by Evie Nichole
***
It was daybreak before Barkley could get across town to the hospital. He was told Selene had made it through her surgery just fine, and after a short rehabilitation period, she would be as good as new.
He stood by her bed, his mind going several places at once, unable to stay attached to one thought for too long. The one thought that seemed to always come back was that she was lying in a hospital bed for the second time in a week because of him. It was all just too much. Betty was gone and Robert, too. Sarah was now officially dead. Selene had almost died…again.
He scooted a chair next to her bed, taking her limp hand. Barkley laid her hand against his cheek and wept. He wept in a way that he hadn’t allowed himself since he first realized that his wife was going to leave him. He laid Selene’s hand beside her on the white blanket and covered his face.
Barkley felt a hand clumsily run through his hair. He looked up to see Selene staring at him drowsily.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“Don’t be. It’s over now. You can finally have closure.” She tried to rub at his head again. “I’m sorry about Robert and Betty.”
“I’m just sorry they were sick enough in their mind to be involved with this.”
Selene realized that Barkley didn’t know yet about Robert’s full role in the entire thing, or maybe he did and just didn’t want to say it aloud. There was time to talk about it later. There was finally time enough to know there would be a later. She closed her eyes and reached for Barkley’s hand.
***
Barkley gave permission for the well to be excavated. He didn’t want to be there for it, and he told Detective Jenkins that MJ and Jim could oversee the process.
He took his mother and Selene to a hotel after Selene’s release from the hospital. The house was going through a thorough cleaning, and he wasn’t sure Selene needed to go back there so soon anyway. When she insisted that she could just go back to her apartment, he had gently reminded her that he was never letting her out of his sight again. It sounded like a good plan to Selene.
When the call came to confirm what they all already knew, that the remains of one Sarah Mitchell had in fact been pulled from that well in the woods; Barkley went into the bathroom of the hotel suite and sat alone for over an hour. Ruth had taken Selene’s hand in hers and patted it absently.
“How will he ever move past this much pain? How will he ever know peace again?” Selene had asked quietly.
“Peace sometimes comes from horrific knowledge and circumstance. He will get through it. With time.” Ruth had assured her.
“How do you know for sure?”
Ruth tore her eyes from the closed bathroom door. “He has you to help him through it. That’s how I know.”
Chapter Seven
One year later
Selene smoothed her hands down the sides of her snug fitting deep cream dress. She liked how the breeze from the open windows blew over her bare back where the scooped neckline of the dress draped just below her shoulder blades. Silk and chiffon. Ruth had promised it would be the most stunning gown in the history of gowns, and Selene was positive it in fact was.
“How does it look out there, MJ?”
MJ closed the crack in the door and turned back to her with a smile. “Aww, he’s out there sweating bullets.” He came to her and offered the crook of his arm. “Mary’s about to start the music.”
Ruth handed Selene the bouquet of fall mums and sunflowers, the stems wound tightly with burgundy ribbon to match the men’s cummerbunds and ties. She smiled and kissed Selene’s cheek.
“Today, I gain a daughter.”
“Music’s on,” MJ said and straightened his back.
“You look sharp today, MJ,” Ruth commented as she exited the house into the late afternoon sunlight.
“I think she likes me,” MJ whispered as the music blended from a soft classical piece into the traditional wedding march.
Selene stepped onto the porch, clinging tightly to MJ’s arm. The small crowd stood, all smiling, even Barkley’s father. Tom and Chuck nudged each other as Selene passed.
Barkley stepped away from Tim, as MJ approached with his bride, his green eyes nowhere but on her face. As they took their vows, Selene realized that she hadn’t followed the superstitious rule of something borrowed something blue, but she didn’t think it mattered at that point. It had been a year of something lost and something found. Now the future was free of the past for both of them, and she was going to run directly into it with open arms.
~ END ~
