Page 23 of Forbidden Love

“Clark.” My mother stands and walks over to me. “Now’s not the time to goad your brother. He’s just lost his daughter.”

I laugh. I can’t help myself. I hold my stomach and feel the dried-in blood that makes the fabric hard.

“Yeah, that sweet little angel who would have been showered with love and affection from her mother. I’m more hurt than your precious son. Why don’t you ask your son why your grandchild is dead?”

“You can’t blame him, Clark. This was a tragedy.”

“So naive, Mother.” I look over my shoulder as someone approaches my back. The doctor squeezes into the room and nods to me. “Are they here?”

“Yes.” The doctor nods and folds his arms over his chest.

He’s my kind of guy. He won’t be intimidated by anyone.

“Do you want to tell them what you asked Kally, Doc?”

He nods sternly. “I asked her if she had had any trauma or a fall that would have caused the abruption, because we generally only see this from an accident.”

“And…?” I prod

“And she had.”

My dad and Colton stand up. I don’t know whether my dad is genuinely concerned about what he’s going to hear or if he’s just acting.

“Yes, you see, while you sit in here and think he’s quiet because he’s hurting over the loss of his daughter, he’s the cause of why she’s dead. Do you want to continue this story, bro?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You raped her this afternoon. You. Raped. Her.” I growl.

“What? How can you rape your own wife? She likes it rough.”

I fly at my brother and knock him back into the chair he just vacated.

Arms wrap around me and pull me off the asshole before I commit my own crime, only I won’t be in denial. I’ll hold my hands up and gladly say I did it.

“Colton Collinson, I hereby arrest you….” I tune out the police officers and turn my back on everyone. I run my hands through my hair and pull it to release some of this pent-up frustration.

“How could you do this, Clark? He’s your brother,” says my dad.

“He’s no brother of mine. I hope he gets everything that’s coming to him. And as for you, how can you stand by him after what he did to Kally and your granddaughter?”

I shake my head in disgust at the man who fathered me. I’m just glad that I’m nothing like him or Colton. I could never be like them either.

The police drag Colton away in handcuffs, and I breathe a sigh of relief that Damien can have some extra time to get Joselyn and Joe away to safety.

“Is this true?” asks my mother when we’re left alone.

“I don’t lie, Mom. He raped Kally so hard that it caused a massive bleed. She’s lucky to be alive. You saw the state she was in tonight. It begs the question, how many of her other miscarriages were caused by him?”

My mom sits down on the seat and holds her hands over her mouth in shock, or disgust, or both.

“You’d better tell me you had no idea this happened. Today or ever.” My mother calmly speaks to my father.

“What do you take me for?” He sits down on the seat opposite my mom and tries to take her hand, but she pulls it away from him.

“Marrying Kally and Colton was one thing, but rape is another. I know you, Don. Whether you knew this happened today or not, I’ll never know for sure, but you knew something had been going on all this time. Oh my God. That poor girl.” My mother cries into her hands.

I want to go to her, comfort her, but she stood by my dad. She needs to deal with the fallout. She could have spoken up for Kally three years ago. She could have put a stop to all this. But she didn’t.

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