by Diana W
“Well it was an ex of mine and shortly after that night, we...” my mouth suddenly went dry with admitting what the real situation between us was. “…became intimate and I think he’s upset because he can’t have more than what I’m offering him. Well, was offering him.” Was the best way I could put it.
Lucas nodded with understanding. “Ok. I need his name and where he lives so we can question him about his whereabouts.”
“Ok.” I lowered my head almost in shame. Lucas didn’t do anything that made me feel like he was judging me for my actions, but I wouldn’t be in this kind of situation if I would’ve never dialed Julian’s number. Could’ve chosen another way to deal with my hurt.
I wrote down Julian’s hotel information and handed over to him.
“Alright, make sure when your family gets here, you grab some things and stay by them for a few nights. You know for precautionary measures.” He slid the note pad in his back pocket.
“I will.”
“Well, let me go wrap up everything and get out of here.” Lucas did a quick glance behind him at the two uniformed officers speaking to each other. Seeing them prompted me. “Hey, how come you aren’t in uniform?”
“I had just gotten off my shift. Caught the radio call as soon as I got in car.” He shoved his hands in his front pockets.
I nodded and sat back, thankful things fell in line the way they did. “Well damn, how fast were you going? I didn’t know there was a station nearby.”
I thought he was in the neighborhood or something already with how quickly he made it to the front door.
“Well,” he held up his hands over his head with a guilty look, “you’ve busted me. You can’t tell anybody...but... I’m a superhero crime fighter that can move faster than a speeding bullet. I have the whole spandex thing on under this. A little uncomfortable to switch into when there aren’t phonebooths in existence anymore, but I get it done. Gas station bathrooms. Grocery store parking lots. Wherever I can,” he whispered.
“Boy!” I managed to somehow laugh.
Lucas joined in before slapping the top of the car and walking off.
I glanced back down at my phone and tried calling Elliott again.
Still nothing.
“Cass!” I heard Denise’s distinct voice in the distance. I looked in that direction as I watched her rush over to me with Gerald trailing her. “You okay?!” I stood up, wrapping her in a hug, that she wasted no time returning.
“Yeah, I’m ok now,” I admitted as we broke apart, even though I was still a bit shaken up from everything.
“We’re glad to hear that,” Gerald chimed in, enveloping me in a hug that mirrored his wife’s. An unusual action for him. We had that joking, give me pound for a greeting kind of relationship with each other. Made me wonder if that was the side Denise got from him when they weren’t arguing.
“You’re coming by us, right?” Denise asked.
“Yeah. Lucas told me to do that for a few days until I get things fixed in the house.”
“Lucas?” Denise perked up with recognition. “The same Lucas from that night you told me about?”
“Yeah,” I nodded completely forgetting about me mentioning him to her. “Oh shoot,” I suddenly realized I was still wearing his coat. I looked over to the lawn, searching for him. The same officers were still there but he was nowhere in sight.
Did he go in the house?
All three of us stood there waiting but even after the two officers came over to us and gave me directions on how to follow-up with the police report and next steps, he never reemerged.
“Let’s grab a few of your things and go. We can come back early tomorrow morning. Tyler’s in the backseat sleeping and Lord knows I don’t need him waking up and asking a million and one questions about what’s going on.” Denise put her arm around my waist.
“Ok,” I finally gave in, with my eyes now looking up the streets trying to figure out why Lucas would leave without his coat or saying goodbye.
Chapter 18
The concept of sleep was laughable at this point. If my insomnia was awful on a normal night, it was currently juiced up on a twelve pack of Red Bulls with everything that happened earlier. I adjusted the guestroom bed’s pillow for the millionth time in an attempt to make myself more comfortable but then again, what was the point?
I can’t believe Julian would take it this far.
I mean, of course it was him. That whole grabbing of my arm and cussing me out were all the red flags I needed. Now, I understand being pissed and hurt about me keeping him at a distance, but no way should that warrant this type of shit.
Either way though, I should be thankful. It was kind of a blessing in disguise to be done with him. I don’t think it was by chance that it happened on the same night of Elliott and I’s path to reconciliation.
Well, I hope it’s a path to that.
He did say we needed to discuss things so that has to be a path...right?
I mean we had sex! Like mind-blowing, passionate sex. Sex that two people, married as long as we have, usually stop having.
Even thinking about it was turning me on again.
Elliott.
I decided to try my luck with calling him again. If he didn’t answer this time, I was going to assume he left his phone in the car or something along those lines. It’s not like that was a farfetched scenario for him anyway.
On the third ring, I sighed realizing that I’d have to wait until he got in his car for work to hear from him. As I went to press end, I heard a male voice shouting into the phone, but I was certain it wasn’t Elliott.
“Hello?” I put the phone back to my ear.
“Hello! Hello! Are you his wife?!” I realized the man wasn’t shouting aggressively but more so panicking.
“Yes, this is Elliott Watson’s wife,” I rushed to sit up. I assumed that Elliott never changed my title of “The Mrs.” in his phone.
“I think he’s breathing. I already called 911,” he fumbled through his words.
Think he’s breathing? My stomach tightened with a pain I’d never felt before.
“What happened?!” I threw the covers off me, already sliding into my shoes. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know. I ...I found him in the parking lot bleeding,” The guy continued. I could now hear the distinct sound of sirens in the background. “The ambulance is coming!”
“Oh God!” I held my stomach, damn near running down the hall to Denise and Gerald’s bedroom. Now pounding on their door.
“Elliott’s been hurt!” I shouted. “Denise! Gerald!”
Within seconds, Denise swung the door open looking noticeably frazzled. “What? What happened to him?!”
“What hospital are they taking him to?!” I shouted into the phone, trying not to lose the little bit of composure I was holding onto but the guy was talking to at least two additional voices now. “Hello?! Hello?!” I panicked, praying he didn’t hang up on me.
“University! They're taking him to University!” He finally responded.
“Thank you!” My eyes met Denise’s. I held the phone away from my mouth for a split second, “I’m gonna try to meet the ambulance at the hospital.”
“Ok,” she nodded. “I’ll be right behind you.”
*****
I was terrified to close my eyes for longer than two seconds. It was almost obsessive how hard I was staring at Elliott for any sign of movement. I’d been glued to his bed side since they admitted him to this room in the ICU yesterday. I heard the room door open and I already knew it was his main daytime nurse, a middle-aged black lady named Miss Jerry, coming to do whatever procedures she’d been doing every single hour since the shift-change for today.
“You need anything, baby?” She stopped on the side of me making me sit up to give her my attention.
“Just for him to wake up,” I gave her a wry smile.
She returned it with an assuring one, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “He will.” She squeezed
gently.
I wondered if that was just something standard for her to say. Some rehearsed lines she’d give to all the visitors in every room in this section, but as she stood there for a minute observing his frame along with me, I decided that even if it wasn’t true, it was enough hope for me to hold on to.
“You sure you don’t need some coffee or water? You haven’t moved from this position since I’ve first seen you. Yesterday included.” Miss Jerry went back to her rolling caddy, punching something into her computer.
“I’m fine,” I moved my thumb back and forth across Elliott’s arm, hoping that it was somehow soothing him. The nasty bruise surrounding his left eye seemed to be turning a deeper purple than when he first arrived.
“Look now,” I heard her typing stop, “I can’t have you falling out in here from exhaustion or dehydration…at least, not on my shift.”
An involuntary snort came out, followed by a smile that almost reached my eyes. Her tone sounded almost as threatening as my mom’s and as flip as my mouth was, that was the one person I didn't play with.
“I guess some coffee wouldn’t hurt, huh?” I shot her a glance.
“Sho wouldn’t. They have these tasty spinach pastries at that coffee shop too. Make sure you try one. Two for good measure.”
This time I laughed. “I hear you Miss Jerry. You won’t stop until you see me eating and drinking something, will you?”
“You know,” her eyes looked over at me, bouncing with amusement. “I could tell you were a sharp one.”
We both laughed that time.
After a few more seconds of dragging my feet, I stood up and threw my purse over my shoulder. I leaned over and gave Elliott a delicate kiss on his cheek, careful not to disrupt the bandages wrapped around his head.
“I’ll be right back,” I whispered in his ear.
I walked towards the room door, stopping to look back at him, hopefully for a reaction to my exit.
“Girl, if you don’t get outta here,” Miss Jerry chimed in shooing me.
“Ok. Ok,” I held my hands up, now rushing out.
Walking down the hallway towards the elevators, I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding onto. I think Miss Jerry was right. I did need a minute to just...be. Wrap my head around all this chaos that’d been chasing me over the past twenty-four hours. From my house being vandalized, to my husband being viscously attacked outside of his apartment. Mentally, I felt like I was teetering on the brink of insanity.
I made my way to the cute little coffee place near the gift shop on the first floor and ordered enough shots of espresso in my macchiato to resurrect Frankenstein, along with two of the spinach pastries Miss Jerry mentioned. I even stopped to look at some of the hospital gifts before I made my way back up to the ICU wing. That reminded me that I needed to tell Denise to bring me a new set of clothes when she came back to keep me company in a few hours. I didn’t expect her to stay the entire night last night, but she did, vowing to do the same again tonight despite my objections.
As I took a right down the hall to Elliott’s room, I slowed up as I recognized the familiar figure heading in my direction.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I growled, forcing Victoria’s head to pop up. She suddenly looked terrified. Nothing like the skank that was yapping off the first two times I’d seen her.
“I..I...just came to check on him,” she flustered out. Clenching onto her purse like it’d save her from the ass kicking I still owed her.
“Listen,” I closed the distance between us, keeping in mind to control the volume in my tone. I was well aware that this wasn’t the time nor place, but I needed to make myself clear on where she stood as it related to Elliott from here on out.
“If you have anything you need to tell Elliott, you can direct it to me, and if it’s not about the baby,” I looked down towards her stomach, observing how her fitted shirt showed no signs of what should’ve been a small but visible baby bump by now. “Are you still...?” I choked on my last bit of words.
Victoria quickly adjusted her cross-body purse towards the front of her. When she didn’t answer, my eyes lifted back up to her face, seeing the pool of water forming in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she gave me a regretful look and then rushed past me.
She’s sorry? I stood there letting those words sink in. For what exactly? For not being pregnant? Did she lose it?
Or was it because she never was in the first place?
With that thought, I turned on my heels and stormed off right behind her, clenching all my items in one hand so I could have a free one to snatch her back in my direction.
“Hell no! You don’t get to fuck up our lives and then walk away like it’s nothing. You tell me the truth.”
She attempted to pull away from me. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?” My grip tightened. I wasn’t purposely trying to cause a scene, but she owed me an explanation. “Talk or I swear to God,” I threatened through gritted teeth.
Visible tears rolled down her cheeks. “He’ll kill me if I do.”
Even in my anger, hearing that caught me off guard. “Kill? Who?”
There’s no way she could be referring to Elliott.
Victoria was shaking her head back and forth, now looking every bit of her young age. “It was never supposed to be like this.”
“Victoria,” I calmed myself down to attempt to get something out of her that made sense. “Tell me what happened, and I swear to you, I can try to get you some kind of help to make sure nobody hurts you.”
Her distraught eyes connected to mine, but she still wasn’t talking.
“Elliott is laying up in that room with two fucked up ribs and a gash in his head from being beaten almost to death.” I let go of her arm, covering my mouth to prevent an unexpected wave of emotion from spilling out. When I felt composed enough, I continued. “If you know who did this, please tell me and we can both go to the police.”
Victoria sniffled and quickly wiped away her tears. “I wanna help you. I swear I do. But he’ll hurt some people close to me.” She closed her eyes like she was in pain. “He's already done it once.”
I stared at her with a million thoughts swirling through my head. What the fuck was going on?
“I’m sorry for everything,” she offered again before turning around and opting for the stairwell. I didn’t bother chasing her this time because it’d be useless. She wasn’t going to talk and based on what she did say, I understood why.
Denise stood near the closet of her bedroom, running through her mental checklist of everything she needed to bring to the hospital. Cassandra’s things were already packed up but she was trying to make sure her own stuff was accounted for. This entire situation with Elliott sent everyone into frenzy and remembering to bring things like toothbrushes and comfy slippers were the last things on anybody’s mind, but not tonight. She wanted to make sure her and her sister could be as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. Maybe she could even convince Cass to take a break away from the hospital and come by them to take a real shower since going to her own house was still out of the question.
As Denise stuffed her plush socks into her overnight bag, Gerald walked casually in the room, taking a seat near her stuff on the bed. She internally rolled her eyes and continued on with what she was doing.
“Any new updates on E?” He asked, referring to the cheesy one-syllable of a nickname he called Elliott. Denise thought it was cute, in a bromance kind of way, on a normal day but today her annoyance with Gerald still walking around like nothing was wrong between the two of them, only made her want to slap his glasses from his face.
“I’ll find out when I get there,” she replied curtly.
Gerald already sensed her uneasiness and tried his best to keep everything cool. He had no problem going head to head with his wife but now wasn’t the time. All of their thoughts and energy should be directed to Elliott. “Well, I have Tyler all squ
ared away for his school photos tomorrow. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
Denise zipped up the last part of the bag. “Oh, is that right?”
“Yes, and I pre-packaged his lunch. I want you to be able to focus on being there for your sister.”
“Focus on my sister huh?” She walked towards the clothes hamper. “Is that what you really want?” She stuck her hand to the bottom of it, clenching onto what she already knew was there. “Or is it that you need some time to get back to this?” She proceeded to toss at least three of the dried-semen coated socks at his head.
Gerald blocked two but couldn’t avoid the last one that landed on his cheek. He was at a loss for words but tried his best to explain himself. “Baby...”
“Save it,” Denise walked towards her stuff. “If you’re not happy with me or my body, then tell me but don’t lie to me.”
“It’s not like that Denise,” Gerald stood up trying to comfort his wife who looked more vulnerable than he’d ever seen. She was a tough ass when it came to him but there was no sign of it right now.
“You know where I’ll be,” she shoved off his attempted affection, grabbing her bag. All she wanted to do was kiss her son goodbye and get as far away as she could from their house.
Chapter 19
“Why so quiet DeeDee? You’re the queen of saving me from my own thoughts and you haven’t said anything other than “hey” since you got here.” I looked at my sister who was engulfed in her phone, visible crease in her forehead like she was heavily focused on something.
“DeeDee?” I asked again when she didn’t respond.
“Yeah,” her head finally popped up. “I’m ok.”
“You’re lying,” I leaned back off my elbows from Elliott’s bed. Denise sighed, folding one of her legs underneath her.
She looked towards Elliott. “This isn’t the time to talk about it. I’m fine.”
“Like hell it isn’t,” I countered. With the situation that happened earlier with Victoria, my brain was still trying to process how to even tell Denise about it. Maybe whatever she was going to talk about could help with that. “What else are we supposed to do besides wait on him to wake up? I mean there’s only so many episodes of SVU I can watch.”
