Chapter 4 #2
Relief flooded her system. She had no plan B or money for a hotel. Their small nest egg was long gone, their credit cards maxed out, and the unemployment money had already been depleted for this month.
“We can go next door,” Isla told Officer Samuelson.
“I’ll help you move the children.”
Two other officers cleared a path through the glass disaster to the door. One of them took Theo while Samuelson had Mila. Isla followed them, carrying their belongings and keeping her eyes on the door. She didn’t want to see the destruction of the home she’d lovingly created for her family.
She’d have to come back at some point to get the rest of the things that could be salvaged, but for now, she couldn’t bear to look at what he’d done to their home.
Mrs. Ventura waited for them in the doorway to her apartment, stepping aside so the officers could carry the children inside. “Take them to the second bedroom on the right,” she said. “The bed is ready for them.”
“Thank you so much,” Isla said to her.
“I hope this’ll be the end of the road with him before he kills you or the children.”
“You know I would’ve left a long time ago if I could’ve afforded it.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not judging you. I swear.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you were. I’m judging myself.”
Mrs. V put an arm around her and guided her into the apartment.
Officer Samuelson asked for Isla’s contact info and promised to let her know when she could return to the apartment. Then he handed her his card. “Please call me if you need anything at all.”
“Thank you for your kindness.”
After he left, Mrs. Ventura put a pillow, sheet and blanket on the sofa.
“Could I please check on the kids?”
“Of course. You know the way.” She’d set up a cute little room for them to nap when they stayed with her on the rare occasions when Isla needed a sitter.
Isla found the kids still sound asleep and cuddled up to each other.
She sat on the edge of the mattress and ran her fingers through their soft blond hair as tears slid down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “You guys deserve so much better than this. Somehow, I’m going to fix it.
If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make this right for you. ”
She kissed them both, adjusted the covers, put the light on inside the closet and walked out of the room, leaving the door open so she’d hear them if they woke up.
Thank God they’d slept through the worst of it.
“Do you have everything you need?” Mrs. V asked.
Not even close. “Yes, thank you again for putting us up.”
“I hope you can get some rest, honey.”
Not at all likely. She hugged her friend. “Thank you for everything. I know it wasn’t easy for you to call the police.”
“I came home about forty minutes ago and couldn’t figure out what I was hearing until I heard him screaming for you. And then when you didn’t answer my texts, I thought…”
Isla hugged her again. “I’m so sorry. We were hiding, and I didn’t see the texts.”
“I can’t believe you had a hiding place right in the apartment.”
“I realized a while ago that I might need it.”
“I was hoping he was gone for good this time.”
“Me, too. But I’m not going back. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’ll figure something out.”
“Maybe you should finally tell your brother just how bad it’s gotten.”
Isla had resisted that with every fiber of her being.
Denny’s strenuous objections to her marriage had caused a rift between her and the older brother who’d finished raising her after their parents died in a helicopter accident.
When they saw each other, Isla had pretended everything was fine, because she’d been determined to find a way out on her own.
The last thing she’d wanted to do was tell Denny he’d been right about Gabriel, or that she was in big trouble.
“I’ll think about that,” she said to Mrs. V, knowing she had few options other than to call her brother at this point. He’d checked in regularly, but they weren’t close anymore, and that’d been almost as painful a loss as her parents’ deaths when she was in eighth grade.
“This is no time for pride, sweetheart. You need help, and he’s your family.”
“I know.”
Mrs. V hugged her. “Get some rest while you can.”
“I’ll try.”
Isla went to the sofa and sat, trying to regulate her breathing and get her heart rate back to normal.
Her body hummed with adrenaline, her fight-or-flight response still fully activated, even though Gabriel was in police custody.
The thought of him being locked up, even after everything he’d done to deserve it, was devastating.
She took a series of cleansing breaths and then reached for her phone to call Denny.
Even if he was tempted to say, “I told you so,” he would still help her.
Of that, she was certain. She’d hoped to figure out a plan on her own before she had to make this call, but now she was completely out of options.
“Hey,” he said, “what’s up? I’m on my way to a gig on Sunset.” He played lead guitar in a sixties and seventies cover band called Canyon that was so popular, they could’ve played seven nights a week if it weren’t for their pesky day jobs. “What’s up?”
“Something happened.”
“What? Are you all right? Are the kids?”
“We are now, but Gabriel… He… he smashed up the apartment.”
“He did what? Where were you and the kids?”
“Hiding.”
“Isla, what the hell? Where were you hiding?”
“I made a place behind the closet wall if we ever needed to hide from him.”
“You… you prepared to hide from him?”
“Just in case.”
“Can you hear how insane that sounds?”
“Yes, I can, Denny, but what was I supposed to do with two little kids, no money and no way to move out?”
“You should’ve called me!”
“So you could tell me how you were right and I was wrong from the start with him?”
“Have I said that?”
“No, but I couldn’t bear the fact that I didn’t listen to you and ended up in this impossible situation with two precious little kids to care for.”
“Where are you now?”
“My neighbor took us in because my place is a crime scene thanks to Theo’s baseball bat.”
“Jesus fucking hell. Where is he?”
“The cops took him.”
“Which means he’ll probably be out on bail by the morning. I’m going to talk to my friend Julian about this.”
“The fancy-pants Hollywood divorce lawyer? I’m sure he’ll jump on taking my case, especially since I can’t afford to pay him.”
“He’ll do it if I ask him to. We go way back. Been playing together since high school.”
She’d been in elementary school then, so she didn’t know many of his friends from that era. She barely remembered living in the same house with him until he moved back home from college after their parents died.
“Ask if he can refer me to someone cheap.”
“You don’t want cheap for this, Isla. You need someone who gets results, and that’s Julian.”
“He’s probably three hundred bucks an hour, and don’t say you’ll pay it, because you can’t afford it any more than I can.” Julian had negotiated Denny’s child support and alimony payments down to three thousand a month.
“We gotta get you away from that guy. God, I told you not to marry him!”
“You were right! Is that what you want to hear?”
“No, I want to hear you’re leaving him for good this time.”
“I want to. I just can’t seem to figure out how that’s going to happen when I haven’t worked in three years and can’t do four and a half times the rent upfront, or whatever nonsense they want these days.”
“I’ll see Julian tonight and call you after.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry about this, Islands in the Stream. You deserve better.”
The silly old nickname he’d given her years ago brought tears to her eyes. “I know I do, but damned if I can figure out how to get it.”
“Let me see what I can do.”
“Don’t commit me to paying him anything. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”
“I know. Try not to worry. I’m on it.”
“What? Me worry? When everything I own is smashed to smithereens and the so-called love of my life is in jail?”
“That jackass is not the love of your life. He’s just the sperm donor for my awesome niece and nephew. You haven’t met the love of your life yet.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so, and as the big brother, I’m always right.”
Her chin quivered at hearing him tease her for the first time in years. “Whatever you say.”
“I’ll call you later. Don’t go out anywhere that he can get to you if they spring him.”
“Nowhere to go.”
“I’ll call you back.”
When the line went dead, she put down the phone and stretched.
“Goodbye to you, too, big brother.” Was he overbearing?
Incredibly. But he was also the only man in her life who’d never once disappointed her.
He’d been there for her at every stage of her life, moving her into her first apartment and helping her and Gabriel move even after taking an immediate dislike to a man he’d deemed not worthy of her.
As Denny had been going through a difficult divorce at the time, she’d encouraged him to focus on his own life and butt out of hers. She wished now that she’d listened to him when he said he’d gotten a strange vibe from Gabe and didn’t feel comfortable around him.
Isla had chalked up his objections to no one ever being good enough for his baby sister, but it’d been more than that.
She’d been a fool not to listen to him when he sounded the alarm about Gabe’s unpredictable behavior.
Love and the desire to rebuild the family she’d lost when her parents died had blinded her to things that should’ve stood out like massive red flags.
The disappearing acts had begun while they were dating, but she’d figured he was busy, seeing friends, playing basketball and, occasionally, even working.
His spotty employment track record and the fact that there was no contact with his family were other concerns Denny had zeroed in on.
“Not everyone is close to their family,” she’d said, “and besides, what does that have to do with me?”
“Everything,” he’d said. “I want to know why he doesn’t talk to them, or vice versa—and you should want to know that, too. People don’t go no-contact with their families for no good reason, and from what I know about him, he’s the reason.”
He’d been right about that. She saw that now, for all the good that did her.
After their parents died, leaving Isla and Denny alone in the world to fend for themselves, he’d tried to guide and advise her, but like most people in their teens and early twenties, she hadn’t wanted his advice or his guidance.
She’d said she was in love with Gabe and intended to marry him, no matter what her brother had to say about it.
“God, I wish I’d listened to you,” she whispered. “But then I wouldn’t have my babies, and they’re worth all the hell and heartache that Gabe has put me through. But now… Now I have to leave him for good. I can never go back to him.”
The thought of starting over on her own with two young children was so overwhelming as to give her chest pains, but she’d do whatever it took to keep herself and her kids safe. That meant leaving Gabriel once and for all and never going back.