Kyle begins pacing the small space, making him look truly unhinged. “What I didn’t realize at the time was that she was married to you. And when I learned she was pregnant with your—” He pauses to shake his head and let out a scoff before continuing. “Thankfully fate intervened and took care of the little bastard so I didn’t have to.” He lets out a chuckle that causes the hairs on the back of my neck to rise.
Motherfucker.
I want nothing more than to punch that look right off his face.
“I had to play my hand right—bide my time and become ingrained in her life. But in the end it didn’t matter, she came running to you anyway. Ten years!” he shouts, pointing to Taevin and finally turning his focus on her. “Ten fucking years of putting up with your shit day in and day out. Of quietly cleaning up your messes and dealing with the heartache he left you with. And what did I get in return for loving you so selflessly for over a decade? Betrayal. Deceit. Cheating, lying, and scheming all so you could take one look athimand fall right back into his bed.”
Wanting to fuck with him and honestly so over his monologue,because what the fuck is happening right now?I interrupt. “Poetic isn’t it? Our love story is one for the ages.”
“It’s fucking pathetic is what it is. And I won’t stand for it.” In a turn I didn’t see coming, Kyle lunges for me.
“What are you doing, Kyle? Stop! Someone help!” Taevin screams.
Before I can do a thing, the dressing room door flies open and in a blur, Braidy has Kyle tackled to the ground.
I pull Taevin into my arms, and do my best to shield her from any potential fall out from their wrestling match. Thankfully, Braidy manages to restrain Kyle just as two security guards rush into the hallway.
As they take Kyle away, I lower us down onto the dressing room couch and pull a crying Tae into my lap. Rubbing my hand up and down her back, I try to console her as sobs continue to wrack her body.
I’m not sure how much time passes before there’s a soft knock on the door and Bennett calls out, “J, are you and Taevin in there?”
“Yeah, come in,” I answer, breathing out a sigh of relief to have him here.
Bennett opens the door and both he and Scarlett step in. “You good? We saw security handing over Kyle to the police.”
I stand with an unsteady Taevin, bracing my hand on her waist to keep her from toppling over.
Clutching her stomach, she staggers as she tries to keep her balance.
“T, baby, what’s happening? Are you okay?”
She looks lightheaded, I think just before she falls forward into my arms. As I hold her, she squints her eyes and writhes in pain.
Before she can form any sort of answer, her eyes fall shut and her body goes limp in my arms.
37
Now
I’m living in the horror story version of Groundhog Day.
Instead of reliving the exact same day over and over again, I keep living in a moment where my beautiful wife is lying in a hospital bed as I sit beside her devastatingly helpless.
After Taevin collapsed in my arms, I screamed for Bennett to call 9-1-1.
We got her in an ambulance that sped us to the nearest hospital where they told me she had an ovarian torsion that required emergency surgery.
They just came out to the waiting room to tell me Taevin is now alert but refusing to undergo surgery until she can speak to me.
I’m brought back to her small triage room where a nurse stands beside her entering Tae’s vitals into the computer.
“There she is,” I say, mustering all the bravery I can. The sight of her body being swallowed up in yet another hospital bed, only this time a shell of what it once was, is heartbreaking.
I go to her bedside and take her hand in mine. Looking up at me with watery eyes, she whispers, “I’m not sure how muchlonger I can do this, J. My body has failed me so many times, and it’s doing it again. If I don’t make it through surgery—”
A choked sob escapes me and I cut her off. “No, don’t say that, baby. You and I both know you’re the strongest person to ever exist. So please don’t talk like that; I won’t hear it.”
She shakes her head as tears stream down her face. “You’ve given me so much to fight for. I love you for that and so much more.”
