Page 188 of Severed Heart
“Where is Tatie?” Ezekiel calls as the screen door creaks open.
“Tobias, go!” Beau booms. “Now!”
“I’m going!” Ezekiel shouts, and by his insolent tone, I know I’m shielded from his view. “Come on, Dom.”
Darkness.
More struggle and grunts as I come to, and Celine presses a warm cloth to my eyes. “Hold on, Delphine,” she whispers. “Hold on, sister. Beau! Where is the goddamned ambulance?!”
Beau’s rage fills my ears. “You better fucking run and far, Alain, because if the police don’t catch you, I will hunt you down myself and fucking kill you!”
Darkness . . .
The sliding door sounds, along with the latch.
“He’s gone,” Beau tells Celine, his voice strained. It’s then panic starts to rise inside me.
“Beau, p-please.” Every word burns as I force them out. “Please, don’t let”—my voice fractures again—“them see.”
“Take them home,” Beau orders Celine just after, his own voice hoarse and broken as a siren starts to wail in the distance. “Go, Celine. Take them home. They don’t need to see this.”
“I can’t leave her!”
“Please, Celine,” I croak.
“Okay,” she cries, “okay, I’ll come right back, I’ll come right back as soon as I can.” She leans down, her breath hitting my face, voice cracking. “I love you, sister.”
“Celine, go,” Beau orders more insistently.
All goes quiet when the storm door snaps closed with Celine’s departure, and I open my eyes a fraction. When the light again blinds me, I clamp them closed. “Beau?”
“I’m here,” he utters before I’m covered with a blanket. Darkness threatens to pull me back under, but it’s fear which has me fighting to stay conscious. To warn him. As he tightens our clasped hands, I can feel the cuts and blood on his knuckles, apologies pouring from him. “I thought he had stopped, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Beau ... you have to go,” I whisper. “You ... Ezekiel—”
“Shh, I’m not leaving you ... I thought he stopped. If I had known ... I’m here, Delphine. I’m here,” he croaks.“... I’m so sorry,” he whispers as the wail of the siren draws closer. “He’s gone, and he’s never coming back. I’ll never let him near you again ... Jesus, why, Delphine, why, why did you stay with him?”
“It’s my fault ... I brought you here.”
“What?”
“... A-Abel,” I whisper as Beau’s breath catches. “If I left him ... Alain was going to tell Abel where to find his grandson.” I swallow the burn the words cause, my panic rising as I force my warning out. “Beau, Abel Baran cannot find Ezekiel—”
Beau’s gasp is cut by darkness as it finally takes me under.
“It was Beau.” Tears glide down my cheeks as I speak the truth aloud. What truth I’m able to speak. “It was Beau who chased Alain off.”
“Okay, Delphine ... follow my voice now. We’re leaving that kitchen together. We’re going to that hospital room, to the peach light. To Beau and the doctor.”
For lingering seconds, my vision remains filled with the engrained images of that hospital room. From the peach light to the itchy gown. To the arrival of the haze and Beau’s fuzzy outline. The doctor’s voice. Focusing on those images, that memory as Regina guides me, I continue to narrow my vision to the edge of it as Ormand’s sobs sound at my side. The days, weeks, and months after, all a blur of mixed memories, many unclear as the haze set in and my new life began. But it’s enough. Enough of the memory of the night my husband tried to kill me.
“Breathe deeply ... in and out ... inhale ... exhale. Good. So good. Breathe. Good ... now, when you are ready, I want you to open your eyes.”
A scream rips from me when I open my eyes and shoot straight up on the couch before racking sobs begin to pour from me.
“Delphine,” Regina coaxes, “you are in the home you share with Tyler. Outside, the world is different. You are different. Do you understand? You are safe, Delphine. It’s over. It’s over,” she whispers as my cries start to subside. After several long minutes, my vision begins to clear, and Regina’s watering eyes finally come into view. “You are home and safe. Give me a nod if you can.”
I nod as the final pieces click into place. Not a single memory I want to reclaim remains. None worth having. My life now full of only the memories I want to keep. With my soldier, in our heaven. Good days and bad. With Tyler.
