Justin didn't waste any time when JC returned to Orlando. The second he stepped through the door, Justin handed him a stack of papers. "Withdrawal, withdrawal, withdrawal," he said as JC went through them. "How in the hell could you steal from the group's account like that?"
JC's face was no pale, and he realized that in order to give Justin an answer, he'd have to admit his betrayal. "I'm sorry, Justin, I really am!" was all he could say.
"Yeah, sorry you got caught," Justin countered.
"No! That's not it, I swear!"
Justin threw the receipts at him and they fluttered to the floor. "Why are you buying all these expensive things for Carrie?"
Now, JC was getting mad. How DARE Justin go through his things! "None of your damn business!" he yelled.
"Oh no... that's where you're wrong. This IS my damn business when you spend my money... OUR money all by yourself without consulting us first."
"Whatever. I'll pay you back. Let's just leave it alone." He tried to walk past Justin, but Justin kept moving in his way. "Will you please MOVE?"
"Why? So you can avoid yet another conversation about your strange actions lately?"
"No! I'm just tired and I want to lie down."
"Too damn bad. Tell me what you're going to do to fix this, or it's over for you."
"What!? Justin, I TOLD you that I'd pay you back. What more can you want?"
"I want to believe you, to trust you, but I you're making it very difficult for me when you won't even tell me WHY you bought Carrie all those things. Plus, I can't think of a way you can gain my trust back. JC, you've been stealing hundreds of thousands from our account and I honestly don't believe you would have said a think about it if you hadn't been caught."
JC didn't know what to say. Justin was right. His guilt was so strange that he felt the need to make it up to Carrie... but his funds ran short. He hadn't been expecting the guys to find out before he could replace the money. "You're right, Justin. I wasn't going to tell you about the money because I was planning on putting it back before you found out. I wasn't stealing, I was only BORROWING."
"Tell me why."
"Don't you think that Carrie deserves all those things?"
Justin raised his eyebrows in suspicion. "And she didn't before Christmas? Or maybe you just had MORALS back then."
"Shut the hell up! You have NO idea what I'm going through!"
For a moment, Justin softened. JC was obviously going through a lot. "Well," he said calmly. "Maybe I would, if you would TELL me!" he said, his voice rising at the end of his sentence.
JC moved to open the door. "Get out," he growled. "I don't have the time, nor the patience to deal with you."
Justin took a few steps toward the door. "That's funny, because I don't with YOU either!"
"Then leave! This conversation is through."
"And so is your membership in this group." Justin stepped through the doorway and turned to face JC. "I don't know about the other guys, but as far as I'm concerned, we don't need a selfish, liar like-"
JC slammed the door in his face to shut him up. He locked the locks and just stared at the door. According to Justin, he was through. Done with... it was all over for JC.
"This is all your fault!"
"I'm sorry!" JC apologized for the fiftieth time that day as he tried desperately to pry his fingers away from Carrie's grip. He finally got his hand free. "My God! I think I lost circulation to my thumb..."
"Stop complaining!" she yelled. "You don't know what REAL pain is!"
The doctor took off his gloves. "Nine and a half centimeters. It's almost time to push."
"Ugh! Thank God! Can you believe it, JC? This is almost over with!"
JC nodded, smiling.
Suddenly, a loud, beeping noise filled his ears. "What's that?" He felt a hand on his arm, and heard mumbling voices as they dragged him out of the room. Something was wrong. "Hang in there, Carrie! Everything will be just fine."
The door closed in front of him and he found himself alone in the hallway. His fiancé and child were in danger and he wouldn't know a thing until someone came out and filled him in.
He fell into a hard, uncomfortable chair in the waiting room and let out his breath. Was this God's idea of punishment for what he'd done?
Finally, about a half hour later, though it seemed much longer, a doctor approached JC. "I'm sorry, Mr. Chasez..."
"Oh my God," JC gasped as tears filled his eyes. "My baby..."
"No, your little girl is perfectly fine. It's your wife."
"Fiancé," he corrected. "She's going to be okay, right?"
Sadly, the doctor shook his head.
It wasn't registering. Carrie couldn't be dead. He'd just seen her a little bit ago. How could someone be alive one second and dead the next? It wasn't making sense.
JC stood up. "She can't be dead," he told the doctor. "I mean, I just saw her! She was FINE!"
"Sometimes," the doctor told him, "when something goes wrong, there isn't anything that can be done. Mr. Chasez, Carrie lost a lot of blood... too much blood. We tried to stop it, but..."
It hit him. This was real. He wiped the tears from his face. "I need to see my baby girl," he said. "You said she's okay, right?"
"She's perfect."
"Bring me to her."
When they walked into the nursery, the doctor led JC to his baby's crib. Inside, he saw the most beautiful baby he'd ever laid his teary eyes upon. He looked at the doctor. "Can... can I hold her."
The doctor nodded. "She's all yours."
JC picked the baby up carefully, making sure to support her little head, and then sat down in a chair in the corner of the room. The second he looked into his baby girls eyes, he knew what love was. He held the baby in his arms and cried. He hadn't loved her mother... and now it was too late. She was gone.
Chapter 5
Not A Day Goes By
JC {Fiction}
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I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
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