Sand In My Boots: The Sequel

Chapter 12

Amanda had woken up late in the afternoon, right before Morgan and I had left to go pick the kids up from his mom's house. When we got home, she had fallen back asleep on the couch.

"Is that normal?" Morgan asked shortly after putting the kids to bed. "Should she be sleeping that much?"

"She's been in fight or flight mode for God knows how long. Her body probably has a tremendous sleep debt. Let the poor girl rest," I whispered. He gave me a faint smile and kissed the side of my head.

"You truly are the most compassionate human being I've ever met."

***

Morgan's phone rang, waking Amanda. He turned the screen towards me, showing me Seth's name next to the little phone icon.

"Pick it up!" I insisted. And he did, tugging on my wrist and dragging me into our bedroom, out of Amanda's earshot.

"Yeah?" He answered, putting the call on speakerphone.

"So, I spoke with our dear friend Joshua," he started. Morgan grunted.

"And?" I asked.

"And, he says he'll take the money and forget about Ellie."

"Good," I said, relieved. "That's good."

"We're gonna have to move some money around to avoid leaving a huge paper trail and I'll have one of the interns meet with him tomorrow night to deliver his big fat check and get him to sign the NDA," he blurted out. "But, I have to tell you, Morgan-"

"What?" He snapped.

"This can never happen again, dude. I don't care how pissed you are, I don't care how much of a scumbag the other guy is, I don't care if you have to go to anger management or whatever the fuck it is you have to do, but this can never happen again. His injuries were extensive. I don't condone blackmailing and I'm definitely not saying he's in the right, but this could've ended so much worse for you. You have to understand that."

"I know," he mumbled. "You're right."

"Good," Seth said. "I won't keep you guys on the phone any longer. I have a ton of work to do to make this fucking money vanish from your account without a trace so, I'll get to it," he said before hanging up.

I exhaled loudly, feeling as though I could finally breathe for the first time in over 24 hours. Even if I knew full well we weren't out of the woods just yet, it still felt like an insane amount of weight had just been lifted off my shoulders.

Morgan put his hand on my forearm and squeezed it gently.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "For everything I put you through. I'm really sorry, Aubrey. I love you so much, you have no idea how sorry I am."

I gave him a faint smile and nodded.

"I fell in love with all of you. The good, the bad and even the... morally gray parts. I just hope we can learn from this."

Amanda knocked on the open door softly, putting an end to our conversation.

"I'm sorry to intrude on you guys like this, but I was just in the yard and noticed you have security cameras?"

Morgan and I looked at each other. Of course. The security footage!

***

We sat at the kitchen island and stared at the screen of my laptop while Morgan fast-forwarded through the security footage from last night.

"There!" He said, pointing to the screen. He paused the tape and I squinted my eyes, trying to make out the silhouette of the man who had let himself into my yard. He was dressed in all black and a hood covered most of his face. The only part of him that was truly visible was his chin and the images were too blurry for it to be revealing in any way. He seemed tall, his long legs making their way behind the kids' tree house and pulling out a phone, probably to send those texts I had gotten.