Page 116 of My Vows Are Sealed

“Are you having any cramping? Notice any bleeding?”

I shook my head.

She smiled. “That’s good. We’ll have someone check on the baby when we get to the hospital, okay?”

I nodded, and more tears spilled over my cheeks.

“Do you think you can stand up and get on the stretcher with my help?”

“I can try,” I sniffled, groaning as pain shot through my side when I sat up.

“Okay, I’m going to try to help you stand up. I want you to hold onto me as tightly as you need to with your good arm and help me as much as you can. Donotdo anything with the arm I just wrapped.”

She got on my left side and put my arm around her shoulder, then gripped me tightly as she slowly helped me to stand up. Maintaining her grip with one arm, she let go of me with the other and motioned someone over, I guessed with a stretcher.

“I’ll find a way to help you,” she whispered. “I promise.”

“They took Brendan away,” I whispered back. “He didn’t do anything. He was trying to help.”

Allie nodded her understanding as she helped me onto the stretcher, and the other medic rolled me out the door and loaded me onto the ambulance. My father was already sitting on the bench, and an evil grin spread across his face as he watched them lock the stretcher in place and shut the back door.

“I’m right here, sweetheart,” he said, grabbing my hand. “I’m not leaving your side, and I’m not going to let him hurt you ever again.”

I just let more tears fall, not bothering to answer him.

I’d been an idiot to think that I could ever get away from him. Freedom had been just within my grasp, but I should have known it wouldn’t last. I should have known my father would take everything from me and hurt anyone he had to hurt in the process before he ever let me slip out of his ironclad clutches.

God, I’m trusting that You still have a plan for me, and for this baby,I prayed.Please help me. Help me get my father out of my life so I can raise this child in peace. And help Brendan. Help the officers see that he wasn’t the one who did this to me. I need him right now, Jesus. I can’t do this alone.

Chapter 31

Brendan

What Have We Become?

“Officer, I didn’t do this,” I said calmly as the beat cop who was old enough to be my father shoved me toward his cruiser. “You’re arresting the wrong person.”

“Yeah, sure we are, tough guy,” he snarked as he opened the backseat door of his cruiser and pushed me inside. “You’re under arrest for assault and battery. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these right as I’ve read them to you?”

“I. Didn’t. Hurt. Her,” I repeated.

“Tell that to the judge.Do you understand your rights?” he growled.

“Perfectly,” I clipped out. “I don’t need a lawyer, because I didn’t hurt my fiancée.”

“Remember that right to remain silent? I really think you should exercise it,” he snapped as he slammed the car door shut.

As the idiot police officer who couldn’t tell a lie when he heard one walked around to the driver’s side, I caught a glimpse of Darla’s car in the parking lot and immediately felt like I’d been punched in the gut…again. Looking at my broken and battered fiancée lying on the floor, curled up into a ball and trying to shield our unborn child from her psycho, unhinged father apparently wasn’t bad enough. Nope. Now I was being led away in handcuffs because said psycho had cried rape and pretended to be the doting father for five minutes. And I’d just realized how he’d even figured out where she was to begin with.

It was so glaringly obvious, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out sooner. My mom had to have seen Darla’s car in the parking lot when she picked Nathan up last night and called Abraham. I knew Nathan wouldn’t have said anything about her being here even if my mom had pressed him, so that had to be it.

God damn it. Why hadn’t I just taken her car to work this morning after she agreed to stay at my place for the day so we could talk when I got home? Maybe he would have just assumed she was gone if he’d shown up and her car wasn’t here. Maybe I could have prevented this whole mess from even happening.

This was my fault. All of it. I should have known it was stupid to have her stay last night. Or I should have at least been smarter than to let her leave her car in the middle of the parking lot where anyone could see it.

A few tears started trailing down my cheeks as we pulled up to the police station, and I moved my arms to wipe them free before I remembered that I couldn’t because they were secured behind my back. I had absolutely no choice but to let them fall, showing this asshole of a police officer and his apparently mute partner all of my pain and despair. But maybe at least my anguish would convince them that I couldn’t have done this.

“Let’s go!” the officer barked as he yanked on my arm to get me out of the cruiser.

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