Page 91 of The Unseen
“Rhys, how could you?” Quinn asked gently. “If I hadn’t found you…”
“I wasn’t trying to top myself, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Rhys protested. “Please tell me you didn’t tell Rhiannan. I don’t want anyone at the office to know.”
“I told her you’re ill and will ring her tomorrow.”
Rhys nodded his thanks.
“How about a little juice?” Quinn held up a box of apple juice to Rhys’s lips, and he obediently took a long pull. “Rhys, where’s Haley?”
“Gone.”
Quinn didn’t persist. If he wanted to tell her what had happened, he would.
Rhys let out a painful breath and sat up a little, his gaze fixed on the window behind Quinn. If he was trying to regain his composure, he failed utterly. Silent tears slid down his cheeks and he pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, rubbing them angrily.
“Rhys,” Quinn began, but he shook his head, not ready totalk.
They remained like that for a few minutes, a silent tableau of a grieving man and an anxious woman. Rhys finally sniffed and removed the hands from his face. He looked miserable, but at least he was no longer crying.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“I don’t normally go to pieces in front of people.”
“No, you don’t.”
Rhys used the back of his hand to wipe his moist cheeks. “Haley miscarried on Friday. She was jogging when she began to bleed, and then the pains came. A kind passerby called an ambulance, so she got to the hospital quickly, but it was too late. By the time I got there the baby was gone. Incinerated.”
“Incinerated?”
“That’s what Haley decided. She didn’t want to name her or even bury her. She wanted her incinerated, like a piece of rubbish.”
“Oh, Rhys.”
Rhys rubbed his eyes again. He looked so heartbroken, Quinn wanted to gather him into her arms and hold him, but thought the gesture might embarrass him. “When we returned home from the hospital, she said she was leaving.”
“Rhys, she was in shock. She wasn’t thinking clearly. She’ll come back. You can try again, in time.”
Rhys shook his head and sniffled loudly. “She’s not coming back, Quinn. She said she was glad the baby was gone. She’d realized she wasn’t ready to be a mother, and she certainly didn’t want me for her child’s father. She said I’m old-fashioned and controlling and all I wanted was a millennial version of my own mother, who’d put all her dreams on hold to wipe snotty noses and change nappies.”
“She was just lashing out,” Quinn replied.
Rhys bowed his head, staring at his IV needle as if it might have all the answers. “She said she wasn’t even sure the baby was mine,” he confessed. He tried to sound matter-of-fact but couldn’t mask the unbearable pain behind the words. He looked like he was about to cry again. “She thought I’d give the child a better life than the other guy, who’s a bartender or some such. She never loved me, Quinn.”
“Rhys…”
“Please don’t say anything. I’ve heard it all from my mother and my brother. And even from Rhiannan, who tried to warn me about Haley.”
“Rhys, the only thing I’m going to say is that I’m here for you. Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask.”
Rhys reached out and took Quinn’s hand. “I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept going over everything, searching for signs I’d missed. Imagining what life would have been like had it all turned out differently. I was only trying to get some sleep.”
Quinn nodded. “I understand.”
“I never meant to…”
“I know.”
