Fade To Black

Both male heads whipped around to find Jessica standing in the doorway, watching them with an expression that wavered between curiosity and disgust. Her assessing gaze went from one to the other as she did her own summation of the situation.

Jay spoke first. “I need to be shoving off, Jessica. But I don’t want to leave until I know everything’s all right here.”

Her expression softened as she smiled at her brother. “I’m okay. Thanks for coming over.”

Jay’s gaze returned to Pierce. “Can I drop you somewhere?” he asked bluntly.

The question struck Pierce like a physical blow. He was being asked to leave his own home. For one black moment, it was all he could do to curb the sudden rage hurtling through him. He turned to face Jessica who still hovered in the doorway. He tilted a brow in question.

Her gaze burned into Pierce’s until his heart started to pound. What was she thinking? he wondered. Did she still feel anything at all for him? It was impossible to think that for him only a moment ago they had been in love, happy, and now she might feel nothing at all for him except pity.

God help him, he could stand anything but that.

Jessica took a deep breath and released it as if she was gathering her courage for what she needed to say. Pierce’s own breath seemed suspended somewhere in his throat.

“This is your home, too, Pierce,” she said finally. “I can’t ask you to leave. Not when….” Her voice trailed off as she gazed at him, the gray of her eyes turning to mist. Pierce knew how he must look to her, and it made him cringe.

“Go on,” he said evenly.

Her gaze dropped. “Not when you obviously need a place to stay.”

“Jessica, for God’s sake, what do you think you’re doing?” Jay objected. “He can’t stay here. What about Max?”

“What about Max?” Pierce said in a deadly quiet voice that seemed to hold both brother and sister in thrall.

“My God, man, you have to know what this will do to him. He’s only five years old.”

“I’ll take care of Max,” Jessica said, and the firm note of resolve in her voice surprised Pierce. Once she would have turned to him to make such an important decision.

Five years, he thought again. Five years of his life gone in the blink of an eye. How much more was lost to him than just that time?

“I hope to hell you know what you’re doing,” Jay muttered angrily as he pushed past them both and strode out of the kitchen.

Jessica chewed her bottom lip, a nervous habit Pierce remembered so well. It heartened him to know that at least some things hadn’t changed.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, then turned and hurried after her brother. Pierce hesitated a moment, then pushed through the door, too, distracted once again by all the changes Jesse had carried out on the house. Changes they had once planned to work on together.

Had she done all this by herself? he wondered as he walked through the formal dining room. The decor was elegant, but somehow the room left him cold. It was almost too perfect, he thought, remembering the house he’d grown up in. There was no life in it. No warmth. No love. It was a room that matched the hard chill in Jessica’s eyes.

He walked through to the living room and looked around. He liked this room better. The pictures of Max in here added a homey touch that somehow soothed him.

Jessica had walked her brother to the door, and now they both stood in the foyer, their furtive whispers attesting to the nature of their conversation.

Pierce crossed the hardwood floor to the fireplace and picked up one of the pictures of Max he’d studied so intently that morning. A baseball cap angled over the boy’s forehead as his brown eyes squinted into the sun. There was a rip in his shorts and a scab on one scrawny knee.

Pierce’s heart melted. He’d loved the baby Jesse had been carrying, and now he loved this little boy with an intensity that astounded him.

Jessica stood at the end of the sofa and watched Pierce. He didn’t look up, and she realized he hadn’t heard her come in. She watched him trace a finger gently along the photo, and the look of fierce possessiveness that came over his face shocked her. Her heart skidded with warning as her own defenses rose in reaction.

Pierce glanced up, and the expression in his eyes confirmed her deepest fears. When he spoke, his voice gave rise to new ones. Jessica trembled with dread as his gaze continued to hold hers.

“Where is he, Jessica? Where’s my son?”

Chapter Four

Jessica tried to keep her voice controlled. She didn’t want to give away her fear, didn’t want to appear weak or vulnerable even to Pierce. Especially to Pierce. “Max isn’t here,” she said, glancing away.

“Where is he?”

“He’s somewhere…safe.”

“Safe? That’s a strange term to use.”

Her eyes challenged him. “Is it?”

He lifted his brow, and the scar twisted it, giving him an almost sinister appearance. “Are you implying that I’m a threat to our son? Or to you?”

Jessica hesitated, then said, “You barely resemble the man I knew back then. You’ve obviously been hurt. Maybe you’re even in some sort of trouble. God knows what might have happened to you since you left. You’ve been gone for five years, Pierce. Five years. I don’t even know who you are anymore,” she finished in a whisper.

His voice lowered. “I’m your husband.”

“Technically,” she said, borrowing Jay’s term. Jessica took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm her pounding heart. She walked over to the window and stared out into the darkness. “Can you even begin to imagine what this is like for me? All those years you were gone and not one word, not one clue, and now suddenly here you are, acting like nothing’s happened. Acting like you think…everything should be the same between us. It’s not. It’s not the same.” She turned and faced him. “It’ll never be the same again.”

His eyes close briefly. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not? It’s the truth. I don’t want to hurt you, but the sooner we face it, the better off we’ll both be.”

“My God, Jesse.” He spread his hands in appeal. “You’re acting like you think I left because I wanted to. And given your background, I guess I can understand that. My…disappearance—whatever you want to call it—must have seemed like the ultimate betrayal to you. You must have felt as though I had deserted you, too.”

“You can’t know how I felt,” she said, crossing her arms.

“No, I guess I can’t,” he agreed. “But one thing I do know. I didn’t leave you because I wanted to.”

Her chin lifted a fraction. “Then why did you leave me?”

“I’ve already told you,” he said helplessly. “I don’t know what happened.”

“You have no idea?”

Pierce hesitated, as if searching for the right words. “I have no memory of the past five years,” he finally said.

“It’s incredible,” she whispered. “So hard to believe.”

“Yes, it is,” he agreed. “It’s even hard for me to believe. So I guess I have to ask you, Jesse, given the circumstances, where does this leave us? Where do we go from here?”

Jessica made a futile gesture with her hand. “I don’t know. I think the first thing you should do is see a doctor, but beyond that…I just don’t know….” Her words trailed off as she glanced away. She couldn’t bear to look at him any longer. Couldn’t bear to see what the past five years had done to him. To her. “You need a place to stay for the time being. I won’t ask you to leave, Pierce. I…can’t.”

“Is it just pity you feel for me, then? I know how I look to you,” he said, with a derisive smile. “As you said, I’m hardly the man I once was.”