by Eden Rose
“Cupcakes?” Luke asks me.
I reach behind me and grab his arm to pull him closer to me. “Yeah, buddy. Cupcakes isn’t feeling too well.”
“I give kisses make her feel better.”
As I’m lifting him up to the bed to kiss her, I get off of my knees and to my full height. Even though I’m tall enough on my knees to give him enough room to kiss her, I want to make sure that he doesn’t press on anything or hurt her. The little man is a rhinoceros.
“Get away from my wife,” I hear behind me.
“Daddy!” Luke calls from my arms.
Jerry’s face drops as he looks at my nephew. “Are you serious? Why is this kid calling me Daddy?” But then I caught a nervous twinge and knew that he knew who Luke was. Especially since Ruth had explained a lot of what is going on to me.
I shake my head and then glare at him. “Don’t do this to my nephew, man. He didn’t do anything wrong.” Jerry is holding a bouquet of roses in his hands and I can’t help but kick myself for not thinking to pick up flowers for Keeley.
Mentally, I’m dragging my loser ass all over this hospital for not thinking about that. This woman consumes my every thought and I couldn’t even bother to pick up flowers for her when she’s hurt.
Part of me wonders if Jerry would let them stay or if he would throw them away.
He drops both the flowers and his phone on the ground and comes charging at me. “Look, you little asshole. I’m sick and tired of you showing up at places where you don’t belong. This is my wife we are talking about.”
With a quickness that I haven’t seen since my earlier years playing ball, I climb up to my full height and tower over him while setting Luke on the floor. “Jerry-”
Jerry formed a fist and plowed me with it in my stomach. The force of his fist caught me off guard and made me almost vomit. “Stay away from us. Find a new lawyer. Keeley is off limits to you. I swear to fucking god that I will sue you for harassment and you will lose all of your credibility. Do you get me?”
I stare down at him and then look over at Keeley. I don’t want to leave her but he’s fucking right. I’m not her husband and she’s with him… I have no rights whatsoever to even be in the room. “There’s something that you don’t have, Johnson,” I say menacingly but calmly all at the same time.
“What?” He stands up straighter and puffs his chest out towards me. “Or maybe she should know about the type of trash that you are. Mixed trash, I might add. You disgust me.”
For a split second I consider letting him know that I know exactly what he did and who he is. For just a second I wanted to let him know that he wasn’t going to get away with what he’s doing. But, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave Keeley here by herself. “Proof of everything you have done.”
I point to Luke and then I look at him. “You see that?” He stares incredulously at my nephew. “There is living proof. You rat bastard.”
Before he could say anything to me, I lean over Keeley and kiss her forehead. I nod my head at Jerry and then stroll out of the room with Luke strolling behind me. Any second longer being around him would only end up with me being in trouble. I couldn’t do that and I couldn’t risk Keeley being hurt.
Well, hurt anymore than she already is.
The one thing that has me questioning this whole situation, in the time that I have known her, I have never heard her talking about fainting. How does one faint from their blood pressure too high? There has to be a better explanation for this. I sincerely doubt that she would have this type of condition without telling me.
However, we haven’t known each other that long. How many other things is she keeping from me?
I know that I don’t have the right to be angry. I am keeping from her the fact that I killed a man.
Keeley
There’s a flashing light that is being shined into my eyes and it’s making me sick from motion sickness. I don’t know who is flashing the lights but it’s making me want to stab them in the face. What is their problem? Can’t they see that I’m trying to sleep?
I roll over but am stopped by a hand grabbing my own hand. What the hell? “Keeley? Baby, are you okay?”
I strain to hear the voice and then when I realize that it’s not Wyatt, I just cry. There are hot tears that are flooding my eyes and sting my chapped cheeks but I don’t even care. I want Wyatt. Why is Jerry here and calling me baby? Does he think it’s cool what he had done to me all these years? He’s cheated on me, fathered a child with my boyfriend’s (well, ex) sister and then had stolen thousands of dollars from me. I don’t want him here and have him confusing me even more than I already am.
The light humming and beep of the machines is grating on my nerves. Why didn’t I hear it before? I must have been out of it if I didn’t hear it before.
“Mr. Johnson.” I can hear shuffling and then another voice that is manly comes up. “I would like to discuss what happened to your wife. Did we want to wait for anyone else to come?”
With a force that I didn’t know I had, I forced my eyes to open but then the light forced them to shut all over again. My field of vision is being attacked by the bright lights of this sterile environment. In order to protect them, I squeeze my eyelids tighter and hope to gain some sort of protection from the light.
Fuck my life.
“No, I’m not waiting for anyone else to come. What happened to Keeley?” Jerry says as he walks away from my bed. I can hear his feet glide across the tile of the hospital.
The doctor moves and shifts some paperwork, or at least that is what it sounded like. “I’m showing that she is having a bad reaction to her birth control-”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
My world had fell through the cracks before I could even wake up. Things went black again and a sharp feeling splintered through my whole body.
*
“I don’t know what else to do. I feel like I don’t even know my own wife. After all of these years, she would go behind my back and kill our child?”
Jerry sounds so discouraged and upset that it makes me feel like shit. “I’m sorry,” I whimper and I open my eyes to see him.
His dark eyes darken and lighten as he looks at me. I knew then that I was in trouble and everything was about to change for me. Jerry is looking at me like the most-sought after defense attorney that he is.
“Things are about to be different, Keeley.”
I shake my head and then wince. The back of my skull is on fire and so is my left shoulder blade where I fell. Briefly, I had heard what the doctor had said about high blood pressure and everything, but I doubt that is what Jerry wants to change.
Wyatt
I have spent the past three days trying to visit Keeley in the hospital and every time they tell me that she’s not there or accepting visitors. It’s all Jerry’s fault. I just know that he’s gotten to her and she’s not going to listen to what I have to say.
For the fifth time in three days, I walk out of the hospital and to my SUV. I brought Lucas with me today in hopes that he would bring me good luck but he did something that I didn’t expect. He asked about his father and I couldn’t tell him anything. It’s a horrible thing trying to keep the truth from a toddler.
I rub my hand down his coarse hair and he shakes me off. “No, ice cream.”
The little shit stomps his foot and looks at me as if he’s telling me something that will change the world. “Fine, buddy, we will get ice cream.”
I take him to the ice cream place around the corner from our house and then afterwards we eat it outside. “Look- bird!” He points his chubby finger towards a bird that is flying by and then squawks too. “I’m a bird!”
The funny thing about Michigan is the weather constantly changing. One minute there’s snow and then the next it’s hotter than hell outside.
For the first time in a few days, I laugh along with him. “Yes, you are. Are you ready to go home?” I have only ate half of my ice cream but I’m not hungry
anyways. I know I should be focusing on being with Lucas, but I keep thinking about Keeley. I have a feeling that they are going to let her out of the hospital soon and it’s killing me that she’s going home with him.
“No, play outside!” He says and swallows his ice cream hole. “Owwwwie,” he cries and rubs his forehead.
The little sneak should know better than to do something like that. “Come on, man, you know you can’t do that.”
He rubs his tummy and then looks at me. “I don’t feel so good.”
No shit. “Well, let’s go home and cuddle on the couch. We can watch basketball.”
“No! Football!” He shakes his head from side to side and I roll my eyes.
“Give it a rest, little man. You won’t play football. We are a basketball family!” I say teasingly and shake my head. Before he can argue, I throw my cone away and then pick him up. Once he’s in my arms, we walk towards the car.
“Unca Wywy, when can I get a brudder or sissster?”
Uh… “Um, you want one?”
He nods his head and then lays his forehead in the crook of my neck. “Yeah. Like you and mommy.”
“I don’t know, man, I don’t know.”
The truth is, I don’t know if he would ever have a brother or sister. At least not one full blooded or anything. Ruth has been keeping everything hush- hush from me about her relationship with Jerry, but I’m wanting to know the truth. Did she know that he was married all along?
The night before I broke things off with Keeley, we had a long talk. We discussed how she started seeing Jerry and everything. She also filled me in how the money was taken. It wasn’t just Jerry taking it, Ruth had been as well.
I drove us to Kruse with one thing in mind, I wanted answers. I didn’t care about the fact that she is crying or is trying to get one over me. I’m pretty sure that she knows that I wouldn’t kick her and Luke out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m almost to that point, but this is my sister we are talking about and my nephew.
Ruth didn’t say much and I didn’t want to engage any conversation with her but I knew she was hurting about something.
By the time that we got to Kruse, I was itching for answers. Much more than that, I was itching for Keeley to be back in my arms. It’s only been a matter of hours, but I miss her so much.
“Two, please,” I say to the hostess who is eying me up and down. Ruth coughs and then looks to the side while kicking me in the shins. Sure, the hostess is cute and everything, but I wouldn’t mess up what I have going with Keeley.
The brunette hostess with the big tits, squeezes her arms against her chest to make them stick out even more and I can’t help but shake my head in disgust. I’m not interested in her. She’s one of those girls that is trying to bag a rich guy so she doesn’t have to work.
Not going to happen.
“Right this way, Mr. Thorne,” she purred and led us through the dining room.
My favorite part about this restaurant is their steaks. I don’t know what they put on it or season it with, but it’s delicious. Plus, I like the atmosphere.
After we are seated, Ruth sits across from me and doesn’t meet my eyes. “What’s going on? You wanted to talk. We are here to talk.”
She sighs and then looks at me through her eyelashes. “Well, I figured you had questions about Jerry.”
“Yeah.”
“Let me ask you- did you know about us before?”
“Thank you for dining with us today. My name is Amanda and I will be taking care of you tonight. May I start you off with something to drink? We have-”
I look up at the young server and then say: “Vodka tonic.” She looks at Ruth who doesn’t say anything but holds up another finger to signify that she wants one too.
I watch the server’s cute ass as she walks away from our table and then feel a kick in my shin. “What?” I blurt out and glare at her.
“You are such a whore.”
I chuckle and then look seriously at her. “I want to know how you got together with Jerry. And before you lie to me, I just want to let you know that I have way of validating everything you say.”
Ruth clears her throat and thanks the cute waitress as she drops off our drinks and takes our orders. I order the steak and Ruth orders some ridiculously expensive dinner that I bet she won’t like.
Oh well. At least I’m getting answers.
“I met Jerry a few years ago at a bar in LA. He said that he was separated from his wife because she was a whore or something. No, actually he said she was crazy. He found some medication in her closet that is used to treat crazy disorder.”
Keeley’s words echo in my mind: I come from crazy.
I have heard of mental illness being hereditary, I wonder if hers is as well. Even if that were the case, it doesn’t make me love her any less. We all have our quirks. I would just hope that she trusts me enough to share that with me.
“And?”
She blushes and then looks down before looking back at me. “We went to his hotel room and hooked up immediately. It was hot and fun. He kicked me out right after we had sex. Three months later, I found out I was pregnant and then tried to find him.”
My eyes go wide as I look at my lying sister. She has lied to me for so long, how much more has she lied about? And why? I wouldn’t have judged her or anything.
“Why didn’t you just tell me in the first place? Ruth, you know I would have supported you. Why lie to me?”
“I called Jerry’s phone and his wife answered after I found out I was pregnant. She sounded beautiful and smart. I didn’t know how to ask for her husband so I hung up. That night, I got back together with Jose and convinced him that I was pregnant from earlier.”
Her manipulating ways are becoming worse and worse. I can’t believe that she’s this fucked up. “You mean to tell me, that night when you came home all bruised up and I went looking for Jose- that was all a lie?”
I remember that night like it happened yesterday. She came home telling me that Jose had beat the shit out of her because he found out she was pregnant. I didn’t realize it then, but it didn’t sound like the type of thing he would do. He was excited about the fact that he was dating the sister of a professional basketball player. I know he liked it.
“He did the math and found out that he couldn’t have been the father. When he confronted me about it, I told him he was trippin’. He got so mad at me that he punched me in the chin.”
Not for one second, not one second, do I believe that she is telling me the truth. “And then? Then, you came home and told me that you were pregnant and Jose was beating you. You were trying to get me in trouble. That is what you keep trying to do. You keep thinking it’s okay for me to clean up your messes that you keep making. What the fuck is wrong with you? I could have been arrested for what I did! You are such a fucking bitch!” I’m not yelling at her, but the people at the next table are looking over at us and I give them a look that tells them where to go.
Because after that night that she told me that, I called Jose over and handled business. I shot him twice in the head for beating up my sister.
Three Months Later
I look up at the sky and then push myself to run harder and faster. My testosterone is going fucking crazy because I haven’t had sex in a long time but it is what it is.
I can’t bring myself to fuck anyone after Keeley. No one is her and it’s driving me crazy. I miss her so much and she’s all I can fucking see. I’ve tried to pick up girls in the bars but none of them got me hard. Not even a little hard. It was terrible and embarrassing.
As I pick up my pace, I run past a black SUV outside of one of my neighbors. I know that it is not their car because they are in Florida right now. Imagine that, people are actually snow birds and all of that shit. Where I grew up, you were lucky to have a house during the winter and now people have two or more houses.
It’s just one of those things that are hard for me to understand when I’m used to living in the ghetto and n
ot having much. There were nights that we went hungry and had to turn our clothes inside out to keep from itching. On those days and nights, it was the worst. Ruth would whine and cry about how uncomfortable she was and there was not a damn thing I could do about it.
I turn the corner again and see this vehicle driving by and the reflection of a woman. My heart stops in my chest at the possibility of it being Keeley. I haven’t seen her since that day at the hospital and I fucking miss her so bad.
Right after I found out that she got out of the hospital, I stopped by their practice and she wasn’t there. Jerry was in his office smoozing with some other person but I couldn’t find Keeley.
I fucking miss her.
Almost as if there was a beacon, I looked up and saw the window of the vehicle roll down. The air knocked out of my lungs as I saw her face manifest. She looked beautiful with her high cheek bones and narrowed face. Her hair was big and curly almost as if she had spent a lot of time at the salon.
“Keeley?” I whisper and run up towards the car but as soon as I got close enough, she drove off.
Feeling like a psychotic person, I jogged faster to get home. How could I just imagine her? It was almost as if she were a mirage or something.
Three months ago: Keeley
“I don’t see why you can’t go home today,” the nurse says as she hands me a cup of water. I don’t want water. I want to get out of here so I can purge Wyatt from my system.
I had been in the hospital for a week to work on getting my kidneys back in order and everything. Needless to say, I’m tired of watching television and reading these stupid romance books.
We get it, he’s rich and she’s poor. They fuck. There is not one loveable thing about him but yet you love him. You love his penis, you dumb bitch.
See, I have gone insane. I’m arguing with myself over fictional characters. It’s gotten bad.
Olivia and Shana have come and gone already today and I wanted them to sneak me in a milkshake or something. Jerry had meant it when he said things were going to change. And they have.
I don’t agree with all of these changes but I don’t know what else to do. He’s got me on a string and he’s playing me like a puppeteer plays with their puppets. I can’t believe some of the shit.
