by Rachel Hanna
“I love your brother, Tori. And he loves me. If he hears my voice…”
“It’s not going to happen. You can sit out here day after day until you’re old and gray. My mother will protect my brother, and she will never allow you to see him.”
“Why do you guys hate me so much?” Paige asked, tears streaming down her face.
Tori stared at her for a moment. “You need to leave.”
Paige watched her walk through the double doors leading to the ICU waiting area and sobbed into Sandi’s shoulder.
“You’ve got to eat something, Paige,” Sandi urged, sitting across from her at the diner just down from the hospital. Sandi had ordered a sandwich for herself and forced Paige to order some soup, but she hadn’t taken a bite in the thirty minutes it had been in front of her.
Instead, she stared out the large plate glass window onto the streets of Manhattan. She watched people walking, and rushing, through their days. She watched taxis speeding from one place to another. She watched mothers pushing their babies in strollers and tourists taking photos of random objects.
She just couldn’t understand how the world was still turning while her precious Daniel was fighting for his next breath. Nothing made sense anymore.
“Paige?” Sandi called again. She turned to look at her friend, her expression dark and clouded by worry.
“What if he dies?”
“Don’t say that. Look, you’ve got to eat something to keep your strength up…” she said, sliding the soup closer to Paige. Instead, Paige slammed her fist down onto the table, causing the other diners to turn and stare.
“Damn it! I don’t want any freaking soup! I want Daniel!” she said before bursting into tears again. “What are you looking at?” she shouted at the people staring at her. Most of them turned back around, whispering to their table mates about the scene.
The cook behind the counter shot a glance to Sandi. She mouthed apologies and waved him off.
“What can I do for you?” she asked softly. Paige looked back and shook her head.
“I’m so sorry. I know you’re only trying to help me.” She reached across and held Sandi’s hand. “I just don’t know what to do next.”
“You just take one more step, Paige. Just one more step and then the next one. We’ll do it together.”
Sandi was the closest thing she would ever have to a sister, and right now she was the only person holding Paige together.
Chapter 3
Paige sat in the waiting room of the hospital, just like she had everyday for the last week. No one would tell her anything, but as long as she saw family members still filtering in and out, she knew Daniel was still alive.
And as long as he was breathing, there was hope in her mind.
She hadn’t worked in days, and she had barely eaten. She slept on the sofa of the penthouse and couldn’t go into their bedroom yet. Everything reminded her of Daniel, and sometimes that was too much to take.
She missed his smile. His hugs. His warm kisses. She tried to hold on to the last kiss he’d given her in the wee hours of that morning, but each day the memory of the sleepy moment faded a little more.
“Hamp!” she called as she saw Tori’s husband walking out of the double doors. He was walking toward her. Maybe he had news.
“Hey, Paige,” he said softly.
“How’s Daniel?” she asked, a hopeful smile on her face.
“You know I can’t…”
“Please. I’m begging you.” She held her breath.
“He’s about the same. It’s not looking good, Paige. You need to prepare yourself.”
“No! I won’t even think about that,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “God, I miss him so much…”
“We all do.”
“Maybe if you can sneak me in. I know if he hears my voice, he’ll wake up, Hamp…”
“Paige, no. Madeline would never allow it. Look, I was sent out here to… talk to you about something.”
“What?” she asked confused.
“The penthouse.”
She froze in place. The penthouse was Daniel’s. She was only a guest.
“What about it?”
“Madeline is his power of attorney, Paige. And she wants you… out.”
“She wants me out? While her son is fighting for his life, this is what she’s worried about?” Paige said, bolting up out of her chair.
“It’s her legal right.”
Paige faced him. “You know she’s wrong, Hampton. Why don’t you man up and do the right thing and speak on behalf of your brother-in-law?”
Hampton stood silent. He took a deep breath and looked away. “The locksmith is coming by tomorrow at noon. You need to be gone by then.”
With that, her only small link to Daniel was gone as she watched Hampton walk back through the double doors.
Paige sat on Sandi’s sofa and sighed. She was thankful to have a roof over her head, even if it wasn’t a penthouse. Instead, it was a six-hundred square foot studio apartment in a questionable part of town with one of those kitchens where you could touch the walls on both sides at the same time. But now it was home… at least temporarily.
“That woman is the world’s biggest bitch,” Sandi said, taking a sip of her wine.
“True story,” Paige downed her third margarita. She was bordering on drunk, her petite frame not able to withstand the onslaught of so much alcohol at once. Sandi reached across the table and took her glass.
“You’re done for awhile,” she said. Paige slammed her forehead onto the table.
“Margaritas are the one good thing in my life right now, Sandi.”
“That’s not true. Everything is going to work out, Paige. You just have to hang on.”
Paige looked up at her. Her face was a mess of mascara and tears, her eyelids red and puffy from nearly constant crying. And now her eyes were bloodshot on top of it.
“How is this ever going to work out? Let’s look at the options. Number one, Daniel could die…”
“You shouldn’t say that.”
“It’s true. That’s what Hampton was trying to tell me. Number two,” she said through slurred speech, “he could live but have brain damage. Or three, he could live and be totally fine, but I would still have to deal with his mother trying to keep us apart. There’s no winning here.” She was staring at her fingers wondering why they looked so blurry.
Sandi stood and walked behind Paige. She slid her arms around her neck from behind and hugged her.
Paige spent the next day sitting at the hospital again. She had to know what was happening with Daniel. But it was weird because she didn’t see the family there at all. No Hampton. No Tori. No Madeline.
She waited for three hours before finally trying to get information out of the front desk lady. No such luck.
There was no other choice. She would have to go to the source. Madeline Richmond.
She drove to the Richmond building, hoping against hope that Madeline would be there. According to her staff, Madeline wasn’t there and wouldn’t be back for at least a couple of weeks. That seemed very odd given how entrenched she was in the business.
At that point, Paige felt she had no choice but to go to the Richmond house. Thankfully, she’d watched Daniel put the numerical passcode into the keypad at the gate several times. It was a combination of his birthday and Tori’s, so she easily remembered it.
She drove her compact car through the gate without incident and parked right in front of the house. As she knocked on the thick wooden door, she felt her palms start to sweat, her nerves getting the best of her.
Shockingly, Madeline opened the door. Her face was pale, her eyes puffy and red. She looked twenty years older, and Paige felt a twinge of sympathy. It soon passed.
“What do you want?” Paige noticed an almost empty glass of wine dangling from her fingertips, her hand hanging by her side.
“I want to know how Daniel is. Please, Mrs. Richmond. I need to know.”
“Fine.
Here’s the update. He’s dead.” She slammed the door. Paige couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding, her mind racing. Adrenaline took hold and she kicked the door so hard that it flew open. Madeline was walking toward the kitchen, and Paige wondered where Edward was for a moment.
“Don’t lie to me! He can’t be dead!”
Madeline turned, her bottom lip quivering. She dropped the now empty glass onto the hardwood floor, and Paige watched the glass shatter into a thousand pieces and fly all directions.
“My son is gone. Can’t you just leave us in peace?” She was sobbing now, shaking visibly. In any other circumstance, with any other person, Paige would’ve reached out and comforted them. But not in this case. Not with this woman.
“I don’t understand… I haven’t heard anything on the news…” Realization was starting to set in, and Paige steadied herself against the wood and wrought iron bannister.
“We’re keeping it quiet for now. He died early this morning.”
“Why are you keeping it quiet?” Paige asked, unsure of why it mattered.
“Because we have a business, and this news could cause our stock…”
“Are you freaking serious right now?” Paige was livid. She wanted to strangle this woman. All she cared about was money and power and her standing in the community. It was sickening.
“Get out of my house.” Madeline turned to walk away.
“When is his funeral?”
Madeline turned to face Paige one last time, and Paige could swear that her expression had changed to one of evil. “We’re having a private family memorial. You’re not invited.”
Paige grabbed her arm. “You can’t do that! He was my fiance. I loved him. Please… Please… If you have any decency at all, you’ll let me say goodbye.”
Madeline jerked her arm away. “We’re done here. Don’t come to my house again or I’ll have you arrested.”
“You’re an evil, evil woman.”
“I’ve been called worse,” Madeline said with a psychotic laugh. “Take some advice, my dear. You should move on with your life, maybe rent a trailer somewhere. Once you’re back with your own kind of people, I’m sure you’ll feel normal again.”
“You stupid bitch!” Paige said, lunging at her and just grabbing enough of her hair to pull out her extensions. Blond hair fell to the marble floor as Madeline shrieked. Edward finally appeared and pulled the two women apart before leading Paige to the door.
Minutes later, she was standing on the front porch alone. Totally and completely alone. The love of her life was gone. And she couldn’t even say goodbye.
Paige and Sandi stood at the edge of the water a few days later. Daniel had always loved the ocean, and this was the only place she could think of going to say goodbye.
She had already visited the site of his accident, which was almost too much to bear. She had cried so hard that Sandi had to almost carry her back to the car.
Since she wasn’t going to get to go to a real funeral, she’d taken one of Daniel’s old shirts and burned it so she’d have her own ashes to scatter. It was weird when she thought about it logically, but right now logic was pretty much out the window.
“I feel so lost,” Paige said as she sat down at the water’s edge, her feet being massaged by the lapping waves.
“I know you do, sweetie. I can’t imagine how anyone could be as evil as that Richmond woman.”
Paige sighed. She couldn’t even cry anymore. She just stared straight ahead, her stomach nauseous from all the stress.
“I can’t stay here, Sandi.”
“What?”
“I have to leave the city.”
“But why? You can stay with me as long as you want, Paige. I love having you there…”
Paige smiled at her friend and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, and I appreciate it. But there are too many memories here. Everywhere I turn, I see Daniel. And I see the Richmond name. I just… can’t…”
Sandi looked at her friend sadly. “I understand. But where will you go? And how will you pay for it?”
Paige turned back toward the ocean and took a deep breath. She raised her left hand up, allowing the bright sunlight to shine on her large engagement ring. It sparkled against her tan skin.
“Daniel gave me many gifts, but all I ever really wanted was his love. This ring was a token of his love, but it means nothing without him. I know he’d want me to use it for a fresh start.”
“Oh, Paige… Are you sure you want to sell the ring?”
“I’m sure. Daniel would want this for me. I know he would. Plus, I’m going to donate some of it to his favorite charity. We were going to build wells in Africa…” A stray tear rolled down her cheek, and Sandi wiped it away like she had dozens of times in recent days.
“You’re a good person, Paige. You deserve so much. I hope you find peace and love again.”
Paige smiled sadly. “I doubt I’ll ever find a love like this again. And honestly, I’m not sure I want to.”
Madeline sat in a chair, her posture straight as an arrow like always. She took in a deep breath and sighed. She really hated not being on control, not knowing what was going to happen.
She looked at the small digital alarm clock on the nightstand beside the bed. It was after one in the morning, and she’d been sitting in this same position for hours now, but she was standing guard. She wouldn’t let anything happen to him. She would protect him while he couldn’t protect himself.
“Are you sure this was the right decision, Madeline?” her son-in-law, Hampton, said from behind her, breaking the silence.
She paused for a moment and then reached for Daniel’s hand, holding it in her own. He felt so lifeless, so helpless. Her baby was her responsibility.
“Positive. As far as Paige Emerson is concerned, Daniel is dead.” Her face was impassible, her jaw clenched.
“I don’t think this is what Daniel would want…”
She turned swiftly and glared at him. “Go.”
Hampton looked at the ground for a moment before turning and walking out of the small room at the rehabilitation clinic they’d moved Daniel to a few days earlier under the darkness of night and the protection of guards. He was being cared for by doctors and nurses who had all signed privacy agreements.
“I did this for you, my son. One day, you’ll thank me.”
Paige needed a break from the constant crying and talking to Sandi about her feelings. She just need to get away and think about where she was going.
Her first stop was at the local pawn shop where she haggled for an hour before settling on a reasonable price for her ring. Normally, she wouldn’t have resorted to selling her ring at a pawn shop, but she wanted to leave town as soon as possible and she had little in the way of savings.
The money she got from her ring would support her for several months, especially if she chose a modestly priced place to live. And that definitely wasn’t New York City.
As she walked down the street, she looked up at all of the high-rises. The Richmond name was everywhere from banks to hotels to apartment buildings. And every time she saw the name - the name that was supposed to be hers - she felt a stabbing pain in her heart.
“Welcome to Carmichael’s,” the woman said as she walked into a small bookstore. It was a dying breed kind of bookstore, not like the big chains she most often went to when she wanted a book. This was a quaint place with dusty shelves and books crammed together, but it felt like a real bookstore. “Can I help you find something?”
“Well, I don’t really know what I’m looking for, actually,” Paige said, still feeling like she was walking around lost most of the time. “I’m about to move out of the city, and I’m looking for a… fresh start somewhere else. Far from here…”
“Ah, I see,” the older woman said with an empathetic smile. “Too many memories here?”
“Something like that,” Paige said, turning and looking around. “Do you have any travel books?”
“Sure. Follow me,” the woman said as she led Paige up the stairs to the second floor of her narrow store. It was wedged between two large hotels like someone had found the one available tiny space in Manhattan and squished it in there.
Paige loved the smell of the tiny place. The paper, the lingering scent of coffee. It felt like it was a world away from the hustle and bustle of a big city.
“This shelf has all of our travel books and tourist guides. Thinking of going anywhere in particular?” the woman asked.
“Not really,” Paige said, already starting to eye the wide variety of guidebooks. “I guess wherever the wind blows me.”
“Sounds like my dream. I remember when I was back in high school, I had this plan that one day I’d be wealthy enough to close my eyes and point to anywhere on the globe and that was where I’d go. Of course, life happened and I never got to do it, but it was fun to think about.” She smiled and walked back downstairs to help the next customer.
Paige stood there for a moment and then smiled for the first time in days. The thought of going somewhere brand new gave her a glimmer of hope that life could be good again. One day.
She walked to the small circular table in the corner of the room and found a globe. Beside it was a large laminated map of the United States rolled up. She unrolled it across the dusty table and put two heavy books on each side to flatten it out.
Without hesitating, she closed her eyes and spun around a couple of times before turning back to face the map. Without looking, she shot her finger downward and touched the map.
Opening her eyes, she looked down to see where her new home would be.
January Cove, Georgia.
Chapter 4
Four Months Later…
Paige rang up the last customer of the day and flipped the open sign to closed. The longer she worked at The Cove, the more at home she felt. The small bookstore reminded her a lot of the one in New York where she’d first set out on her journey.
