Page 36 of Rescued By My Best Friend's Brother

Wedriveinsilencefor an awfully long time. So long, I feel as if I am in a trance. Jasper didn’t say much after I asked about Caty. Just asked me to come with him and that I will know everything soon enough. I do not understand why there is so much mystery around his ex-wife and her disappearance. A knot formed in my chest the moment he didn’t answer my question and it still remains there. I rub my chest in hopes to massage it out, but it doesn’t work. It’s still there.

Did I ask him the wrong question? Should I have kept my mouth shut? I know what it is like to not want to answer complicated questions. I never really talk about my childhood or my background. I hate when people pity me or don’t know what to say. Anyone I confided in would always change how they treated me afterwards.

Now, we drive down a paved road lined with trees that are so beautiful. He finally pulls off the road, and I see a sign, Rennick’s New Haven Hospital. I scan the terrain. Why would there be a hospital out here? It seems so random and out in the middle of nowhere.

We continue down a winding drive. A white brick building appears amongst the trees, with a large, fresh cut lawn in front of it. We pull into the parking lot in the front. The building looks nice, with three stories and a lot of windows. A sidewalk wraps around the building. A few people walk along the sidewalk. A few benches are scattered along the path.

“What is this place?” I ask.

Jasper turns to me. “Caty is here.”

“I don’t get it. Why is she here?” Caty is in a hospital in the middle of nowhere? Why would she be here?

“Caty has always struggled with her mental health. She was able to control it with meditation, journaling, and a few other techniques she read about to relieve anxiety and depression. I think the type of work she was involved in intensified it. Then we had Lily and she got worse. She would disappear for days, even weeks at a time, never telling anyone where she was. These disappearances occurred more frequently, and then after the divorce was final, she tried to kill herself. I got the call since I was still considered her emergency contact.”

I watch him, listening intently. I know this must be hard. It would be hard for me, too. I still haven’t told Jasper or Josie the full reason why I showed up on their doorstep

To think that Jasper went through all of this and told no one… I wonder how much Josie knows about this situation. Probably just enough to not ask questions.

“When I came to see her, I didn’t recognize her. She tried to kill herself by hanging. It was during one of her disappearance acts. She was in a hotel and housekeeping came in to change out linens and found her. By the time she was found, she still had a pulse but blood flow had been shut off from her brain for too long, and it caused brain damage. She wasn’t the Caty I knew anymore.” He pauses. I lean forward and lay a hand on his leg, knowing it isn’t much, but it is all I can do at the moment.

“Before she got to this point, she knew she was acting manic and made me promise to not let Lily see her in a bad mental state. I know she wouldn’t want Lily to see her like this. Lily knows she is sick but doesn’t understand why she can’t see her and feels like her mother doesn’t want her. Although I try to convince her otherwise, it is difficult for her little mind to wrap around why else she wouldn’t be there.

“Lily is a very smart girl for her age. I am willing to bet, she would understand a lot more than you think,” I say.

He runs a hand through his hair and pushes his glasses back up his nose. “I don’t know. You’re probably right. I should tell her more. I just don’t know how to do that right now.”

I reach up and squeeze his shoulder. “This must be so hard for you. This is a lot to worry about. I can help you navigate this with her if you would like. I know what it is like growing up knowing your mother doesn’t want you. It will do more damage to a little girl than the truth would. I think Caty would understand.”

He lays a hand over mine. “I—” He looks back at the hospital. “She is slowly getting better. They say she will never have a full recovery, but I am hopeful. Anoxic brain injuries can take months or years to recover from…Ifthey recover at all. She started showing signs of recovery a couple of months after the incident, so doctors were hopeful. I have just been holding out… I want her to get better and see Lily. I want her to know who Lily is when she sees her and be able to communicate with her.”

“Are you ever going to tell Josie?”

He looks up. “I am not sure. I think she knows but just doesn’t speak of it. She was there for everything and knows that Caty didn’t want Lily seeing her like that. I know she probably wouldn’t say anything if she knew where she was at now. I just don’t want it getting out about Caty. Teachers can gossip, other parents can gossip, then next thing you know, Lily is overhearing a distorted version of the truth. So, for now, I just felt it was best to avoid the situation until she was better and could speak for herself.” He sighs. “I just want Lily to be safe and to know her mother loves her. Caty isn’t a bad person; she just needs help.”

“What about her family?” I asked curiously, wondering why they don’t help care for her instead of leaving her in a hospital all the time.

He takes a deep breath. “Well, they are in denial of her condition. They blame me for her episodes. They say I made her have Lily, and she wasn’t ready for the pressures of motherhood. But she never said she didn’t want to keep the baby. She honestly seemed really excited. But because of how she was with Lily after she was born, leaving her unattended, disappearing for days at a time, they grasped onto that saying having Lily did this. I tried to encourage her to get help, but she refused. Said she was fine and that she was just stressed. After a while of me begging and pleading with her, she got angry with me forpressuring her all the timeand filed for divorce.” I gently squeeze his leg as I intently listen.

After the divorced she spiraled out of control; and I am pretty sure there may have been drugs involved. So, Caty’s family blamed me again. Although I am not even the one who wanted the divorce.”

He looks down at his hand that is covering mine with a sigh of defeat. “I was doing the best I could. I still had to take care of Lily, I had the company that was lifting off the ground, and I was trying to make sure she was safe…even with her constantly disappearing. They are such a prominent family, and Caty’s mental health doesn’t mesh with their image. It’s an embarrassment for them, she wanted nothing to do with them and regardless of where she was, she made me promise not to tell them where she was. They only made her feel worse.”

I take a deep breath, trying to absorb all the information I just heard. But he continues, “I did contact them after the incident. She was in a different hospital, a medical hospital. She was there for a while. When she got well enough that she could communicate, she let me know she didn’t want them around. Not that they visited often anyways. She was transferred to this hospital a short while later, and I just didn’t tell them where she went. I just act like I don’t know where she is. Although they know I do and it makes them angry at me. But it is all her wishes because they cause so much turmoil for her.”

I look at him and can almost feel his pain, “Thank you for sharing that.”

He pulls my hand up and tugs me in closer. “Now, you know everything. What do you think? Still want to hang around?”

Our faces come close together. “I think you’re an amazing ex-husband and an even better father.”

He scoffs. I reach up and caress his cheek. “You’re too kind to me, Elena Pruitt.”

I love the way he says my full name, like saying it all means he wants all of me. I lean in without thinking twice and kiss him. I no longer wish to think about anything else or the world outside. I just want to focus on his lips and the way he makes me feel.

We decide to go home. The week has been exhausting, and a day of relaxation is much needed. A day where we can think of nothing but the present. Jasper suggested it, and I couldn’t agree more. I need a break from the world, from everything.

The entire trip home, we sit in silence. But this time, it feels different. It isn’t awkward or full of anxious worry. No. It is full of relief, like the relief you get once you spill your guts and someone listens. The feeling of being heard and no longer needing to fill the silence with words.

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