Beyond Hereafter (The Movie Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Beyond Hereafter by Kimberly Adams

  Text Copyright © 2017 by Kimberly Adams

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover, Editing, and Interior Design by Adams Romance

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  First Electronic Edition: July 2017

  First Paperback Edition: July 2017

  Beyond Hereafter is a satire by Kimberly Adams, and is not intended maliciously. Kimberly Adams has invented all names and situations in her stories, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental, or used as a fictional depiction or personality parody.

  To Happily Ever After

  Now Playing

  AWAKE

  SAY GOODBYE

  A STAR IS BORN

  FALLING DOWN

  BROTHERS

  FORGIVE AND FORGET

  BREAKDOWN

  I CONFESS

  THE HURT LOCKER

  BROKEN

  STARTING OVER

  FATAL ATTRACTION

  PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE

  HELLO-GOODBYE

  OUT OF THE PAST

  HEREAFTER

  IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

  Awake

  K

  I knew her for a moment.

  I knew that it was Vivian standing at the end of my bed, holding our baby and talking about taking our infant daughter home.

  And then… I didn’t know her.

  “… The apartment. I thought that maybe-”

  “Where’s… that guy?” I forced, fighting through the liquid confusion that drowned my senses and forced the frustrated words to my throat. “Is he your husband?”

  She blinked, gripping her baby closer to her. I let my gaze settle over her chest, feeling guilty for staring at the rise and fall of her creamy breasts. She was obviously wearing a very expensive diamond engagement ring.

  “My husband?” she repeated, glancing nervously at the nurse who walked through the door.

  “The tall guy, dark hair. Luke.” I jammed my hand into the bedrail, irritated as it refused to lower. “This thing is broken. The button doesn’t work.”

  “Luke is your brother,” she whispered, exchanging looks with the nurse.

  “That’s right,” the nurse agreed, smiling my way. I could tell by her tone that she was placating me, and I pressed my fingers to my temples as the baby began to fuss.

  “What’s the baby’s name?” I demanded. I could feel my heart racing, and the nurse pressed the call button on the rail.

  “Keaton, can you tell me what her name is?” she asked, gesturing to the hot girl with the baby.

  As though someone turned on the lights, I focused on Vivian’s face, smiling as I tried to catch my breath.

  “The future Mrs. Thorne,” I replied, settling back against the pillow. She rocked Charlie in her arms, smiling with what I knew was relief. “Sorry. I’m sorry, I have no idea what happened just now-”

  “A little memory loss,” Rhonda, my favorite nurse, replied with a gentle nod as she continued to check my vitals.

  “That’s not the first time this happened,” Vivian said to her, hurrying to my side to reach for my hand. “When will the doctor be in?”

  “It comes right back to me, every time,” I assured her. She looked unconvinced as she lowered to the chair next to me.

  Her face held so much more color, and those sparkling baby blues watched me intently as I reached for the plastic cup of water.

  “Doc will be in at about eleven. Remember, kids, you have a lot of healing to do. Both of you.” Rhonda patted my shoulder before moving to the hospital room door.

  The events of our abduction were sketchy at best in my healing mind, and when I finally opened my eyes to see Vivian next to me with our daughter, I was sure that I’d finally died. The blood loss from the gunshot wounds had given me a stroke, and the seven months that I’d spent in a coma felt like seven minutes.

  Vivian reached for the baby bottle on the bedside table, shifting Charlie in her arms.

  She was a natural. The perfect, doting, compassionate mother that I suspected that she’d be. Her movements were second nature as Charlie fidgeted with the nipple of the bottle, and Vivian gently adjusted her away from her incision.

  “I love you Keaton,” she murmured softly, waiting for Charlie to latch onto the nipple before lifting her eyes to mine. “I am worried sick about you.”

  “What’re you worried about, kiddo? I’m right here. I’m skinny as fuck and look like I should be begging for a quarter a day on an infomercial, but I’m right here.”

  She cringed at the smirk that I’d forced from her with my inappropriate comment, bending to kiss Charlie’s forehead. “I just feel like I should be with you during the rehabilitation. I hate the thought of you going away to that center and me staying here. What if you forget me again, and then just… don’t come back?”

  “V.” I scratched at the IV in my arm, shaking my head. “The doctor said that it’s normal to have some confusion. It always passes. And I don’t want you living in a rehab facility with me, and especially not with Charlie. I have a lot of work to do, and it’s going to be miserable, and I’ll probably be pissed off most of the time.”

  She chuckled under her breath, sitting back to gaze at me. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  I grinned, reaching for my water again. “What did you miss the most?”

  She narrowed her eyes and smiled, biting her lip. “Keaton. You. All of you.”

  I bounced my eyebrows in her direction, settling back against the pillow weakly. When I’d found out that I weighed in at one hundred and thirty-six pounds, I’d freaked the fuck out. The medical staff went over the way my body had basically eroded over the months that I’d been in the coma, and my disgustingly shallow ego deflated at my own disturbing reflection in the mirror.

  The rehab facility that I was scheduled to be transferred to the next day was located all the way in Switzerland, and Frank insisted that it was the best for not only physical but also mental recovery.

  In the week since I’d woken up and stayed awake, I had learned to speak without a delay between my words. I could hear the problem when I spoke, the second between each word that had never been there before, but I didn’t start to really worry about it until it didn’t go away. In the days after I opened my eyes, I recognized that I would need to learn how to walk again, I had problems swallowing, and my left shoulder had some very painful nerve damage.

  From the gunshot wound.

  I cleared my throat, sickened to let the fragments of my memory of that horrid cabin creep in.

  Vivian, so afraid, chained to that dirty old mattress.

  Fowler kissing her, and the fucking psycho pointing a gun at both of them.

  And suddenly, I remembered what she’d done.

  “You stabbed him,” I murmured, crawling through the thick memories that refused to fully surface. “Through the eye. Jesus Christ, V, you saved us. You saved my life.”

  I could see her entire body tense at my words, and her pretty eyes filled with tears. “I can’t think about that time.”

  “Come here. I’ll hold her. Help me,” I urged, sliding my cup across the bedside table. I barely had any strength in my arms, and we both knew that.

  She nodded, brushing away a tear and settling Charlie on my chest. Her quick, little sigh made us both smile, and Vivian supported her head as I turned my
nose into her soft skin.

  “She smells so good. You’re a natural with her,” I said, and she smiled, resting her cheek on the pillow next to my head.

  “I know you’re in pain, Keaton. I can see it in your face. I hate it,” she whispered, her thumb brushing back and forth over Charlie’s neck.

  “We’ll Facetime. You’ll see me every day. I’ll see you both every day. Five or six months,” I reminded her, remembering the doctor’s detailed explanation of the treatment that I had in store for me. “Luke said he’d stay.”

  She answered me with a kiss, and I closed my eyes, listening to both of my girls breathe.

  I knew that the facility that I was going to had many luxuries, and I was sure that Frank had chosen this one based on their reputation for “holistic treatment of mind, body, and soul.”

  He was afraid I’d go off the deep end again and lose my fucking mind.

  I knew my first words to him after I’d woken up were ominous, but I’d been confused, and he accepted that.

  “I need a drink. Bring me a drink,” I’d ordered him, and he shook his head, running his fingers through his hair nervously. He knew that I meant alcohol, not the tepid water I’d been sipping for two days.

  “Keaton, you can’t drink. You know that.”

  Two days later I’d asked him again, and that was when he came to us with the facility that he discovered. As I read about the famous patients who’d attended, I realized that almost all of them had gone solely for drug and alcohol rehab.

  “That’s too long to go without kissing you,” she whispered.

  I sighed, pressing my lips to her hair. “I don’t want you kissing me like this. I look like Michael Keaton at the end of Beetlejuice with my shrunken head.”

  She giggled and then scoffed disgustedly, moving closer to me. “Shut up. You do not.”

  “I look like Christian Bale in The Machinist. Tom Hanks in Castaway. I need a loin cloth and a spear.”

  “I don’t know how you can make jokes about being in a coma for seven months. Only you.”

  “I haven’t even seen my penis. Take a peek and tell me if it looks like Charlie’s umbilical cord.”

  “Oh my God, Keaton!” she cried, covering her lips and forcing her shoulders to stop shaking with laughter. “Your penis is fine!”

  “Fine. ‘Keaton, your penis is fine.’ That’s the worst fucking compliment the little director’s ever gotten.”

  She pretended to cover Charlie’s ears, shooting me a chastising glare. “Your penis will get stronger again, and will soon rule the world. Is that better?”

  I grinned, nodding slightly. “Only your world. That’s all that matters.”

  She laughed again softly, tightening her hold over our daughter on my chest. “I’m holding my world.”

  I sighed, unable to even consider another joking remark. Her sincerity forced my emotions to resurface, and I closed my eyes, nodding silently in agreement.

  . . .

  The amount of money that it would cost for me to heal in Switzerland was nearly enough encouragement for me to force myself to my feet.

  “Keaton, it’s worth it. Trust me, kid.” Frank urged, absently reaching to help the attendant move the flowers I’d received to a rolling cart.

  “Can we take these and distribute them in the hospital?” Vivian asked, gesturing to the obscene array of floral arrangements. “And Keaton, please don’t argue. I agree with Frank.”

  “Remember that number I gave you? My net worth? Subtract a couple million,” I told her, watching as Charlie found her thumb and suckled quietly in her car seat. “Daddy loves you,” I whispered, slipping my finger into her other hand. She gripped immediately, her eyelashes fluttering as she sighed. “You’re the most perfect thing I ever did.”

  Vivian stopped moving, a broad smile spreading over her perfect lips. “She looks so much like you, Keaton.”

  I nodded in agreement. She was right; I’d never seen a kid look more like their parent, and her tiny expressions were like looking in a mirror. “She’s not even going to bond with me. I want somewhere closer. Fuck Switzerland. Frank, make it happen. I’m not spending the first six months of her life in another country.”

  Frank mumbled something and stormed from the room, and Vivian moved to my side, lowering her lips to mine.

  “I’m trying not to be selfish. But I want you closer, too.”

  “Good. Then it’s done.”

  Luke walked into the hospital room at that moment, grinning and carrying a large gift bag. “Hey big brother, I got you a going away present,” he called, smiling at Vivian before curling his fist over the car seat. “Fist bump? No? Thumb taste good?” he cooed to Charlie, and I smirked at his high-pitched voice.

  “I hope it’s a script,” I told him, nodding toward the gift bag. “Something other than fucking Round-Up.”

  “It’s better than a script,” he assured me, reaching into the bag with both hands. “It’s a drinking hat- and look, it’s got a bullhorn,” he added, grinning my way. “You don’t even have to move when you call for the hot, Swiss nurses.”

  “I think moving is the point,” Vivian chided, rolling her eyes.

  “Does it hold shot glasses?” I asked, forcing Vivian to shake her head exasperatingly.

  “It’s adjustable for bottles or cans.”

  “Boys,” Vivian scoffed, bending over Charlie. “Don’t listen to them, sweetheart, it’ll slow your development.”

  Frank burst into the room on his phone, pointing to his ear. “Fine. LA. It’s the closest treatment center that I could find and was second on my list. Will that work for you, kid?”

  “That works for me,” I assured him, fighting away the fuzzy feeling that threatened to take over again.

  I held on for as long as I could, watching Vivian lift Charlie’s car seat off the bed and lower it gently to the floor. Luke crouched down over the baby, making the most ridiculous noises that he could. “Aunty Robin is coming into town this week. Yes she is. You will love her. She’s very funny. Yes she is.”

  “Robin.” I repeated her name, my breathing labored as the stress of fighting for lucidity took over. Vivian recognized my distress immediately, hurrying to my side.

  “Keaton?”

  “There shouldn’t be a baby in here. It’s a fucking hospital,” I snapped at her, irritated. I guessed that whomever my roommate was, I was stuck dealing with his visitors in my room. I hit the nurse call button, eager to ask for a private room. “Would you both stay on the other side? Where’s the other bed?”

  The guy rose to his feet, lifting the car seat over his arm. “I’ll take her into the hall,” he told the woman at my side.

  “Listen, I don’t mean to sound… like an asshole. It’s a cute baby. But I need… rest,” I murmured, taken aback as the pretty girl’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Keaton, it’s okay, I’ll take her home in just a few minutes. I want to spend a little more time with you. Take deep breaths, okay?” she encouraged.

  “Are you my nurse?” I demanded, shoving my thumb into the call button repeatedly. “Can you make sure I don’t get any more visitors?”

  She nodded silently, tears slipping down her cheeks as she gripped my bedside rail. Another nurse came into the room, glancing once at the crying girl before moving to my side.

  “How are we doing, Keaton? You remember Vivian? Your fiancée?” she urged, reaching for my wrist to check my pulse.

  I turned back to Vivian.

  She was openly sobbing, and I narrowed my eyes, reaching for her. “Hey. Hey, kiddo, don’t cry. What’s wrong? Where’d Luke go?”

  “Nothing,” she promised, bending over to hug me. “Nothing, I’m sorry, I cry so easily ever since Charlie was born. It’ll go away,” she rambled softly, hugging me with all of her strength.

  “I’m here for you. I’m not going away, and even if you have to come to me, it’s only LA, okay V? Vivian,” I urged, turning my face into her hair, inhaling her familiar scent.
“I’m here for both of you. I promise we’ll be okay.”

  She nodded into my neck, lacing her fingers through mine.

  Say Goodbye

  V

  “Wait, let me back up so I can get you both walking through the door,” Luke called, wrestling armloads of bags as he unlocked the apartment. “Can you hold her up a little so I can see her face?” he asked, lifting his phone to record us.

  I nodded, tucking my hair behind my ear before shifting Charlie in my arms. “Luke, you should let me put her down and help you-”

  “No way. No lifting anything. See Keat? I’m taking good care of your girls. Okay, Charlie Laney Thorne, welcome home!” he called, throwing the door open.

  The emptiness of the quiet apartment surrounded us as I carried Charlie inside. I knew that my parents were flying in the next day, and Robin and Jane were traveling later that week.

  Luke stopped recording, dropping the bags to the ground before reaching for Charlie.

  “Vivie, you’re crying. Take a minute, okay?” he urged, carrying Charlie to the bassinette that he’d put together near the couch.

  “I’m sorry… he’s awake, and I just want to go back… but I am terrified every time he forgets who I am,” I sobbed brokenly.

  “We’ll go back. In just a few hours. Just let me get everything unpacked and settled-”

  “Luke,” I cried, shaking my head as I lowered carefully to the couch. “I need help, and I can’t ask this of you. My mom won’t be any help tomorrow- their flight is so late and she’ll be exhausted, and I’m so tired… I don’t even know-”

  “Hey.” He tucked Charlie into the bassinette, moving to the couch next to me. “Just because she’s born and Keaton’s awake doesn’t mean you’re on your own. I’ll be here, I’ll get up and help feed her. I’ll help you.”

  I winced at the pain in my incision, and he stood and hurried to my purse.

  “Are you hurting? I can get you a pill-”

  I proceeded to sob uncontrollably for ten straight minutes. Poor Luke; he looked like a lost puppy, continually pacing between me and Charlie, offering everything that he could think of to make me more comfortable.