saved her today. He is the man who tracked the Towlers down and rescued her. And he’s the man who is right now taking care of her and trying his damnedest to bring her home to me.”
“So naïve. It’s like I didn’t even raise you.”
Kennedy’s phone rang and my attention sliced over to her. Embarrassment seized my lungs. I’d been so wrapped up in my parents, I’d forgotten she was quietly sitting next to my bed.
“Yeah, she’s right here, but you’re gonna have to hold on a moment while the doctor calls security.” There was a pause and Kennedy’s normally pretty face turned hard and her gaze lifted to my mother. “Because the Axelsons are in her room, and after several attempts to ask them to leave they’re still standing here upsetting her. She had to yell at them which caused her a great deal of pain, yet Mrs. Axelson has decided that saying bad things about you is more important than her daughter’s health. They’ve also eluded to taking Faith. Charleigh has made it clear she doesn’t want Faith to go with them.” Another pause. “Right. I’ll tell them.”
Kennedy hung up and a broad smile replaced her earlier frown.
“I wanted to talk to him,” I complained.
“He’s calling Nixon, Alec, Weston, and Jonny. He said he’d call you right back.”
“Why is he calling them? How’s Faith?”
Kennedy’s smile vanished and compassion filled her eyes.
“Faith is fine. They’ll be on their way home soon. As to why he’s calling in the guys…he said over his dead body would someone take your daughter away from you. Faith’s awake and asking for you and Holden said that he will make sure Faith gets exactly what she wants. He also said if your parents weren’t on their way back to Virginia by the time he got here, he’d personally escort them home.”
“Really?”
“Well, I was paraphrasing and I left out all of the curse words, but that was the gist of what he said.”
“Oh my God,” my mother snickered. “I see it already. You’re falling for his crap. It’s all over your face. Can you believe it, Edward? Your daughter would choose a foul-mouthed piece of—”
“That’s enough, Mrs. Axelson,” Nixon said as he entered the room. “I believe Charleigh’s made her wishes clear. The doctor has asked you to leave, now you’re going to leave.”
Great. Perfect. Now my night of fear and humiliation was complete. Nixon, Alec, Weston, and Jonny had all filed into my room with matching expressions of dislike.
“I will not be told what to do by a roughneck. And if you think to put your hands on me, I’ll sue you.”
“Just go, Mother. I want to call Holden back and talk to Faith.”
“Ma’am.” Jonny stepped forward and flashed his badge. “This will be the last time you’re asked to leave before I arrest you for trespassing and harassment.”
“I’m not harassing anybody.”
Sweet mother of God, please make her stop.
“Charleigh? Is Mrs. Axelson harassing you?”
“Yes.”
“Well,” my mother huffed, up went her nose back in the air, and I wished I’d been born into a normal, decent family. “We’ll see. We will see. When that man leaves you broken and these people all abandon you, do not come home to your father and me. You will not be welcomed. And when that child of yours grows up and turns out to be just as ungrateful as you are, I will not feel sorry for you. Remember, Charlotte, you reap what you sow, and you just bought yourself a plantation of trash.”
With that, my mother turned on her ridiculously expensive high heels and strode out of my room with her head held high. And like the good lap dog my father was, he followed.
“Can I use your phone to call Holden back?” I asked Kennedy.
She tilted her head to the side and her eyes softened. “Do you want to talk about what happened first? That was pretty harsh.”
“That was nothing,” I told her. “Harsh was when they called me a slut and told me I was an embarrassment to the Axelson name and I needed to find a suitable man to marry before I was showing or everyone would know I’d been whoring myself out.”
“Seriously?”
I shrugged and lifted my hand, silently asking for Kennedy’s phone. “It’s just the way they are.”
Kennedy placed the phone in my hand and her gaze went across the room. I was consciously trying to forget the others in the room. I didn’t want to look, didn’t want to see the anger in