Author's note: Sorry for taking so long to update but I'm very busy with University and I lack creativity at the moment. Please enjoy and review! :)
I also want to thank DDLJ for being my writing partner and motivating me when I don't feel like continuing this fic at all.
You should also check out her new story I'm Not Going Anywhere.
Seconds felt like hours as Victoria listened to the unsettling beeping noise coming out of the phone. She nervously bit on her lower lip not understanding what could possibly take the other person so long to pick up. Maybe David had written down a false number or maybe he hadn't even been serious about her calling it.
Just before Victoria wanted to put the receiver down again, the beeping noise came to end. Then there was a short pause. She didn't know what to say.
"Who is this?" A male voice asked at the other end of the line.
She had to be strong now, she couldn't mess that up. "Victoria Grayson." She said sincerely while she swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Where did you get this number?" The man continued and Victoria noticed the surprise he tried to hide in his voice.
"David Clarke. He gave it to me." That moment would decide whether this man was a true friend, or one who was shallow enough to be blinded by Conrad's story.
"David Clarke?" He gasped.:
"Yes. He told me you could help us. He has been arrested on the basis of false accusations half an hour ago. Nothing that has been reported by the media is true."
"I knew it." The man quietly said to himself, but Victoria could understand him perfectly. The tone of his voice alone was proof enough to show that he was obviously a true friend.
"So, who are you and why does David think that you can help him?" Victoria required to know curiously.
"I can't tell you, but I'll meet you tomorrow." With those words the call ended abruptly and Victoria was left with a dumbfounded expression. Had that really been all? That man couldn't be serious about helping her, he hadn't even asked for an address. Probably he had been too shocked to tell her the truth including the fact that he had no intention of supporting David in any way.
So, this was it.
The ending to the story of Victoria Grayson and David Clarke.
Even the person David had put all of his trust in to secure his freedom had turned his back on him. With trembling knees Victoria went back to the sofa and lay down. All of a sudden, she felt extremely tired; as if all of her will to fight had left her.
David was in prison, her son had been taken away from her and the cause of it all was her psychopathic husband. Victoria realized that she was completely alone now. She didn't even have any real friends she could call in an exceptional situation like the one she was facing in that moment. The people she met in the Hamptons only liked her because she was the wife of Conrad Grayson, which meant that she had money and would invite them to the fanciest parties of the season. She had been okay with that because she had liked to be seen as an influential socialite. It was what she had always wanted; to be more than just a poor pretty girl everyone felt sorry for and used for their own advantage. With the help of Conrad she had become Victoria Grayson, rich and powerful but completely isolated. She didn't have family, no brothers, no sisters, no father and not even a mother. She only had her son and her husband, but after everything that had happened, they had both vanished from her life.
How she longed to simply call someone to talk about her worries, to cry her heart out and to be comforted by a person whom she trusted and loved.
Victoria's hands rested on her stomach, feeling the growing bump which was still strange to her. She closed her eyes and instantly noticed the darkness that surrounded her.
Inevitably pictures popped up in her mind. Pictures of her lying on an old mattress, which she had called her bed, in the same position 20 years ago.
Why was life so cruel and had to repeat itself?
Gradually, the darkness began to press down on her, invading her thoughts and making it impossible for her to return to the real world. There was nothing but black space, even as Victoria tried to open her eyes all she could see was the darkness she had once known so well. She had fought hard to escape from that somber world she had been living in, but now she felt like she was back in that familiar space.
The only part of herself that still remained in the world around her was the belly beneath her hands. She tried her best to keep the heavy weight of blackness away from her unborn child, but without anyone by her side it was difficult. Daniel had used to light her the way out of the never ending night she had often been unable to escape from at times the frustrating fights with Conrad had just begun. However, her son was not there in that moment and exhausted as Victoria was she drifted off into a trance losing sense for time and orientation.
After a while she found herself sitting on a blanket under a strangely familiar tree. David was there with her wrapping an arm around her shoulders and kissing her hair. She also saw Amanda and Daniel climbing one of the trees in a distance and quickly she realized that they were still at Charlotte's farm. Victoria felt at peace replaying the scenario over and over in her head when all of a sudden someone switched off the lights.
With a racing heart her eyes shot open. Not remembering what had happened to her she put up her legs, wincing in pain as the dried wounds on her knees began to tear open again. She gazed around the room noticing that the sun had almost set outside, so that she figured she must have been asleep for a couple of hours. Reality hit Victoria hard as she realized that her mind had played her a cruel trick leaving her completely devastated after the fake feeling of comfort she had experienced in her dream.
The loneliness she felt after weeks spent in company of people she loved overwhelmed her and inevitably a tear slipped from her eye.
What was she to do now? With her gaze resting on the telephone at the other end of the room she regained hope that the man who had seemed so convinced by David's innocence would call again and offer his support. That was the only possibility she had to get David out of prison because otherwise she neither had enough money nor did she knew the right people, who weren't part of her husband's plan, to proof that David was innocent.
It was pure stress for Victoria to think about David being thrown into a cell and being questioned by people who didn't care if he was telling the truth about Conrad. She knew that she had to eat something but felt sick to her stomach because of the guilt that possessed her mind.
After some minutes she decided to get up and clean the wounds on her knees since she couldn't risk an infection. The pain she felt as the cool water ran over her open wounds made her let out a quiet scream followed by tears of desperation. It had been a long time since she had felt that depressed and despondent.
The only circumstance that kept her from giving up on herself was the love for her unborn child. Therefore she went over to the kitchen and returned to the of sofa with a plate of the pasta David had prepared for her in case she would suddenly crave for Italian food; a circumstance that had occurred pretty often ever since they had left Charlotte's farm.
Without further thinking Victoria switched on the TV and zapped through the channels while the taste of David's carbonara sauce brought fresh tears into her eyes. David was one of the two men she had been with who had ever made the effort to cook for her; of course Conrad had not been one of them.
All of a sudden the remote control dropped from Victoria's hands. She had stopped at a news channel which was reporting about the "spectacular arrest of wanted terrorist David Clarke".
After showing David in handcuffs from every possible angle, there was video footage of Conrad rushing into a hotel lobby with a crying Daniel in his arms.
"While Conrad Grayson could reunite with his 6-year-old son again, the whereabouts of his wife Victoria Grayson remain unclear. Out of respect for their privacy, the Grayson family has not yet commented on the recent events, but concluding from eye-witness reports Mrs. Grayson had to stay in a house near Santa Barbara because of her reportedly unstable condition."
Victoria listened with horror to the news speaker's voice. It was exactly what Conrad had wanted. He was presented as the victim of a ruthless terrorist and as long as he could secure that Victoria would keep quiet, he had nothing to fear.
That man was a monster, Victoria was sure of that now. She had thought she could change him; she had thought that the birth of his son would open his eyes and make him genuinely care for his family. She had even believed that she had been his last mistress; she still hated herself for being so naïve. Conrad had assumed that she hadn't known that he had kept the bachelor pad he had taken her to several times before they got married. But the Grayson women had always been fully aware of the pied-à-terre where their husbands felt safe when they were having one of their not so secret liaisons. That was the reason why Victoria had nearly been in tears when cutting her son's cake for his third birthday after her husband had arrived over an hour late with the excuse of being held up in a business meeting. It really disgusted her to think about how he had fooled around with one of the many secretaries of Grayson Global while she had been preparing their child's birthday party and had to lie to a devastated Daniel when he had constantly asked why his Daddy was not there yet.
After all, Conrad had made her heart turn cold and she had built up walls around it to protect herself from being hurt, and even though she had never truly loved him, she had believed that their partnership and the stability of their family would last.
It was more than unfair of him to judge her for having an affair then.
And yet it looked like Conrad had managed to win again.
Therefore, as cruel as it was, Victoria was done being the looser, no matter what that meant. So after having finished her meal, she lay down again and did the only thing she felt like she was capable of in that moment: she used her brain and thought; about what winning and losing meant to her; about her future and what she felt was the right thing to do. After some time she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Knock. Knock.
Reluctantly Victoria turned her head.
Knock. Knock.
There it was again, that disturbing noise.
Victoria didn't respond, she wanted to stay in this slumber forever.
Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.
The noise grew louder and appeared in shorter time intervals, so that she had no choice but to open her heavy eyelids.
There room around her was light already and as she tried to sit up with a sore back, she suddenly recognized a face lurking behind the curtains of the backdoor.
She was still wearing her dress from yesterday and the pasta plate was standing on the living room table before her. Wow, she really was falling back into very old habits.
"Hello?" A male voice now asked from outside.
Quickly Victoria readjusted her dress and made her way over to the window. Much to her surprise she saw a young man standing in front of the backdoor whose blonde hair looked like it hadn't seen a shower for quite some time. He was wearing a grey hoodie and nervously played with something in the pockets of his short khaki pants. Somehow he reminded Victoria of a scared child waiting in front of the principal's office.
"What do you want?" She then asked from behind the window, so that the young man turned his head confused by where her voice was coming from.
"Uhm, we spoke on the phone yesterday, Mrs. Grayson."
"Well, I don't think so." Victoria returned determinedly. This had to be some spy from the press trying to get information from her.
"But we did. I'm here to help David Clarke." The man now realized that Victoria was speaking to him from the window so that he turned and faced her.
Shocked, she took a step backwards and stared into the blue eyes of a boy who couldn't possibly be a year older than 16. Still, there was such honesty in his puppy-like look that she didn't feel intimidated.
"If that's true, how did you find me?"
"Oh." The young man's lips turned into a smile. "I traced back the location of your phone. I'm sorry if I was a bit quick yesterday."
"I almost thought you wouldn't come." Victoria recognized that tone in his voice which told her that this really was the man she had spoken to on the phone so that she unlocked the door and let him in.
With widened eyes and without saying a word, he stepped into the living room and looked around with a fascinated gaze. It was like Victoria didn't exist for him in that moment as he scanned every detail of the apartment.
"Since we have skipped a proper introduction, how about we do that now." Victoria tried gaining the young man's attention. "I'm Victoria Grayson." She reached out a hand to him and, pulled out of his thoughts, the man turned around but ignored her stretched out hand.
"Oh, oh, again I'm sorry. Sometimes I get carried away by all the details in new surroundings."
"Okay, and you are?" She addressed him a second time.
"Of course! I'm sorry, sometimes I forget that something like manners exit, well anyways, hi, I'm Nolan Ross." He awkwardly shook Victoria's hand.
"Please, have a seat." They both sat down at the dining table. "Would you like something to drink?"
"No, thank you." Nolan sat on the edge of the chair and leant his elbows on the table while Victoria curiously watched him.
"So, Mr. Ross, as you know David has been arrested yesterday and some weeks ago he gave me your number which I was supposed to contact if anything happened to him. Do you have an idea why David might have done that?"
"Sorry, what was that again?" Nolan had been more occupied with analyzing the interior decoration and the technical equipment than with listening to Victoria.
"I'll get straight to the point then: Why does David think that you can help him, Mr. Ross? It should be an easy question to answer if you made all the way to come here." Victoria was already annoyed by his inattentive attitude and the way he rested his chin on his knee on the chair.
"I owe him." Nolan answered, now focusing on Victoria.
"Please, go on."
"About three years ago he helped me. He believed in me when no one else did. He was the one person who realized my potential and gave me enough money to start my own company."
"Wait a minute, how old are you exactly?" Victoria was irritated by how self-conscious the man suddenly sounded.
"I'm 21 and proud owner of my company NolCorp, why?"
"I've never heard of it."
"That may be because I'm still working on becoming really successful with my software. But without David, I would have never been able to even start."
"So you're some kind of tech genius?"
"If you want to put it that way, yes."
"And that makes you qualified to free a falsely accused man from prison because…?"
"First of all, David has been like a father to me and I won't see him going down for a crime he didn't commit. Secondly, I'm smart and although you might not think that way, I do have the means to face an army of top lawyers."
"Then why didn't you bring proof?"
"I'm here, isn't that proof enough? As I can see none of your friends have made the attempt to reach out on you. And just to be fair, why do you think that you could help him?"
Victoria angrily flipped her hair back; she wouldn't accept him talking to her in that way.
"I don't know how much you really know of the truth, but I ran away with David because we are in love."
"And still you're sitting here waiting for someone to help you instead of doing something yourself?"
"You've got no idea what you're talking about!" Victoria wouldn't tolerate his rude behavior anymore. He obviously was simply a kid who was disillusioned enough to believe that he could do anything against Conrad's conspiracy plan.
"Just one more thing, where is David's daughter, where is Amanda?"
In that moment, Victoria's jaw dropped open. Caught in her own depression, she had forgotten about the girl completely.
"I want you out of this house now!" Victoria screamed, trying to distract from her shock.
Slowly Nolan strolled towards the door, turning around before he finally reached it.
"Don't worry, I will come back and bring you proof. In the meantime you might be friendly enough to look for Amanda before she is being given up for adoption. I know that it's just your hormones causing that reaction." With a subtle move of his arm, he pointed at Victoria's stomach.
"You know?" She breathed.
"I know more than you might think. And even if I didn't know, you have to accept that it's becoming pretty obvious." After that Nolan left without saying another word and Victoria slammed the door shut behind him.
So David had really trusted that rebellious kid to help him?
Victoria had felt a bit sorry for Nolan Ross when he had entered the apartment, confused of how to interact with her, but when he had suddenly started judging her, it had been the point at which Victoria had decided he would most definitely never be able to help David. He probably only needed someone to restore his ego and as far she knew, his story could also be nothing more but a lie.
In addition, he had also made her painfully aware of the fact that she had not thought about Amanda once, not even for a second. God knew, where Conrad would send the innocent girl and make Victoria responsible if anything happened to her, because she didn't care about her wellbeing.
Mentally, she added another point to the long list of unsolvable problems she had to deal with.
Suddenly, she was startled by a knock on the backdoor again.
"I said leave me alone!" She paced over to the window to send Nolan Ross an evil glare, but when she took a glance outside it was not him whom she found expectantly waiting on the doormat.
Thank you all so much for reading, your continuing support and lovely reviews! You never fail to cheer me up! I promise to update as soon as I can. xo