Page 25 of Coming Unraveled
Stunned at first, Everleigh fights back the urge to apologize and ask him to rush home by imaging him with the woman described in the messages earlier. Unfortunately, the thought only saddens her further and she speaks from her heart instead of her mind.
“We miss you too, Brooks.”
“Really?” he inquires and she can imagine him cocking his eyebrow the way he does when he wants her to elaborate further.
“I…miss you, Brooks,” she whispers as she wraps her free arm around her waist and closes her eyes, no longer bothering if Tamara is eavesdropping in on the conversation.
Suddenly a female voice calls out in the background and Brooks murmurs under his breath.
“Look, Everleigh, I’m glad I caught you. My lawyer said you haven’t filed the papers yet.”
She bites her lower lip, letting the pain resonate across her skin in shame.
“No…I…haven’t had a chance. I’ve been busy. I’m sorry if it’s keeping you from something,” she tags on the end with a hint of venom in her voice as the woman’s shout sounds once more.
“Ok, I understand. Just let me know if there is a problem, I kind of rushed through it. I need to go back to the set. I’ll be here a few more weeks.”
She begins to wonder what that means for his job at the clinic, but realizes he hired the staff to be able to pick up slack when needed; he has a good team behind him.
“Ok. I’ll be seeing you.”
Just as she is about to end the call she hears him utter, “Hey, sweetheart?”
Being able to hear him call her the term of endearment melts her from the inside out. It has been weeks since someone had spoken to her in such an affectionate tone, she hadn’t realized how much she has missed it until this moment.
“Yes?”
“Take care of yourself. I want you to be happy.”
The call ends abruptly as he leaves no chance for her to answer.
The phone drops into her smock pocket and she walks towards the small office located in the corner of the pharmacy. Closing the door behind her, she sinks against it until her bottom touches the floor. Her arms cross over her bent knees and she rests her head against them.
From deep in her chest a sob escapes unannounced and she doesn’t have a chance to catch it before it reverberates throughout the room. A second sob follows and soon Everleigh finds herself grieving in a way she never knew was possible.
Minutes pass as her mind and heart expel years of pent-up anguish. The years of feeling unable to love or be loved flash through her mind, leaving her feeling sick and abused at her own hand.
“Everleigh?” a hushed voice of concern sounds from the other side of the door and she stands up and cracks the door slightly.
“Mom?” she responds just as her bottom lip begins to quiver and another unexpected sob bursts forth.
“Are you hurt, sweetie?” her mother questions as she wraps her slim arms around her daughter, holding her in a way that only a mother can.
“I messed up, Mom. I messed up so bad and I don’t know how to fix it.”
Twenty minutes later Everleigh finds herself flanked on both sides of the couch by her sisters Cassidy and Sydney while her mother, sister-in-law Nikki, and half-sister Avery stare at her from across the room. She isn’t sure how much to disclose so, with a giant leap of faith, she tells them everything.
She tells them about how Brooks had pushed all of her buttons by trying to control her when they first met, telling her that she wasn’t allowed to pretend to be Nikki in the hopes to catch the person trying to kill her brother Austin. A memory that seems so long ago, but really happened only nine months earlier. How Brooks always had to have the final say in their arguments and pushed her to admit whenever he was correct; one of her biggest pet peeves. And how Brooks always had to make sure he was the one to walk her home when he was in town. She despised being treated like a child, so one night when she had had enough she had punched him square in the face.
As she tells the story Sydney chimes in that she needs to tell Harlan that he won the bet that she would punch Brooks. A bet that was apparently made at her expense during one of their family dinners at Angie’s.
Finally, as she looks at her mother from underneath her eyelashes she tells them about Vegas. How she and Brooks had woken up together, married.
Their mouths all hang open in astonishment as she continues to explain that she had a lawyer draw up annulment papers, but Brooks continued to refuse to sign them. Until he left and they were waiting on her doorstep the next day.
“Oh, Everleigh,” their mother sighs.
“I don’t know what to do, Mom. It’s like, once he signed the papers I realized that maybe I may actually like the guy.”
