That night, I have difficulty falling asleep. On top of the nagging fear that Colin was out there somewhere, waiting to get me, there is one thing that I can't get out of my mind. Asher. No matter how hard I try, my thoughts that night could not shift from Asher. Something about him was just so intoxicating.

So much that it leaves me for half the night pondering about him. While lying in bed, with Dom lightly snoring in the other room, and Lara sleeping through it, I'm thinking about every aspect of Ash that makes me want to go in for more.

His infectious smile, his gentle, yet attracting facial features, his beautifully complicated brown eyes. I can't stop thinking about it. The conversation we had earlier that day plays on repeat in my head, like a broken record. His soothing, calm voice makes me want to melt in the bed.

The tone of his voice, which mirrored nothing but sympathy and guilt, is stuck in my mind, like someone glued it to my brain. Even though I've only seen him for a few times, and only gotten to know him so much, I feel a connection to him instantly.

Despite the fact that Colin limited our personal relations, I feel like I'm being pulled in closer and closer by the second. No matter how hard I try to pull away from the magnetic force, I'm yanked in harder and faster. Eventually, I do fall asleep, but with the thought of Ash lingering in my mind ever so gently as I do.

****

"So, tell me all the juicy gossip. How was your day at Dom's office?" Elena asks on the couch early the next morning. She's hugging a pillow close to her chest like a crazed fan girl.

I roll my eyes. "Ah, don't get your hopes up too much. I got to meet a lot of his coworkers. I met one from Qatar, which was pretty cool. How was your day without insulting Dom? It must have been such a hard day," I say, as Elena rolls her eyes.

She flops back on the arm rest of the couch, still clutching the pillow. "Oh, don't lie to me, Nicole. Something must have happened at the office. Not even a cute guy here and there?" she asks.

I roll my eyes, as Elena raises her eyebrow at me in a suspicious look. "Well, I did see my brother in law there. Apparently, he works there, which I still kind of don't know why. But he explained to me why he thinks my husband abused me. He says that I look like his ex-stepmom, who was abusive to him and his siblings, and I look just like her. He saw nothing but his stepmom, and that's why."

Elena's facial expression goes from excited to shocked. Her grip around the pillow loosens when she hears what I said. "Wait, he abused you because you looked like his step mom? That's messed up. I think he should definitely get help. And you saw your brother in law? What's his name?" She just looks at me with a disappointed, yet somewhat excited look. I can tell she is sad about the possible reason I was abused, yet she still wants to hear about everything that happened yesterday.

"His name's Asher, but we all call him Ash.  I didn't see him too much throughout my marriage, because contact between him and Colin was very limited. He did come over for his visits, and we did hang out, so we know each other fairly well. But, when I did see him, he was always nice, which I appreciated, because my marriage was far from that."

Elena smiles, and I can see a little bit of a Lenny face in her facial expression. "That's nice. Is he cute?" Elena asks, while nudging me a little bit. I take the pillow that's on my side of the couch and hit her on the face with it. She starts to laugh really hard, as we have a mini pillow fight.

"Oh, come on, Elena! Why?" I yell at her, as she fights back with her pillow. I'm not one that gets physical like this, but Elena and I do like to have our occasional pillow fights here and there. Eventually, Dom, who's dressed in his work clothes, and Roy come in, and see us beating each other with soft pillows.

They run over to where we're fighting, and they attempt to break up the fight. Roy's hands go around Elena and they try to pry the pillow out of her hands. Dom does the same thing, as they both try to break up the fight.

"Break it up guys, break it up!" Dom and Roy say together, and they finally pry the pillows out of our hands. Eventually, they've stripped us of weapons we can fight each other with, and we're left helpless.

"I don't want to know why you guys were hitting each other with pillows, but please don't. I don't want anyone to get hurt," Dom says, as he holds the pillow far from us.

Elena rolls her eyes. "Too late. You already hurt my dignity," Elena tells him, which earns her another eye roll, this time from both Roy and Dom.

"Wait, you had dignity, Elena? What a shock," Dom says sarcastically, and he walks away with Roy to prevent getting his neck snapped by Elena.

She rolls her eyes again, and mutters under her breath, "What a pain in my butt." She then turns back to me, leans in, and smiles. "So, answer my question. Is he cute?" Elena asks, with the Lenny face returning to appear on her face.

I roll my eyes, and cross my legs. "I don't know. Maybe a little bit?" I say, with hesitation holding onto my answer at the end.

Elena's eyes widen, and her mouth falls open. "YOU LIKE HIM! YOU SO LIKE HIM!" Elena squeals, like a crazed teenage girl.

I scoff, and nudge her. "Ah, come on. I don't," I say, and Elena rolls her eyes.

She smiles even bigger. "You're blushing, Nicole. Don't even deny it. Now, tell me the truth. Do you like him?" I flop back on the couch, and stare at the ceiling. It's hard telling the truth when your emotions are all conflicting in a messy battle. I don't know what to tell my sister at this point. I can't lie to her, but I don't know what to tell her either. "Are you confused, Nicole?" she asks, after she realizes my lack of an answer.

"It's not just that, Elena. I'm not ready to take on another relationship. I'm so scared. I know from my experience that Ash is a great guy, but I'm still scared about opening up to someone. Considering how much of a failure my last marriage was, I don't want to go through the same thing all over again." I say nothing more, and I just nod plainly.

She sighs. "Okay, I know why you're confused. I know you're scared to be in a relationship, because even though you didn't love your husband, that relationship was as toxic as a bottle of bleach. It will take time for you to figure out your feelings. Plus, you're still traumatized. It's definitely going to take some time before you're ready to take on another relationship. Give it some time, and then you'll get your answer. Because, from what you've told me about Ash, he seems like a really sweet guy. Just give it some time," Elena says, and I smile. It's good to hear some advice from your sibling. It's pretty comforting to know that they're on your side.

In the meantime, Dom comes in and sits on a chair across from us. "I'm with Elena on this. Give it some time. Oh, and here's Ash's picture. We took it one day with a bunch of our friends after working together on a huge project, and it went successful," Dom says, while holding his phone in front of Elena's face.

Elena leans over to see the picture, and her eyes bug out, with her lower jaw falling open. "Girl, he is so hot! You got pretty lucky! He's so much hotter than you, Dom!" Elena squeals, while Dom puts his phone away and rolls his eyes.

"Well, at least this face was hot enough to score someone as amazing as Lara," Dom says, and throws me a wink while I chuckle. Elena rolls her eyes, and hits Dom lightly on the arm. I roll my eyes at both of them.

"You guys are such kids. But, I did get his number. I'm thinking of meeting with him for coffee or something. I really want to do something like that," I tell Elena, and Dom smiles.

"If you want to, go for it. We're not stopping you from doing that. But if he breaks your heart, then I'll break him," Dom says, with his voice and facial expression becoming ominous with the last sentence.

I lean over and hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Come on, Dom. Don't go that far," I say, as he chuckles.

"I'm joking, I'm joking," Dom chuckles, as I can't help but laugh a little bit along with him. As we're laughing and making jokes, the phone suddenly rings. It snaps me out of my little humorous trance that I'm having with my siblings.

Elena gets up, and walks over. "I got it, don't worry," she assures me, and I go back to joking around with Dom. We're joking around about why Elena didn't have a love life as soon as he did, and we get lost in conversation again, like sailors lost at sea due to a shipwreck.

Eventually, not long after, we hear Elena say, "This is her sister. Yeah, she's right here. Hold on," Elena says, and she presses the phone to her body to block out any foreign sound coming from the jokes we're making. "Nicole, someone wants to talk to you. They're from the police department," Elena says, and she hands the phone to me.

Immediately, I gallop towards the phone, and snatch it. This could be regarding my case involving Colin. Did they decide on a trial date? Are they going to progress with my trial? What's going to happen? I take the phone from Elena grudgingly, and press it against my ear. "Hello?" I ask.

"Good morning. Is this Nicole Mitchell?" a woman asks. Again, I shudder at the sound of Colin's surname joined with mine. I fight back the disgust and listen to what she has to say.

"This is she," I say. Another lump starts to form in the back of my throat. My heart rate starts to accelerate uncontrollably again. My palms start to moisten with sweat. "We're here to inform you that your husband, Colin Mitchell, turned himself in at 11:10 p.m. last night. He is cooperating with police, and once we get enough evidence, we will set a court date. We thought we would let you know," the woman says.

My heart rate starts to slow down a little bit, but the nerves refuse to leave me. The lump in the back of my throat is slowly dissolving. I nod a little bit. "Thank you for letting me know. Have a nice day," I tell them.

"You too," I say, shakily. I set the phone down, and hang up from the call. This is it. Colin's finally going to get what he deserves. I don't know what caused him to turn himself in at this point, but I don't care. I'm glad the police have a hold of him, and he's probably going to suffer. The nightmare is starting to finally come to a close.

One of them, at least. Elena gets up, and she comes towards me. "What was that about?" she asks.

I blink a little bit, and swallow whatever's left of the lump in the back of my throat. "My husband turned himself in last night. They said that when they get enough information, they'll fix a court date," I say, and Elena smiles. Dom's head cranes over to see me, and he smiles as well.

"Wait, what about turning people in?" Roy asks, as he hurries from presumably the laundry room. I turn to face him.

"My husband turned himself in. They'll decide on a court date when they have enough information," I say, and Roy flashes me an excited smile as well.

"That's great news, Nicole! You won't have to deal with him again," Roy exclaims, as I nod.

"Yeah, but I'll have to face him in court. Oh man, I can't face him in court. I just can't. After everything he did to me, I can't face him. What if he comes and attacks me? What if he has an accomplice to come kill me? Oh man, I can't do this. I can't," I say repeatedly, as I crumble to the ground.

The mechanism that controls my heart rate seems to be malfunctioning, as it's out of control. The iron fist is pressing back onto my chest again, restricting my breathing. "Nicole? Oh gosh, no! It's okay!" Dom yells, running immediately to my side.

His arms loosely wrap around me, and his fingers gently stroke my hair. I slowly lean onto Dom's chest, as Elena kneels down to place her hands on my shoulders. Roy's hand goes onto my back, and gently rubs it. "Breathe, Nicole, breathe," Elena calms, but I feel like I can't.

The iron fist pressing down on my chest refuses to lift itself up from crushing my lungs, which further complicates my breathing and thought process. My thoughts are flooded with the river of unfortunate memories that Colin gave me. All the death glares, the murder attempts, and the look of death he gave me a few weeks ago.

Everything whizzes past me, like my life is a movie that's being screened at a fancy theater. Eventually, all the calming voices start to slow down the screening of my traumatic biopic, and I snap back to the reality of where I am.

I blink a few times, and the sight of their worried faces causes my heart to shatter yet again. I bury my face deep in my hands, and start to sob yet again. Elena, Dom, and Roy all swoop in for a hug. I sob into my hands, as they all stroke my hair and try to comfort me. "I c-can't d-do this. I-it's too m-much," I wail, as they all whisper soothing things in my ear.

I can feel Elena look at Dom, and I hear her say, "Dom, you're going to be late for work." Dom doesn't loosen his grip around me, and he rests his chin on my head.

"My sister's health is more important, Elena. And I'll just say I had a bit of an emergency. Nicole's one of my top priorities right now," Dom assures Elena, and that just makes me sob even more.

Seeing people worried about me is one thing, but seeing people care about me makes me cry tears of joy. My emotions are mixed like a weird pudding recipe, and it's hard for me to taste which one is stronger. But at this point, I don't care. I'm just glad that I have people finally worrying about me.

Eventually, my tears dry up, and I feel a little bit better after having my family comfort me for some time. I sniffle a little bit, and wipe whatever remaining tears I have on my face with my hand. I stand up, and dust myself off a little bit. Granted, I'm still kind of shaken up after the attack, but it's nothing that I can't push aside. I have other things to worry about, anyways. "Thanks guys, for your help. It means a lot," I tell them, and they nod.

"Of course. You're already family to me, Nicole. You're basically my sister," Roy assures me, and I smile.

"Oh, you're a sweetie, Roy. Anyways, I'm going to call Ash and tell him that Colin turned himself in. Where's the napkin?" I ask, and Elena points to a little table.

"Right there. I kept it safe so that you could call him. I think he deserves to know that his brother turned himself in," Elena says, and I nod.

"It's the least we could do. Anyways, don't you have work, Dom?" I ask, and Dom looks at his watch.

His eyes widen when he sees the time displayed. "Crap. I have to go. I'm already late. I'll see you guys later," he says, and he hurries out of the house.

"Have a good day, Dom!" we all call as he bolts out of the door like he heard someone was giving out free donuts less than a block away. I look at Elena, who just rolls her eyes as she picks herself up from the floor.

"Oh, when are you choosing your wedding dress, Elena?" I ask, as I sit on the couch and pick up the napkin from the table.

Elena makes her way to the kitchen, presumably to get herself a glass of water. "I'm planning on doing it this Friday. Plus, my boss told me I don't have to go to work on that day, because I've done my work, and since I've been working so hard, I can take the day off," she tells me, as she sips her water and I dial Ash's number.

"Nice. Say, I'm thinking of getting a job. Do you think they're hiring any financial positions at Dom's company?" I ask, as the line rings for all of eternity.

She shrugs. "I mean, you could do a financial analyst, I guess. You're really good with finance," Elena suggests.

I shrug. "I guess that's a-" I start, but before I can finish, the line clicks.

"Hello?" the familiar voice says.

I smile a little bit. "Hey, Ash. Is this a bad time?" I ask. I can feel his contagious smile spread across his face when my voice registers in his ears.

"Nicole! No, it's never a bad time. How are you doing?" Ash asks, with his cheerful demeanor reflecting in his voice. I smile at his optimism, with it flying inside of me and biting me, infecting me with its wondrous venom.

Once again, my heart rate starts to become louder and more intense. "Thump, thump, thump," it goes, like someone is banging a hammer against a nail. The deep breaths I'm taking are a futile effort to calm down my heart rate.

"I'm not bad, honestly. I just wanted to tell you that Colin turned himself in late last night in regards to the charges against him," I tell him.

Ash gasps a little bit. "Oh, that's amazing, Nicole! How did you find out?" Ash asks. I tilt my head to the side a little bit. Somehow, I can tell that there's something off about his question. It's almost as if he knew about this before I called him to let him know.

"I got a call from the department not long ago," I tell him. I feel him nod on the other end.

"Ah, that's nice. Nicole, can I tell you something?" he asks. I lean back on the couch a little bit more.

"Of course. What is it?" I ask. I feel Ash let out a heavy sigh on the other end. It's one that is guilty, yet relieved at the same time. I can tell that something is weighing down on his shoulders, and no matter how much he tries, he can't get it off. The only way is to face it and admit to what he may have done.

"Nicole, I was the one that made Colin turn himself in," Ash says, without skipping another beat.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Dang, Ash is the champ. How do you all think he managed to convince Colin to turn himself in? Let me know in the comments. 

Hey everyone! How are you all? Also, who here likes cinnamon roll characters? Because Ash is such a cinnamon roll in my opinion. 

Oh yeah, also, if any of you all are in school, I wish you luck on your finals! Finals are the most stressful parts of the year, so I hope you all do well!

So that's pretty much it. Hope you guys liked this chapter!

Please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work! See you all next Saturday with a new chapter of Phoenix! Have a great week!

Love you guys, 

Shree