Chapter 14

Jen woke up feeling disorientated. Gradually all the memories from the previous day came back to her. Her brother had come looking for her. It was hard to believe it. He was a very talented young architect who traveled all over Europe and although they talked on the phone frequently he had never before tried to find her. That fact alone was very alarming.

Maybe her parents needed her after all. But she couldn't face them. She was a coward but the thought of standing in the same room with them made her knees go weak. They had stopped being a family eight years ago and that knowledge had still the power to hurt her.

Someone muttered a curse scaring her. "Alex?", she whispered.

"Get back to bed", he ordered because she was ready to get up.

Trying to calm her heart she asked, "What time is it?"

"It's too damn early".

"Why are you sleeping in my bed?"

"Because I got used to you", he replied but she could tell that he was just being sarcastic. Jen narrowed her eyes but she couldn't see him in the dark. She was about to turn on the lights when a hand grabbed her wrist.

"Don't".

Her mind was filled with wicked thoughts. It wasn't easy being on a bed with him and not imagining all the stuff that he could to do to her. All the stuff that he had already done to her.

"Let's get some sleep", he said.

"I can't", she protested.

He pulled her back and her head fell on his chest. Immediately he started stroking her nape and she didn't move again absorbing the heat of his touch.

"Will you go?"

She didn't need to ask where. She knew what he meant, what the real question was. He wanted to know if she would leave them. "I don't want to", she confessed.

"Maybe you should". His heart was beating faster now beneath her ear and suddenly, it dawned on her that he really cared for her answer. She was suffering the day before but he was there, protecting her. Being used to take care of others all her life, it was a novel experience to have someone prepared to take some of the blows for her.

He had put her to bed, eased her pain, gave her the medicine. "My brother won't give up".

"Stubbornness runs in your family", he remarked dryly. "He can't force you".

"No, he can't", she agreed. "I'm coming back with you".

"What happened?" He was asking the one question that she didn't want to hear. However, he was present during her brother's visit and he deserved an explanation.

"I haven't talked to my parents for eight years. John tells me that they pretend that I don't exist". She paused waiting for him to speak but he didn't. It was up to her to keep talking or to stop. "They are very conservative and religious people. They can't help it. I think that they were brought up this way. Anyway, I was a very lonely girl while growing up. I didn't have any friends and I wasn't allowed to date".

"Until you went to college", he guessed.

"Exactly. The problem was that since I had no experience I didn't know how to protect myself. That's when I met Mike. Until then I always felt like an ugly duckling". Alex laughed at that and she pinched him.

"I'm sorry but I find that hard to believe", he apologized.

"Anyway", she said even though she was smiling too, "Mike was the first guy to notice me and to ask me out. There was no way I could say no to that. He seemed like a nice guy and back then I didn't even think that he could hurt me. So, we were together for four years and I thought I was happy. Then", she drew in a long breath, "I found out I was pregnant".

"What?" Whatever he expected to hear it wasn't that.

"I was so naive. I thought Mike would be glad. When I told him he said that there was no way that the baby was his. He broke up with me that instant. I was determined to keep the baby so I went back home, told my parents the truth and asked for their support. My father called me a whore and many other things that I can't repeat".

"Your mother?"

"My father is the center of her life. She loves her children but my father is her reason for living. She told me that she was very disappointed and I left before they could throw me out".

The memories brought tears to her eyes but she fought them back. She hated being so vulnerable but at the same time saying all those things aloud was very liberating. There was no logical explanation but she trusted Alex more than any other man. Maybe it was the fact that he was there for her when she needed help.

"What about the baby? You were 22 years old and alone. You couldn't raise a child on our own".

"I had no job, no money and no where to live. It was difficult but I managed for a few days. John visited me and brought food or money with him. It was the first time that he took care of me. Usually, it was the other way round. After a week or so John found me lying in a pool of blood. I had lost the baby. I almost died that day. The doctors saved my life. They called my parents but they never came to see me".

"And now they need your help", he said calmly.

Jen nodded. She had told him the facts but she had left out the feelings, the emotions, the despair that was like a stabbing knife on her chest. She could forgive her parents for not accepting the baby but she could not forget the fact that they didn't even visit her in the hospital. Above all she couldn't forgive her mother.

"Maybe you should go", he repeated.

"I can't", she muttered against his chest.

"Tell me about your migraines", he said changing the subject. Jen felt grateful.