Chapter 7
SEVEN
REID
I keep a tight grip on my two crying children, my arms enveloping the pair of them as I hold them close and tell them that Mummy is going to be okay.
I still don’t know if that is true, but I do know that I need to stop them rushing towards their hurt mum and potentially disrupting the paramedics, so I tighten my arms around them.
The fact that Sadie has a heartbeat is something, certainly more of a positive sign than a few seconds ago.
While I hate my ex-wife for what she has done tonight, I do still want her to live.
If only for the sake of our children. The trauma they will have to endure for the rest of their lives if they see their mummy die right in front of them will be too much to bear, but if she survives, they might move past it one day.
That’s why I am silently urging Sadie to keep fighting, to keep living, to keep on being here so she can be a parent to Arthur and Ruby, even if she is going to spend several years behind bars after making a full recovery.
I’m praying silently for Sadie’s survival because Luna is standing behind me and I don’t want her to know that I want my ex to live.
I have to consider my current partner in all of this too.
How she was attacked by my ex, slashed across the arm with a knife and is now terrified for the health of our unborn child.
I expect that Luna wants Sadie to die and I couldn’t really blame her for having that viewpoint.
I’d probably want Sadie to die too if our roles were reversed.
That’s why I have to walk a very thin tightrope here in which I must navigate the future happiness of my children with the future happiness of my girlfriend, who is due to give me another child in the near future too.
‘What’s happening? Is she going to be okay?’ Sadie’s mother asks one of the paramedics who rushes past her with a gurney, but he ignores the question and focuses on assisting his colleagues.
Together, the four of them tentatively transition Sadie from the hard hallway floor to the gurney before transporting her from the house to the back of one of the waiting ambulances.
‘You go with her. I’ll see you at the hospital,’ I tell Sadie’s parents. They don’t need telling twice, rushing away to join their daughter, who is still unconscious but apparently breathing, for now at least.
‘I want to go with Mummy!’ Ruby whines.
‘Me too!’ Arthur agrees, and they wriggle free from me and make a bid to reach the ambulance with Sadie in it.
I have to chase the pair of them down the driveway and stop them delaying the ambulance any further, telling my children that we will be right behind them and will see Mummy at the hospital when we get there.
I realise that I have left Luna behind in the house and look up to see her watching me, the blood-soaked bandage on her arm and a concerned look on her face that tells me she is still stressing about our baby.
I know I need to be with her now as it will not look good if I spend more time concerned over my previous partner rather than my current one, but I also have my children to think about.
This is too much for me to handle, which is why it’s a relief when one of the police officers provides some support, offering to help transport Arthur and Ruby to the hospital, so that I can go with Luna.
That sounds okay in theory until I suggest it to my kids.
‘No, we want to stay with you,’ Ruby cries, which is understandable. After seeing her mother shockingly speed away in an ambulance, she now doesn’t want to see her father leave in the same way.
I’m going to have to stay with Arthur and Ruby, which means Luna will have to ride alone in her own ambulance because they won’t let the children travel with her too.
There isn’t enough room in there and the paramedics have plenty of work to do, work that will be easier without a couple of children around.
So I have to make a choice. Go with Luna or go with the kids.
As a father, it’s an easy choice to make.
But it doesn’t mean it’s the best one for my relationship.
As Luna is led out of the house by a gentle paramedic, I approach my partner and try to deliver the news in the best way I can.
‘I have to go with the children, but we’ll be right behind you, and we’ll see you at the hospital. Okay?’ I say.
Luna looks sad but she doesn’t speak.
‘You’re going to be fine and so is our baby. This is all going to be over soon,’ I try again, but she still doesn’t look convinced or even as though she is hearing a word I am saying.
Just as I think she is going to give me the silent treatment, she speaks.
‘I want to move away from here. I want us to get as far away from Sadie as possible,’ she says. ‘I cannot stay here and be afraid of her coming back again. Do you understand?’
I do understand, but that’s far easier than the logistics of the four of us moving away.
How far does Luna want to move? Where do we go?
What about the children? What about their school?
What about their proximity to their mother?
What about their friends? What about my life here too?
My job. My friends. My life. Can I really uproot everything and give Luna her wish?
Can I really move us and the children away from here to start again?
I don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m smart enough to know this is not the time or the place to discuss it.
So I do what I feel is right in the moment.
‘Okay, whatever you want. Just forget about that for now and focus on your recovery. Go to the hospital and let them do everything they need to do and I will be right there with you and we’ll get through this together.’
‘I mean it,’ Luna replies. ‘I want to get away from here. I cannot stay with you if she is around. Can’t you see? She’s going to kill me and our baby if we stay.’
‘Luna, I don’t think—’
‘She broke in and stabbed me! She might have caused us to lose our child! How can you defend her after this?’
‘I’m not defending her. I’m just trying to—’
‘We need to get you to the hospital,’ the emergency worker beside Luna says, the poor paramedic having been forced into hearing this domestic dispute when she is simply trying to do her job.
‘Yes. You need to go to the hospital,’ I agree. ‘I’ll see you there.’
I step aside so Luna can pass, and she does, but it feels like there is a distance between us. That’s why I feel I have to speak up as she is put into the back of the ambulance.
‘I love you!’ I call out to Luna.
But the ambulance doors close without a reply.
I’m left standing on the driveway with my children as the second ambulance leaves us, each one carrying a woman who means so much to me in very different ways.
Sadie and Luna are at war with one another and there’s no telling how this will all end, especially if Sadie survives and the uncertainty of what she does next lingers over us.
But I cannot worry about the future because it is uncertain. All I can do is focus on the present.
I wrap my arms around Arthur and Ruby and tell them that I love them.
Then, as the police put tape around the scene, and wait for the forensic investigators to get here, I am escorted to a police car that will take us to the hospital.
It will take us to where Sadie and Luna are, and that is where so many fates will be decided.
The fate of my ex-wife.
The fate of my unborn child.
The fate of my relationship with my girlfriend.
There is a lot to be decided…