“I am. I’ll let you go. Enjoy your breakfast. Hope your meeting goes over well.”
“Thank you, Mother.” With that, we disconnected the call and I continued to stare out the window instead of down at the papers in the file that sat next to me. I’d been over the files numerous times, had memorized the information inside. This breakfast was just a formality to meet with the heads of a local finance company Townsend may’ve been interested in acquiring. I needed to go over it with the board first in order to get the ball really rolling.
But business wasn’t the prevailing thought in my mind as I rode closer to the restaurant. I could conduct that meeting in my sleep. What had me on edge, and what my mother had heard in my voice, was the tension that coursed through me whenever I thought of my wife. My body tightened again as I thought about her pregnancy. It’d been two weeks since she told me and I still couldn’t come to terms with it.
Just as we passed another street the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, a tingling sensation moving down my spine. My gaze narrowed and I refused to turn my head to the right of me, already knowing what I’d see.
“I don’t even get a hello?”
My frown deepened. “I was hoping if I ignored you, you’d go away.”
Emma giggled. “Since when has that ever worked, Aaron? Come on, you know how this goes. I show up when you need me the most.”
I pushed out a breath on a sigh. “I don’t need you.”
“I thought we were passed this by now.”
I didn’t respond.
“You know you’re being bullheaded.”
I finally turned my head slowly in her direction.
Emma.
There she sat in the long, white nightgown she always seemed to have on whenever she appeared out of nowhere. Emma was my guardian angel or whatever the fuck you wanted to call it. She was my person from beyond. A distant family relative who had lived and died long before I was born. And yes, she always seemed to pop up when life presented its most difficult challenges.
“By not talking to you?” I questioned, finally responding to her statement about my stubbornness.
She shook her head, her long, brown locks moving about her shoulders. “No. I’m used to it by now. I’m talking about your wife. You’re being borderline unreasonable about this baby.”
“It’s not about the baby,” I insisted. “It’s about my wife. Her life.”
She tilted her head, giving me a sympathetic nod. “I’m sure you believe that.”
“It’s not what I believe, it’s what I know. Are you here to give me advice?” My tone was harsh, dismissive.
“No. I’ve learned better than to give you advice. You’d never take it. My job is to help you see where you’re making a mistake so that you can fix it before it’s too late.”
I turned to her sharply. “Don’t use ominous language like that.” My tone was threatening.
“It’s not a threat, Aaron. You know I don’t do threats. I am simply asking you to think about what it is you’re doing and how you’re treating your wife before you do irreparable harm to your relationship.”
“I’m not doing anything harmful.”
She gave me aget realexpression. “Aaron, you’ve practically demanded that your wife get an abortion.”
“To save her life!” I yelled before I could catch myself. I glanced up ahead, glad to see that the partition was already up. I wasn’t a fool. I knew what it would look like to an outsider, me sitting in the backseat screaming at a woman only I could see.
“Worry less about what the driver thinks of you and more about what your wife thinks,” Emma insisted.
I fucking loathed when she read my thoughts.
“I don’t give a shit what the driver thinks of me. And I am thinking of my wife. She might not like it now but she will come around.”
I grabbed the file I had been ignoring moments before and tore it open, as if I was really reading through the pages.
“I see you’ve closed yourself off. I know when I’m being dismissed.”
