Chapter 24-2

"It's okay, Charlie. I got you." Chase whispered, and she froze when he gently pushed back the hood that was covering her disgusting face. "Chase please." She begged him and when they pulled apart, she looked at the floor knowing no one wanted to see her face. It was grotesque, and she hated herself. "Charlie, you don't need to hide from me. Let me look beautiful." Chase gently put a finger under her chin and raised it so he was looking at her face. She knew he had been watching the healing process over the last few days, but it was different now. Before she was barely awake and didn't know what was going on most of the time. However, now she was awake and knew the full extent to what he did to her. "I'm not beautiful." She whispered because deep down she believed she wasn't beautiful and when Chase finally found out the complete truth, he wouldn't find her beautiful either. No one could. Only Landon could love someone as ugly on the inside as she was on the outside. Chase said nothing as he gently ran his thumb along her cheek. "Go take a seat in the lounge room. I will clean up." He leant forward and place a kiss on her forehead away from the stitches and stepped away, clearing up the dishes from dinner. Feeling tired, Charlotte went into the lounge room and sat on the couch and put the tv on softly in the background. She found her phone on the coffee table and picked it up and saw a text from her mother asking to call. Charlotte knew she needed to call her mother and tell her, but she didn't want to. She didn't want her to look down at her, didn't want her to judge her. "She called today." Charlotte jumped but didn't scream as Chase walked silently into the living room. She didn't realise she had been starring at her mother's number for some time. "Oh. Did you speak to her?" She watched as Chase slowly sat on the couch next to Charlotte as he nodded his head. "She was worried because you didn't go to lunch and she couldn't get a hold of you or Landon. I told her what happened, she wants to come around and see you." Charlotte tried to process the information and felt a headache coming along. She nodded her head in understanding, thankful Chase had told her mother and fearful that she had tried to contact Landon. "I don't want her to see me like this," Charlotte stated, and she heard Chase sigh again. "The choice is up to you, Charlotte. The police also called today. The two officers that saw you a few days ago want to come around and get a statement from you." Charlotte's head whipped up to see Chase as her blood turned to ice at the thought of talking to law enforcement. "Please, I can't Chase please I don't want to talk." She tried to beg. He didn't understand, he didn't understand what talking to the police would do. They would make it worse and it wasn't only Landon's fault, it was her fault too. She disobeyed his rules. She was the one who was unfaithful. She was the one who provoked him. "Charlie, please. I understand it will be hard, but you need to report it. Look at what he has done to you." Charlotte firmly shook her head. She couldn't, she wouldn't. "No Chase. Please don't make me. You don't understand." She tried to beg him with her eyes that she didn't want to report or press charges against Landon. She was terrified about how he would retaliate. She remembered his threats. They were real. The fear she felt when he threatened Chase and his family was real. "Then make me understand Charlotte. please make me understand what ha you so afraid. Please." Chase begged her and again she shook her head. She could. "I can't because it's my fault. I deserve this, I deserve Landon. It all my fault I did this too myself." Charlotte watched as a look of horror settled onto Chase's face as her body shook in fear at the thought of telling the police what happened. "Charlotte, this isn't your fault, and no one deserves to be beaten. No one deserves to be treated the way you have. I don't care if you yelled at him or hit him, what happened to you isn't your fault. You don't deserve the pain he has inflicted on you." Charlotte shook her head as she watched Chase clench his fist in his lap like he was restraining the actual anger he felt. "You don't understand. I do deserve this because I killed our baby. One minute she was there and the next she was gone." Tears started falling down her face as she felt like her heart was being ripped open. She pulled her legs to her chest and watched as Chase's face softened and he reached out and put a comforting hand on her leg. "Charlie sweetheart. Having a miscarriage isn't your fault, and he is a bastard if he made you believe it was." Chase told her in a comforting voice and Charlotte shook her head as her body shook with sobs. "He told me it was my fault. He told me I was a terrible mother for not knowing I was pregnant, but there were no signs. I was tired, but I was always tired, and I wasn't showing because she was a small baby. I found out at 24 weeks and at 25 weeks I lost her. She wasn't a miscarriage, she was stillborn." Charlotte was openly crying as her heart bled the unspoken truth. She caused her baby's death. "Oh, Charlie." Her body shook as she cried, and Chase gave her knee a comforting squeeze. "One day I was feeling these tiny little kicks and the next they stopped. I went to my doctor and was rushed to the hospital and was told they couldn't find her heartbeat. My beautiful baby girl was gone. They told me they had to induce me because I was too far along. 10 hours of labour by myself and when she arrived, she was so beautiful, so tiny." Charlotte's heart felt like it was being shattered into a thousand pieces as she cried heart-wrenching sobs that made her soul weep for the tiny life, she hadn't been able to protect. Chase kept his hand on her knee and moved closer as she cried. There was a numbness spreading through her body as her heartbeat wildly trying to keep oxygen in her body when all she wanted to do was stop breathing. "Did she have a name?" Chase asked softly, and she raised her eyes to his hazel ones and nodded her head. "What was her name?" He asked, and she knew after this he would hate her because she hated herself. "Ava. Her name was Ava Sinclair." She watched as Chase froze and she started sobbing harder. She raised her hand to her mouth and felt like she would be sick. She watched as Chase blinked a few times as his hazel eyes filled with unshed tears and confusion.