The police arrive with an ambulance not far behind them and they take Ben away.
We’re all standing around for a long time talking to the police, but eventually, they let us go. I tell one of the officers that I want to file a restraining order against Ben and he gives me a quick lowdown of the process involved with that.
I’m not a violent person. In fact, I deplore violence.
That said, though, nothing in my life has ever felt better than making that son of a bitch bleed.
Chapter Eighteen
Making Amends to Those Who Deserve It
Damian
It’s our last day of filming. I’ve personally set back production by about three weeks: a personal best.
Things are starting to turn around, though. With Ben finally remanded, Emma’s doing a lot better. With Danna planning to move back in tonight, a lot of crap is finally off my mind.
Danna’s decision to move back came as a bit of a surprise. She had, like she said she would, sent someone to pick up her things and her stuff was gone, all of it. Then, out of the blue a few days ago, I get a call from her saying that she’s had a change of heart, and if I’d still have her, she’d be happy to move back in with me.
My sister, my twin—she can be quite the handful, and she has mood swings like nobody I’ve ever met, but she’s always been there. Even when we weren’t together, we were always talking, and being completely out of contact with her, even for such a short time, was more difficult than I thought it would be.
Maybe it’s a twin thing, maybe it’s a dead parents thing, but when you’ve been through a certain kind of chaos for long enough, you really start to value the things that don’t change and the people that stick around. I’m just glad that Danna decided to remain one of those people that stick around.
Before I get to the set, I stop by Ed’s hospital room. We’ve been getting along a little better now that he’s dying.
I’d love to be able to put it less bluntly than that, but I’m pretty convinced that if the old rotten bastard wasn’t dying, we’d never have been able to bury the hatchet as much as we have.
“Shit,” he says as I walk into his room, “it’s you.”
“Yeah,” I tell him. “It’s me.”
“Haven’t I told you never to come back here?” he asks.
“Every time I’ve come to visit,” I answer.
“Stubborn,” he says. “I guess I can respect that.”
“You’re calling me stubborn?” I ask. “You were supposed to die weeks ago.”
“True,” he says, “but I’ve never been that good about keepin’ to a schedule.”
“Have they found a heart for you yet?” I ask.
“Nothin’ yet,” he says. “Mine’s hanging in there better than the doctors thought it would, though. Son,” he says, “I think there’s something we need to talk about.”
Son? That was a bit unsettling.
“What?” I ask.
His mouth moves like he’s trying to move a bad bite of food into his cheek.
“I loved my daughter,” he says. “I loved that little girl since before she was born and I love her even now that she’s been gone all these years. Do you know what it’s like for a father to see his daughter look at another man like he’s going to solve all of her problems?” he asks.
“No,” I answer, “I don’t.”
“Well, it pisses ya right off,” Ed says, and has a small coughing fit. “That’s the look she’s supposed to have reserved for her father, but that’s not the way it works out. One day, the little girl becomes a young woman, and there’s someone else she thinks can take on the world in her honor, and when you started coming around, I saw that look going to you more and more. That’s why I didn’t like you while the two of you were dating.”
The only thing I can think is that he knows he’s going to die and he’s just trying to clear his conscience before he goes, because despite the fact that we have made some pretty huge progress since that first visit, we’ve never been anywhere near this.