Page 43 of Forever His This Christmas

“No, the town’s going to ask so what should we tell them? How many of the guys from around here are you going to have to test to figure out who he is? How many of the rumors are true about you Lisa? How many of them is Abby going to have to live down? Like mother, like daughter, right? She’s almost as old as you were, the guys will want to know how much they’ll have to chase to get her to be just like party-time Lisa, right?”

“Go to hell and shut your mouth!” she yelled at him.

“What’s wrong Sis? Can’t face the truth or do you just not want your daughter to know that you were the biggest slut in town?”

“Watch it,” Corey said turning on him. “You don’t know anything about your sister’s love life.”

“And you do? How soon before you were screwing her huh?” Gerald tossed at him.

“Shut up!” Abby said letting her anger loose. “Don’t call my mother anything or talk about something you don’t know anything about. You don’t know why she did what she did, why she kept me away from you, but I can see part of it, and I can only say thank you that I didn’t have to grow up with a jerk of an uncle like you! You should be standing up for her not trying to tear her down. You should be going after the sick bastard who hurt her not hurting her more!”

“Abby, stop,” Lisa said but the barb was already out there, and she knew they wouldn’t let her take it back, ignore it.

“I’m sorry Mom…”

“It’s okay sweetie,” she said quietly to her hugging her tightly.

“What did she mean by the sick bastard who hurt you?” Kirby asked as the mood in the room grew tense.

“Nothing, just that he talked me into something I didn’t really understand and then just left me,” she told them keeping her gaze from Corey as she did.

“That’s not it,” Corey said after several minutes of silence as the room tried to reassess what was going on. He turned her so she could only see him and stared down at her. “What did Abby mean? Baby, what did she mean?” he asked sliding his hand behind her head to hold her.

Lisa shook her head trying to stop it all, but he kept watching her, his eyes asking the question, his touch so tender that it brought tears to her eyes again.

“Someone hurt you—forced you?” he asked, feeling like murdering the bastard. “Who?” he added when she didn’t deny it, simply gazed out towards the wall. “You know who it was, don’t you? Your family knows them?”

Everyone watched her, seeing the shake in her shoulders as she tried to control the tears and her emotions, standing in shock when she bent over letting them out with a cry that tore at Corey’s heart. He crouched down gathering her to him as she crumpled. He sat holding her, murderous intentions running through his veins while her mother came over and knelt beside them, running her hand down her arm as she whispered soft expressions of love and comfort to her.

Diane held Abby to her as they watched, and she hugged Abby wiping away her tears at seeing her mom’s pain. “She loves you Abby, this isn’t about you.”

“I know…I hate him and everything he’s done to us. I wish he were dead,” she stated gaining the guys’ attention.

“You know who he is?” Ashton asked in surprise.

“She told me the truth after I went to New York to find her. She broke up with Corey so he wouldn’t find out and come back here trying to kill him.”

“Why would she care if he tried to kill him?” Gerald questioned.

“Because he tried to kill her when she was here, it was just before she left for New York,” Diane admitted surprising even Abby.

“What? She didn’t tell me that, just that he’d sent her pictures from around town. Like the ones she got last year at Christmas from around New York, which is why she didn’t want to stay there once I was living with her fulltime, didn’t give anyone here our address.”

“What?” Corey said catching the comment. “The pictures she got at Christmas…were they in a box about the size of a pencil case?”

“Yeah, there were some of you and Mom—you all were close in them,” Abby said trying to not say too much.

“Wait are you talking about the gag gift Lisa claimed she got last year?” Kirby asked and he nodded. “It was delivered to the house the day before Christmas, so whoever he is lives here still, doesn’t he?”

“Not for long,” Corey stated holding her tighter to him.

“Look, Lisa was terrified that if he discovered Abby that he would hurt her. After that visit and him coming after her, threatening he’d come kill her if she ever said a word, she put three thousand miles between her and Abby to keep her safe. She ended the relationship with Corey because she knew he’d know she was lying about how she got pregnant if she told him anything else. She was worried he’d come back here and go after him and then he’d come after her and find out about Abby,” Diane said looking around the room. “You have no idea how big of a step coming here was for her, to face not only you but the town and him. To risk him seeing, being this close to Abby…there is only one thing that would convince her to do this,” she added looking directly at Corey as she said it.

“Me? You think…that she…and I…”

“Mom’s in love with you. I knew from the second I got home last month that she had gotten back together with you or called you to talk. She’s never been as happy as she was when she was with you,” Abby told him, and he lowered his head to Lisa’s kissing her temple.

“Shh, baby, it’s okay,” he said gently to her, pressing soft kisses to her forehead focusing on her rather than his desire to destroy the jerk who had hurt her.

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