My Hope (Complete)

Chapter 10

Hope

Noah sits down next to his Mom. I sit down next to mine and put my arm around her. Dad sits on her other side and holds her hand. No one speaks. The twins take seats at the island, just to give us a little space, I think. Noah looks at me and then at my Mom. I have no idea what is going on here. I wish someone would say something. Even though I am totally confused, I still notice that I am feeling much better. My headache is gone. I'm not tired any more.

Noah speaks first. "Mrs. Christianson, it is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Noah." He reaches out and shakes her hand. So, she gets a handshake, but I don't? What am I thinking? My Mom is crying her eyes out and all I can think is that I'm jealous she got to touch his hand? He then introduces himself to Dad. They shake as well. Then he looks again at me and says, "Hope" with a nod of his head.  In that amazingly deep and sensuous voice I love. It feels like there are a million things he just told me in that one word. I get goose bumps immediately. He smiles. I blush. Mom looks at me and her eyes widen. Well, that didn't take long did it? I remembered that I wasn't supposed to look him in the eyes. "It seems as though we need to have a talk." Noah tells us all.

The twins are looking at each other and speaking with their hands and eyes in some sort of twin telepathy. I'm used to it by now, so I look back at Delilah. She is still staring at Mom. It's sympathy I see on her face. Noah gets up with his Mom's elbow in his hand and helps her up. "Why don't we go into the living room." He suggests. Mom nods and we go there and sit on the comfortable couches. Dad and I are still on Moms sides. Noah by his Mom and the twins on another couch.

Delilah starts. "Tempest, would you like to explain what's going on?" She asks kindly. "No, you go ahead. I don't think I can right now." Mom tells her. And so she begins. "A little over 18 years ago, Tempest and I were best friends." I'm already shocked. So is Dad. Noah is not. "She was dating my husband's best friend, Raiden Remington. I had a little 5 year old boy, Noah."  She turns to him and squeezes his hand. He smiles at her and nods for her to continue. "Noah, Tempest and I were together all the time. When the men were busy with work. If they were off, then we were all together. I was also pregnant with Zade and Zander. We were inseparable. Like family." She sniffles and so does Mom.

"Then one day, some men broke into the house. Tempest was here. She was watching Noah so I could have a bath. My back was really hurting with the pregnancy. She heard a window break and the sound of men entering. She knew we were very careful about letting people in. She took Noah and came to my bathroom door. It was locked. I told her to go to the safe room in the basement. She knew the code.  She took Noah there while I quickly got dressed. Tempest called Raiden. I wasn't close to a phone. The men were searching the house for something. We didn't know exactly what they wanted. Tempest opened the door to the safe room for me. One of the men grabbed me from behind and she tired to go after him." Delilah had tears streaming down her cheeks. Noah had one of her hands in his and the other was rubbing her back.

"The other man pulled her off. She kicked and scratched and punched with all she had. That's when Raiden came in. He told her to go back into the safe room and protect Noah. He tired to fight both large men himself. We ended up outside as they tried to shove me into a van. Raiden kept fighting. I couldn't see everything that was happening. My memories get a little sketchy at that point. They did find some kind of drug in my system that one of the men injected into my arm.

Soon, my husband arrived. Raiden was fighting the other man and My husband was fighting the one who had me. They fought to their deaths. Raiden and the other man bled out on the ground in front of us. Tempest came out of the house and somehow managed to drag me back into the safe room with Noah. My husband and the man continued fighting. We heard a gunshot. Then the man was pounding on the safe room door, screaming for us to open it. We were locked inside. He couldn't get in. We waited and waited. We stayed in there overnight. Just hoping my husband would come let us out. But he never did. When we came out, we found his body along with Raiden's and the man Raiden killed."

Mom and Delilah were both crying. Mom was shaking. I didn't know what to say. What a horrible thing to have happened to them, and Noah. I was still holding Moms hand. She squeezed it and looked at me. "Raiden was your Father Hope."

Thank you so much for reading!