Page 89 of Moonlight & Matrimony
“Sir, I’m going to need you to calm down. You are disturbing the entire floor.”
“I want to see my fucking wife. If you aren’t going to make that happen, you need to get the fuck out of my way.”
“Son. Calm down. I’ll handle it, okay? Go back to the waiting room.” Footsteps fade down the hallway, growing fainter as they carry him further away from me.Come back. Please.
“Ma’am, my name is Russell Hayes. I’m sure you’ve heard of me. I know you mean well, but that man is a ticking time bomb. If you could just get us an update...” The familiar voice trails off as I drift back to sleep.
“How much longer until she wakes?” Paige’s sullen voice breaks into the relentless nightmare that’s been playing on a loop in my mind for longer than I can fathom. No matter how hard I fight, I can’t pull myself out of it. The chill of the creek water, Rylin’s body limp in my arms, the sound of the gunshots.
“There’s no way to know for sure. Her brain activity is hopeful, and she’s breathing on her own. We just have to wait.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
Retreating footsteps echo through the space until they disappear entirely. The air is thick with the sharp bite of antiseptic, and a cold, metallic scent that hangs in the air.
A faint voice breaks the stillness, a whisper of urgency barely held in check. “How’s Luca?”Evelyn.
Somebody’s hand touches mine, just the faintest brush before Paige speaks again.
“He’s… not well. I took some groceries by the house last night but he didn’t come to the door. I used the spare key and left a note. I don’t know what to do.” Paige chokes on a sob and I hear the sound of metal scraping across the floor.
“There’s nothing we can do, sweetie. We just have to wait for her to wake up.”
“And then what? What do we tell her? What about Rylin?”
“We’ll take things one step at a time, honey. That’s all we can do.”
Rylin? My baby.
The once steady beeping speeds up as I try to claw my way out of the darkness. I have to get to my daughter. There’s a deafening scream in my head before everything goes dark.
Luca
Weeks have passed since that terrifying night in the creek, but the consequences have left my life in ruins, and I wonder if it was worth it. When presented with the piles of evidence against Austin, the prosecutors declined to charge me with a crime, ruling it as self-defence. I’ll never regret giving him the end he deserved, but the cost could never outweigh the outcome. A dull, heavy ache has settled in the hollow of my chest, where my heart once beat only for them. My visits to Ivy are a daily ritual, fueled by the fleeting hope that she’ll come back to me. In the darkness, when I finally give in to my body’s pleas for rest, the haunting sounds of the machines helping her to cling to the last embers of life fill my nights with unease.
The all-too familiar room is quiet, save for the steady rhythm of the ventilator. Ivy lays motionless, her face pale against the pillows, tubes and wires winding across her body.
Does she even know I'm here?
My thumb continues tracing slow patterns over the back of her hand, pausing every so often to feel the faint pulse along her wrist beneath my fingertips.
“Ivy,” I whisper, my voice rough and almost unrecognizable to my own ears. “I’m so fucking sorry. I should have protected you. I should have… I should have been there.” The doctors aren’t sure if she can hear me, but I speak softly to her, anyway.
I blink back tears, my vision blurring momentarily, but I refuse to let them fall. I don’t deserve to cry, not when she’s laying here because of me. My mind replays the events ofthat night in excruciating detail — the sound of rushing water, Austin’s wild eyes as he fought me for the gun, my brave, incredible wife, lying lifeless on the bank, shielding her daughter with her own body. And above all, the sickening realization that I was too late.
“Rylin is…” I whisper, hoping my wife can hear me, as if she could somehow take away all the pain. The once vibrant little girl who stole my heart from the front yard tree swing has become unrecognizable. “She’s with Evelyn,” I continue. “She's safe, but she’s not the same. Our girl is broken, and I don’t know how to fix her. She won't speak, but I know she misses you, Ivy. She needs her mom. Come back to us.” My voice breaks on the last word as I fail to hold in the sob that forces its way out of my body, the tears I worked so hard to keep at bay cascading down my face.
Bowing my head, I rest my cheek on our joined hands, taking solace in the feel of her skin on mine. “I… I’m broken, too. I can’t breathe without you. I don’t know how to be okay when you’re not here. The nightmares. Fuck. The nightmares, Ivy. I can’t live like this.”
For a long time, I just sit there, clinging to her icy fingers, the silence stretching on. I want to believe she can hear me, that she’s fighting to come back to us, but with every day that passes, I lose a little more hope. My gaze moves to her face, taking in the remnants of the bruises that mar her skin, now fading from deep purple to yellow and green.
“I love you, Ivy.” I’ve never said the words — not really. I think I did everything I couldnotto say them. The memory of our fight resurfaces, sending a pang of guilt straight through me, the final words echoing in my mind, haunting me.
Bringing her hand to mine for one last lingering kiss, it takes every bit of my remaining strength to stand, preparing to leave her side, but something stops me — the faintest twitch of herhand, or maybe it was simply my desperation causing me to imagine things. I turn back slowly, my heart pounding out of my chest. For a moment, there’s nothing, just the same stillness that has gripped the room for weeks. But then, just as I’m about to chalk it up to my imagination, her hand gently closes around mine.
“Ivy?” My voice is strangled as I lean closer, searching her face for a glimmer of life. I cup her jaw with my other hand, stroking my thumb along her too thin cheek. “Come back to me. I’m here. Come back to me, Trouble.”
Her eyelids flutter, the faintest movement, but to me it feels as if the world stops spinning. Another small twitch of her fingers is followed by the faint furrow of her brow. Agonizingly slowly, her eyes open, unfocused and frenzied.
