“Get out.” I suddenly stopped crying and wiped away the stray tears left on my face.
Finn looked like I’d slapped him across the face.
“Emilyn please!”
I turned my face toward the door no longer able to look at him.
“I don’t want you here, get out please.”
“Not gonna happen Tiny Girl, we’re talking about this.”
“You either get out, or I’ll have you removed.”
Out of my peripheral vision I could see him stare at me, shocked. He didn’t know what to do.
“Em…” He tried pleading again.
“Now Finley! Get out!” I nearly screamed at him, grabbing the plastic cup I’d just drank from and throwing it at him.
He dodged it, then slowly stood up from his chair and moved towards the door. With his hand on the handle he turned to face me again. Trying to keep the emotion off of his face his eyes met mine. In a bold and certain voice he spoke to me before he left.
“This right here,” he pointed between himself and me, “This isn’t done. I’m leaving because you want me too. But I’ll be back tomorrow Emilyn. I’m sorry that this is happening and I’m here for you. I’m only a phone call away and I’ll be here in the blink of an eye. You’re not going to get rid of me. Remember that you’re mine, and we will get through this. I love you with every fiber in my soul, and if I have to love you enough for the both of us, for however long it takes, I will.”
He walked out the door and shut it behind him. I lay there, unmoving, in a state of total and utter shock. My life was over. I wanted my son back. I wanted to know why this was happening to me. I had no idea what I was going to do now, but at that very moment, a nurse walked in to check on me. She gave me a shot of something that made me sleepy, so I guess the ‘what I was going to do now’ question was answered, because minutes later I fell into a deep empty slumber.
I hadn’t lived my life with regrets. I picked myself up, moved forward and took each twist and turn as a learning experience. That hasn’t been the case with Em. With her I’d had moments of wanting to relive my time, just to feel her again. But reliving your past just to experience it again and regretting your past because of a shitty mistake you’d made were two very different things. If I could take back the last forty-eight hours of my life, I would. I didn’t know how I was going to fix this mess. I kept replaying what had happened at the hospital, and the look on her face as I told her the baby was gone wouldn’t leave my mind. It would forever be burned into my brain. The many emotions that flickered through those blue eyes said a hundred things before she was gone. And I don’t mean like picking up and just leaving me. I mean the life that was in those eyes—that spark—it was gone. I saw confusion, denial, sadness, anger, and then… nothing—all within a matter of seconds. It was like she wasn’t in there anymore. I would gladly hand over my own life if it meant she’d give me any one of those emotions. Shit, give me pissed off at the world, want to go blow something up, castrate me anger. Anything!
I didn’t go far that night. I walked out of her hospital room and set up camp in the waiting room down the hall. I’d told her I would be there for her, and I would be. Whatever it took. Sitting in the most obnoxiously lumpy chairs, I cursed the administrative staff that thought these were acceptable accommodations. Granted, they probably didn’t expect someone to try to sleep in them for two days straight. Either way, I was still sending some hate mail to somebody.
I was sat, leaning forwards with my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands when Kyler and Harper came in together. Harper stopped when I looked up at her and she cursed under her breath. Ky leaned down and whispered in her ear. She nodded and then turned to head down the hall to Em’s room. Ky came over to sit next to me.
“Has she let you in to see her?”
“No.” My voice sounded odd to my own ears.
“Has the doctor told you when she can come home?”
“He told her parents that she could go home this evening. Her Dad relayed the message to me when he was here earlier. Apparently Em told Dr. Monroe that I wasn’t to be given any more information.”
He sucked in a breath. “Ouch man. I’m sorry.”
I just nodded in response and dipped my head back down.
“Did she tell Richard if she was coming back home to your place?”
I shook my head. “No.”
We sat in silence for five minutes before Ky slapped my back and stood up. “When was the last time you had something to eat, or got any sleep?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Two days ago I guess, but I’ve dozed off now and then.”
“Well there’s not a whole lot going on right now, so why don’t you take a walk with me down to the cafeteria and we’ll get a coffee and a bite to eat.”
I was going to say I was fine, but Ky gave me a look that said he would toss my raggedy ass over his shoulder and march me down there if he had to. I didn’t have it in me to argue with him. Getting up from my chair, I stretched. My muscles ached worse than if I’d just done a hardcore workout.
“Good boy.” He patted me on the head like a puppy.
I shook him off. “Ass.” He chuckled.
Walking past the nurses’ station I overheard a man asking for Emilyn and I stopped dead in my tracks. Turning around, I took him in. He was a tall, brown haired man, dressed in a suit and expensive shoes. The nurse asked who he was and he told them that his name was Weston and he was her husband. The nurse said that Ms. Tucker hadn’t listed a husband on her medical chart, but she’d gladly call down to her room to see if she was available for any visitors. When she hung up the phone she told him the room number and pointed in the direction of Em’s room. He walked past Kyler and me, tipping his head in a nod as he walked by.
I saw red.
What the fuck was that little pencil-dick doing here? He wasn’t her husband anymore. Better yet, if the nurse called down to Em, why had she said that it was okay for him to see her, when she wouldn’t even let me in the room? I followed him down the hall. Ky wasn’t too far behind me. Weston reached Em’s room, stopped and knocked. I heard her voice through the door telling him to come in. Swallowing hard and wondering what was going to happen I crept closer to the door that he’d left slightly ajar, but stayed off to the side and out of view.
“Hello Emilyn.” His voice was cool—probably his lawyer voice that he used with his clients.
“What are you doing here West?” She didn’t even sound like herself.
“That’s a good fucking question. What are you doing here asshat?” Harper’s voice was venomous.
“Asshat?” Ky whispered behind me. “What the fuck? That’s my name.”
“Shut up Ky.” I said quietly.
“I got a phone call while I was in the office yesterday. A woman named Aubrey contacted my secretary to let me know you were in the hospital and had lost the baby.”
“That mother fucking hairy cunt ass Cheeto! I’m going to kill her!” Harper spat, her voice carrying down the hall. A few nurses wandering the halls stopped to look down at us.
Kyler chuckled by my side. Of course the love-struck idiot would think that was cute. I tensed at the news. How in the world had Aubrey of all people heard? I’d forgotten how fast news spreads in a small town. Someone had probably seen us waiting for the ambulance and Em bleeding. I’d known Aubrey didn’t care for Em, but the fact that she felt the need to lash out and call West in Chicago? That was crossing a line. If Harper didn’t get a hold of her before me, there would be hell to pay for this one.
“Harper, enough.” Em was too calm, and it made me uneasy.