by Holly Rayner
I opened the jewelry box next. Inside was a delicate silver bracelet with two charms on it. One said mother and the other said wife. They had Eric and Aiden’s name inscribed on them respectively. The flowers didn’t quite do it for me but the note sent me in the direction of forgiveness and the bracelet put me over the edge. Maybe I was that easy or maybe I just didn’t want to be angry with him any longer. I wanted us to talk about all of this and make sure that it didn’t happen again and then I wanted us to go on with our beautiful life.
I took that bubble bath and put on a dress that I’d been saving for a night out. I curled my hair the way I used to before I was always so busy with Eric and I wore my new charm bracelet. Dinner was delivered by six and by the time I had it set up on the table and the candles lit, Aiden was home.
~
Chapter Two
~
HOLLY
Aiden stopped in his tracks as soon as he came in the door and saw me. He ran his eyes from my head to my toes and back again. When he got back to my face he had a broad grin on his face.
“I have the hottest wife on the planet.” It was a silly thing for him to say and an even sillier thing for me to get excited about, but I guess I am a little bit easy because it gave me a thrill to know that he thought so.
“Thank you, and thank you for the apology and the flowers and the bracelet. I love it all, but you’re right, we’re going to have to talk about this before any of it will be okay or completely forgiven.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “I meant what I said in the note. I love that you can’t be bought. That kind of woman was never what I was looking for.” I smiled again and gave him a nod. The truth was he looked so incredibly sexy with his tie all askew and his five o’clock shadow that I wanted to eat him up…but if I started with even so much as a kiss, we’d head for the bedroom and that would be the end of our “talk.”
“Let’s eat,” I told him. That was when he stepped close and kissed me on the cheek. I couldn’t help myself, I shuddered. We sat down at the table and Aiden poured us both a glass of the wine Rose had brought over and we started out with polite conversation while we ate. Aiden told me then that he had called Rose and asked her to look after Eric so that we could talk. I thought out of all the things he’d done, that was the sweetest. I was also pretty impressed with Rose. I love her dearly, but she’s a huge gossip. The fact that she’d kept that confidence for him meant a lot.
When we’d finished our meal I took a tray I’d fixed with a carafe of coffee and some cheesecake bites the restaurant had sent over and we went into the den. We settled in on the couch and Aiden started to talk.
“I probably should have said it classier earlier when I said you were the hottest wife on the planet…but damn Holly, it’s true. You get more beautiful every day and this is going to sound like I’m making excuses for my behavior, but I’m not. I intend to take full responsibility for what I’ve done. It’s just that when I look at you, I can’t imagine that you would ever suspect that I would want anyone else but you. I would have to be completely insane.”
I had to shake my head a little over that. “I’m not sure that you’ve gotten it yet, Aiden. I never thought you were sleeping with Cecile. But, I get the distinct impression that she wants to be sleeping with you, and that she’s going to use Mark and whatever other means necessary to make that happen. She seems to have no qualms about it, not even about flirting with you in front of your wife. It makes me wonder what she’d be willing to do behind my back.”
“That’s what I’m saying though, Holly. It’s impossible. It’s not going to happen. Even if I wasn’t so crazy about you, I won’t ever forgive her for what she did to me and to Mark and I have no desire left for her whatsoever at all. So whatever she may or may not want…it doesn’t matter. I’m where I want to be. All I want from her is access to Mark.”
“I respect that you want to see Mark. I resent that you weren’t willing to talk to me about it, that you didn’t trust me enough…especially since you seem to trust Cecile a little too much.”
“What do you mean by that?” he asked. “I keep telling you that’s not the case.”
“You just seem to take everything she says at face value. Have you even talked to her husband and heard his side of the story? To me it seems like she saw the chance to use Mark again and she took it. Maybe she was bored back then and chose him, but now financially, you’re the bigger prize.”
“Thanks,” he said with a little sarcastic edge to his tone, like maybe I was trying to say that would be the only reason a woman would choose him over someone else.
I rolled my eyes because at a time like this, feeding his ego shouldn’t be important. Sighing, I said, “I’m not saying that you don’t beat him in every other area as well. I don’t even know him and I’m sure of that because I know you. But Aiden, what if she’s keeping Mark from him the way she did you? What if she’s using her son to try and break us up and get you back? Before you get all involved with him, shouldn’t you at least call and get his side of the story?”
“As far as Jake is concerned, I really don’t give a damn. He was my best friend Holly and he slept with my wife. Every time I heard his name or saw his picture since I found out, I would get angry all over again. Guys have a code, all guys; you don’t screw your friend’s wives or girlfriends. I seriously do not care what happened between him and her as long as Mark is safe.”
“Seriously, Aiden? You can think about how badly she hurt you by taking that boy away and you can sit by and be okay with her doing it to someone else?”
“He was okay with screwing my wife,” Aiden said.
I could see that I was getting nowhere with that approach so I tried a new one. “Okay, so we’ve established that you don’t give a damn about Jake, fine. I know you give a damn about our child. She purposely kicked that table and splashed hot coffee on him to make me look bad. What kind of person does something like that to a baby? That’s twisted.”
“She said it was an accident,” Aiden said. “I know Cecile has her faults, but I can’t even begin to imagine that she would hurt a baby. Accusing her of being a flirt, I can agree with. But someone who would hurt a child? I’m sorry…”
“I’m sorry too Aiden, but that’s the problem here. You don’t want to imagine that she would use Mark by saying that he’s being abused and taking him away from his father if it’s not true. You don’t want to imagine she would hurt Eric to get to me. Maybe we should…” Aiden’s phone rang and lo and behold it was Cecile calling. He looked up at me with wide eyes and I nodded at him. He put it on speaker and said, “Hello?”
“Oh Aiden, thank God.” Her tone was dramatic, as always.
“Yes Cecile, I’m kind of in the middle of something here. What’s up?”
“Aiden I’m at Scarsdale Memorial with Mark. He has a high fever. It got so high that he had a seizure.” I could see the panic in Aiden’s eyes. He turned them on me with a pleading look. What was I going to do, be the jealous bitch that doesn’t let him be there for his sick child? I nodded at him again.
“Is he in the ER?”
“Yes, Aiden please come. I’m so scared.” I wanted to throw up, but the concern I saw on Aiden’s face was real. He looked at me again and I nodded more firmly.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he told her.
“Oh thank you,” she said. “Tell them you’re his father at the desk or they won’t let you back.”
“Okay,” he said. Again, I rolled my eyes. She probably knew I was listening, and she probably loved saying that.
Aiden ended the call and then he looked back at me.
“Are you sure? Tonight was supposed to be our night. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure, go. It’ll be okay, we’ll have other nights,” I told him.
“Do you want to go with me?”
“They wouldn’t let me in the back since I’m not a relative I’m sure, and I’m sorry but I also don’t want to risk bringing any infe
ctions home to Eric.”
“You’re amazing, you know that?” he said.
Trying to lighten my own mood I grinned.
“Yeah, I know. Go, but drive safe!” He kissed me and I watched him go out the door. Cecile had made me so paranoid that for a few seconds after he left I wondered if somehow she had arranged this. But that was crazy…wasn’t it?
AIDEN
It was a forty-five minute drive to Scarsdale from our apartment. I drove as quickly as I could; I was frantic. I didn’t know much about seizures but I did know that a kid’s fever had to get pretty high before they started seizing and I wondered how Mark had spiked one so high without his mother noticing sooner. I think Holly’s suspicions about Cecile were starting to get to me. It wasn’t that I thought Cecile was perfect. If anyone knew she was far from it, it was me. But I’d lived with her for three years and before that, I’d dated her for three. If she was capable of harming an innocent child, wouldn’t I know that?
I finally made it to the hospital, anxiously found a place to park and then made my way into the crowded ER. I went straight to the desk and told them I was here to see Mark, and that I was his father. They buzzed me back right away. I was taken back to a small room where Mark lay on a gurney that made him look so small and pathetic that my heart lurched in my chest. Cecile sat in a chair next to the bed. A bag of IV fluids was running into his arm and although he had a sheet up over him and it felt warm in the room to me, he was shivering. He had his eyes closed and I didn’t know if he was awake or sleeping so I looked at Cecile and whispered, “What’s wrong with him?”
She stood up and came around to the side of the bed where I stood. She slipped her arms around my neck and let her body collapse into me. I could feel her shaking. Nudging her back a little I repeated, “Cecile, what is wrong with him?”
She wiped a stray tear away with her hand and said, “I don’t know. He hasn’t been sick at all, not even a cold. Then today he was listless and didn’t want to go out and play. I took his temperature and it was 38.0C. I gave him some Acetaminophen and let him lie on the couch and watch cartoons. I was putting some laundry away at one point and I was only out of the room for minutes. When I came back in, his face was bright red. I felt him and he felt like he was on fire. I made him take off the blanket he’d covered himself with and I went to get the thermometer and medicine. When I came back, he was seizing. It was awful, the most awful thing I’d ever seen.”
I looked at Mark again and then back at her and said, “Why is he shivering like that?”
Cecile reached over and pulled back the sheet. Mark was nude except for his little boxers and his body was laden with ice packs. The poor guy was like a piece of fish packed in a box to ship to the store.
“Jesus, what’s all the ice for?”
“It’s to bring his temperature down. It was so high when we got here, he was still seizing. They gave him some medicine in his IV and packed him with the ice. He stopped seizing after a few minutes but he hasn’t woken up yet.”
I reached over and put my hand on his forehead. I hated seeing him like this and I wanted so badly to do something for him. I don’t think I’d ever felt so helpless in my life. When I stood back up, Cecile once again threw herself against me. I felt bad, I know she had to be upset, but I couldn’t help think about what Holly had said about her wanting me back. She did seem to touch me an awful lot.
I gently took her arms in my hands and guided her back about a foot. Then I turned back to Mark and said, “Do the doctors have any idea where the fever came from?”
She shook her head. “They said he may have just had a little cold and the covering up made him too warm and pushed the fever up too high.”
I put my hand gently on his chest. I could feel the rise and fall of it and it made me feel better. With all the ice packed around him it was hard to see him breathing. Cecile went back to her chair and I stood on my side of the bed and we stayed like that until the doctor came in a while later. He checked Mark’s temperature and then he had the nurse remove the ice packs from him. His skin was red and mottled all over from being so cold. I felt so bad for him that I could hardly stand it. When the doctor finished his exam he said, “Mark’s labs all came back normal. His white blood cell count would be elevated if he had any infections going on that we couldn’t see, but it’s not. His ears, throat and lungs are clear. His mother said he’s been asymptomatic before the fever today, so I have no idea where the fever came from. The good news is it’s back to normal now.”
“Why isn’t he waking up?” I asked him.
“When he first stopped seizing he was what we call postictal. He was awake, but he was confused and disoriented. That was all normal. Now, more than likely he is just exhausted. Having a seizure, especially one as long as his lasted takes a lot out of a person. We also gave him some medication to help him stop seizing. The medication is called Ativan. It’s in the same family as Valium, but it works faster and won’t stay in his system as long. It is a sedative though so with all of that trauma, his body probably just needs the rest.”
“Probably?” I asked my mind kept picking out that word from the news he’d given us.
“Yes, it’s the most likely scenario,” he said. “But, there is also the very small possibility that the fever, coupled with the seizure could have given him some form of brain damage. We won’t be able to know any of that until he’s awake. Once he wakes up we can do further testing.”
