Best Friends to Lovers

Chapter 18

My nerves are shot; it is now the day before Tanner's trial. I have a meeting with the District Attorney. Hayden and I are waiting for my parents to watch the boys while we go to this meeting.

I try not to freak out about being at the courthouse where Brittany could lurk. But, the more I think about her being crazy and still on the run, the longer she is out on the streets, the more danger she will be for me and anyone who has anything to do with Tanner being in jail.

"Baby doll, your mom and dad are here. We need to get going," Hayden yells up the stairs.

"Give me a minute. I am almost done. I just finished pumping and need to get the stuff washed." I yell back.

I go downstairs and give each of the boys a kiss, tell my parents goodbye, and tell Rex to help my grandma and grandpa watch the boys and keep them safe and head out the door. 

Once we pulled into the courthouse parking lot. I take a few moments to calm my nerves. Hayden gets out of the car, walks around to my car door, and opens it. "Baby doll, this is just for you to talk to the district attorney, nothing more. There is nothing to be nervous about." Hayden says, reaching his hand out for mind. I place my hand into his, and he helps me out of the car. "I have and will continue to be here with you every step of the way. I am not going to let you go through this alone," Hayden tells me as he pulls me into a hug and pecks my lips. 

"I know, babe, but I don't like reliving the time in my life as I was too weak even to get out of a toxic relationship. Tanner broke me down to where I believed I was worthless. So reliving it is going to be painful. Since I want him to pay for his craziness, I guess I got to suck it up," I say, squaring my shoulders. "Let's get this over with,"

Hayden and I walked into the courthouse and saw a sign that pointed us to the District Attorney's office. We walk to the door and knock. A few minutes later, a man with salt and pepper hair answered. "May I help you?" he asked.

"Yes, I have a meeting with Mr. O'donnell," I say.

"You must be Melinda Clark- Rowland. Who is this young man?" he asked. 

"This is my husband, Hayden Rowland," I reply

"Nice to meet you, Hayden. Please come in and have a seat. I want to discuss something with you," Hayden and I walked into the office and took a seat in chairs that were in front of the desk. Once we are settled, O'Donnell sits down in his chair and starts flipping through papers. "Tanner has decided to plead guilty of all charges. So, we won't need you here tomorrow unless you want to come and see what he is sentenced to. He has confessed to some other crimes that I can discuss with you, but I can tell you he will never see freedom again.

"Wow, so there is no trial for the crimes he has committed against me. What made him decide to plead guilty?" I asked.

"Once he saw all the evidence we had against him, there was no way he could fight and get away scot-free. He and his attorney thought it would be best to plead guilty and avoid a trial's embarrassment," 

"Alright, so you won't need her here tomorrow? What is going to happen with this Brittany chic that Tanner was messing with that shot, Melinda?" Hayden asked.

"First, we need to catch her. Then we can press attempted murder charges on her. As far as I know, Tanner hasn't been in contact with her, but I will try to get him to tell me a little about her. He likes to brag, so it should be a piece of cake to get him talking." O'Donnell tells us.

"Please keep me informed. I want to know when Brittany is arrested so I can move on with my life, not having to worry about her hurting my twins and me," I say, standing up.

"Sure will. Thank you for coming in today. If you would still like to be in court, you are more than welcome," O'Donnell says, shaking my hand. 'Let me walk you two out," he says as he walks to his door.

Once we are outside the courthouse, Brittany, who has a gun, meets us and points it at me. "Brittany, this is the District attorney. If you fire that gun, he will be a witness to your actions," Haydens says.

"She ruined my relationship with Tanner. If she didn't kick him out, he wouldn't have gone crazy and got himself locked up. It's all her fault. She did this to Tanner," Brittany yells. 

"Brittany, if you put the gun down, we can talk through this. I want to hear your side of the story. Can you put the gun down, please?" Mr. O'Donnell asked.

"If I put it down, no one will listen to me," Brittany cries. "The father of my child is going to prison. I am going to have to raise the baby on my own," 

"Brittany, we can talk about whatever you want as long as you put the gun down. I don't want it to fire on an accident. It could kill someone. Please put it on the ground," O'Donnell says as calmly as he can spook her.

"Fine, I will put it down, but I want to talk to you alone, whoever you are,"

"My name is Ryker O'Donnell. I am willing to talk to you if you put the gun down. I don't feel safe talking to you with the gun in your hand,"

Brittany bent over, placed the gun on the ground, then stood and walked toward us. As she walked toward us, a police officer went to where the gun was lying on the ground and moved it. Then came up behind her. "Are you Brittany?" he asked her. 

"Yes, I am," she says.

"You're the one who shot Melinda Rowland, right?" he asked. 

"It was an accident. The gun just went off," Brittany says.

"Well, I have a warrant for your arrest. You are under arrest for the attempted murder of Melinda Roland. You have the right…" he says as he places her in cuffs.

"I wasn't trying to kill her. I only wanted to scare her into dropping the charges against Tanner. But, instead, she made Tanner go crazy when she broke up with him," Brittany yells.

"Brittany, I broke up with him because I caught you and him in my bed. If you caught him in bed with another woman when he was living with you, what would you have done?" I asked her.

"I would have kicked… Oh crap. What in the hell was I thinking? I let him use me. I want to make a deal. Can I do that?"

"O'Donnell, we have to get back to our kids. If you need to talk to us, you know how to get a hold of us." Hayden says.

"Take care of yourselves. I will be in contact with you in a few days after I get this situation with Brittany settled," He says.

***

Once we returned home, Hayden and I made lunch for my parents. We sat around the table talking about what Hayden, Maddison, and I used to get into as children. Mom was in the middle of telling us a story when my phone rang. When I looked at the caller id, I saw that it was O'Donnell calling, so I answered, "Hello,"

"May I please speak to Melinda Rowland?"

"This is her speaking," 

"Melinda, this is O'Donnell; I wanted to call and tell you that Brittany has told us that Tanner has a hit out on you and Hayden. He has hired an assassin that can shoot and kill someone from a long range. We are in the process of hunting him down. Whatever you do, don't go out in public for a few days or until we can get this guy." O'Donnell says.

"What the hell? Why couldn't she tell you that while we were there? How in the hell will I be able to take care of my property. Here talk to Hayden. I can't deal with this s**t right now. I need to get my best friend and her child here at the house," I say, handing the phone to Hayden.

Mom and dad were staring at me while I went to Hayden's phones and called Maddison, "Hey Hayden, how are you?" 

"It's me. Maddison, I need you, Brenden, and Alli to bring the dog and stay with us. We are all in danger,"

"What in the hell do you mean we are all in danger, Mel?"

"Get your stuff together and get over here, and I will explain,"

"Give us about an hour. We will see you then," Maddison says. Then the phone goes dead. 

"What in the hell is going on?" my dad asked as Hayden ended his phone call with O'Donnell. 

"That mother fucker Tanner hired a hitman to kill me and possibly Melinda. He thinks that Melinda and I had been screwing each other when they were together. Because we ended up together after she broke up with him, you both know, Melinda and I have been friends for years. There was never any point when we behaved as anything other than best friends. But Tanner had gotten it into his head that the only reason she wouldn't go back to him was because of me. 

"He didn't think about all the crap he has done to her. He beat her for god's sake and caused her to lose a child he helped create. I am at my wit's end with this guy. I wish we never met him. Now that I think about it, I should have known what type of person he was. I wish I could punch him in his face," Hayden says.

"I should have dumped his ass when I woke to him r****g me. f*****g low life. Sorry momma and dad, for my language. But if I had, it would have saved me a lot of pain and heartache," I say.

"You can't live in the past, Melinda. You can only learn from the past and move on. I know you feel like an i***t for letting it go on as long as you did, but now that you left him, you know that it was the best thing you ever did. So, right now, why don't we try to figure out a way to keep everyone safe," mom says as she pulls me into a hug," 

"I am calling a friend of mine to come up with a plan," Hayden says as Maddison and Brenden come into the house.

"So, what's going on?" Brenden asked. 

"Tanner hired a hitman to kill me. I guess he thought Mel would want to get back with him if I was out of the picture. Little did he know that we would get him on tape admitting to beating her until she lost their child.

"So right now, the police are trying to find the hitman. Since this house is in the center of our property, it is unlikely for a shooter to shoot us here. I have had the guys at the gate keep their eyes out for anything that looks off. With that being said, we would like it if you all stay here in the house with us, so we don't have to worry about you," Hayden says to my parents, Brenden and Maddison.

"What in the hell? That man as lots is mine," Maddison says.

"We found this out after the meeting with District Attorney O'Donnell, where he informed us that Tanner was going to plead guilty to all charges. Then Brittany shows up and is arrested," I say, then add, "It's been one hell of a day,"

"So, what is the plan? What are the police doing to find this guy?" my dad asked.

"They have his names, so they are trying to track him down. They are also sitting on his home, waiting to see if he shows up there. They say once they find the guy, they will arrest him. Then we can go back to our normal lives," Haydens says as he looks at everyone.

As we sat down and made plans for the next few days, Dad and mom would sleep in the guest room at the top of the stairs, Brenden and Maddison would sleep in the guest room at the other end of the hall. Allison will sleep in the extra crib in the boy's room. I gave Maddison the extra baby monitor; I told her that the boys usually wake up every three hours. She informed me that Alli was the same. 

"Hayden gets up with the boys, changes their diapers and brings them to me to feed. Then he will put them back in bed,"

"So you mean to tell me that Hayden helps you with the twins every night?" Maddison asked, shocked. 

"Yes, He likes the one on one time with the boys. He says that he wants to help me out. You do remember I have two babies, right?'

"Yeah, but Brenden doesn't even hear Alli cry. It like once he is asleep, he is dead to the world,"

"Wake his butt up and have him bring her to you," I tell her, laughing.

"I am going to try it and see what happens. I am so tired all the time and feel like I can't get the sleep I need," Maddison says with tears in her eyes.

"Maddison, you did bring extra breast milk, right?" she nods her head at me, "go up and lay down. I will have Brenden feed Alli when she wakes up," I say.

"Are you sure," she asked me.

"I wouldn't have said so if I wasn't. Now go," I tell her, pushing her to the stairs.

"Thank you so much, Mel. I owe you one, "she says, heading up the stairs.

"No, sis, you don't; this is what we do for each other," I say, smiling.

After Maddison went up to take a nap, I joined everyone else in the living room. I sat on Hayden's lap and kissed him.

"Where is Maddison," Brenden asked me.

"She was tired. I sent her upstairs to get some sleep," I told him.

He smiles and talks to my dad and Hayden as my mom and I talk among ourselves. After an hour or so, Mom and I went into the kitchen and started dinner. "Melinda, has Maddison been getting enough sleep? She looked so tired," Mom asked.

"I don't think so, She has always been a lite sleeper and I believe they have Allison in their room with them, so she gets woken up a lot at night. So that is why I sent her up to get some sleep," I tell mom.

"You girls are good for each other. I am glad that you two get to do this together. You each have someone to talk to that know what you are going through," 

"I know. I think we would be lost without each other," I say, laughing.

After dinner, the boys and Allison woke up. I warmed up a bottle for Brenden to feed Allison and then went to the home office to feed the boys. When I was done nursing the boys, we watched a movie. Maddison still hadn't woken up, so I went up to check on her.

I knocked on the door and let myself in, "Maddison, you have been sleeping five hours. She should get up so you can sleep tonight,"

"Wow, have I been asleep for that long?" 

"Yes, you have," I say, giggling.

"No wonder I feel so rested," she says, smiling standing up.

"I want to go check on my little princess,"

I follow Maddison downstairs and into the living room. "Hey beautiful, how was your nap?" Brenden asked Maddison.

"It was great. I feel like a new person," she states with a smile. "Where is my baby girl?" 

"She is sleeping. Why don't you eat dinner real quick?" I tell her.

She and I walked into the kitchen, where we had put a plate for her in the microwave. I turned it on to warm the food and then sat it in front of her. As she ate, she and I talked about everything. She told me that being a mother was great but more exhausting than she would have, though. "When I get her to sleep, I lay back down and all kinds of things start racing through my mind. Like is there anything in the bed with her that could hurt her? Is she warm enough? I just need to turn my mommy brain off after she goes back to sleep," Madi says as she continues eating.

"I do the same thing. I also take naps during the day when the boys are asleep. That way, I don't exhaust myself and burn out," I tell her, "my mom says as a new mother, we need to sleep when the baby sleeps, so that is what I try to do. Even if I just lay down and rest without falling asleep." I say.

"I try to get all the housework done in between her sleeping and eating that I never thought about taking a nap,"

"Remember this happy mommy, happy baby. If you are happy, so is Allison. She can feel your sadness."

"When did you become so smart, Mel?" she says, laughing.

"When I became a mother of two," I say, smiling, then add, "plus my momma gives me the talking to that I am giving you,"

"Your mom is a smart lady,"

"That I am," mom says, coming into the kitchen. "Now, if you ever need me, Madi, don't be scared to ask me. You know I have always considered you a daughter, and I am here to help both my girls," my mom says, pulling out a chair and sitting down.