The Parent Trap

Chapter 44

Austin Reed

POV

When I wake up the next morning, I see Melissa still passed out on the floor, her lower body covered in blood.

Urg that’s going to be a nightmare to clean. Not that I was going to be cleaning that shit up.

That bitch has been nothing but trouble ever since I met her, I had to teach her how to be a good fucking wife and she went and disappeared on me, when I get my hands on her...

I grit my teeth.

Looking at Melissa laying on the floor, where I left her last night.

She really pissed me off last night.

Melissa was always sweet and innocent, she never questioned me and was going to have my child...

I look at the blood on the floor, I can assume the baby is gone.

Too bad but we can always have another one. It wasn’t the end of the world.

I pick her up and take her to her bedroom.

I walk back into the living room and decide whether to just throw the rug out or have Melissa clean it when she’s better...

I look around the apartment and realize I have less than two days to pay the Bianco family back. They’re going to kill me. I’m going to have to cut my losses.

If I fake my death and leave New York maybe it will help me find Koah and get back what belongs to me.

Melissa was fine while it lasted, but she’s nothing like Koah.

She questioned me, she wanted to control me, I was a damn man. I didn’t need a useless woman to control me.

This was all Koah’s fault! If only she hadn’t left me. Damn bitch!

My hands itch to strangle her, to teach her a lesson. This was all her damn fault.

I was going to make her suffer. As soon as I got my hands on her...

I place my phone on Melissa’s coffee table. I take my Fitbit off too. I grab a change of clothes too then I leave Melissa’s apartment.

I didn’t know where I was going yet but I needed to make sure the Bianco family never finds me!

I’d be a dead man...

I wasn’t going to die for anyone. And I wasn’t going to let Koah get away with just disappearing. If it wasn’t for her, my debt would have been paid off by now.

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Koah Harbor

POV

What am I even doing? Why am I on a beach right now? I should be hiding... with Austin racking up debt he’ll do everything in bed power to find me to pay back his debt. I know Austin better than I know anyone. He won’t give up just because I went away. He’ll find me. I have a feeling he will.

"Isn’t this your Austin?" Carly asks.

I look up at her phone.

A news article about a car accident in New York. They didn’t find his body but his blood was all over the car.

My bones itched. Something about it screamed something was wrong.

I didn’t know what it was but my body screamed at me go back to my room and hide.

"Koah?" Carly calls out.

I look at her. "I-I..."

She wraps her arms around me. "Breathe Koah. breathe..."

"Breathe in, breathe out. breathe with me..." She tries to calm me down.

I follow her lead.

"What’s going on?" Chase asks.

I didn’t even hear or see him come over...

How long has he been here?

Why am I struggling to breathe? What’s going on? Why am I struggling to breathe.

I didn’t believe my nightmare is over, it was far from over.

I felt light headed.

Austin was, like a recurring nightmare that wouldn’t go away no amount of prayers or begging could take that nightmare away.

====

Flashback

I watch him pace back and forth, He just got a call from the pastor. they’re giving the back up pastor role to Virgil Garfield instead of him. He’s been a youth pastor for over five years now. He kept being passed over for the pastor role.

He was beginning to sweat.

I knew why he was being passed over, when Austin started hitting me. I went to the pastor and asked for some advice, I didn’t tell him it was for me.

But I have a feeling I was the reason he was passed over because of me.

It’s been a year and a half and I can’t tell you why I stayed. Why I was still with him. I was numb to the pain, numb to the shit talking.

A piece of me was calling out to Enzo to get me out of this hellhole.

Austin loved control, he didn’t like being passed over, he didn’t like that he couldn’t keep a damn job down, he liked to pretend it was because he was meant to be a pastor, but we both knew it was because he couldn’t stand someone telling him what to do.

The man was pathetic. I couldn’t tell you what I saw in him. Maybe I deserved it, for running away all those years ago. I couldn’t breathe in the same city Enzo was in.

Now I was stuck in a living hell of my own making.

All Austin had now, was his reputation and me. But I wasn’t really here either. I’d checked out months ago.

My eyes went to the clock on the wall. It was eight thirty in the evening. Which meant I’d be stuck sitting here for another three hours listening to him rant about how Virgil wasn’t as good as he was.

"Well maybe if you actually had a talent instead of whine all day they might have given you the position..." I mutter under my breath.

He pauses, looking at me. "What did you just say?" He asks.

I shake my head. "I said. Maybe Virgil paid for the position, or knew someone higher up..." I make it up on the fly.

I didn’t exact him to hear me.

He glares at me. "What did you just say?" he asks his voice dangerously low.

I smile awkwardly. "I was just saying. You know Virgil’s wife is on the committee." I remind him.

"I dare you to say that again! Our church isn’t corrupt like your father!" I could feel the anger radiating off him. Also he conveniently forgets how my father paid for the house he currently lives in. How my father paid for most of our bills.

"Then let’s give all of my father’s money back to him then, if the man is so corrupt let’s stop living off him..." I smile.

I could take whatever he threw at me, but he couldn’t insult my father. My father worked himself to the bone to provide a better future for my mother and I, he wanted a legacy to pass down to his grandchildren one day.

The thought of ever having children with Austin actually scared the living shit out of me.

I didn’t want anything tying the two of us down together. The thought of bringing a child into this scares me.

I didn’t even hear him walk up to me, until his fist hit my cheekbone.

I laugh sitting the blood out of my mouth. "You hit like a fucking girl" I taunt him.

That only makes him angrier. He was going to hit me again when my phone rang.

I glared at him, picking up my phone.

"Hello daddy?" I answer...

It was my father’s office extension.

"Is this Koah Harbor?" the man on the other end asks.

I stand up. "Yes. This is she..."

"I’m sorry to inform you but both your mother and father were in an accident..."

My eyes widen and I drop to the floor. "What?" I ask tears running down my face.

"I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you before it’s all over the news... The police and I will be by your house in an hour to explain what happened..." He says.

"No. I just spoke to him this morning. He can’t be..." I was in disbelief.

My parents couldn’t be gone.

That was impossible. They were the last good things in my life. My parents have been there for me. When I was at my lowest and when I was at my highest.

They were there for me, when Enzo and I broke up. They moved to New York because I was here. My parents would have done anything for me.

It should have been me. God why? Why did you have to take away good people? Why didn’t you take me instead?

Why not me? Why didn’t you take me instead? How am I going to live without the people who supported me even when I was wrong?

I wanted my father!

I wanted this to be some sick joke.

I hang up on the man and call my father’s number.

Yes this had to be some sick joke.

My father’s phone goes straight to voicemail.

I try six more times with the same result. With every call my heart shattered more and more. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.

My father’s phone was never off. He always told me he was one phone call away. He’d always answer my calls.

Tears wouldn’t stop falling. I couldn’t believe it.

I could hear Austin’s voice but it sounded so far away...