Page 11 of The Happy Family

I’m going to have to stay with Arthur and Ruby, which means Luna will have to ride alone in her own ambulance because they won’t let the children travel with her too. There isn’t enough room in there and the paramedics have plenty of work to do, work that will be easier without a couple of children around. So I have to make a choice. Go with Luna or go with the kids. As a father, it’s an easy choice to make. But it doesn’t mean it’s the best one for my relationship.

As Luna is led out of the house by a gentle paramedic, I approach my partner and try to deliver the news in the best way I can.

‘I have to go with the children, but we’ll be right behind you, and we’ll see you at the hospital. Okay?’ I say.

Luna looks sad but she doesn’t speak.

‘You’re going to be fine and so is our baby. This is all going to be over soon,’ I try again, but she still doesn’t look convinced or even as though she is hearing a word I am saying.

Just as I think she is going to give me the silent treatment, she speaks.

‘I want to move away from here. I want us to get as far away from Sadie as possible,’ she says. ‘I cannot stay here and be afraid of her coming back again. Do you understand?’

I do understand, but that’s far easier than the logistics of the four of us moving away. How far does Luna want to move? Where do we go? What about the children? What about their school? What about their proximity to their mother? What about their friends? What about my life here too? My job. My friends. My life. Can I really uproot everything and give Luna her wish? Can I really move us and the children away from here to start again? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m smart enough to know this is not the time or the place to discuss it. So I do what I feel is right in the moment.

‘Okay, whatever you want. Just forget about that for now and focus on your recovery. Go to the hospital and let them do everything they need to do and I will be right there with you and we’ll get through this together.’

‘I mean it,’ Luna replies. ‘I want to get away from here. I cannot stay with you if she is around. Can’t you see? She’s going to kill me and our baby if we stay.’

‘Luna, I don’t think⁠—’

‘She broke in and stabbed me! She might have caused us to lose our child! How can you defend her after this?’

‘I’m not defending her. I’m just trying to⁠—’

‘We need to get you to the hospital,’ the emergency worker beside Luna says, the poor paramedic having been forced into hearing this domestic dispute when she is simply trying to do her job.

‘Yes. You need to go to the hospital,’ I agree. ‘I’ll see you there.’

I step aside so Luna can pass, and she does, but it feels like there is a distance between us. That’s why I feel I have to speak up as she is put into the back of the ambulance.

‘I love you!’ I call out to Luna.

But the ambulance doors close without a reply.

I’m left standing on the driveway with my children as the second ambulance leaves us, each one carrying a woman who means so much to me in very different ways. Sadie and Luna are at war with one another and there’s no telling how this will all end, especially if Sadie survives and the uncertainty of what she does next lingers over us. But I cannot worry about the future because it is uncertain. All I can do is focus on the present.

I wrap my arms around Arthur and Ruby and tell them that I love them.

Then, as the police put tape around the scene, and wait for the forensic investigators to get here, I am escorted to a police car that will take us to the hospital.

It will take us to where Sadie and Luna are, and that is where so many fates will be decided.

The fate of my ex-wife.

The fate of my unborn child.

The fate of my relationship with my girlfriend.

There is a lot to be decided…

EIGHT

LUNA

Like most people, I hate hospitals, but I figured I’d have to get used to them once I found out that I was pregnant. Although I didn’t expect to be here to get treatment for a knife wound. Yet that’s what’s happening as I impatiently sit and wait for the nurse treating me to finish stitching up my arm injury. The truth is, I don’t really care about my arm. Sure, it hurts, and yes, I’m glad that the stitches should stop me from bleeding everywhere, but really, all I care about is finding out more about two people.

My child.