~*~Chapter Twenty-Five~*~
Peter's tongue had found Miranda's clit. He was licking it hungrily when he thought he heard someone say his name. He raised his head, seeing a figure standing in the doorway of the gaming room. Before he could react, she fainted.
"Uhhh Roman..." Peter said, looking over at his friend who was having his way with Miranda's lovely breasts.
Roman looked up to see a crumpled body in the doorway. Roman instantly froze.
It was Peter who rushed to Letha's side. He didn't even bother to put on any pants as he lifted her in his arms. He saw scratches and bruises on her face and arms, but she was definitely alive.
They had thought she had been dead for well over five weeks!
Gradually, Roman took hold of his senses, seeing Peter cradling Letha in his arms. "She's alive," he spoke.
Peter didn't say a word as he turned on his heel. He began carrying an unconscious Letha upstairs. Roman scrambled off the pool table. He hurried out of the gaming room. He only took a moment to pause so he could fasten his pants.
Very gently, Peter deposited Letha on Roman's bed. He covered her with a blanket, then went to fetch a pair of his jeans. He was stepping into them when Roman came into the room.
"It's her," Roman breathed. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She lay there so beautiful and serene. She looked like she was barely breathing. But she WAS breathing. Roman was afraid to touch her.
Letha. His Letha. She was ALIVE!
Miranda was the only one who had managed to fully get dressed. She was confused when she found Roman and Peter in Roman's bedroom, standing watch over an unconscious blonde. Seeing the woman made Miranda feel uneasy. How in the world did she look so much like her? It wasn't possible, right?
"Who is she?" she asked quietly, her manners intact so as to not wake the young woman. She was trying to comprehend how both men seemed to know this blonde who had fallen into their presence.
"Letha," Roman uttered in disbelief.
Peter sat on the edge of the bed, holding Letha's small hand. His face was shadowed in concern.
Roman and Peter couldn't stop staring at Letha in shock. How could she be alive?
"What the hell is going on here?" Peter said to Roman. "All this time... she's been alive."
"My mother and Dr. Pryce must be behind this," Roman deduced. None of it was making any sense. He was thankful she was alive, but he was also stunned. He suddenly started thinking about what all this meant.
Now that Letha was back, would she take the baby from him? Did she remember that night, when he came to her in the form of an angel? Would she hate him? He was scared to death as he looked down at Letha's precious face.
*Please don't take Cassandra,* he was thinking. Roman couldn't bear it if Letha decided to take his little girl away.
At that moment, the baby began to cry. "Come on, Miranda. I think she's hungry," Roman said. "Let's go check on her."
Miranda's mind couldn't digest this information. The dead mother of the child in the next room, was actually not dead? She found herself trailing behind Roman to go to the nursery.
In the nursery, they found the baby crying. She was definitely hungry. "It's okay, Cass," Miranda said. "You're hungry, aren't you?"
She removed her shirt and unhooked her bra, then she reached into the crib to lift the baby out to feed her. She settled into the rocking chair, holding the tiny girl. Baby Cassandra latched on hungrily.
Roman stood by the window, his eyes on the precious bundle in Miranda's arms. He was hoping that Letha wouldn't decide the baby would be better off without him. He had already gotten so attached to his little girl. He didn't want to let her go.
Peter sat on the bed as Letha's eyelids fluttered. Gradually they opened. She was looking right at him.
"Letha, what happened?" he asked. "How is it you are alive?"
Letha's head hurt. She was slightly disoriented. "Peter? Am I still at Godfrey Institute?" she asked him. "Did you find me? I heard Roman."
It took a minute for her head to clear, then she remembered escaping and coming to to the mansion. She frowned as she remembered seeing Peter and Roman with some blonde in the gaming room.
She sat up straight. "I escaped from Dr. Pryce!" I remember now," she stated. "Wh-who was that woman you and Roman were all over?"
Anger rose in her tone. "Who is she? Are you with her now? What is going on between her, you, and Roman?"
Peter realized that Letha must have been held at the Godfrey Institute, no doubt by Dr. Pryce and very likely Roman's mother. Olivia had been acting very mysterious, as if she was hiding something, so Peter assumed that she had been holding Letha against her will. "I didn't find you. You found us," Peter stated.
"The woman in the gaming room- her name is Miranda. She and I ... well, it's complicated," he said. "And as for Roman... we have a close bond and always will. We even dream the same foretelling dreams."
"Letha, you have to understand something-," Peter began, but Letha interrupted him.
"My baby!" she said, pushing him away. She didn't want not hear anything more that he was saying. "Where is my baby?!"
"I want to see my baby," she continued to demand.
"I will take you to see the baby, but Letha, you have to understand. I will always love you, deep in my heart, but I thought you were dead," Peter explained. "On the night you had the baby, we were told you were dead. Roman and I ... we were devastated."
His words seemed futile. He hoped she'd understand what had happened and why he had moved on.
Letha jumped up off the bed with sudden energy, pushing past Peter in an attempt to find her child. Peter realized then that Letha was refusing to talk to him. "This way," he said as he followed her into the hallway and directed her toward the nursery.
Letha and Peter came in just as Miranda finished feeding baby Cassandra. Roman was still standing at the window. He looked uneasy.
"Roman, I need to talk to you," Letha said.
She glanced at Miranda and Peter. "Alone," she said firmly. "I need to speak to Roman alone."
The sight of the other woman feeding HER child was more than a little disturbing. Letha crossed her arms as she waited for Peter and Miranda to leave the room.
Since the baby had finished with her feeding, Miranda got up and handed her to Roman. Once the baby was in Roman's arms, Letha approached. "Is this her?" Letha asked quietly in amazement. "Is this my baby? Is this... my little girl?"
Miranda pulled on her bra. She refastened it and put on her shirt. She left the nursery and entered the hallway. Peter walked out after Miranda.
"I think we should give Letha and Roman a little time alone with the baby. How about you and I go down to the garage and check on the progress of your car?" Peter said.
Miranda nodded. "Alright," she agreed. Focusing on the car was a good thing to her right now considering everything else was all kinds of confusing to her. She left with Peter so Letha and Roman could have some time to talk.
Roman stood there holding his precious baby girl. Tenderly, he kissed her satiny cheek. He then met Letha's gaze. "Yes," he said. "This is Cassandra Marie. She is... your daughter."
Carefully, he placed Cassandra into Letha's embrace. Seeing the two of them together, his heart turned over in his chest. This was what he had always wanted - to see Letha holding their baby.
Letha held Cassandra tenderly in her arms. "You're so beautiful," she said softly to the baby girl. Cassandra gurgled and cooed in response to her mother's voice, looking up at Letha brightly with so much love.
"I missed you, baby girl," Letha said to Cassandra.
"She missed you, too," Roman whispered. "I have been trying to take care of her... but it isn't easy. She needed her mother. I'm glad you're back. SHE's glad you're back."
"I'm here now; I'm never leaving her again," Letha vowed.
There was a heavy pause. Finally, Roman got the courage to speak; to ask the question that had been on his mind since the moment he had seen her passed out in the gaming room.
"So, Letha, what do you remember about that night... about- about the angel?" Roman asked cautiously.
She lifted her head for a moment as she looked at Roman. "I remember it all," she confessed. She had been confused for awhile, but it was all in focus now.
"I heard your voice, Roman, at the Institute... then I remembered making love to the angel. Everything about him... he reminded me of you." At the time, she had been uncertain as to why that could be the case. The only possible explanation was that Roman was in fact her angel, although that part confused her, too. How could he be her angel?
"You remember it all?" he said. He swallowed reflexively, to clear the lump that had been growing in his throat.
"I'm sorry I hurt you," he said sadly. "My mother... she made me - she made me be the angel."
"You never hurt me," Letha whispered softly. Gently she placed Cassandra in the crib. She didn't want to put her precious baby down considering she had just returned to her, but she needed to comfort Roman. He seemed terribly distraught.
Tears filled up Roman's eyes as they threatened to spill. He wasn't hearing her, not really. He had a steady ringing in his ears. It was painful.
Letha wrapped her arms around him, hugging him as she brushed her lips across his cheek. "Don't cry, Roman, please," she spoke softly.
It was too late; Roman was already crying. Hot tears escaped his eyes and began to slide down his cheeks. He didn't want Letha to see him cry, but he couldn't stop his tears. All of his emotions came pouring out. When her lips brushed across his skin, he shuddered. Her pink lips ... so soft... like the petals of a newborn rose.
"You were my best friend," he said in a whisper.
"Well, what am I now?" she asked. She wondered why he had said 'were.'
"I'm still here, aren't I? Am I not your best friend anymore?" she asked with a frown. "I'm sorry you thought that I was dead this entire time; I never wanted that."
"I want us to be best friends, like we were before," Roman stated. When Peter came into the picture, everything had changed. They stopped doing everything together. She stopped coming to him when she needed someone. He wanted that again. He wanted his best friend back.
"Letha, there's something I have to tell you," said Roman. "I've missed you. I've always loved you. We have so much to talk about... " Staring into her beautiful blue eyes, he suggested that they leave the baby in the nanny's care and go somewhere more private.
"I want to take you to my favorite place," he told her.
"Will the baby be okay with the nanny?" Letha asked. Sudden worry struck her. "I haven't even met this woman." First Miranda had been holding and nursing her child. Now Roman wanted to leave the baby in the care of a nanny, although a nanny caring for a child wasn't a foreign concept to the Godfrey household. She herself had been raised by her mother and father, but she needed to not think about that now.
"Ohhh my gosh, my parents! What will I tell them?" she gasped.
"Don't worry about the nanny," Roman gently reassured her. "She took care of me and Shelley years ago... and Norman, too, for that matter."
"Let's get to my favorite place, then we can talk about everything," he coaxed. He took Letha's hand and lead her out of the nursery.
"Your favorite place," Letha said quietly. "Please show me."
He took her hand and together they left the nursery. In the hallway, they ran into the nanny, who was carrying a stack of fresh diapers for the baby. "Anna, this is Letha, Cassandra's mother," Roman spoke. "We need to talk privately, so we'll need you to keep an eye on Cassandra for a little while. Whatever you do, don't let her out of her sight."
"I promise I won't, Mr. Godfrey," the nanny stated, but when Roman and Letha walked away, she stared at them with vivid disapproval. She couldn't wait to get to the phone. She needed to report all the latest developments.