Eternal Hope

Chapter 6

Emmersyn

            The drive to Carter’s house was tense. She had gathered her senses enough to insist on taking her own car. Her mind was reeling with all of the questions that she had for him. When did he find out? How? When did they start talking? How did she NOT know about it? She would be the first to admit that she was busy and tended to get lost in her own world when writing, but to not even notice that her child had an online pen pal? Emmersyn couldn’t make sense of how her two-year-old child could even have a secret pen pal. He had a tablet, but it was for educational purposes only and he did not have free use of it. And if she remembered correctly, it only allowed use of the apps she downloaded. He had a phone, only because of her travel schedule, which was programmed to call only about ten people. She had the man at the store help her set the parental settings on the phone so that Liam could only make and receive calls from the people in his contacts. Yes, she taught her child to call 911 and installed a panic room in her closet. She had the money and made the decision to renovate the house before they moved back to her college town. 

When she had made the switch from her Newport Series and announced the launch of her spin-off series, she had started receiving some very disturbing fan mail, the type of mail that made her publisher get the authorities involved. So, when it was suggested that she move until they could catch the individual responsible, she had taken the time to set up the house for the protection of herself and most importantly her child. She had spent an entire weekend drilling her son on when to use panic room and how. Now she just had to hope that they never had to use it. 

     Em tried not to think about how Carter even contacted their son and why he had not informed her. She was going to have to have a talk with Liam about the dangers of the internet, again. She also needed to find out how they were talking, because if one person could be secretly talking to her son, then there could be others and that made panic and anger rise in Emmersyn. Carter should have told her. If her knew that they had a son then he knew where she was and had a way to contact her. She had spent the last year searching for someone who did not want to be found. And apparently was ok with her struggling to parent his child all on her own. 

Don’t get her wrong, Emmersyn loved her baby boy with all of her heart, but babies don’t come with a manual. Being a young, single, working mom, with a newborn baby, in a strange city made the transition from college student to adult even harder. But the very idea that he knew where they were, and was able to contact her baby without even attempting to speak with her? Em was livid.

They pulled into the driveway of a small one-story house in a small, well established neighborhood. The yard was slightly overgrown, but within acceptable limits, and Em could tell that there used to be plants around the front, that had obviously not lived to see the era of Carter Wilson. Em shook her head at the sorry state of his yard. Not that she had expected very much from him. He was notorious for thinking that house maintenance, inside and out, was the lowest priority. It had taken her weeks of nagging once, to get him to wash and fold his clothes. Getting them put away was the part where she had given up. Of course, having two cats who used the clean laundry, placed on the floor, as a bed did not help matters at all. He always said that as long as it was clean, he didn’t care. Sighing, Em pulled into the driveway and got out. She stalked to Carter, who stood at the front door, holding it open. She walked straight to him and slapped him across the face. 

“I have spent the last two years, raising your son by myself in an unfamiliar city, and you have the gall to tell me you knew, contacted him, and did not inform me?!” Em finally let everything fly. Her hurt, rage and frustration were boiling, and she could feel herself losing her ability to be rational. 

Carter grabbed her upper arm and pulled her into the house, slamming the door while swinging her around and holding her still, tears poured down her face. “I looked for you for months after I left. I wanted to at least tell you he existed! Your family blocked me, you blocked me on social media, my phone calls went unanswered, and I couldn’t leave a voicemail! And now two years later, you tell me that you knew, and you were in contact with him? How do you even contact a two-year-old? He can’t even work the internet! What were you thinking? What was your end game, huh? Were you going to take him from me --”

Carter seemed to have enough of the emotions and let loose a roar. Effectively silencing her tirade. “Emmersyn, I am not going to be able to explain if you don’t let me speak. And you will not get physically violent with me ever again. Do you understand?” Carter shook her firmly to accentuate the end of each sentence. He then closed his eyes and breathed deep, gentling his hold on her arms. “I know that you have every right to question me, but I invited you here to explain. So please let me do that.”

Carter took her silence as consent and forged ahead, “After you left, I received a call from your grandfather. He said that I had knocked you up and refused to take responsibility for it. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was very convincing. Once he understood that I really had no idea what he was talking about, he explained that you were pregnant and that you were refusing to say who the father was. He thought that the baby was mine, but since you hadn’t told me, he thought that maybe you didn’t know the father, or that it happened after me. So, out of anger and hurt that you had apparently moved on to another guy so quickly after we broke up, I ignored your calls. I thought that you were blaming me for a mistake that you made, or worse, that you would ask me to help. And I couldn’t do that.” Carter drew a deep breath. “Then, about the time Liam was born, I bumped into your friend Anna. She chewed me out for ignoring you when you needed me most. I told her that I refused to help raise another man’s child when he was the real reason why we broke up. She set me straight. She was the one that told me that your grandfather hadn’t known the full truth and that you weren’t speaking to him after he accused you of being a slut. I hired a Private Investigator. He found Liam about 8 months ago. I learned how well the two of you were doing and that you were trying to get him into that accelerated learning academy. I immediately knew when I saw his picture that he was mine. He looks just like you but with my coloring and eyes. So, I approached the school and offered to be his sponsor. I pay for his schooling and once a month the school has him call and show what he’s learned and accomplished in the last three and half weeks. That is how I contact him. He doesn’t know who I am, and we only ever talk about school. As much as a two-year-old can talk about anything. It was never in person and it was never done without a chaperone from the school. I thought about reaching out to you, but you had changed your number and don’t check your social media accounts. I didn’t know how to get in contact with you.”

Emmersyn tried to breathe, rubbing the places where his hands had gripped her. She would probably develop bruises. “Carter, you deserved that slap. And you should have told me when you contacted him. Hell, when you found out about him. I deserve the curtesy of knowing whom my child is in contact with and when. You disrespected me. Worse, you knew that I had tried to contact you. How could you treat me this way? Go behind my back? You hired a private investigator and you’re telling me that that person found Liam and could tell you where we were applying to for his schooling but couldn’t tell you my address or find a way to contact me?”

Carter shook his head, “You’re right. I did know how to contact you. I chose not too because I wasn’t ready to address what had happened to us there at the end. I want to get back together. I took this time to help where I could while I got my life togeth—”

He was cut off by her phone going off. 

Emmersyn felt her face turn pale. That ringtone was an alert from the panic room. Liam had felt the need to enter the panic room, and that was not good. 

She ran for the door immediately, only to be pulled up short by Carter.

“Em what is going on? You can’t just run out on me. We need to talk about this.”

“Carter, Liam is in trouble and I am leaving. NOW.” Emmersyn ripped her hand from his, slammed the door open and ran for her car.  

“What? Not without me.” Carter followed right on her heels, barely making it into the car before Emmersyn was squealing out of the driveway at top speed, ordering her phone to call the Nanny. 

Who wouldn’t answer.