Into the Darkness

We sat down at the stools while the others got food. Then we geared up to play and as the buzzer rang the gun squirted onto the target and of course I released my grip every so often so Will could catch up. He won and happily picked out a large stuffed lion.

“Cha Cha look, I won!” He jumped up proudly showing off his win.

“Yay! Did you kick Lex’s butt?” she teased.

“I sure did!” He ran off to show his parents while Charlotte and I decided to walk around.

“He is such a great kid,” I said, watching him as he proudly held up the lion to Nikki mimicking his shooting. She hugged him tight before he found Adriana and did the exact same thing.

“Who? Will? Yeah I know,” she sighed then continued, “Since the moment I held him for the first time I knew he was special. There was a reason why he came at that time.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She panicked slightly, stumbling on her words. “I mean, like, you know, a blessing in disguise. Bull’s and Rocky weren’t ready to be parents but it worked out. They made it work.” She bowed her head, shuffling her feet nervously. Something was off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing—” She was interrupted as Will asked to walk over to this magician show that was just about to start. He grabbed her hand and with his other he grabbed mine. He happily chatted away but I couldn’t help but feel content, with this little boy between us, imagining that one day this could be us, with our own son.

My cell beeped in my pocket and I wondered who was calling me on Sunday night. Bryce. Shit, I had missed several of his calls but something told me that he was trying so desperately to get in touch with me for a reason. I excused myself and took the call.

“Mr. Edwards, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.”

“Sorry, Bryce. What’s wrong?”

“I managed to get my hands on some personal information regarding Miss Mason. October 12th 2005, she was admitted to a Connecticut private hospital for five days. I am unable to get any information regarding her illness.”

“Okay, so maybe she had appendicitis or something?”

“Mr. Edwards, October 12th was the day Althea Mason passed away.”

Her grandmother. So she was admitted to hospital the day her grandmother passed away? Maybe it was the shock of losing a loved one. October 12th was two days away from today. Maybe this was why she looked sad.

“Mr. Edwards, there is one more thing. The reason I was unable to retrieve any further information on her illness was because…” The phone cut out, the crackling sound barreling down the speaker.

“Mr. Edwards, are you there?”

“Yes Bryce, I didn’t get that last part.”

“She was in the psyche ward.”

I looked over at her as I hung up the phone stunned by what he told me. The psyche ward was heavy stuff. It was traumatizing that her grandmother died but to be placed in the psyche ward? I couldn’t get my head around this. Charlotte was smart, she was headstrong. Something else must have been plaguing her, something else weighing her down for her to break down and be diagnosed that way. My imagination was running wild, but then I thought of it logically: having your boyfriend leave town with a knocked-up wife never to speak to you again, moving across the country to live with someone you barely knew, making decisions on which college to attend and what career path to choose and then on top of that have your grandmother pass away. Okay that was a pretty f

ucked up six months she had to endure.

I looked over at her but was met with a dark face, not the smiles that were visible a few moments ago. The image looked familiar and I racked my brain as to why. Fuck, what the hell was going on here? Then it clicked: it was that photo of her grandmother and her in her living room. How gaunt her face look, how her eyes had no sparkle left in them. How she so desperately tried to force a smile for the camera but it only revealed what was obvious, she was broken.

I broke her, there was no denying that. But I had no idea how much.

Chapter 29

Charlie

May 2005

“Why are you making such a big deal about this? I’m not going to fuck him.” In frustration I kicked a rock that sat alongside the path next to the back door.

He stood there outside with me, trying to control his temper. It was a Friday afternoon and Adriana was upstairs trying on her prom dress for Samantha. I didn’t know they were coming over together and boy was I fuming when they did. I mean, it wasn’t Samantha’s fault, she was married to this great guy and I wouldn’t want to take my hands off him if he was mine. I excused myself to grab a drink from the kitchen when really I was going outside to get some fresh air and calm the fuck down. Somehow he had slipped out and followed me.