PART OF HER WORLD

CHAPTER 15

Asher pulled into the driveway with a smile on his face. Tomorrow he and Sophia would be starting over. To hear those words from her lips left him walking on cloud nine. He wanted to take her into his arms and make love to her all night long, but he also wanted to do this right. They knew so much about one another, yet at the same time knew so little. He was excited at the idea of their date for a moonlight picnic by the river.

Second chances didn’t come his way often and he had no intention of screwing this one up. As he walked inside, Crystal looked up at him from the table.

"That's a big smile. I take it the talk went well?" she smiled as she said it.

"Yeah it did,” he told her as he headed for the fridge and pulled out a can of pop.

"So fill me in?"

"We have a date for tomorrow night," he told her as he sat down across from her at the small table.

"So she's forgiven you?" Mike asked from behind him. He had just come from the washroom and Asher knew he would want to know everything as well.

"Sort of, we are going to take it one day at a time, get to know more about each other. Sophia wants to take it slow and work it out,” he explained.

Mike sat beside Crystal and Asher could not help but be happy for them. He hoped that soon both he, and Sophia would be like them.

"So then are you going to tell him or should I?" Mike said as he grinned at Crystal.

"Tell me what," Asher asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked between the two of them. They both had silly grins on their faces, and Crystal even giggled a little as she turned slightly red in the face.

"Mike asked me to marry him,” she said and the smile blossomed larger on her face, the look of complete happiness in her eyes told him she was in love with his best friend.

"Ah ... congratulations." he stammered out.

A bit taken aback by the news, he didn't know what else to say. He wasn't expecting this but knew it was a good thing.

"Thanks, man, so will you be my best man?" Mike asked.

"Oh hell yeah, did you set a date?" Asher asked.

"Next May," Crystal told him as she leaned her head on Mike's shoulder.

"What does Hallie think of it?" he asked.

"She's tickled pink and, of course, she can't wait to be my flower girl,” Crystal explained.

The three of them talked for quite a bit and Asher finally said goodnight as it was creeping on towards midnight and he wanted to get some things done tomorrow before he and Sophia met up. Things were looking up for him, his sister, and his niece. It was such an amazing change for everyone in his life to be happy, and he hoped it would stay that way. Now, for the first time in two months, he fell asleep without worrying.

* * *~~~* * *

The excitement of Asher being here and the thrill of them going to try to get back together had her tummy doing flip flops. Now, though, she became queasy as her morning sickness started to kick in. Taking the pill her doctor prescribed with a tall glass of water, Sophia hoped this part of the pregnancy wouldn't last long. It usually took her pills a good half hour to work, and as she tried to walk out of her kitchen, she stumbled slightly. She knew dizziness was supposed to be a part of being pregnant and as her head swam a little, she walked a little slower going up the stairs, not wanting to faint again.

Sophia made it two steps into her room before stopping dead in her tracks. The sensation of being drunk flooded her. She went numb and her mind grew clouded. She turned and rushed to her bathroom. Her head spun and as she found the edge of the toilet, she drove two fingers down her throat as far as she could. There was something wrong. Her pill should never make her react like this. They were supposed to stop morning sickness, and after she finished forcing herself to be sick, she tried to wash the foul taste out of her mouth. Panic rose in her chest as the disorientation washed over her still, and she stumbled into her room to get the phone.

A familiar spicy scent filled her nose as she entered. Only one person she knew wore that expensive cologne.

"Bentley?" her voice sounded warbled to herself. Surprised by him being there as she knew she had set the alarm and locked the door, so how had he gotten in, she wondered as her mind tried to clear itself.

"Shh, it's going to be OK. I'm here now Sophia,” he said, and his hands grabbed her as she crumpled towards the floor.

"How did you—" her words never finished as he swept her up into his arms. He then laid her out on her bed. The sensation caused her world to spin out of control. Even though she knew she was lying down, she could not tell which way was up or down.  He pulled his hands free of her momentarily. The smoothness of them rubbed against her skin. Gloves always slid over her flesh like that.

The bed moved and his leather-covered fingers skimmed over her face. He moved her hair to the side, and she tried to focus on his words as he spoke.

"That man should never have come between us. I warned you he was no good. I knew that night you had s*x with him it would make it hard to get rid of him. You shouldn't have drunk so much wine with Dave and Clarisse,” he said. Sophia was confused, as she didn’t tell Bentley that Dave and Clarisse had been there that night.

As his fingers trailed from her face down over her neck, she cried as she tried to move her arms and they were heavy, as if lead weights held them down.

"You won't be able to fight it, Sophia. The sedative you took is used to knock out people having a psychotic break. Honestly, you've been so uptight since you found out about the pregnancy,” he rambled.

Sophia's mind reeled, trying to figure out how Bentley knew any of this stuff. She hadn’t talked with him since he acted like a jerk at the Gala. The fear that had taken hold of her already intensified as his hands traveled down her cheek.

"I never told you any of that,” she managed to garble out; to her ears, she sounded drunk.

"You didn't have to. I was worried about you being here all by yourself, so when you were out I put little cameras in all the rooms in the house quite a while back to keep an eye on you,” he explained.

Her stomach twisted as if she would be sick. Bentley had been watching her, had invaded her home and her privacy. The sensation of being watched now made sense to her and that meant he saw everything she did, including making love with Asher.

"I am dreadfully sorry that I had to switch your medications. I knew I would have to get you to relax first,” he told her as one of his hands slipped under her head and the other moved under both her knees.

"I didn't want to do it this way, but then you told Asher you'd give him a second chance. I don't understand what you see in that man. When it's just you and me, you'll realize we were meant to be together,” he told her as he tried to lift her off the bed.

* * *~~~* * *

It was nearly four in the morning, and his eyes shot open. He looked at his alarm clock briefly then realized the buzzing sound was coming from his cell phone. Staring at it, he was a little dazed, it was Sophia's number.

"Sophia?" he said as he hit the answer key.

"Asher.,” her voice was muffled and drunk sounding.

"Sophia what's wrong?" he asked and waited for a long moment before she responded.

"Ma-rs-,” she mumbled out slowly, and he tried to focus on her words. There was a strange sound in the background, but he could not make it out clearly. It almost sounded like Charlie whimpering somewhere far off in the distance.

He was walking out of his room, and he headed for Crystals and knocked softly,

"What?" she asked grumpily.

"Call 911 and send them to 1923 Humphrey's lane,” he told her in a hushed voice as not to wake Hallie up in the next room, and Crystal was out of her bedroom in a flash.

"Sophia, keep talking to me." he told her as he grabbed the truck keys as he made the door.

Sophia mumbled incoherently and he struggled to understand what she was trying to say.

"What's going on." his sister asked in a panic.

"I don't know,” he told her. A soft groan of pain came from the other end of the line.

"There's something wrong with Sophia,” he told her as he stepped out the door. With a desperate need to go to Sophia, he raced for his truck. A loud crashing sound echoed from the phone and the line went dead.

Driving at twice the posted speed limit, Asher gunned the truck towards the rural area twenty minutes away from the trailer park. With no idea of what had happened or what was going on, helplessness grew in the pit of his guts. If anything happened to Sophia, he didn't think he would be able to live. The worst-case scenarios played in his mind. He nearly lost control of the truck on a sharp turn as his speed was far too fast for it.

Pulling into her driveway, Asher was instantly alert. Her front door was wide open and the light was spilling out from inside and one of the old wooden rocking chairs lay on its side. The large flower pot beside the edge of the house was knocked over, as was the watering can. Jumping out of the truck, he rushed to the front door and he didn't have to step inside to see the blood on the stairs. The smeared hand print on the side of the wall, the knocked over side-table and the phone smashed against the floor.

Asher could clearly hear Charlie whining in the basement and he was scratching at the door. The direction of the chaos seemed to lead outside and he moved to follow the small droplets of blood. They led to the back yard where he could just barely make out forms on the ground. He moved towards them. His eyes adjusted to the dimmer lighting and he found Sophia lying on the ground with a man on top of her. Asher's blood went cold.  His heartbeat roared in his ears and his hands shook as a man came to a sitting position beside Sophia.

* * *~~~* * *

Pinned to the damp dew-covered grass as Bentley held her down in an attempt to try and stop her from hitting him, Sophia felt helpless but still, she fought back, kicking and biting at his hand, holding her wrist closest to her face. With a yank, he pulled her arm farther away so she could not bite him anymore.

"You’re coming with me,” he muttered.

"Don't do this Bentley,” she told him in a slur of barely understandable words.

"Sophia, you belong with me, not that Neanderthal." Bentley hissed as he attempted to pull her into his arms and she fought to keep him from picking her up.

Sophia thought she heard Asher's voice through her foggy, drug-induced state.

"Get your f*****g hands off her." For a brief moment, she thought she was now hallucinating as her head pounded from where she hit it as she fell down the stairs. Then Bentley was gone and what sounded like two people struggling could clearly be heard.

The commotion of a brawl filled the air as well as a few curse words from Bentley. Then there was silence after it sounded like someone was hit hard with something metallic and a soft thud followed as if someone hit the ground. Her heartbeat was near deafening in her ears as she strained to listen.

Not knowing what was going on was terrifying, not knowing who had been the one to have won the fight fueling that terror. The tears were running down her eyes as she tried to move, but she stumbled and fell back. The drugs in her system made her legs too weak to stand on any longer and as a hand gripped her arm, she screamed hysterically.

"It's me Sophia, oh god. What did he do to you?" Asher's voice seemed to tremble as he spoke. The warmth of a shirt wrapped over her shoulders and he enveloped her in his arms.

"Don't let go of me please, Asher, oh god, please don't leave me," she cried.

"The police are already on the way," he said as she sobbed into his warm comforting arms.

Her body was in pain from falling down the stairs and rushing recklessly away from Bentley.

"I'm sorry,” she whimpered into his chest as she clung desperately to him. Her mind was so foggy from the drugs and she was barely staying conscious. The air was chilling her to the core and it felt as if someone had dipped her into ice water. Sophia heard a chattering sound, then realized it was her own teeth. She wasn't sure what Asher was saying as he wrapped something else around her. A distant scream of sirens filtered through the night air.

"Asher," she whimpered as everything closed in on her. A sharp pain burned its way through her head and little lights played in front of her eyes as unconsciousness stole her away.