For you, I hope the grass is greener

Chapter 14 Caught

Daphne's POV

I was very productive and got so much done, which is something to be proud about, especially knowing I did it all on my own with no one else in the building. I was able to distract myself enough for the entire morning, but now that it's late afternoon and everything on my list was marked off.. I don't know what else to do with my time. I guess it's just time to head home.

So I collect all of my things and close down the office as I make my way to the car. I call my father's phone, but no one picks up, so I hang up and call my husband's phone to see if maybe he has heard anything on his end, but he doesn't answer either. I groan out at this, feeling the irritation at that thought and making me angrier. He told me if I needed him to call.. So I do, and he doesn't pick up.. that's frustrating. I tried to call him again, but nothing was on his end.

I keep driving, feeling annoyed at that thought, until I pull into the driveway to park next to my husband's car as I grab my things, loading up my arms and heading into my house.. I bet he is probably still asleep or something and didn't hear the phone, but either way, that's annoying. Why say something if you don't mean it? But maybe that's my irritation talking with it being at an all-time high with everything lately.

I open the door and then shut it behind me just to see he is not asleep on the couch since it's empty. I look around and don't see him anywhere in the main part of the house either. Maybe he went for a run.. I know how much he loves to do that just to relieve those built-up frustrations and things lately have been incredibily frustrating. "Hey Danny?" I call out for him, and I can hear his grunts from our bedroom, replying to me, but I can't hear at all what he is saying.

"I'm home.. I finished everything at work earlier than I thought.. and noticed I hadn't heard anything from my father.. so I.." I hear a woman's voice then thumping and scrambling from behind the closed bedroom door. "Danny?" I ask again, hoping I'm not hearing this correctly.. I think I know what I heard. I'm just hoping that I'm wrong.

"Daphne?" I hear this muffled reply but sounding surprised by my arrival. Which I guess is understandable since I told him I would be gone all day. "Yeah, I left work early because I got everything done." I state though the door as more scrambling and thumping is heard. "Daniel?" I ask again as I inch closer to the bedroom door. "Coming.. don't open the door.. I'm just.. ugh." This makes me want to kick that door down and see what he is doing in our bedroom that he obviously doesn't want me to see.

But I don't, I just inch closer, feeling my heart race. I get in arms reach, reaching over before gripping that door knob and swinging the door open quickly before I lose all nerve. A woman is bent over naked on my bed with her face in the pillows as my husband is jumping, trying to pull his boxers up. He tosses her a shirt over her head as he looks up to see it's me in the doorway seeing all of this.

"Baby.. I.. let me explain." He states as I shake my head, turning around. He runs towards me, but I just quickly slam the door in hus face as I turn to try to leave the house, not wanting any part of this. I can hear the door swinging open and slamming into the wall as the thundering of feet can be heard behind me. He grabs my arm, but I quickly shove him back, and he looks surprised at my hatred towards him in this moment, but what else did he expect.

I feel like someone has stabbed my heart with a knife and twisting it.. and that someone is my husband.. soon to be ex-husband because I know why he has been pushing me away.. why he hasn't been touching me.. why he hasn't wanted to spend one moment with me.. it's because he has someone else and only wants that someone else.. and he can have her for all I care. I don't want to be someone's second choice. I don't want to force anything in my life, and I won't force my husband to be with me when he obviously doesn't want that.

I swing the front door open as I hear "Baby, please wait.. let me explain." he asks as he grabs me by my arm again while I'm in the doorway trying to leave. I struggled and tried to pull my arm out of his grip, but this time, he just tightened it, and it's hurting my arm. I whimper out as I struggle in his grip. I finally pull my arm out of his hold. But that doesn't stop him. He just grabs both of my arms and pulls me in close to face him.

The tears pour as I shake my head. "Leave me alone.. let me go!" I yell out as he yells back. "You have to listen to me and let me explain this." I keep shaking my head as I declare loudly. "I don't have to do anything!You have one hour until the kids are out of school and will be back here.. you better be gone with your girlfriend by then because if they catch you with her like I just did, then you will never see them again.. I will take them far away and get all the custody, and you know I will.. now get you and her out."

I try to pull my body out of his hold. But his grip only gets tighter, so I swing my body, getting him to let me go but also throwing myself in the process. I watch him swipe to try to catch me, but at this point, I don't care if I fall, I don't want him to touch me ever again. I fall down the stairs, rolling over and over until I can feel arms wrapping around my body as we fall back together. I apparently hit a person, I would assume with it being softer than the wall.

Whoever it was has caught me from hitting the wall, but I couldn't feel any worse about hitting someone innocent in this process. I just hope they're ok. I can see the legs under me and feel the grip over my torso. "Daphne! Baby, are you ok?!" Daniel yells as he tries to run down the stairs at me. I shake my head and scream at him. "Don't you dare come near me! You have ONE hour to get you and your little girlfriend out of the house! when I get back with the kids, you better be gone!" He stops in his tracks as he looks at the person behind me, but I don't. I keep my glare pointed directly at him.

He nods, then turns and walks back in.. it's strange to see him not fight me on this.. is it because he is respecting my wishes or just doesn't want to make a scene in front of this stranger? who knows? Once my husband is out of sight and I know he won't bother me anymore, the tears drain from my eyes as I shake in this person's hold. I feel the grip tighten as I start gasping for air in my devistation as I lean into this person. I know I shouldn't, but I don't have anyone else at the moment.

"You ok?" Asks the voice from the innocent person that tried to help me as I shook my head. "No, I'm the furthest thing from." I state as the man's lulling deep voice graces my ears. "we need to check out that ankle and arm? I'm a nurse practitioner.. let me help you?" he says as I don't question this, and I just nod. I had nowhere to go for the next hour anyways so I guess that helps.

I look up to see that the man who helped me stand slowly by using his body that's under mine is the one and only neighbor. He lifts me up with his arms as I lean back against his torso. I instinctively try to stand with him, but this only makes me cringe at the shooting pain flying through my ankle. I hiss out in pain, trying to grab for my ankle as he keeps lifting me like it is no problem.

He tosses me up in the air, only slightly, I think, to readjust and properly get me in his arms. I'm in shock, not knowing how to react to all of this.. as if I thought my life and things for me couldn't get worse.. here is fate showing me that it can. "You don't have to worry about me." I state to him, between sniffles, but his grip just tightens around me. "Yeah, I do.. you just took a hard fall.. I tried to catch you but obviously that didn't work very well." He states as he turns and takes me to his place.

He struggles for a minute, trying to get the key into the keyhole, but can't exactly get it since he is holding me. So I take the key out of his hand and open it for us. "Thanks." He states, ducking his head as he takes us into his place. The aroma of food cooking is smelt first. It's like I hit a wall of amazing smelling food as my stomach starts to growl until I realize that I haven't eaten all day.

The man sets me down to a chair by his island as he turns around and quickly shuts the door. He turns back to me with his eyes set on my ankle. He kneels down, reaching out for it to gently examine. His gentle eyes show concern or maybe it's pity, but since he helped me out of that situation, I guess I can't complain about which one it is.

He tilts my ankle back and forth, looking at it at different angles until I hiss once again, followed by a whimper. "Ok, so I have some good news.. I'm pretty sure it's not broken.. just spranged.. but that means you will need to try to stay off of it." He declares as I shake my head. "I have to get my kids and take care of them since I now have no one else." He nods at me slowly as if he is thinking about those words.

"Well then, you need to be careful.. I have one crutch you can use to help you get around and not put too much weight on your foot, but I need to wrap this up so it doesn't bend the wrong way again." He declares not sounding like I have an option into his discussion. "Ok." I say softly as he walks out of the room for a minute.

I take a look around as I see a crock pot that must be the source of the great smelling food. I keep looking around and do not see much else, particularly showing he has a family of any sort. I have never seen people come in or out of here ever.. but he has some pictures of his travels and graduation.. but nothing else besides some generic looking scenery pictures.

He walks back out of the side room with a bandage wrap and crutch in hand. He tilts the crutch on my chair as he bends down again. I intently watch as he slips my heel off as he massages my foot for just a moment, which feels amazing but also bad at the same time.. like when you rub a strained muscle. He gently holds my foot in his hand as he wraps it up like he has done this a million times before, and I couldn't be more grateful that he going out of his way to help me.