Chapter 16
1675 Words
"She's not breathing," Dean looked for safety in his mother's eyes. Kathy placed her index and middle fingers on Allie's throat, looking for a pulse.
"M-mom?" Andrew swallowed and held his mother's hand.
"What do you mean she's not breathing?" Daniel was paralyzed.
Lights approached the beach in the distance. An ambulance sped through the road, sounding its loud siren, but Dean could not hear any of that. Paramedics surrounded the scene and pulled him out of the way. Kathy and the children pushed him into a car. Reality happened faster than he could comprehend.
In his head he was still holding onto his wife's hand although he could see her body being carried into the ambulance. He stared at the palm of his hand and wiggled his fingers.
In a sudden blink, he wasn't in a car anymore. He was now in a hospital. He knew this because a woman in scrubs kept talking to him. She spoke English. Why couldn't he understand what she was saying?
The children.
Dean snapped back into reality and left the nurse mid-conversation. He panned around the emergency room's lobby and spotted Kathy comforting his sons.
"We have to trust the doctors," Kathy sat between Andrew and Daniel with both arms around them. "They'll know what to do."
Dean kneeled in front of them and gave each a kiss on their foreheads.
"Ya'll need to be strong for Mom, okay?"
The twins nodded and rubbed their noses on the back of their hands.
***
There were four comfortable chairs and a long sofa in the hospital waiting room. Snacks, juice and coffee sat untouched on a table. To the patients' families, even the cozy blankets provided were only there as display.
Dean paced around the furniture while his mother stood in place, watching the door. At any second, the doctor would walk inside to tell them that Allie would be okay and they could go home.
Kathy noticed Dean pass by her. The way he held his fingers behind his head caused her anxiety. She held his hand, then his shoulders.
"Have you had any water?"
Dean frowned. The last thing he wanted to do was worry about drinking water.
"No," he held his forehead and shook his head. He stopped, then scavenged behind the seats restlessly. "Mom, where are the kids? The kids. Mom!"
"Baby," Kathy cupped Dean's jaw, "you gave them permission to go to the restroom less than a minute ago."
Dean's chin collided with his neck. He blinked at the newly found memory.
"Did I tell you about the moment I saw Allie as my own daughter?" Kathy sighed. "You'd think it was the moment the boys were born, but it wasn't. I resented her for a while after your funeral. The morgue had cremated what we thought was your body without our consent. I asked Allie to sue everyone for negligence, but she refused, saying that it'd be too much to bear. She had money so she could do it, I thought. Although I never told her this, I used to blame her for your death. But despite all of that, she took care of me when your father died. She paid for his funeral, our credit cards, our taxes, home repairs, you name it. She was there for me and I love her for that.
I can't go through my daughter's death. It's just not possible that God would let someone so good leave us like that and I'm hanging onto that belief."
Dean felt his lungs expand with new air. He dropped his shoulders, trying to relax, but his brain refused to slow down.
"Mr. Freeman?" A man in scrubs entered the room and took his surgeon mask off. His eyes had no shine.
The husband stared at him and his guts began to twist.
***
Dean forced his feet into another room full of medical equipment, where two nurses unplugged the machines and placed them by the wall. His eyes followed them toward a bed. Allie laid there with her eyes closed, looking as beautiful as usual. Her cheeks were still pink, but that was from the light layer of make-up she had put on before the wedding.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Freeman. You can take as much time as you'd like," the nurses stopped what they were doing and hurried out of the room.
Dean ignored the women, having no interest in anything else other than Allie. He hovered his hand from her feet to her thigh, then up to the middle of her abdomen. He lowered it slowly and felt her stab wounds scars under her hospital gown. For the first time, her body wasn't warm anymore.
He traced his finger over her wedding ring and brought her hand up to his heart.
"How am I supposed to live without you?" A cascade of tears fell over his wife's lifeless body. He dropped on her chest.
He wailed, knowing that he would never hear her heartbeat again.
"Come back to me," he begged.
A hand rubbed his back and a voice whispered, "Did you really think you could save her?"
He turned around to find a small blonde woman seating by his side. Her long ponytail was the same length as ten years ago.
Dean wiped the tears off his face. He clenched his fists and stood up straight.
An amused Olivia stared at the ring on Allie's finger.
"You were never going to save her because you were weak from the beginning."
"That's where you're wrong," Dean replied. "I can not be weak when she makes me strong."
Olivia looked down at her chest. Her body began to burn, then turned into ashes. The walls around them dissipated. Then, Dean found himself at his wedding, holding Allie's body on the floor.
The girl looked up at him. She gripped his shirt while making choking sounds and gasping for air.
"Stay with me, Sweetheart," he said. "She's not breathing," he addressed his mother.
Daniel took a deep breath and hopped over his mother's legs. He reached for the leftover cake on her plate and shoved the whole slice into his mouth.
"Seriously?" Dean scolded his son.
"Wut?" Daniel raised his hands up to his shoulders.
"Your mother's dying over here and you're eating her cake. Not cool, buddy."
"Oh, I thought you said I could have cake after she died," the boy mumbled with a mouthful.
"Not from the poisoned cake, dumbass," Andrew laughed and flicked his brother on his earlobe.
Allie sat up and rubbed frosting off the corner of Daniel's mouth. "Andrew, don't call your brother names."
Dean enjoyed watching Steven's puzzled face, but decided to spare his the confusion.
"A long time ago, I promised myself I would never fail my wife or my family again, so if you think you're gonna bribe a couple of people to poison my wife without consequences, then you have no idea who I am and what I'm willing to do for my family."
Mery stood behind Steven with a plate of food on her hand. She grabbed a long crunchy stick and bit into it.
"What's this?" She dusted a few crumbs off of her blue jacket with the letters F.B.I printed on the side.
Steven jumped at the sight of the logo.
"Uh, Spanish croquettes," replied Dean.
"Holy s**t, Dean, they're good," Saayd began to shove a handful of croquettes into his pockets.
"Aunt Meryl?" said Andrew.
"Yes?" replied Meryl.
"Can I say it now?"
"Sure, why not?" Meryl placed her plate on the table behind her.
Andrew held his hands together and brought his index and middle fingers forward, imitating the shape of a gun. He pointed at Steven and yelled, "FBI, freeze mothahfuckah!"
A wave of FBI agents washed over the wedding party. Meryl handcuffed Steven while her team apprehended most of the wedding guests. A helicopter hovered by the beach. A camera man filmed the action from inside. News vans parked outside the house.
"Let's have some cake," Allie cheered.
***
Dean, Allie, Kathy, and the children sat at a round table laughing and talking while their wedding service cleaned the yard and took down the light decorations.
"You know, Mom and Dad," said Andrew, "Coach Nunes said that if we keep training and winning fights, we can join the UFC in the future and make a lot of money. But me and Daniel were thinking that if we wanna make money right now, we can try to qualify for the children's Olympics."
"Yeah, and we can sell our trophies and make more money," added Daniel.
"Cuties, why are you so concerned about making money?" frowned Allie.
"We want to help now that we're poor," replied Daniel.
The adults had no choice but to laugh.
"I promise you, kiddo," Dean scrubbed Daniel's scalp, "we're not poor."
"So you're still a billionaire!" Andrew addressed his mother.
"Just one level below that," Allie gave him a thumbs up.
The conversation was interrupted as Saayd and Meryl approached their table. Allie and Dean stood up to greet them.
"All good?" asked Dean.
"Yup, Mr. Childan's gonna be sleeping in a bunk bed for a long time," replied Meryl.
"Thank you," Allie gave her husband's ex-girlfrined a tight hug.
"Ouch," Meryl giggled and held onto her ribs in pain.
"Sorry, I forgot you're still recovering," Allie covered her mouth.
"It's fine. I'm used to it," Meryl glanced at Saayd.
Saayd smirked and shook his head.
"How's Kai?" asked Allie.
Saayd scratched his scalp and shrugged.
"He's still being evaluated, but his counselor said that, by the looks of it, he might never leave the mental institution. After the things he watched his father and uncle do...I don't think anyone can recover from that."
Allie pressed her lips together and wrapped her arm around Dean's back.
"We've been talking about it and we've decided that we want to pay for his treatment."
"All right. I'll put you in contact with the institution. Ya'll're good people."
"Thanks," Dean smiled then noticed Furaha standing by his limousine.
"Are you all ready?" asked the chauffeur.
Saayd and Meryl waved goodbye as the kids ran toward their ride. Kathy patted Dean's shoulder and followed her grandchildren.
As they were left alone, Dean held Allie's hands and smiled.
"You're such a good actor," she complimented him.
"All I had to do was imagine what could've happened if I hadn't figured out Steven's plan beforehand," he replied.
"I love you."
"I love you, too. Together forever?" he placed his forehead on hers.
"Forever and ever," she kissed him on the lips.
THE END.
- Writer
