“So, I have to ask.” Henry said. “Did you rush the wedding because there’s a baby on board?”
“We’re not that fast.” I said at the same time as Eli shouted,
“Christ, no. You’ve seen the first product of my loins. Who’d want to rush into that?”
I could feel Lori’s stare burn through me but I refused to meet her gaze.
We carried on until the party’s last guests had finally left. My parents were flying back early the next day and so I wished them a safe journey. I went up to our bedroom to get changed when my business cell rang. I looked at the screen. It looked like I was ringing myself, but I’d placed my personal cell from my purse to Brianna’s as I’d hugged her, before going to my bedroom and grabbing my business phone.
“Yes?” I asked.
“There are problems with the helicopter. I can’t get out of here. I’m sitting in the bar at Elite and I’m being constantly hit on by drunk men. There are no vacancies. My dad forgot to book me a room anywhere it would appear, which is just as expected. Please help me, Alex.” Her breath hitched. She’d been crying. “I am wondering what the point to my existence is. I don’t think I’d do anything stupid, but if I stay here, I’m going to get drunk and leave with one of these guys, I know I will. Because I’ve done it before.” She whimpered. “I’ll look at which one has the most expensive watch and shoes and I’ll let him take me home.” A cry of anguish escaped her. “I don’t want to end up like my mother.”
“Stay in the bar. I’m coming to pick you up. Don’t worry, I have the perfect place for you to stay.” I told her.
Eli sauntered up into the room and stalked towards me, “Hey, wife. Looks like I have you all to myself.”
“Are you for fucking real?” I shouted.
He recoiled at the sound of my voice. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head and laughed. “Your daughter is sitting in a hotel bar because you forgot to book her a room. She’s hurting because she thinks her parents don’t love her,” I raised a hand when I saw he was about to deliver his usual spiel about her being dramatic. It was written in his eyes.
“I don’t know your whole relationship but it seems to me like Brianna is a woman trying to get her parents attention the way she’s always had to. By creating a scene. But tonight-tonight you have truly broken her. I’m taking a driver, I’m going to pick her up and then I’m going to take her to my apartment. And then I shall spend the next however many hours or days she needs me, with her. And when you and Brianna are ready—and no doubt your ex-wife too—maybe you could arrange some kind of therapist for you all to work through this mess.” I took a deep breath.
“Eli, I realized tonight that I don’t really know you at all. I’ve spent four years with you but we never got past the surface. To be frank, I don’t like what I’ve seen so far. I want children, Eli, but I’m not sure you’re the father I want for them. Plus, I’m not convinced you want any more, anyway. You kind of made that clear earlier.”
“I was angry. It was a throwaway comment.” He protested. “We can get through this.”
“Maybe we can.” I told him. “Once the drama with Brianna is over and her mother’s wedding has gone ahead, maybe we can talk. But for now we’re on pause, Eli.”
Eli’s face was creased with anguish. “Don’t do this to me, Alex. Don’t do this to us. I love you.”
“You don’t know me.” I screamed at him. “This marriage was a mistake. I’m arranging an annulment. Do not contact me and instead put all your efforts into mending your relationship with your daughter.”
“Please.” He grabbed my arm. “I beg you, don’t leave me.”
“And there’s the problem.” I looked him square in the eye. “I’ve told you your daughter is at a bar alone, and all you’re asking is that I don’t leave. A decent father would have bolted for his driver the minute those words left my mouth, and he’d have left his wife standing there.”
He looked down, and I saw reality hit.
“I’ve fucked everything up.”
“Yes, you have.” I said. And I left him standing there while I hurried to collect Brianna.
Chapter 10
Alex
The driver took us t
o my apartment from the hotel bar. On the way to the car I whispered to Brianna to say nothing on the journey back as I didn’t trust that the driver would keep the gossip to himself.
I let us into my apartment and Brianna went passed me and began to look around.
“You lived here?”
I could imagine that to her, my two-bedroomed apartment was like a shoe box.