When he’s in depositions like this, he usually turns his personal phone off and leaves it in his laptop case. He’ll have his work phone on him, but even that will be on silent mode.
So I call his personal cell and leave a voice mail about what’s going on, then text his work cell and tell him to check his voice mail as soon as possible.
I’m already walking out the front door with our bags when she pulls into the driveway, throws it into park, and jumps out to hug me. She’s still crying.
Benchley might be an asshole of stratospheric proportions, but unlike my mother, he was a good father, and Susa loves him.
“Go inside, use the bathroom, then set the alarm and lock up on your way back out.” I’ve left my keys in the deadbolt outside, so she can use them.
She runs to do it.
I stow our things in the backseat and have to readjust the driver’s seat so I can get behind the wheel without kneecapping myself. By the time I’m ready, she emerges, locks the door, and is in the passenger seat seconds later. She’s changed into jeans and a blouse, and has scrubbed the makeup off her face and pulled her hair back into a messy bun.
“Deep breaths, sweetie.” She nods, but I don’t know if she’s really processing anything beyond the need to get to Tallahassee, right now, to be with her father.
We’re north of Ocala on I-75 when Carter calls my phone from his work phone. “Where are you?”
“In the car.”
“Okay, is Susa there with you?”
“Yeah, um, did you check your voice mail?”
“No. Someone just walked in at the depo and passed me a note. It’s all over the news, apparently. I just asked for a ten minute recess, and you were my first call. How is she?”
I glance over at Susa, who’s on the phone with one of the paralegals at the office, going over stuff with them that they’ll need to handle in her absence. She’s barely holding it together.
I drop my voice. “She called me Sir without thinking.”
“Oh, shit. Okay, buddy. Hang in there. Did you grab me clothes?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I’ll go talk to my co-counsel and opposing counsel and see if I can leave. We had to move mountains to get the schedules aligned for counsel and witnesses to do this today.”
That’s when I know what I need to do. “No. Stay there and try to finish the day and leave from there. We don’t know anything yet. They’re doing emergency bypass surgery, so there’s nothing we can do anyway.”
He pauses, and it sounds like he’s moving into another room, maybe closed a door behind him. “You sure, Owen?”
“I’m sure, Carter. Keep your work phone on you. I’ll text you a 911 if something changes.”
This is where three is better than two, because if Susa was alone without me, she’d absolutely tell him to stay and finish the deposition, because I know her.
And Carter would feel like utter shit for doing it, hating himself that he didn’t nuke a work situation for her.
We’ve been lucky. Damned lucky. They did the emotional heavy lifting for me when I needed them. It’s time for me to shoulder this load for them.
When we reach Tallahassee, we go straight to the hospital and have to actually get a hospital administrator to approve us coming in, because they had to remove press and now have a very limited list of people who will be allowed to join Michelle in the surgical waiting room.
“Her husband will be coming later,” I tell them while they’re taking Susa’s picture for the temporary visitor’s pass.
“You’re not her husband?” the administrator asks.
“I’m her—”
“Brother-in-law,” Susa says, her voice sounding dull and brittle. “He’s my husband’s brother.”
Okay, then.I was going to default to friend, but maybe she wants to list me as family to help smooth the way.
