Page 43 of Cuts Like an Angel: Part 2

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rosie

Rosie tried again to snatch the phone and this time William didn’t fight her. She stared down at the text, her heart hammering.

Please let us know when your flight lands so Lacey can pick you up from the airport. Can’t wait to have you home again. Mom.

She raced after William who took off in a brisk walk. “William! Let me explain to you, please! I was going to tell you everything.” He pushed through the door at the side of the ward that led into a seating area outside. “William stop!” she called when he continued walking. Where was he going? She finally ran, so that she caught up to him.

He yanked his arm out of her grasp, plowing on. She got ahead of him and the sight of his panic brought a sob. “William!” She grabbed his arm, and he spun to her. A wild terror swirled with fury in his blue eyes. “Listen to me!” she cried, trying to catch her breath and keep her mind from scattering and abandoning her. “You… you need to listen, I-I. ”

“I have to go, I have to get out of here, I can’t be here.”

“William,” she called after him when he spun and walked off. “William, you can’t leave me here! Where are you going?”

He suddenly turned and walked back to her, digging in his pocket. He threw the keys on the ground. “Drive yourself to the airport and don’t be here when I get back. Just leave!” he roared in her face before spinning away.

“William!” she yelled at him as her mind spun and her stupid phone went off again. She shoved it in her back pocket and looked around, blinking the tears from her eyes and wiping her face. Where was she supposed to go? Where was he going?

Just leave.

He thought that’s what she was going to do, but she wasn’t. She never intended to. He needed to know that; he needed to see. She pulled her phone out and typed out the whole story, right there in the ally-way behind the cafeteria. She explained their deception and told him what she had to do to get away and she never mentioned it to him because she didn’t want to worry him, she knew how fragile he was with that. She just did what she had to which was make it back to him because nothing would keep her from him. Nothing. Nobody. She loved him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

She sent the message and stumbled into the building wall, sagging against it as she gave in to her pain, sobbing. She let herself cry there, trying to figure out what to do now?

She’d show him. That’s what she’d do. She’d show him by not leaving, that’s all. She wiped her eyes and looked around, trying to figure out where the parking lot was from there. She made her way around the building, stopping to ask one of the cafeteria workers that suddenly exited a door.

“You’re a million miles from it,” the plump woman, with the netting mesh cap over her dark hair, explained. She pointed in the direction Rosie had come. “You want to go back the way you came and go through the hospital, that’s your fastest way.”

Fastest. Fastest seemed good but then what was she in a hurry to do? To prove she was not leaving? “Thank you,” she said, continuing in the million miles away direction.

“That’s the wrong way, dear,” the woman cried.

“It’s okay,” Rosie called back. “I need the walk.”

A million miles was no exaggeration, Rosie realized as she finally cleared the backside of the hospital’s many buildings. Was like a damn city of them. She kept an eye for William as she went, seeing him nowhere. She pulled out her phone and texted him. I’m headed home. I’ve got cleaning to do and a garden to start. I’ll see you there. You’re not getting rid of me that easily. I’ll give the hospital my number so they can reach me in case Maria needs anything. I can do that much. In fact, I’ll call now and see what she might need, I can go get that. Her fingers shook over the keys. I love you so much. Please forgive me for not telling you sooner. I planned to. I promise. You’re my world, William. I’m not leaving. I promise you that.

She forced herself to send the text, forced herself to not type five more pages of begging and explaining. Rosie finally found the front of the hospital and went back in and gave the receptionist her name and number in case they needed a second contact to reach William by. “I’m his girlfriend,” she said when the woman seemed to hesitate. She took the information and thanked her as Rosie spied the gift shop on her right and hurried to it. What was she thinking? She didn’t have a dime to her name.

She turned and headed out the hospital, searching for the car, checking her phone as she went. No miracle text. God, please. I know I’m not the most faithful and obedient daughter, but please help me help William.

She opened the car door with her key, looking around the whole time for any signs of him. Where was he? Was he hiding somewhere, watching her? Waiting for her to leave and prove he was right? She prayed he looked at his phone and saw she was headed home. She sat in the car and texted him again. I’m headed home now. I’ve got plenty of cleaning to do. I was hoping to pick paint colors with you today too, so please don’t be long. I miss you already.

She hit send and closed her eyes, feeling her breakfast wanting to come up. She quickly rolled her window down for air as she sat there with her head swimming. Maria had a stroke. She rubbed at the sudden pain streaking across her forehead, allowing the thoughts to come, the ones she’d been pushing back since she’d heard the news. She’d given the woman a stroke. She’d said those things to her and it was more than she could handle. But she was so vile. Rosie had held back so much, she’d wanted to tell her even more things. Like if she wasn’t in that bed pretending to be sick, she’d have beat her ass good for hurting William.

Rosie shook her head with the fleeting idea that the woman would die and leave them in peace. She’d been the one all this time causing this in William. All the strange behaviors, the hesitations. She gasped at realizing. The guilt! He’d been guilty that’s what she’d been seeing. And why? Because of that incestuous woman called his mother digging her claws in his beautiful soul. Defiling him all these years and holding him prisoner! My God, how sick!

Rosie shoved the key in the ignition, so pissed she could’ve pushed the car home. . William met her for a reason. He called her that night on the bridge. He reached out, and it was Rosie that was there to rescue him from his demons. It was her that had grabbed hold of his hand and held on for dear life, and by God, she was not letting him go. Not ever.

And she was a manipulator. A lying, scheming, slimy, demon. The evil in her was so thick and dense and black. How did the nurses not see it and feel it? She needed a priest, not a doctor. She probably faked her own aneurism, probably was faking all of her illnesses. Rosie knew people like that. The woman was probably healthier than both of them put together; she wasn’t that old, even if she did look a thousand.

Rosie started the car, her heart racing with the need to protect William now. If this woman wanted to play tug-of-war with her, she had better bring her A game because Rosie wasn’t going to let her have him a second longer. Shit was about to change. Nobody was coming between her and William’s happily ever after schedule. Not her family, not his. The end.

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