Page 74 of Falling for the Unexpected

Chapter 19

Simone

The next few days were a mix of working and spending time at the hospital with Brad’s family. I wanted to be there for them like they had been there during my tough times. I brought Stella a couple times to spend an hour or so in the waiting room with Jim and Marla. Her visits seemed to brighten their spirits and I was happy to see it brought them some comfort.

I had received a text this morning from Trent telling me that Brad was asking to see me. I had no idea what he wanted to talk to me about, but I was willing to go in and give him a chance to say what he needed to. Trent mentioned that he was going to lunch with his parents to discuss what their next steps were in helping Brad so I figured that would be a good time for me to go see him.

I looked in the waiting room to see if anyone was still in there, but it was empty. I walked down the long, bright hallway to Brad’s room and stopped just shy of the door. His room was private, just his bed in the middle of the open space. Brad was lying in the bed with his head turned so he could look out the window that overlooked the busy roadway below. The television was turned off and the only sound was coming from the various medical equipment set up to monitor his vital signs. It was odd to see someone his age and who had appeared relatively healthy hooked up to machines and looking so frail and weak in a hospital bed. The drugs had clearly done a number on him.

I walked in, the sound of my footsteps causing him to turn and look at me. “Trent said you were asking to see me,” I said, but it came out a bit harsher than I meant for it to.

“I was,” Brad responded, sounding tired and weak. “I wanted to apologize.”

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked in, but an apology wasn’t it. “Okay…” I paused, letting his words sink in. “What did you want to apologize for?” I asked. The guard I’d put up when it came to Brad was still firmly in place. I wasn’t sure I’d ever let it down when I was around him.

“Well, for starters, I should have been spending more time with Stella. I’m sorry that I bailed on our daughter,” he said. I couldn’t believe it and my immediate reaction was I shouldn’t, but I could actually detect some remorse in his voice and expression. “That wasn’t fair to either of you. I’m going to rehab and I hope when I’m done, you’ll let me spend some time with her.”

“I’ve never once tried to keep her from you,” I pointed out. Brad may be contrite now, but I had to remember that he could change in an instant. I had seen it before. I wasn’t going to put my daughter in a situation where he could disappoint her again. “And now that I have confirmation of your drug use, it’s going to be a while before I can ever trust you with her, especially alone. If you show that you’re serious about getting clean, then we can talk about you visiting her at your parents’ house with them supervising.”

“That’s fair,” he agreed, nodding.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s fair or not. You really fucked up and now you have to face the consequences of your choices,” I said, hoping to God he was actually listening to what I said. I checked my phone, and then glanced at Brad. “Is there anything else you wanted to say? I need to go get Stella.”

“Where is she?” he asked.

“She’s with Kayla. She’s been helping out a lot since your overdose.” Brad flinched when I said ‘overdose’. But I wasn’t going to sugar-coat things for him anymore. I never felt like I could speak my mind with him before, and I was done with that. If he was truly sorry and wanted to make things better, then it was going to be on my terms and my terms were based on what I thought was best for Stella. “Anything else?” I asked, already heading toward the door.

“I’m sorry for sending Kyle those pictures,” he said, stopping me in my tracks.

“Why wasn’t I aware that you had taken them in the first place?” I asked, moving back toward his bedside.

“I don’t know. I was an asshole for taking them. We were both high as fuck that night. I guess I thought it was fun at the time,” he said, actually looking remorseful.

That’d be a first.

Truthfully, this new Brad was strange. I also believed him, which was even stranger. “Why did you send them to Kyle?”

He sighed, resting his head back. “I don’t know,” he whispered. Brad showing any emotion, other than anger, was rare. It also didn’t soften my resolve. I was still going to demand that he respect me, if anything, as the mother of his child. “I was angry at you, my brother, my parents, just everybody. Every time I talked to my mom or dad, they would lecture me on how I needed to step up as a parent. Then they would go on and on about how you were doing a great job. Fuck, even Addie thinks you’re wonderful and she should have hated you. I was tired of every one seeing me as a fuck-up and seeing you as this perfect mother.”

“It’s not my fault that you made those choices or felt that way. You know, I had a night of really bad choices, but it was justonenight. I’ve worked my ass off to be a good mom, and however misguided I was, I tried really hard to be a good wife to you. You had to know that those pictures were going to be a deal-breaker for Kyle. You wanted to hurt me so badly that you used the one thing Kyle couldn’t handle to get him to leave me.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, and I could hear the sincerity in his voice but I was still angry. I had lost so much because of the crappy choices Brad made.

“Well, sorry isn’t going to give me back the man I love, now is it?” I gritted out, letting my anger get the best of me.

In the past, any time I showed emotion, it would piss Brad off, but that didn’t happen this time. “You love him?” he asked. There wasn’t anger in his tone just general curiosity and maybe a little surprise.

“It’s really none of your business and it doesn’t even matter anymore. He made it very clear he wants nothing to do with me, so thank you for that.” I couldn’t have this conversation with him any longer. I felt like the walls were closing in on me, I had to get out of there.

I stepped out of the room and turned to my right just to see Kyle standing right there by the door.

“Whoa, you okay?” he asked, placing both his hands on my shoulders. I looked up into his gorgeous green eyes and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was already frazzled from my conversation with Brad. I couldn’t deal with Kyle on top of it. A girl could only handle so much at once. I broke out of his grasp but immediately missed the warmth of his hands on me. I had no idea how much of our conversation he’d overheard and I didn’t want to ask. I could feel the tears streaming down my face. I just needed to get out of there.

“Hey, talk to me,” he implored.

“I need to go,” I said as the sobs started to break free. Scared he was going to reach out for me again, I started to run down the hallway.

I didn’t stop running until I was safely in my car. That’s when I let my sobs take over. I felt like I was hyperventilating so I made myself take some deep breaths like I learned in my childbirth classes. Once my breathing evened out I started up my car and drove out of the parking garage. I still felt tears rolling down my face, but at least I wasn’t hysterical anymore.