Fragile (27 page)

“Lucy.” Ireland stood right in front of me.

I rolled my eyes and my neck, at the sight of her “What do you want, Ireland?”

“For you to leave Rick and stay away from my family.”

I shook my head at her audacity. “They’re my family too.”

She smiled and laughed sadistically. “No, they’re my family. Your father married my mother, so you have your Dad. You cannot have my mum, my Dad, or my brothers. I’m giving you one chance to walk away from them and never return.”

“And what are you going to do if I stay?”

“I’ve destroyed your life once before. I’ll do it again, and with kids involved, it’ll only make the hurt more intense,” Ireland had a cruel and sadistic tone to her voice.

“Are you threatening my children?”

“Yes.” With that she turned and left, as I stood in shock watching her walk away.

I finished my shift in a daze, and when I was done, my head was still running through my encounter with Ireland. I had no doubt that she would hold true to her threat, but threatening my children was something else. Instead of getting into the car and heading home, I got into a taxi and told the driver to take me away.

RICK

Lu’s phone kept going to her answering machine. “Have you heard anything yet?” I asked Mather, who had a phone to her ear also.

“Ray says the hospital said that she left hours ago. Her car is still in the car park.”

“Fuck!” I tugged on my hair. “Where is she?”

Mather came to stand by me. “She’ll turn up, Rick.” She was worried too, I could tell.

“Something’s wrong. She wouldn’t just disappear, not with her being pregnant. She wouldn’t just leave.”

“Try calling her again.” Fully knowing that Lu’s phone was turned off, I tried calling it anyway.

Tray came by after driving around and looking at the places he thought Lu would be. He had called hospitals and police stations to see if she was there by any chance. We all came up empty. She was just gone.

“We should go to the police,” Ray suggested.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

The police couldn’t do anything until twenty-four hours had passed, so we went home and waited. Waiting was the hardest part of all of this; waiting for anything, for something, but not being able to do anything was devastating and heart wrenching.

Ray’s phone started ringing, and we all looked up, “Hello.” He looked to us in surprise before continuing, “Where are you? Are you ok?”

I jumped up and made a grab for the phone, “Lu!” I cried into the phone, getting nothing but beeping as a response. “What did she say?” I handed the phone back to Ray.

“Just that she was ringing so that we won’t worry. She hung up before you grabbed the phone.” I pulled my phone out and dialled Lu’s number, but her phone was off again.

With having Lu call, we decided not to go back to the police, and to just wait it out. Mather and Ray went back to their own place, and Tray stayed here with me, Dad, and Aiden. I was upstairs a few days later in the twins’ room replaying my last encounter with Lu. Did I do something to make her leave? Did I say something or had someone else said something to her? After a while of living in my thoughts, I heard the front door close. Aiden rushed downstairs and I followed. When I reached the hallway I saw Lu crouched down on the floor, patting Aiden. I stopped everything, breathing, thinking. All words escaped me. I was angry and happy to see her home. Her eyes found mine as she slowed her pats on Aiden and stood up, her hands in the pockets of her jumper.

“Hey,” she whispered.

I took a few deep breaths before I spoke. “Do you know what you’ve done to me these past three days?” She looked down at her feet. “I’ve been going out of my fucking mind, wondering where you are, if you’re ok, if the babies are ok. Damn it, Lucy! How could you do that? Why would you do that to me? To your family? Because it isn’t just me you worried, you worried everyone!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?!” I yelled. “Sorry doesn’t cut it, Lucy! You worried a lot of people. We went to the police!”

She was just standing there, her head hanging low. “Lucy.” She looked up to Dad, who walked over to give her a hug. He whispered something to her, and she whispered something back before she went upstairs.

“She came back. Don’t yell at her,” Dad told me.

“She shouldn’t have left in the first place,” I pointed out. Yes, I was glad that Lu had come home, but she put me and her family through hell while she was away.

“Go take a walk, and come back calmed down.”

“Sure, I’ll see you in a few days.” I walked out the front door and got into the car.

LUCY

“He hates me, doesn’t he?”

Mark passed across a cup of tea, before sitting down opposite me at the kitchen bench. “No, he was just worried.”

“I didn’t mean to worry anyone,” I confessed.

“Why did you leave then?”

“I needed to think, and I can’t here. I’m never alone.” We sat in silence and sipped our drinks. It had already been two days since Rick left.

I was at Dad and Mather’s with Tray. I felt unsure and very emotional, and I wanted to be with my family. I was sleeping when the bed dipped and I was pulled into Rick’s arms, my head resting on his chest. He kissed the top of my head, and I couldn’t help the tears that flowed. “Never do that to me again,” he whispered into my hair.

“Never,” I promised him.

The following day Rick drove me to work. We never spoke about either one of us leaving the other, or why.                                          

“Let me know when you’re close to finishing, and I’ll be here to pick you up.”

“This isn’t necessary, Rick.” I got no response from him as he kissed the top of my head and pushed my gently towards the hospital doors.

It was late when I finished at the hospital and was ready to go home. I didn’t want to call Rick to come and get me, he would be sleeping, and so I got in a taxi. Walking to the front door, I saw that the lights were on inside.

“What the hell, Lucy?” I jumped at the anger in Rick’s voice when he saw me coming through the door. “How did you get home?”

“I thought that you would be sleeping, so I got a taxi.”

“A taxi? I told you that I don’t like you catching them!”

“It’s late. I thought that you would be sleeping!” I yelled, matching Rick’s anger.

“How would you know? You didn’t call to see!”

“Why are you insistent on driving me everywhere?”

“Because the last time you drove around by yourself, you left me! And I won’t have you leaving me again,” he said much calmer.

“You left me too.”

“Because you left me first,” his voice rose again.

“That makes no sense!” I winced and covered my belly with my hands, taking a step back.

“Lu.” Rick rushed over to me.

“Don’t touch me.” I moved backwards, trying to slow my breathing and calm myself down. Rick touched me but I pushed his hands away. “Don’t touch me!” I snapped again.

Rick stood close by keeping his distance. “What can I do?” he asked.

“Nothing. Leave me alone.” I straightened myself up and walked out of the front door, deciding to go to Dad.

Entering Dad and Mather’s home, I was surprised to see them up and about. Mather had a tub of ice-cream waiting, and Dad had his arms open.

When I woke the next morning, I could hear Rick’s voice coming from down the hallway. “I don’t know what to do.”

“She needs to calm down and recuperate. She’ll come around,” Mather was saying.

“Do you think she’ll come back to me?” His voice was soft. He sounded scared of what the answer might be.

“Yes, she will. Give her some space.”

“If I understood why she left in the first place...”

I lay in the bed, listening to the conversation happening about me as if I wasn’t just two rooms away. I waited until I heard the talking stop and the door close before I got up and started my day.

RICK

I met Ray out in the car park and handed over Aiden. He missed Lu. “How’s she doing?” I’ve not called or text. Everyone said to give her space so I was and it was killing me.

“Good. Her maternity leave starts tomorrow, so today is her last shift.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s good. She needs to rest more.” Aiden pulled toward the front of the apartment building. “Lu has a doctor’s appointment in a few days. What do you think my chances are of her letting me be there?”

“Lucy would never hold the babies back from you,” Ray said.

There was just one problem with that. “Lu ran once before.”

“She had a reason for doing that. Plus, she came back.”

I ran my hand through my hair, “Yeah.”

Lu was on my mind all the time. She lived in my head. I needed to call her. It had been four days since we had our argument and she left to stay with Ray, Mather and Tray. Her maternity leave started tomorrow, and I want to ask her how her last shift went. Lu was nervous about leaving the hospital, even if it was only for a short period of time. Lying in bed, unable to sleep, I reached for my phone and dialled Lu’s number. It rang and rang, and when I thought that it was about to call out, she answered.

No one said a word for a while, but I could hear her breathing, “Hey, Lu.”

“Hey, Rick,” she replied, her voice quiet.

“How are you?” I asked the clichéd question, but it was a start.

“Good,” she whispered.

“That’s good.”

“Will you be coming to the doctor’s appointment?”

“If you’ll let me.”

“Of course I’ll let you, Derrick. What do you take me for?” Her voice was raised.

“Calm down, Lu. I’m not sure...”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” The phone disconnected. I blamed it on the hormones.

LUCY

I walked out of the apartment building and into the parking lot when I spotted Rick on his way in. He stopped when he saw me approaching. “Hey, I was on my way to get you.”

There was no point in asking why he was here. I already knew. “I thought that I would drive over, save on petrol, and I’m not entirely comfortable with you driving being so close to being due. If there was an accident or something...” he trailed off. “We better leave, so we’re not late.” Rick turned and I followed him over to the car. In his usual fashion, he opened the door and helped me up, before going around to the driver’s side of the car. When he was in the car, he passed over a take away cup, “You still crave hot chocolate?”

“It’s been a week, Rick. My cravings haven’t changed.”

“Ok.” He took a sip of his coffee before pulling out of the parking lot and onto the road.

Rick sat next to me as we waited our turn but he kept his hands to himself. He usually had his hands all over my belly. I used to think that sometimes he thought my belly was his. “Give me your hand,” I said. I held my hand out for his and then I put it on my belly so he could feel the twins moving.

“Thank you,” he whispered, his eyes tearing up.

“There’s no need to thank me.”

Rick drove straight from the doctor’s office to Dad’s apartment. He came across and opened the door helping me out, but he didn’t go any further and an awkward silence settled between us.

I started to walk toward the door of the apartment when Rick called out behind me, “Why did you leave?”

I turned and looked over to him. He was standing there with his hands in his pockets, “I needed to think a few things out,” I explained.

“What things? We were going really well, great really, and then you just leave with no warning.”

I concentrated on a stone that was sitting on the road in front of my foot. “Ireland said that if I didn’t leave she would destroy my life again and because of the twins, it will only hurt more this time. So I left to see if I could live without you. I can’t live without you, so I came back.” Rick went silent. I chanced a look up at him, and the look on his face was murderous. He didn’t say anything as I watched him get in the car and drive away.

RICK

I slammed the door as I entered the apartment. A baby started to cry, and then I saw her. “You threatened Lucy and my children. I told you stay away from my family, and you turn around and threaten them! You fucked everything up! Again! If you want to play this game, Ireland, I will make your life hell. Am I making myself clear?”

“You threatened Lucinda?” I turned and spotted Luke sitting in a chair in the lounge room.

“What is he doing here? I thought he didn’t want anything to do with you?” I pointed to where he was sitting but didn’t take my eyes off of Ireland, who was still speechless.