I pressed the barrel right up against my temple. Gasps echoed from the stairs, chairs scraped as people scrambled back, and the receptionist's eyes went wide. Now this bitch wanted to show some fucking concern.
"Check me in now," I snarled, thumbing off the safety with a click. "Or watch me paint this wall. I ain't leaving here unless it's in a room or a body bag."
The guards halted a few feet away, hands raised but not drawing on me yet, one of them talking low into his radio while the receptionist nodded frantically, her fingers flying over the keyboard. "Okay, okay, just put the gun down. We're processing you right now. Stay calm."
I kept it pressed there, finger hovering over the trigger, until she shoved the clipboard my way with a pen and said the words I needed to hear. "You're admitted. Sign here for voluntary commitment. Help is coming."
Only then did I lower the gun slowly, sliding it across the desk toward her while the guards closed in to cuff my wrists.
27
LEGEND CARTIER
Livia was laughing so hard through my Bluetooth that I almost hung up on her.
“She’swhere?!” she cackled.
I dragged one hand down my face while I drove. “She’s in a fucking psych ward. She checked herself in.”
That made Livia laugh harder.
“Stop laughing, sis. This shit not funny.”
She sucked her teeth at me. “Don’t reprimand me. Reprimand yourself for steady knocking that girl up knowing she can’t take it anymore.”
“I thought she was good now since she got the procedure.”
“You should consider getting a vasectomy.”
“Fuck that shit. I heard male dogs get weird after they’re fixed.”
Livia started cracking up laughing again. “You arenota dog, and your wife is going to get worse than weird if you don’t get fixed because clearly nothing will stop her from getting pregnant. She’s like the Virgin Mary.”
That made me chuckle, despite being concerned for my wife.
When Livia first came into the office saying Aria was gone, I thought the worst. All I could think about was my mother running away from our home to get away from my father and getting murdered in that hotel.
I had Jamir on the street cameras trying to follow where she went. He was already pulling feeds and building a route when the psych ward called and let me know Aria had checked herself in because she had listed me as her emergency contact.
Even with that call, I still didn’t feel right, and I wasn’t going to until I got eyes on her. I pulled into the facility’s lot, killed the engine, and looked up at the building. It looked like a prison, so plain and beige under floodlights and no warmth. I hated that my wife was in there.
“I’m here,” I told Livia. “I’ll call you back.”
“Call me back as soon as you know how she’s doing.”
“It’s almost one in the morning. I don’t know how long I’ll be in here.”
“I don’t care.Call me back.”
“A’ight, a’ight.” Then I ended the call and got out.
I rushed towards the front door. Even though it was now March, it was still cold as hell.
Once inside of the facility, I went straight to the front desk where the receptionist looked up like she was already tired of dealing with people at this hour.
“I’m here to see my wife, Aria Cartier.”
“It’s not visiting hours,” she replied robotically. “You’ll have to come back tomorrow at 9AM.”
