Page 123 of Stone Vows

My heart falls into my stomach. Bile rises into my throat. My eyes snap open, putting me into the nightmare I’ve always feared. I look over near the bushes to see Grant walking towards me.

I want to get up, but I’m frozen to the bench. And even if I weren’t, I can’t run, not in these heels. Not with Ellie in my arms. I look behind me, but all I see are empty stairs. Two dozen empty stairs. Too many that stand between me and the security guards inside the building.

I try to calculate how long Kyle has been gone. I think it’s only been a minute or two. He parked far away. Too far for me to yell. I look around and see no one else in the vicinity. I’m utterly alone. Alone with the man who’s been hunting me.

I start to hyperventilate.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he asks. “Feel like you’ve seen a ghost?” He nods over his shoulder in the direction Kyle was walking. “Looks like we have at least a few minutes to take care of business before your baby daddy comes back. Shit, Alexa, you sure didn’t waste any time turning into a little slut, did you?”

I look down at a sleeping Ellie, putting my arms possessively around her.

He draws his eyebrows together and stares at Ellie. “Wait,” he gruffs, scrubbing a hand across his jaw. “Wait just a goddamn minute.” He points at her. “Just how old is she?”

I don’t speak. I can’t. I feel myself holding Ellie tightly and she starts squirming in protest under my grip.

Grant paces back and forth on the sidewalk in front of me, pulling a flask from his back pocket. He takes a long drink before looking at her again. “Is that my fucking kid?”

I momentarily hear music coming from inside as the doors to the reception hall open.Thank God.Someone must be coming. Maybe Grant will run away. But he doesn’t back off. Instead, he sits down next to me and puts his arm around my back, gripping my neck like a vise.

“Say anything and I’ll hurt her,” he growls at me.

I want to vomit at his words. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Not when he was hitting me. Not when he was holding me down to have his way with me. Not even when he stabbed me with his precious trophy.

Then I hear a familiar voice. Ethan.Oh, God, Ethan, please see me. Please don’t just walk past me and keep going.

Ethan is talking, but I don’t hear Charlie respond. I come to realize he must be on the phone. Maybe he just slipped out of the reception to take a call.

As his voice comes closer, Grant’s hold on me becomes tighter. “Shhhh,” he whispers in my ear, the stench of vodka rolling off his breath.

Ethan comes down the last step, barely faltering in his stride as he passes us on the sidewalk. He looks at us as if we’re of no consequence, his eyes falling on me for only a second. He even tips his chin at Grant. Barely a minute goes by and he finishes his call and walks over to us. “Hey, buddy, do you have a light?” he asks Grant, while reaching into his pocket.

“Don’t smo—,” Grant starts to say, when all of a sudden, before I even realize what’s happening, Ethan has Grant face down on the sidewalk, his knee in his back as he brings Grant’s hands up behind him, securing them with a zip tie.

“Oh, my God!” I scream. “Ethan, it’s Grant.”

I get up off the bench, holding a still-sleeping Ellie as I back away from the two men.

“Yeah, I figured,” he says. “Damn lucky timing, huh?”

He digs his knee into Grant’s back, causing Grant to curse. “She’s my goddamn wife, you son of a bitch!” Grant yells, a vein near his eye bulging as his face grows red. “Do you have any fucking idea who you’re dealing with?”

Ethan leans down, close to Grant’s ear. “I know exactly who you are, you piece of shit.”

A car pulls up to the curb and Kyle runs out, summing up the situation as he makes his way to me. “Lexi, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

Ethan pulls Grant off the ground and forces him to sit on the bench that I vacated.

“I’m okay. He squeezed my neck, and he threatened to hurt Ellie, but we’re okay,” I tell him.

Kyle walks over and gets in Grant’s face. “You will never fucking touch her again or I’ll kill you. Do you hear me?”

Grant smirks. “Maybe you shouldn’t talk that way in front of my kid.” Then he studies Kyle. “You’re that doctor I talked to a while ago. You lied to me, you asshole.” He looks back and forth between Kyle and me. “Have you been fucking my wife?”

Kyle’s hands ball up into fists and Ethan puts his arm out to hold him back. “Kyle, why don’t you call the police?”

Grant laughs. “Iamthe fucking police.” He leans forward and stretches his bound hands out behind him. “None of this is necessary,” he says. “I didn’t come back for her. I don’t even want her anymore. I came here to get her to sign the papers.” He nods to an envelope in his breast pocket that is now crumpled and torn.

Kyle takes it from his pocket and opens it, quickly scanning whatever’s inside. He looks over at me, surprised. “They’re divorce papers,” he says, walking them over to me.

---