Take Me Down (The Knight Brothers 2)

Parker listened in silence, without judgment, and she appreciated that.

“He walked into the bakery I was working in. That was how we met for the first time. We talked. He bought a muffin. He came back the next day. He asked me out for coffee. We started to date. It was a slow insinuation that what I was doing with my life was a waste. I’d gone to culinary school. Why wasn’t I using my background to work at a high-end shop? I could be making petit fours and other pastries instead of muffins and cookies. He introduced me to a friend of his and soon I was offered a job at a luxury-type pastry shop in a hotel. At his encouragement, I took it.”

She met Parker’s gaze. “Go on.”

She nodded. “By this time, we were living together. Looking back, I’d changed my clothing choices, my friends, everything that was me.” Her hands trembled and she placed them in her lap.

“I was weak at that point. We ran off to Vegas and eloped, which devastated my parents. But he had me so wrapped up in what he wanted, telling me it was what we wanted, that I deprived my parents of their greatest joy, seeing me married.” Her voice cracked at the admission. “Then I…”

This was it, she thought. If she told him this, she bared her soul. She swallowed hard. “I got pregnant.”

He stiffened, obviously not expecting this part of the story. She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t, not if she wanted to get through the rest. “I was excited. I wanted the baby. I’m honestly not sure what Rex wanted.” To this day, she still couldn’t read his reaction … but he was as controlling as ever.

“What made you leave him?” Parker asked gently. “What made you see things for what they were?”

“We had gone to visit friends of his and I’d gone upstairs to the bathroom, and I guess I’d been gone too long so he came looking for me. Which made me uncomfortable. I guess a lot of things did, but I couldn’t face them or I’d have to face the mess my life had become along with the fact that I was now trapped because I was pregnant with his baby. We were standing at the top of the steps and arguing.”

Parker reached for her hand, pulling it out of her lap and entwining their fingers together. She took so much comfort from his touch and the fact that he was obviously giving her his support.

“I can’t remember what the fight was about. Isn’t that crazy? I have no recollection whatsoever. Just that we were arguing. I can’t remember, either, whether I took the step down and missed or if he reached for me and I jerked away or–” She shook her head, refusing to consider the alternative…

“Or if he pushed you,” Parker said through a clenched jaw.

She rolled her shoulders, a tear dripping down her face. “I don’t know. I don’t want to think so. I just have no idea. I think I don’t want to remember. Anyway, I fell down a full long flight of stairs in a center hall colonial. I had cramping immediately. The ambulance took me to the hospital and…” She drew a ragged breath. “I lost the baby.”

The waiter chose that moment to walk over with the soufflé. Parker waved the man away and he discreetly stepped back into the shadows.

“Baby, I’m sorry.”

Her throat burned and she nodded. “I am, too. But I’m also so grateful that I’m not tied to him forever, and that makes me a horrible human being because that means there’s some part of me that’s grateful that I lost the baby, too.” There. She’d finally said the awful words out loud.

Huge gulping sobs threatened but she held them back somehow, which was a freaking miracle.

Parker reached for her, clearly wanting to pull her into his lap, but she shook her head. If she went to him, she’d fall apart. “I need to finish the story, okay?”

He nodded. “I’m here. Take as long as you need.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “After… after, I was discharged. Rex went to work the next day. And I packed up the bare minimum, left everything that wasn’t the Emily Stevens I wanted to be, and flew home. My mom was going through treatments and I’d planned on coming home to spend time with her anyway. I just came home for good instead. And I threw myself into taking care of my parents.”

“And he just let you go? Because that doesn’t sound like the man I met,” Parker muttered.

She let out a wry laugh. “No. He showed up immediately. Kept talking about how he understood I needed time and I wanted to be there for my mother. He just wasn’t hearing me. So I hired a lawyer and I filed for divorce. And he’s been making his periodic visits ever since, unwilling to let me go.”