouted as he began to undo his pants."

Amber tried to struggle underneath Neil's heavy body but it was no use. She was holding on to her mace spray but had no way of using it. She was going to get raped.

"Here move out of the way so I can fuck this whore," Jeff said to Neil.

Just as Neil moved slightly, Amber used all her strength and lifted her knee up whacking Neil right on his balls.

"Owwww fuckin' bitch!" Neil yelled.

Jeff's eyes showed rage and he got on the ground ready to hit her but Amber was faster and sprayed him right on his eyes. She grabbed her purse as quick as she could.

"Shit!" Jeff groaned.

Amber was getting up but Neil grabbed her foot taking her back down. She turned and sprayed him as was finally able to make a run for it.

"We'll get you, you fuckin' whore!" Neil cried out.

Amber ran for her car and called the police. Her heart raced and she couldn't stop from crying. It had been the scariest moments of her entire life.

"Amber! Amber!" Gabriel called out. His brown eyes searched for the girl of his dreams.

Amber sat at the police station crying. She looked up and ran to him. Ash she threw her arms around him, Gabriel had almost forgotten about their fight. He held her tight, his heart racing.

"Are you ok? Did they hurt you?"

Amber said nothing. She could only sob on his shoulder.

Gabriel kissed the top of her head and continued to hold her. He could feel her body shaking from the awful scare the bastards must have given her. Amber slowly looked up at him. Gabriel wiped her tears and kissed her lips softly.

"I wasn't hurt, only hit my head."

"I'm going to kill those fuckin' assholes!" Gabriel said angrily. He rubbed the back of her head gently.

"Gabriel, I was so scared!"

"I know, baby I know."

He held her hand in his. "I love you Amber."

She sighed trying to stop crying. "I love you too. I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Don't apologize about that now. Let's forget it ever happened. I'm just glad you're ok. I'm the one who should be sorry for having gotten you involved in this shit."

"It's not your fault. There are just some mean people in this world."

He let go of her hands and touched her face. "I don't know what I would have done if something happened to you. You mean so much to me Amber."

Amber felt her heart fluttering. "I do?"

"Yes." He leaned down and kissed her softly.

"Excuse me ma'am, we got a few more questions," A tall police officer said interrupting their kiss.

Amber wiped her tears and nodded. "Yes, of course."

Gabriel held her hand and both went to give all the information they could to the police.

David was parked outside his parent's house. He wasn't too sure if this was the right thing to do, but he missed them. He knew his father would not be home, but his mother would. She was the one with most of the resentment towards him.

He walked to the door and before he could even ring the doorbell, Eva opened the door. She gave her son an icy stare. "David. What brings you here?"

"Hey mom, I just wanted to see how you were doing," David answered quietly.

Eva scoffed. "How am I doing? Hmm let's see... not good what do you think?"