Beyond 10 Nights by Michelle Hughes, Karl Jones

his father cry; his father had been
invincible and all powerful, he could do anything; he’d told Rhett that on
numerous occasions during his young life. The one thing his father hadn’t been
able to do though, the one thing Rhett wanted him to do more than any other,
was fix his mother.
    When the funeral was over Rhett was
dragged, screaming, from the graveyard, and once they got home his father sent
him to his room while he drank until he passed out. For weeks he had been left
under the care of the servants while his father ignored his business and spent
all his time drinking. After almost a month his father finally summoned him.
    Eagerly Rhett had gone to see his
father, only to be told that he was being sent away to school. At the time he’d
seen it as a rejection, his mother was gone and his father didn’t want him
around. Now though, with the benefit of hindsight and experience, he knew that
if he hadn’t been sent away he would almost certainly have been taken away; a
young child couldn’t understand that though.
    To begin with Rhett had gone home
every holiday to see his father, but with each visit his father had been more
distant, until finally he had stopped going. Instead he had spent his holidays
with Alex, the friend he had made.
    As an adult he knew and understood
that his father, once he had recovered from the urge to drink himself into
oblivion, had thrown himself into his work in an effort to deal with the
horrible loss they had both suffered. As a child, he hadn’t understood, all he
had seen was that his father no longer loved him, didn’t even want to be around
him; even after so long he hadn’t fully overcome that sense of rejection, and
the bridge between them remained unhealed.
    Over the years his meetings with his
father become impersonal encounters; neither of them felt comfortable around
the other. That lesson had taught him that personal emotions were best avoided,
and shouldn’t be allowed to interfere with either business or pleasure,
whatever form that pleasure may take.
    Until Leah came along, he had had no
problem avoiding emotions; they hadn’t troubled him at all, in any aspect of
his life. How she had managed to crack the wall he had built around his heart,
he had no idea, but he loved her more than any person he had ever known,
outside of his mother.
    In a cold sweat he woke, disturbed
by what his dreams had revealed to him. “You're a dumbass, Rhett Hammond,” he
told himself, speaking aloud as he sat up in bed. Would she ever be able to
forgive him, he wondered? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure he would be able
to blame her if she couldn’t.
    Sitting there, his mind racing with
his dreams’ revelations, he realized that counseling might just be the best
thing for him, despite his long held belief that only the weak needed such
help. Until he could come to grips with his inability to control his emotions
and his temper around her, it was best for him to stay away; if he didn’t he
was likely to find himself doing something she would never be able to forgive,
and that thought terrified him.
    It took every ounce of self-control
he possessed to resist the urge to pick up the phone and call her. As much as
he wanted to, he knew there was nothing he could say that would do any good. He
was unworthy of her in his current state; it was a revelation that didn't sit
well with the confident man that had earned everything in his life by
commanding situations.

 
     
     
    5
    desolation
     
     
    When she woke the next morning Leah
felt completely alone. Sitting up in bed she looked around the strange room in
confusion.  It took her a short while to remember where she was, and why
she was there; when she did she had to fight back the ache that filled her
heart and made her feel as though it was going to break.
    Seeing her purse on the bedside
table she rummaged in it for her phone. She was surprised to see that there
were no messages from Rhett, she’d expected to find at least a