Page 32 of Never Forget You

“Okay, fine. I will wait.” I take a seat on the couch pointedly, letting the police officer know that I’m here for the time being. “I will be okay, I will be here, you don’t need to wait if you don’t want to.”

“I’m going to be outside.” He eyes me suspiciously, almost as if he’s expecting me to run, but I’m not that much of an idiot. I don’t want to do anything to harm the investigation. “Come for me if you need me or if you get any calls.”

As the man heads outside, I find myself staring at my cell phone desperately. Ineedit to ring, I need Ben to call me and right now. If he calls me, then we can find him and everything will be over. Life can go back to normal… or as normal as it can be, anyway. I don’t know if anything will be normal after this. I don’t think I will ever recover…

I don’t even notice that I’m crying until the tears are streaming down my cheeks. Finally, I’m cracked, I’ve caved to the sadness because there isn’t anything else that I can do, and I sob. I can’t believe that I am in this situation. This isn’t normal life. People aren’t supposed to go through things like this. It isn’t right.

Why am I always in these insane situations? However normal I try to make my life, it always blows up and explodes. Will italways be this way? It certainly will if Ella never comes back. I won’t be able to cope. I can’t even imagine life without my daughter, which is why Ben has attacked me this way. He knows that it will hurt me the most.

Ring, ring…I nearly jump as my cell phone finally rings.Ring, ring…I panic, I gasp, I nearly puke.Ring, ring…

“Hello?” I don’t even look at the number before I hit answer. It hardly matters, does it? “Who… is it?”

“It’s Mom.” I feel ill and relieved all at once. “We’re just on the corner. Can we come in? Will they let us?”

“We?” Oh, God, what the hell does this mean? Does it mean what I think it does? “Is Dad here?”

“He is, but don’t worry. He’s here to help you. So, can we get in? Will the police stop us?”

“Erm?” I don’t know if I want this. I do want Mom here, but my dad isn’t going to be so welcome. We haven’t been on good terms for… well, my whole life. “Yeah. I will wait outside the front door so you can come inside.”

I hang up without even saying goodbye and wipe the tears away. Then I do what I just said I would and wait outside the front door. Despite everything, a shudder of nervousness runs down my spine at the idea of seeing my dad. He can’t blame me for this situation because he’s the reason I ended up married to Ben, but I have a feeling that he will somehow turn this around into something that he can yell at me about. Maybe he’ll tell me that I should have remained married even if I wasn’t happy to stop Ella from getting kidnapped. Even if I have a million and one arguments to that point, in his presence, I don’t think I will be able to get them out.

“Oh, God, this is fucked up,” I whisper to myself. “This whole goddamn thing is fucked up.”

I fold my arms across my chest and rock nervously back and forth on my feet. Mom said that they were just on the corner, so why the hell are they taking so long now? Unless my dad just dropped her off because he can’t stand to see me. I can imagine that, actually. Even with Ella being taken, he might hate me too much…

“Did your cell phone just go off?” I forget about the police officer until he pounces on me. “You didn’t tell me.”

“It was my mom,” I reply, unable to keep the misery from my voice. “She’s coming to help me. Both my parents, I think. My dad as well, although I don’t quite know what’s going on here. I’m not sure…”

Before I can really get into my babbling rant, thank goodness, the car pulls up and Mom comes out. She flies toward me and envelops me in a hug. I lean into her and cry some more. I can’t stop the tears from flowing. The flood gates have well and truly been opened, and I don’t think that they can close ever again.

“Is Dad not coming out?” I ask as I pull back to look at her. “Does he hate me? Still, after everything?”

“Your dad doesn’t hate you.” Mom sounds shocked that I would even think that. Has she been on another planet while I’ve been living my life? “He loves you. Of course he does. But he is going to join the search.”

“He is?” I’m so touched, I can’t believe how nice this is. “Oh, my God, really? For Ella?”

“Of course, for Ella. Come on.” Mom pulls me inside, taking control of the situation for me. “Let’s calm down.”

I know that I can’t, there won’t be any calming down until Ella is back here, but I am grateful to not have to be in charge of everything right now. I have Mom to do that for me. She can help me move forward in whatever way.

“Okay, so what happened?” Mom asks me. “With Ben? How did he find you? What happened?”

“He had a private investigator, he searched for me, he got all mad because he lost control over me…”

“He hurt you, didn’t he?” Mom runs her eyes over me. “What did he do to you? I want to kill him.”

“He yelled at me all day long. He was here after I dropped Ella off to school and he shouted. I don’t even remember most of it because it was so intense. And yeah, he got a bit physical as well.” My hands fly up to my throat as I remember the moment that he tried to strangle me. “More so when Ella came back home. That was the moment he smacked me in the face and he punched…” I breathe deeply. “He smacked Harry in the face as well. Beat him so badly that he had to go to the hospital. I think that he might have even been stabbed him as well. I’m not too sure…”

“Oh, God, is that someone you are friends with here?” She doesn’t remember, I can’t believe it.

“Mom…” I don’t see any point in keeping it down. There isn’t any need to hide anything anymore. I’m an adult, and keeping secrets isn’t worth the hassle any longer. “He’s the boy from a decade ago. The one Dad caught me kissing. You know, wheneverything exploded. I didn’t know that he would still be here, but he is…”

“Oh, and you reconnected?” She looks at me strangely. “Wow, that’s really something. And you are happy?”

“I was…” I admit. “I’ve been happy with Harry, but this has messed everything up. Everything. Harry was beaten up by Ben, he’s seen again how messy my life can be, and there is no way that this can happen again. Plus, this has shown me that I need to stop being selfish and worrying about my love life. I need to focus on Ella.”

---