Stolen Love (4 page)

The housekeeper replied, “I'll get it ready.”

The next day, Charles and Marley brought Ashley home with them.

When they walked in the guesthouse, Marley saw fresh cut roses in a vase by the door. She took one out and gave it to Ashley and said, “This will be your name until you remember yours.” Ashley said, “Rose, I’ll take it.” smiling at Marley.

For the next two weeks, Marley was spent a lot of time with Rose trying to help her remember. Marley thought that Rose had a message for her.

They went horseback riding and walked the long horse trails.

Charles brought Rose's car to the ranch, he ran a check on it and found out it was registered to a doctor in
Arizona
. The doctor was out of the country, and couldn't return his calls.

Charles did not remember what Tiffany told him about Ashley marrying a doctor in
Arizona
.

The next morning Marley went off to school, Rose asked Charles if she could go to the office with him. She wanted to look around town to see if she could remember why she was there.

When she walked in the law firm, she started having flashbacks, as if she might be a lawyer.

She walked around the office for a while, and then went outside looking around. She didn't know the town, she saw the courthouse and she remember being in a courtroom.

She went back into the law firm, and went into Charles's office and told him, “Maybe I’m a lawyer.”

He told her, “Look over this case and tell me what you think.”

She came back to his office later that afternoon, and gave him a few suggestions that he liked. She worked at the office for a few months.

He kept winning the cases that she prepared. Charles began to believe she was indeed a lawyer.

One Friday evening Charles told Rose, “I'm checking into something and it will tell me if you are a lawyer or who you are by Monday. In the meantime, let's go home for the day.”

Later Marley went to the guesthouse to invite Rose for dinner.

After dinner, Marley asked Rose, “Do you want to see some pictures that I drew?”

Rose answered, “Do you draw?” Marley replied, “Yes, my daddy says my drawing is good and beautiful like my mother’s.”

Charles went upstairs and left the women to the picture.

While Rose was looking at Marley’s drawing and she started to have flashbacks again. Marley asked her, “What's wrong?”

She said, “I'm just tired.” Rose took the drawing back with her to the guesthouse.

When she was ready to go to bed, she looked at the drawing again and started having flashbacks of many drawings on a wall in a room. Her room when she was in high school.

She went to bed trying to force herself to remember, but she couldn't, and finally drifted off to sleep.

Saturday morning, Marley asked Rose to go horseback riding with her and the both of them headed off to the barn.

Charles looked out his bedroom window and saw them riding. From afar, Rose looked like Ashley to him, but Charles just shook it off and got dressed.

He went outside and started to talk with the ranch foreman.

Marley's friends from the ranch next door were out riding, also. They asked her to go riding with them.

Rose said to Marley, “You go on; I'm going back to the stable.” Rose rode back toward the stable and she saw Charles and the foreman talking.

She handed the horse to one of the stable workers and said to Charles, “Marley is riding with the kids from next door.”

She turned away. Charles glanced at her, and had another flashback of the time he walked Ashley home one evening.

He shook off the feeling, again.

Rose went into the guesthouse and started cleaning up. She saw Marley's drawings and she took them to the main house and up to Marley's room.

She sat on the bed and looked at the drawings again. When she went to put them in a cabinet, she pulled out another book of drawings.

When she opened the portfolio she envisioned Charles’ face saying, “I'll always keep them.”

Suddenly she remembered the rape!

Everything came rushing back like a flood.

“These are the drawings I gave to Charles.” she thought.

She went outside and saw Charles walking back towards the house. She stood there in the yard with the drawings in her hands.

Charles walked up to her and she asked, “Where did you get these drawings.”

Charles started to remember Ashley, and love started filling his heart. He told her, “A girl I loved long ago gave them to me.”

He took the drawings from her, held them to his heart, and said, “I loved her so much and I still do. I think of her all the time.”

“I met her one summer when I visited my cousin. It was love at first sight for me.”

“One night I hurt her so bad. I will never forgive myself.”

He looked at Rose and said, “Rose I just wanted to talk to her and I went to her house. I saw her come outside . . . I pulled her to the side of her house so her parents wouldn't see me.”

Ashley started to have flashbacks.

“She kept fighting me . . . I kept trying to tell her it was me, but she wouldn't listen. She kept hitting and kicking at
me.
” He turned away from Rose. “Rose, I got so angry that she was fighting that I hurt her. I loved her, I would never hurt her in my right mind, but I did.”

“Rose, I don't think she ever knew it was me. It still hurts so bad . . . knowing I did that to her . . . to Marley's mother.”

“I found out almost two years later that she had a baby and the child was put up for adoption, I knew the child had to be mine.”

Rose was crying the entire time Charles was talking to her. However, he did not know she was crying because he had his back to her.

“Marley was so beautiful and shy; there was no one in her life and I knew in my heart that she was my little girl. I had to take a DNA test to prove it. Even if the test came back saying she wasn't mine, I would have taken her anyway because she was a part of someone I loved so deeply.”

“I was in college when I told my parents what I did to Ashley and they helped me get her. They brought her home to live with them.”

“I finished law school that year and came home to my daughter and parents, my family. Such a beautiful feeling, I never told anyone about this, just my parents and now you.”

Charles turned around to see that Rose was crying.

He said, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry.”

Rose spat out, “I hate you.”

Charles shouted, “What?”

She said, “You raped me!”

Charles shouted, “What, uh, uh, I , I, never touched you!”

Rose cried out, “I remember! I am Ashley!”

Charles was in shock--pacing back and forth in the yard. Ashley said, “The amnesia, that's why I didn't remember you, but you been looking at me all this time and you didn't know me. Someone you claim to have loved so deeply!”

He said, “You don't look the same! It's been nine years. Your hair is short. The scar on your face is gone! I didn't see it then but I can see it now.”

“Little things you did reminded me of Ashley, I saw my daughter getting close to you, but I couldn't do it because you weren’t Ashley, and all this time you were.”

“My heart has always been yours. I still love you, that is forever!” Then Charles asked her, “Why did you cut your hair? What happened to the scar you would always hid with your long beautiful hair?”

She answered, “I married a plastic surgeon, and he removed the scar so I cut my hair.”

“We are divorced now because I can't have children, thanks to my mother.”

“She had me fixed so I could never have another child.” She continued, “I couldn't tell him that I had a child because I didn't want him to know that I was raped.”

Charles said, “Please don't say that . . .”

Ashley said, “It's true, you raped me and I had a baby. My mother just took her away, as if she was nothing!”

“I remember her being born, I woke up, and she was gone.” Ashley cried. “I never saw her . She didn't let me see her! She was mine and she stole her. And now you have stolen her, too!”

“The only thing I ever loved! She grew inside of me and I never even got to her!”

Charles said, “I just wanted my child, I wanted a part of you.”

Ashley said, “So you stole her.”

Charles answered, “When you graduated from college, why didn't you look for her? You ran off to
Arizona
and married a doctor. Why didn't you think to find her first?” Charles suddenly remembered Tiffany saying that Ashley married a doctor and they lived in
Arizona
.

“That day you were hit by the car, I heard someone call my name but I didn't know who it was, when I turned I saw you get hit. It was you calling me, wasn’t it?”

“The man that hit you said you walked out in front of him, you didn't look. When I brought your car to the ranch, I tried to trace it only to find out that it was registered to a doctor in
Arizona
. I still didn't think about what Tiffany said.”

Ashley said, “It was a birthday present from him, that's why it's in his name.”

Charles vowed, “If you came here for Marley, I can't let you take her.”

“I knew I lost you when I found out you were married, but my daughter is my life. Please forgive me for what I did to you, that wasn't my intention!”

“I love you. I just wanted to talk to you, but not over the phone. I wanted to see you . . . only to hug you and say goodbye, but you wouldn't listen to me.”

“I will not let you take my daughter to fulfill your marriage.” He added. “She's my daughter not his.”

Ashley replied, “My marriage is over. Marley's my life now, just like she's yours.”

They saw Marley riding her horse to the stable. Charles said, “We can sit down together and talk to her. All I ask of you is not to tell her about any rape.”

“Please don't hurt my baby that way. Please, Ashley!” he begged.

Ashley started to cry again as Marley started skipping towards the house. Ashley dried her eyes and walked out to meet her.

Charles asked Ashley, “What are you going to do?” Ashley kept walking she without answering him.

Marley skipped up to her and said, “Hi Rose!” Ashley answered, “It's not Rose, baby. Let's go inside. Your father and I need to talk to you.”

Marley anxiously breathed, “You remember, don't you?”

Her Rose answered, “Come on.”

Charles opened the door. Marley looked at the both of them, and Ashley rolled her eyes towards Charles.

Marley asked her father, “What's wrong.”

He replied to her, “This is Ashley, Baby, your mother.”

She said, “Ashley, you do remember! You did come for me!”

“Daddy said you would.”