The Chess Piece Ch. 09

I hope that this chapter will answer a few questions that some of you have been asking me, but not all of them. And as always my gratitude to MaaddMaaxx for his patience, insight and abilities. Thanks for helping my express my work in a manner that everyone else will at least be able to read.

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Laysea began to lift out of a black fog. She was sitting between Ty and Jason. She turned toward Jason groggily saying, "Jas, I had the strangest dream. It was so life like that I. . ."

Jason had turned toward her and was looking at her weird. Jason was on the wrong side of her -- he should be where Ty was sitting. Then it hit her -- it was not Jason sitting beside her it was Jared.

"Oh, God it was not a dream?!?" She cried out. "You have to go back; I have to be with him."

Ty touched her arm and said, "Laysea you can not see him right now. He does not look good. He would want us to get you back to the safety of the penthouse."

"Why? Why in the hell would he kill him?" She yelled with tears streaming down her face.

"Because it was his job." Replied Jared in the same cold, tired, and soft voice that Jason had used whenever some one was starting to piss him off.

"I -- I. . . Damn it he can't be dead!" she yelled, "It's Jason -- he is suppose to be here to make everything right."

"But he is not here, my brother is dead laying on a cold slab because he got tricked into fucking you one night and then got saddled with the one who ended up getting him killed!" Jared yelled at her, tears forming in his eyes. "You have known him about 2 months and I have known him my whole life! Do not tell me how much you need Jason to be here, I have a bigger need then you do, you bitch! Stop this fuckin' truck!" Jared screamed out.

The truck came to a screeching halt and Jared flung the door open then slammed it closed. He stomped back to the truck behind him and got into the back. Laysea was completely caught off guard with everything that Jared said. She scooted over to where he had sat so she was not smashed against Ty and just looked out the window. Feeling everyone in the truck glance her way every once in a while, so she kept facing her window. Tears kept falling down her face but she refused to have anyone else think that she was trying to make her grief appear more important then anyone else's. She did not want anyone to feel that she thought her grief was more important then theirs. These people were Jason's friends and family she was just some girl he got locked up with one night.

She continued to silently cry until they were a block away from the penthouse. She looked up for the first time when the truck came to a stop. Just outside her door she saw 6 guys that she had seen around but did not know who they were or even what they wanted. The door was opened by Jerry, who efficiently jumped out to open her door for her. As she got out she whispered her thanks to him but never looked up at him. Ty came up on her other side when no one made any more moves forward she finally looked up at the guy who seemed to be in charge of the other 5 guys.

"Laysea, we heard about the events that have lead up to Jason's death. I just want to let you know how sorry I was to hear about it." He smiled at her giving her the willies.

"Thank you, I'm sorry but I can not seemed to remember your name right at the moment." She whispered apologetically.

"Sorry, my name is Aaron. I am Jason's successor." He smirked at her. "I know that you have had to deal with a lot but I am afraid that during this time there are a million and one things to do. His funeral will be taken care of so you don't have to worry about planning it. However as his successor, the penthouse now belongs to me. . . so I need you to get your stuff out tonight."

Laysea felt like the rug had been jerked out from under her. "O-Okay um, where do you want me to put Jason and my stuff?"

"You can take some of your clothes, none of the items that were purchased with the organization money -- so no jewelry or trinkets." He turned around and began to walk back in but turned back quickly, "Oh and nothing that was Jason's. It is all property of the family and since Jason did not see to actually signing a marriage record with you then you are not entitled to anything. Be glad that I have given you the clothes." Then he turned back to one of his men and told him, "Make sure she only takes one bag and check it to make sure that it is just her clothes."

After he left the guy went upstairs with her. She noticed that Jason's guys seemed to fade away from her. No one followed her into the elevator in fact they seemed in a rather intense conversation with each other. She felt completely alone. When they reached the penthouse there was already some shrill woman with bleach out blonde almost white hair. She was wearing a pair of stretch pants with "princess" printed across the ass and a pink baby doll shirt on.

When she noticed Laysea standing in the elevator, "Well, Aaron said you would be here to get your stuff. I need you to hurry up because I have my decorators coming over to give this place a new look. Ugh who in the world has this taste?" she asked with a smirk.

Laysea just kept looking at her then silently walked into the bedroom. Everyone knew that she had redecorated the penthouse in hopes to get under his skin. She looked around the bedroom that she and Jason had shared and saw that Aaron's wife had already removed all the decorations from the room. It was bare, no bedding, curtains, pictures, nothing but her clothes remained and one bag opened on the bed. She assumed that this was the bag that she was supposed to fill with her clothes. It was no bigger than a duffle bag. She knew she would not get much in it. There was nothing of Jason's left for her to take, nothing of their lives together to take for even a keepsake. She began to pack her clothes without much thought to how she was packing. Her guard watched every item that she grabbed and shoved in the bag. When she could not shove anymore in she grabbed the bag and left the room. When she got to the elevators she turned around and looked for the last time at the place that had been home when Jason was alive and now it just felt like a shell.

She got on the elevators as a tear slide slowly down her face for what was and what would never be. When she got to the ground floor, there was Ty waiting for her. She asked him in a croaking voice, "Where do I go?"

Ty looked at her with what looked like a look of compassion for her then said in a monotone, "I don't know, but Aaron wants you gone. He is right -- Jason never signed the marriage license so you are not considered a member of the family."

Laysea was shocked, "Wait I thought because we slept together and I was a virgin that. . . He said that we were married that it was the way you all did things."

"Normally yes but because you were an outsider he still had to sign the marriage certificate. Maybe Jared was right and Jason was just looking for a steady fuck." He seemed to choke up at the end but it happened so fast she was not sure if she had made it up in her mind.

Without another word she walked out of the building, never looking back. She had no money and no place to go. So she went to the only place that she felt the most at home -- the bakery.

When she opened the door Sally was behind the cash register, she looked up and yelled, "Mrs. Tebbs, you better get out here." Then she walked around the counter to put an arm around Laysea.

Mrs. Tebbs appeared from nowhere but when she put her motherly arms around her, Laysea broke down sobbing. Sobbing like she never had the whole day. Mrs. Tebbs ushered Laysea upstairs where she and Sally sat listening to every word that Laysea said. When she got to the end, Mrs. Tebbs wiped her eyes dry and said in a commanding voice,

"Well honey, you can stay here with me and Sally as long as you need. Don't have much room, but you will never feel unwanted. Plus you would be a breath of fresh air in this old apartment."

Laysea smiled sadly at the only people in the world who seemed to care about her.

Three months had passed since Jason's death and her life had taken on a new pattern. The day of Jason's funeral was the last time that she ever showed anyone how upset she was. When she went back to the penthouse to find out when the funeral was she was informed under no circumstance should she be worried about it. It was for family only and she was not wanted nor was she expected. It was not until later that she read he had been cremated and the ashes scattered over the family estate -- in the maze.

That day she was no use to anyone. She cried uncontrollably and could not even form a word. Every since then she had made every effort to get her life back. She got up at 3 am every morning to start baking then stayed until 10 pm decorating orders for the next day. The days blurred into weeks, the weeks into months until one morning as they were all in the dinning area eating a little breakfast when she began to feel sick to her stomach.

She barely made it to the bathroom before she lost her breakfast. After cleaning herself up she went back out to where Sally and Mrs. Tebbs were and was getting ready to sit back down to eat some dry toast -- it always seemed to help.

"That is the 4th day in a row that you have gotten sick in the morning." Mrs. Tebbs pointed out.

"I think that I have a bug or something." She replied.

"Oh I would say so the nine month bug."

"What are you talking about?"

"Honey when was your last period?"

"It was. . . I just. . . Oh shit!" Laysea sputtered and got up running out of the bakery down the street to a little pharmacy.

Running up and down a couple of isles until she found what she was looking for, she grabbed one of the more expensive tests that had a "pregnant" or "not pregnant" appear in the window. She did not even wait to get back to the bakery. She ran into the public bathroom pulled out the stick and peed on it. She looked at her watch and noted the time. She waited through the longest minute of her life. She counted back; her last period was just a couple weeks before Jason died. Their last time would have been when she ended up getting pregnant. She glanced back at her watch and saw that it had been a minute. She grabbed the stick looking to the heavens and saying a quick prayer -- she just was not sure what she was praying for. When she looked down the window had a single word in it "pregnant."

Laysea was not sure how she got to a park that she and Jason use to walk through. By the time she realized where she was she was next to the fountain that they always sat at. She did the only thing that felt comfortable to her; she sat down in their spot.

She was going to have Jason's baby. The tears started streaming down her face because she was going to have Jason's baby but he would not be there to experience it. She was thinking about what the baby would look like when Maxie walked up to her.

"Laysea honey? Hi, how are you?" she asked full of concern.

With tears streaming down her face Laysea looked at her, "Well let's see Maxie. The last time you seen me was when a man who claimed to be my husband was gunned down. But I didn't know that he did not sign the marriage certificate so I was just his whore according to everyone who was his friends or family. I lost my home, the love of my life, hell, my life in that same day. Hell I hope this baby never wants to know his or her father because I don't even have a fuckin' picture to show him or her." Laysea turned and ran away tears once again streaming down her face.

After she was out of sight, Maxie grabbed her phone and hit a speed dial number. "Yeah we have a problem. She is pregnant." Silence as she listened to what was being said. "He never planned for this . . ." Silence again. "So what do we do? If we bring her in then we will be exposed but we can't have Jason's child running around on the loose. The child would be in danger." Once again she listened to the person on the other end of the line. "Yeah, well you better tell him -- let him decide. You might want to remind him that there are always consequences to our decisions." With that she snapped the phone shut and got up walking back out of the park the way she had come.