Crisis Time

When Mia came hurtling through the lobby doors the bodyguards came to their feet instantly. Seeing the blood covering their employer they were instantly all business.

"Get us out of here now." Mia snapped.

"Call Mr. Barrett." One of the guards told the other.

"No, don't. My son is terrified and I'm bleeding everywhere. Get us back to the hotel." Mia told them seriously.

A minute later they were in the car on the way back to the hotel. Mia had told them to skip the car park. They needed to be back where it was safe now. Sage whimpered softly as she hissed while the guards tried to stop the bleeding with tissues. Mia looked at Sage and herself, they were covered in blood. They looked like a crime scene.

It took less than ten minutes to get back to the hotel. The guards did the best they could to hide her and Sage from curious hotel guests. When they got to the Penthouse suite. Mia stormed into the suite already in a terrible mood. Caleb came out of the office to see who was back so soon and got a good look at the two of them,

"Oh hell, this has to be a nightmare." Caleb rushed off to get towels, wet cloths, and a first aid kit.

*

"Shelly are you out of your mind?" Timothy glared at the man standing a respectful distance away. "Chuck Nolan is not a good man. He's the worst kind of man. The kind that takes advantage of unwilling women."

"Cousin, he has told me all about what happened. Chuck was drunk and out of his mind. He quit drinking to make sure he never hurts anyone again." Shelly smiled at Chuck adoringly and he winked at her.

"I was there, that is not even close to accurate." Tim snapped.

"We are in love, and I want to marry him." Shelly cried, stamping her foot.

"You, come over here." Tim barked.

"Of course, Mr. Barrett." Chuck smiled amicably.

"Do you realize that if you divorce or something happens to Shelly the money returns to me? There are also heavy stipulations on how much money can be taken out." Tim said challengingly.

"That doesn't bother me Mr. Barrett. We are in love and just want to be together." Chuck said looking pathetic.

"Uh, huh, right." Tim sighed. Tim's phone buzzed and he looked at the notification. It was from Caleb the message simply said. 'Come back now.' Tim stood immediately. "Shelly goes back to Bern City until the wedding. Nolan I will meet with you in the coming days."

Tim walked out to the street and two guards walked up to him. A black Rolls Royce pulled in front of him a moment later. He climbed inside without a backward glance.

*

Caleb sat holding a bag of ice over a towel to Mia's head. That cut just wouldn't stop bleeding enough to get a bandage on it. Mia had a damp cloth on her lips. Sage lay huddled against his mother still whimpering clearly traumatized. When Caleb had grabbed the first aid kit, he had sent a text to Tim. That was about twenty-five minutes ago.

Mia still hadn't told Caleb a thing. Her face was bruised and swollen around her left jaw and mouth and around her right cheekbone. She had one hell of a black eye on the right side. When Timothy got to the hotel there would be hell to pay for whoever did this.

Caleb heard the door open and looked to see Tim enter the room. Tim took one look at the scene and his face went pale. Tim walked over and dropped to his knees in front of Mia reaching out and grasping her hands.

"Baby, what happened?" Tim whispered. Mia remained stoic though her eyes welled with tears, but it was Sage that started sobbing pitifully and then reached out with both arms for his father. Tim gathered him up tight in his arms. The boy's little body shook with the force of his sobs.

Hiccupping and gasping for air Sage spoke. "Uncle Nick hurt mommy."

Tim looked at Mia, but she didn't dispute the child's words. Mia was trying to find the words to explain.

"I don't think he knows whether he meant to do this or not." Mia sighed. "It was the kind of accident you can't take back." Mia sighed again, "I shoved him. He was in my face, and I shoved him. Then he hit me and I hit the door frame with my head. Then I ran and grabbed Sage and then ran out of the building. Tim leaned up wrapping his arms around Mia the small boy still clinging to his father between them.

"Sweetheart, I need to take a picture of you for Jason to have on file at the law firm." Tim told Mia gently. She nodded and Caleb pulled his hand away with the towel hoping the bleeding wouldn't start up again. He watched for a second, there was a trickle of blood but that was all. Mia's face was still covered in a lot of blood, but the damage was clearly visible.

Tim snapped a couple of pictures from different angles and sent it to Jason with a text saying 'This is what the great guy your brother chose for Mia did to her today. I am officially over the nonsense. Consider him warned. I will tolerate no further interference in our lives.'

A second later Tim's phone began to ring. He sighed but answered the phone, setting Sage on the sofa. Mia got up, grabbed her bag and headed into the master bedroom.

"Is Mia alright?" Jason cried.

"What the hell happened?" Nathan cursed violently.

"Sage is right here, Nathan." Tim cautioned.

*

Mia walked into the bathroom and closed and locked the door. She leaned with her hands on the counter. Everything hurt including her heart. She had seen the look in Nick's eyes. He may not have meant to do this, but he had wanted to at that moment. This was the result. Nick had wanted her to hurt and now she did. Mia looked in the mirror and gasped, she looked like someone tried to murder her.

Mia grabbed a washcloth and scrubbed as much of the blood away as she could. She gave up realizing that she needed to wait until her wounds had closed enough to take a shower. Mia opened her bag pulling out one of the boxes that said pregnancy test. First step urinate in a cup, step two dip wick of stick in urine for ten seconds, step three set stick on counter for three minutes, step four a plus sign means positive and minus sign means negative.

Mia followed the steps to the letter and sat on the toilet as she waited for three minutes to pass. Then they did and she was too afraid to look. Finally, Mia stood up and looked down at the little plastic stick. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the pink plus sign in the test window. A sob broke from her throat, Mia didn't know if she was happy or sad. This had been a rough day.

A knock sounded at the door. Tim was asking if she was alright. She responded that she was, but it was clear from her voice that she had been crying. Tim told her to let him in. Mia tried to tell him that she would be right out, but he was insistent that he wasn't going away. Mia hastily cleared up her mess by shoving it in her purse and she crumpled up the plastic cup and threw it in the trash and then washed her hands.

Mia opened the door and Tim was in the bathroom with her before she could walk out. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him gently.

Timothy looked at Mia and seeing the dried blood in her hair, the cuts, the bruising, and the black eye he was furious that anyone would dare to touch his wife like this. He was also scared of how this had hurt her both physically and emotionally. Mia was never supposed to know what this felt like. Would she fear him now is that why she wouldn't let him in the bathroom.

He saw a small pamphlet on the counter and picked it up. Mia had her eyes closed just leaning against him. He read the title on the page about to throw it away. It said, 'Instructions for Pregnancy Test.' Tim looked at Mia. He thought pregnancy tests could only be done at a doctor's office, wasn't that the law?

"Mia," Tim got her attention, "Sweetheart, what is this?" Tim showed her the pamphlet in his hand.

"Umm," Mia grabbed her bag and pushed past Tim into the bedroom. She went to the closet and hung her bag up and then walked past Tim. "I need to get Sage cleaned up. Can we please talk about this later?"

"I think we should talk about it now, Mia." Tim said softly.