Chapter 4 (Cecilia Feldman)

Supper when smoothly and I couldn't even eat a baked potato because I was already full from the delicious chicken my husband cooked and the salad that I made. Chris ask Sam, how was school and his response was, 'School was fine,' I thought like most teenagers would say. When Chris ask about swimming, Sam couldn't stop telling us about how great at swimming he was and that his coach thought that he was the best butterfly swimmer on the team.

After supper, Chris helped me with cleaning up in the kitchen before we both went into the living room to relax after a day of teaching and my running around after school. We were cuddling on the couch, Chris was watching the news for today, and I was Jotting down what has happened today in my journal. Suddenly, my phone beeped indicating that I receive a text message, but I ignore it, so I could finish writing in my journal.

"Ce, are you going to check that?" my husband asks when I cuddle into his side.

"Later," I replied and lay my head on his shoulder. He raps his arm around my shoulders.

"That's fine, Ce, but it might be Hannah contacting us," he reminded me that we were waiting for Hannah or Jonathan to contact us to keep their son at our house or to take him home.

"Oh, right. Please hand me my cell," I requested nicely. He grabs my cell off the coffee table and hands it to me.

"Sure thing, my lovely," Chris said and that always make me giggle.

I glanced at my cell and the text was indeed from Hannah Benson, Sam's mother. It said, 'Check email. Goodbye!' I wondered what she meant by that.

"Hey, Chris, do you know what Hannah means by this text?" I ask my husband to help me understand her text by showing him the message.

"I don't really know, but I expect that you should check your email and maybe there is an email from her telling us what to do with Sam," Chris stated and grabs the remote to change the channel on the TV.

"I'm going to check on Sam, and then go change clothes to something more comfortable."

"Are you going to check your email?" Chris bugged me about Hannah's text message.

"Yes, I will when I finish changing," I said getting up from the couch and head towards the dining room to see if Sam is still working on his school project.

I walked into the dining room and saw that Sam was working still on his project. It looked like it was a history project, which wouldn't be my expertise to help him.

"Hi, Miss Cecilia," Sam said, when he notices that I was in the room.

"Hello, Sam, please just call me Cecilia, it would best for you to dropped the formalities of calling me Miss, Misses. Do you need anything, Sam?"

"No, not right now, Miss…I mean Cecilia," Sam stumbled.

"Don't worry, Sam. Would you like to join Chris and myself watching a movie and having some cookies and milk?" I wondered.

"Sure, Cecilia," Sam said excited.

"Okay, I will be back and hopefully you have this table clear, so we can have a meal in here soon."

"Okay," Sam respond.

I left the dining room and went upstairs to change out of my school, teaching clothes. I don't like to wear my nice skirts and blouses all day. I had all the Bensons on my mind while I was grabbing a t-shirt and some yoga pants and changing into them. I feel like something is or has happen with Hannah and Jonathan and it will impact Sam, Chris, and I the same. After changing, I looked at my cell, which I brought with me upstairs, and checked my email like Chris suggested.

I sat on my bed before I opened the email app on my cell. There was an email from Hannah Benson title, 'Open immediately, 'Goodbye.'' I wondered what is going on with all the goodbyes from Hannah today. I click on the email and read…

Dear Cecilia and Chris,

I am so sorry to inform you that I am writing this while being held hostage by someone named, Kayla. My husband and I wanted to let you know about this crazy person. Kayla is after Amy Dawson, and we don't have any clue why just yet. Amy is the sweetest little baby girl that I have meet throughout my life and I don't think Amy can live through any this trauma if Kayla gets her hands on her. Make sure your cousin takes care of that sweet little girl and I hope that everything will be alright, but I am not too sure about that. I hear some arguing in a different room and it sounds like that Kayla is the murderer of Amy's parents and that is why my gut was telling me to tell you that keeping Amy with Amanda was a good decision to make. Another thing is what I am hearing is that Kayla wants to destroyed everything that gets in her way to her Amy. I don't know why she says that Amy is hers because we know that Amy is Amanda's god-daughter and Amanda right to raise her.

I believe with all this arguing going on that Jon and I won't be able to escape our home before Kayla has found us and destroys us like she said. So, if you don't hear anything from me by tomorrow morning, please let our son know that we never would let anything happen to us if we could but right now that looks impossible to do. We love him and want him to do his best at school and make amazing friends, but if it has to be without us then we want you and your husband to be his new guardians because Sam knows you and trust you already. Sam has a tendency to not trust anyone that he doesn't know or trust without us. Please keep our baby boy safe and let him know that we did try to contact him to say goodbye to him through you. We want him to finish eighth grade and high school, attend college and make the best friends that can help him deal with the loss of his parents. We love him and we trust Chris and you to be the best replacement parents we can't provide if we don't get out of this situation.

Next is that Jon is trying to set up transfers to Sam's bank account from ours so that we can still provide money to him if you need it after we are not here. After finishing with this email, I will purchase some clothes online and ship them right to your door because I believe we are not going to make it through tonight. I just have a gut feeling that tonight is when I'm going to die. I don't want to die but the situation isn't in my control or my husband, yet that doesn't look like it will happen that way. Also, I will be sending you and long list of family and relatives addresses and phone numbers with their name, so Sam can have some contact with our families.

Now my husband is finish with Sam's bank accounts and setting up an email address for Sam that Jon will put all the information that you need. As in, our bank accounts, so you can see where is the money coming from, medical information on both sides for anything that happens to Sam that need any medical attention, and other important forms, papers, accounts… Jonathan will email you from that new email account with everything that you need to get in.

Lastly for Sam, Be good for Chris and Cecilia. They are good people and good friends of ours. They're wonderful people, who care about others and their families. They are also young and will mostly understand you better than we could understand the difficulties that might arise. We love you so much and don't ever forget that. Go to school, finish high school, take the ACT or SAT, graduate from high school with good grades, attend college of your choice. Also, make new friends that will help you become a wonderful, kind, and caring young man that we would be proud of. From your mother and father. Hannah and Jonathan Benson.

Your Friend,

Hannah Benson

After I finish reading that email, I started to worry for Sam and how I am supposed to take care of a teenager while Chris and I want to start our own family soon. I just don't know what to do. I wish and hope that Hannah and Jonathan can break out of this terrible woman and stay in their son's life. If they don't live, how am I going to break this news to their son, Sam. How am I supposed to tell Chris about our friends and the fate of their son? How am I going to tell Amanda about what Hannah said about Amy? This is too complicated.

I felt someone pulling my hands away from my face.

"Cecilia, I love you. Please look at me," my husband said gently. I glance up and saw him sitting on the bed turned towards me.

"What is it that you are questioning yourself?" he requests me to tell him about the email I read.

"I don't know. I just…I just don't know if I can do it," I admitted looking into my husband eyes.

"What are you talking about? I know you can do whatever you put your mind to. Also, you can tell me anything because I love you and I'm you husband that care so deeply about you," he reminded me that I am not in this alone because I have him to help me get through this.

"I love you too, Chris," I stated attacking him with a hug and begin to cry. He just holds me while I cried, trying to soothe my cries by rubbing my back and say calming things.

"What was Hannah's text meant?" he asks when I started to calm down.

"Hannah email me and I just can't say what really was in it, but you can read it for yourself," I said and grabbing my cell to hand it over to my husband.

"Before I read the email, could you please tell me why Sam was asking me when are we going to have cookies and milk while watching a movie?" he questioned and I move back some, so that he could move to a more comfortable position on the bed to cuddle.

"Umm, I said that before I came up here to change. Yes, I ask Sam if he would like some dessert, but now I don't know if I'm willing to go downstairs to face him," I confessed laying my head on his chest.

"I know you can face him, yet you're so stubborn to see that. My suggestion if you don't want to have cookies and milk, you should get ready for bed while I read this email," he offered while using his other hand, that wasn't holding onto my cell, to comb my hair, which was calming me more.

"I'm just scare," I mumbled into his chest.

"What are you scare of, Ce?"

"Being a mother," I said softly that I didn't know if he heard me.

"Ce, looked at me," he said and I did exactly that.

"You're going to be an amazing mother, I know it. I know both of us will be scare when the time comes to become parents, but we'll face that challenge together and be the best parents to our littles ones we could be. Am I going to be a father soon?" he enquired. I got up of the bed, so I could go brush my teeth after I answer my husband's question.

"Read the email, and you will understand. You know I'm not pregnant, and I am hoping that I won't be for a while. We can't afford that happening until next school year. I had my period last week, remember," I stated and he nods his head indicating that he does recall where I was in my cycle.

"Now I'm going to brush my teeth while you read Hannah's email, after that we can discuss this further if you must. I wanting to ask you something, but I will let you read the email first, so you will understand why I must ask you," I said heading into our bathroom to brush my teeth.

I grabbed my toothbrush and did my routine to brush my teeth, and when I looked into the mirror across from me, I notice that I should wash my face because I had some makeup that didn't wore off throughout the school day. When I was almost finish with rinsing my mouth out of toothpaste, Chris comes into our bathroom.

"Now, I understand why you were so scare and worry. I get being scared to become the mother figure for Sam because I am now afraid that I will fail being the father figure for him too. So, what are we going to do about Sam sleeping?"

"Putting him in one of our guest rooms and I was wondering if he could borrow some clothes for pajamas tonight," I said biting my lower lip because I didn't know what reaction from Chris I will get.

"Sure, he can. Ce, take one of my high school t-shirts and one pair of my shorts that you can lend Sam for tonight. We will need to figure something out how to get him some clean clothes for the time being," Chris said starting his nighttime routine by brushing his teeth before getting change into his sleepwear.

"I will go grabbed those and what's your thoughts on getting clothes for him in the meantime?" I comment and head into our room to picked out some clothes for Sam to wear to sleep.

"I was thinking tomorrow I could take Sam clothes shopping for pajamas, and some school clothes for next week and you could go see how Amanda is doing with Amy," Chris said after he was finish in our bathroom and coming into our room.

"Good thinking that. I glad that we don't have to teach tomorrow and Sam's off that we could do your plan. I don't know what will happen with Amanda when I show her Hannah's email," I said turning around to face my husband with the clothes that I picked to get his approval.

"Those are perfect for Sam. I think he would like them."

"You're sure he'll like them. I don't know if we should tell Sam about his parents' fate tonight."

Chris walks over to me and takes the clothes out of my hands setting them on our dresser to take one of my hands in his.

"I think we should wait and see if we hear anything tomorrow morning like Hannah said in her email, if nothing then we will tell Sam," he told me what we shall do.

We had a plan for tonight and most of tomorrow. Chris and I went downstairs together with the clothes I picked out for Sam. We told Sam to go change into them and we will watch a movie of his choice from our collection. Chris got the DVD player and TV set up while I went into the kitchen for Sam's cookies and milk. I gave Sam his dessert after he handed National Treasure to Chris. Chris and I looked at each other and smile because we remember seeing this movie in school. About halfway through the movie, Sam fell asleep and I was trying my hardest to fight staying awake myself. So, Chris turns off the movie and television, and we locked up and turn all the light off trying not to disturb Sam on the couch asleep. We walked upstairs to our room, I jot down the last bit of what happened in my journal then we both fell asleep after saying goodnight to each other.

Author's Note

I am back with a new chapter today. Who is getting excited to watch season 4 of When Calls the Heart? I know I am, which it comes back on in less than a month from now. What are you predicting will happen this season?

Next chapter we will hopefully see Jack and Bill enter into the story, finally. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will be working on my final semester classwork and more writing on this story.

Also, I own only my MTC characters and this story not any of the When Calls the Heart characters, which they belong to the creators at Hallmark.

If you like to read more, please let me know by typing up a review.

Thanks again for reading! Love Debbie