The Wrong Kind of Love

"Please, call me Victoria." I cut her off. She looks hurt, and for a second I feel bad. She's always called me Ria, but it's just... I can't.

She nods and glances away. "Let’s go home."

Home. I feel like the second I step foot back into my old life, my life with Jude will disappear, as if it never really existed.

Like stepping back through the wardrobe from Narnia, never to return.

Jude

The door to the cell opens. "Put your wrists together," the guard says. I do as told and the cuffs click over my wrists. He squats and places shackles on my ankles.

"Is that really necessary?"

"Yep."

I sigh and follow him out of the cell. I'm brought to a room and forced into a chair before being cuffed to the table. Seconds later, the door creaks open, and a woman in a dress suit struts in. She glares at me, not trying in the slightest to hide her disgust for me. She looks like a bitch from hell, overly confident with something to prove.

"Mr. Pearson. I'm Detective Lowe. FBI," she says as she flashes her badge.

I slump in my chair and glare up at her. "You're wasting your time coming in here. I know my rights."

"I'm not here to ask you questions." She smiles and rests against the edge of the table in front of me. "I'm just here to let you know exactly how much you've fucked up."

I wash all emotion from my face and stare coldly at her.

"I must say, I am impressed." She leans forward. "How a man like you ever managed to make a woman like her fall in love with you..." I feel my nostrils flare, and she laughs. "Or maybe, just maybe I should say I'm impressed that a woman like that made you fall in love with her?"

"You ruined her life, sad thing is, you aren't done just yet."

I won't talk to this manipulative bitch.

"Victoria has confessed to the murder of Tom Campbell. I have enough evidence to put her behind bars for the rest of her life. Granted, they may question her sanity, but then she'll be deemed too unstable to bring up that child of yours…”

My heart slams against my ribs. "She didn't do anything." I want to rip this woman’s head from her shoulders.

"Sadly, the evidence suggests otherwise. She is willing to go to prison to save you, but you and I both know you are beyond saving." She turns and walks toward the door, pausing when she reaches it. "You say you love her?"

I don't answer.

"You can still save her and your child Mr. Pearson." She opens the door and leaves the room.

I'm not an idiot. I know what she's doing, but I don't even care. She wants to ensure I go to jail for a long time. She wants to be the one who brought down Jude Pearson. That's fucking fine. I don't care what the hell happens to me; my only concern is Tor and the baby.

The longer I sit here, the harder my heart races. I cannot let her go to jail. I cannot let her lose that baby. "Fuck."

Several minutes after she has left, my lawyer strolls in. I always hoped I'd never have to use this fucker. He pulls his suit jacket off and drapes it over the chair, staring at me as he shakes his head. "Well," he drops a file on the table, "this is a big pile of shit you've fallen into."

"Yeah, yeah," I mumble. "Look, I don't really give a shit if you get me outta here, you just make sure she isn't even tried. She's not in the wrong here. At all."

"She's not my client..."

I go to stand up but am chained to the goddamn table. "Fuck!" I shout, as my blood pressure quickly rises. "You make sure she has a damn good lawyer. She's not spending her life in jail. She's not having my baby in jail." My voice booms from the walls. My pulse drums up into my throat. "You fucking hear me, Rob? Get her the fuck outta there."

He stares at me for a second. "You know she had blood on her hands, JP? Literally. They might try to paint her as an accessory. She won't get jail time, but they can section her. Anyone in their right mind will call her mental health into question. I can't promise—"

"No." I shake my head. "You can't let them question her sanity. They'll take the baby away from her." I can feel the panic creeping around my throat again. "You get her out."

He releases a hard breath and drags his hand down his face. “I don’t see how.” I do.

She has to do what Lowe wants and make me out to be a heartless monster. "Can you give her a letter from me?" I ask.