I could faintly see Em through my swollen eyes. She was fast asleep with her head on my bed, sitting in one of the standard uncomfortable hospital chairs. I smiled, happy I wasn’t alone, that I had my friends, my chosen family. I closed my eyes again, feeling safe, and loved by people I knew would never leave me. My best friends. My sister, from another mister; my brother from another mother. With my eyes closed, I let the love I felt from them and their concern wash over me. I felt a small smile grace my face as I let the darkness pull me back under for another nap.
Maybe I would feel even better the next time I woke up.
Opening my eyes again, I could see a little bit more, my eyes not as swollen. I saw Eddie and Em talking in the far corner of the room in hushed voices, gesturing wildly with their hands. It looked intense, whatever the conversation was about. I shifted on the hard, metal hospital bed, trying to be as quiet about my discomfort as possible, and failing in spectacular fashion as I let out a quiet groan. Even if I tried to deny the groan, I knew my face was saying all I would attempt to deny.
Once I was comfortable again, I took a deep breath, letting my head fall back, enjoying the silence. And that was when it sank in. It was quiet in the room. My eyes popped open and immediately looked at my besties again. They were just staring at me like children who had just been busted painting with butt cream and Mom’s make-up all over the room and each other. I clocked it, and was immediately suspicious.
“Hi,” I cautiously rasped out. They both came over, still whispering, trying not to be too loud since I always got bad headaches after puking my guts out in offering to the porcelain throne. It happened every time. They looked like they were on opposite sides of the same coin. I stayed silent, waiting for them to say something outside of their whispered ‘shouting’ match.
“So, what happened? What else could have happened in the few hours I was out?” I rasped out in a whispered worry. They looked at each other, like they were each waiting for the other one to tell me whatever nonsense it was first. And instantly my thoughts went to theworst case scenario.
How sick was I? I couldn’t be pregnant, my IUD damn near guaranteed that.
“Well. You’ve been out for a little more than 24 hours. In that time, I’ve secured a lawyer for you,” Eddie started cautiously, “And your hopefully soon to be ex husband, showed up herebriefly. Since he couldn’t get ahold of you, he’s taken to getting to you, trying to contact you, through us. We’ve muted him on our phones, and yours per the lawyer’s request. She said that way, we won’t be subjected to reading his venom, but we’ll have it for court. Do you remember anything from the Christmas party last night?”
I stared at him for just a brief, blissful moment before everything came rushing back to me. Becky hanging on Caleband him not pushing her off firmly the first time. The long wait before dinner and then him disappearing. Mr. Westwood showed me Caleb having sex with that absolute dumpster of a woman. I sat with the memories, and I felt…nothing. No sadness, no anger, maybe just a bit of indifference that was starting to grow. It was like the indifference had taken root so I could move past this without losing myself. Emilia smiled at me. A smile that said she knew I had this and I was strong enough when I most certainly did not feel that way inside. I felt indifference, dressed up as nothing.
“Mam and Pa are on their way home,” Eddie filled the silence as I stared at the new phone sitting on the table over my bed. “They were both furious when I told them last night, and are even more furious than now that you’re in the hospital. They’re disappointed in us that we didn't tell them right away when all this first happened last month. They said they understood, but…” he trailed off. He didn’t have to tell me. I already knew they would have wanted to know from the beginning. They were protectors, fixers, who would do anything for their family.
“They’re way more pissed at him than us. Pa was ready to plant him with the potatoes in Ireland.” He tried to hide the smile as he told me my father’s plans for Caleb. That made us giggle.
Pa was always very protective. Over all of us. It had been that way since before I could remember, but his protectiveness extended to Eddie and Emilia when I brought them in, claiming them as friends for life. Here we were however many years later, still going strong in our best-friend-ship. Mam was incredibly protective, too. They are wonderful parents. I knew this was their vacation time before the holidays and they loved to go visitwhere we buried my Móraí and my Daideó on the property they left us in Ireland. Pa loved to go visit because he felt close to them. I felt guilty for calling them back here, cutting their time there short.
My mam’s parents were still alive, but they weren’t a part of our lives. Mam had a falling out with them years ago. She and Pa had never said what it was about. But that was neither here nor there. Pa’s parents were the only grandparents I had ever known, and they were the best set that my besties had ever known. When they passed, Pa was a shell of himself, and looked forward to spending as much time in Ireland as possible. We all hated pulling him away from there. He always seemed so at peace and serene when he was there. Like a piece of his soul had returned to him being back in his home country.
“He also showed up at the apartment as I was leaving,” Emilia filled me in, moving closer, sitting on that horrible, hard hospital chair again. “I had my hands full and it was close to two in the morning at that point. I don’t know how he made it past Frank, but I kept walking after I locked the door. You have new keypad locks. They use a fingerprint, fob, key code, or old-fashioned key to get in.”
“Wow,” I didn’t know they made locks like that, but damn it sounded fancy! “How did that go over? He doesn’t have access to it anymore, right?”
“Like a lead balloon. I’d called Frank to let him know. He called the police and Caleb left before they got there. I let Frank know that all of Caleb’s things were out of the flat and he had no need to go back upstairs. Frank said Caleb kept insisting on getting whatever package he had coming tomorrow,” she shrugged.
“Has he tried to come see me? Here at the hospital?” I was really curious about that. They looked between themselves, like they were sharing a secret neither of them wanted to say out loud, then back at me. Letting their gazes fall, I knew.
He hadn’t come to see me.
Was he that deep in the bubble that he didn’t even know where I was? How is that possible? It’s been over a full twenty-four hours since I was brought in considering the sun was coming up.
Wow.
I never thought this would be it for us.
Not us.
Chapter Twelve:
Devin’s POV
Numb indifference.
That seemed to be all I was feeling, there was no warmth left inside of me. It felt like everything was dead inside of me, hollow and empty. Either that, or I just couldn’t bring myself to give a fuck about anything to do with him. When Clint, as he insisted weallcall him after introducing himself to my friends at the hospital, came with his lawyer, Amber, we got down to work, building a case against my husband, ex.Ex-husband. I had to go over Clint and I had seen last night, the scene on the balcony, what the bartender and weight staff’s stories and written statements were, and then what I wanted out of the divorce.
When asked what I wanted to keep in the separation and dissolution of marriage I had to think about very little about it. I already knew what I wanted and told them I wanted to keep my apartment, and the rest of my inheritance from my grandparents that was in a trust for me which Caleb didn’t know about.
Those were the top two most important things for me.
I didn’t care about the furniture, or thethingsin the apartment. I would have to replace some of them anyway, not knowing if he had brought her back to my apartment or not.
“He can have the bed, and soft surfaces. I have no idea if he had her on them or not, and if he doesn’t take them, they’ll just be sold.” Eddie and Emilia nodded like they had been planning to burn everything in the alley behind the building regardless.
