Chapter 9
TWO MONTHS LATER
“You’re doing great, Sevyn. One day at a time will get you there,” Aria, the neuropsychologist, encouraged. “You will continue these exercises daily, even after you return home, okay?”
“Okay.”
I noticed that Sevyn’s voice was soft, and she seemed somewhat reserved. I had spoken with Waverleigh earlier. We noticed that Sevyn seemed to become more withdrawn the closer we got to the time for her release from the hospital. Today was her release date.
Waverleigh had left town to check on her mother again the day before. She was worried that Sevyn was afraid of confronting the memories at her house.
Doctors Kim, Davenport, and Cruz all agreed that she had to return home at least initially.
They felt that it would help her recover the missing memories, even if she didn’t stay there overnight.
Waverleigh said that Sevyn could stay with her when she returned to town, but that wouldn’t be for another two weeks.
“You ready, Sevyn?” I asked after they had gone through a few more memory exercises together.
“Yes,” she replied in a softer tone.
When we were back in her hospital room, I looked around. “Well, are you ready to say goodbye to this place? It’s been your temporary home for three months.”
Her bags were packed, and Waverleigh had taken all Sevyn’s flowers she had received during her hospital stay to Sevyn’s house the day before. We were simply waiting for the nurse to come around with the discharge papers.
“Not really.”
I reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked at me with those light chestnut-brown eyes and smiled. “Why not?” I asked.
“I don’t know, Deuce. I don’t know what’s waiting for me there, but I don’t want to be alone. I think that I’ve been alone all my life, and I don’t look forward to that. It’s sad.”
“Were you lonely with your husband?”
Over the last two months, she had recalled a lot of memories, including losing her husband and grandmother.
It had been difficult watching her deal with that grief all over again.
She still didn’t recall the details surrounding her husband’s death, and her doctors encouraged us to continue allowing her to recover her memories on her own.
“A lot of the time, yes, I was. I mean, there were good times, but a significant part of our marriage was unhappy.”
“Why?”
She looked away in frustration and tugged at the edge of the bed cover. “I-I d-don’t really know.”
“Could it be that you’re afraid of discovering a truth about your marriage that you’re not ready to face?”
“Maybe.”
“Did you talk about it in therapy with your psychologist?”
I hadn’t been to all her appointments, because some of them were held while I was on duty, and others were deemed confidential. I pretty much had been at all her physical therapy appointments though.
“We talked about some things, but I honestly don’t recall why I was unhappy in my marriage.”
“I’m sure that whatever it was, your brain is blocking it and making it bigger than it actually is.”
“That’s just it. The psychologist said it had to be very traumatic, which is why my brain is blocking it.”
I thought about Lena and all she had gone through in her marriage. It left me wondering just how unhappy Sevyn’s marriage was and if she had been abused in any form. Maybe she hadn’t told Waverleigh everything. Or maybe it was just a loveless marriage.
“Listen, I don’t know what you went through or what you’ll have to face when you go home. But there’s something good about it at the end of the day—two things, actually.”
“What’s that?” she asked softly, meeting my gaze.
“The hurt and pain that you may have gone through can’t continue. The other thing is that I’ll be there to protect you. You won’t have to face your demons alone, and no matter what, we can always turn around, walk out that door, and close it behind us.”
“I would love to believe that, but where will I go? My grandmother has passed, Waverleigh’s out of town, and I may still have a job because of short-term disability, but I don’t know anyone there well enough to crash with them.
I have no idea how long my savings account and disability will sustain me in an extended stay hotel. ”
“Don’t worry about all that, okay? Whatever you need, I’ve got you. We’ll figure things out when Waverleigh returns. I’m sure that she knows quite a bit or at least can point you in the direction to figure out what you need to know.”
“Sure.”
“Why do I get the feeling that trust is a difficult thing for you? Aside from the amnesia, I mean.”
Shrugging, she replied, “Maybe.”
“Sevyn, who let you down so much that you have a hard time having simple faith in people?”
She looked away from me again as Nurse Hannah stepped into the room.
“Well, Ms. Sevyn, we’ve got all your paperwork together, girl. Dr. Cruz has signed off on your discharge paperwork, and you’re ready to go.”
“Thank you,” she replied softly with a fake smile. It was alarming that I had come to recognize what was real versus not real, because I had spent so much time with her.
“We’re going to miss you a lot,” Nurse Hannah stated.
“I’m really going to miss you all. You’ve been so wonderful, all of you.”
“Thank you. Well, before I go over the paperwork, I wanted to return your items to you,” Hannah stated, handing her a large bag.
Sevyn looked at me and then at Hannah before returning her gaze to me again.
“Go ahead. It’s yours,” Hannah stated with an encouraging smile.
I watched as Sevyn reached inside and pulled out a navy-blue Steve Madden crossbody purse.
She opened it up and looked inside. She slowly removed a travel size bottle of perfume, hand lotion, a makeup kit, her wallet, and a few other items. Other than the purse, she removed from the bag a set of keys sealed in a plastic bag, some earrings, a watch, a necklace, a phone, and a wedding ring set.
There was an engagement and wedding ring along with a man’s wedding band.
The room was eerily quiet as she fingered her husband’s wedding band and looked inside as if she had known an inscription was there.
“Ethan, for then, for now, and for always. Love, Sev,” she read quietly before she slid it on and off her finger and then put it away.
She did the same thing with her wedding ring, but there was no inscription inside.
She quietly put the engagement and wedding rings on her fingers and stared at her hand.
“It looks nice,” Hannah stated sweetly.
Sevyn snatched them off and tossed them carelessly inside of her purse. Pouting, she replied, “It doesn’t feel right.”
Before either of us could respond, the door opened, and Nurses Kayla, Tasha, Monica, and Vivienne stepped inside.
“We all wanted to say goodbye before you left. Everyone couldn’t be here, but we brought you something from the entire team of nurses who have been taking care of you,” Vivienne announced.
Sevyn looked around at everyone and pressed her hands against her mouth. Tears filled her eyes, and then she looked at me, speechless.
Monica presented a gift basket that included all sorts of spa items, along with fresh baked cookies, gourmet chocolates, and a card signed by all the nurses. She bawled like a baby at their thoughtfulness, and some of them cried also.
“Make sure that you come back to see us,” Nurse Kayla declared.
“I’ll make sure to bring her back,” I vowed.
They all looked at me, and there was a knowing look in their eyes. I turned away and scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably.
“All right, big fella. We didn’t forget about you either,” Tasha stated and handed me a card.
I opened it and read the card that expressed how much they appreciated how I supported Sevyn. There were five gift cards inside. Each of them were for one hundred dollars. Three of them were for restaurants, and two were Visa gift cards for whatever I needed.
“Ladies—”
“No, no, no. We don’t want to hear it. Just accept it and keep moving,” Monica demanded, causing the others to laugh.
Hugs were exchanged all around before they left, and Nurse Hannah remained.
She reviewed the discharge papers with Sevyn, answered all her questions, and discussed follow-up appointments.
She rolled Sevyn out of the hospital and to the front entrance while I brought my truck around to take her home in.
“Do you know how to get to my place?” she asked when I pulled off.
“Yeah. Waverleigh gave me the address. It’s plugged in the GPS.”
She nodded absently and stared out the window again. I reached across the console, grabbed her hand, and gave it a little squeeze. I didn’t hold onto it for long, because I wasn’t comfortable with the feelings that flowed through me whenever I touched her that way.
“Hey, remember I told you we can always turn around and walk back out that door.”
“I know. Thank you, Deuce.”
“It’s my pleasure.”
We pulled up to the condo twenty minutes later, and Sevyn stared quietly out of the window for several minutes.
“Does it look familiar to you?” I asked after a while.
She toyed with her bottom lip before she muttered. “Yeah. It’s home.” She didn’t sound so pleased by that, but I got out of the truck anyway and walked around to her side. I removed the wheelchair and set it down beside her door.
She took my hand when I opened the door to help her out. She rolled herself inside of the building with me following her. After we took the elevator to the third floor, she removed the keys from her purse and stared at the door for several seconds.
“You need some more time?”
“No. I can do this.”
She slowly inserted the key into the lock, and I wondered what all had taken place behind these walls. What had her so afraid to step on the other side of that door?
The first thing that I noticed was the stuffiness of having been closed up for so long.
I knew that Waverleigh had been by here on a couple of occasions, but that didn’t give the house that lived in feeling.
A home needed love, laughter, and emotion to fill it up.
There were no odors from cooking or cleaning. The air was just stale.
The second thing that I noticed was that the condo was decorated in muted shades of grays, yellows, and blues.
It was tastefully done, and it was clear that they had poured a lot of money into their home from the artwork and sculptures that decorated the interior.
But it was missing Sevyn’s warm, bold personality.
Sevyn set her purse down on the sectional and tossed her keys beside them.
I watched as she rolled from one room to the next.
She looked in the refrigerator, but she couldn’t reach the cabinets.
She rolled to the bedroom, looked around, and went into the closet.
She removed her husband’s shirt from a hanger, rolled to the bed, and pushed herself out of her wheelchair so that she could sit on the bed.
“I don’t have many of his belongings. We were separated at the time of the accident, and he was not living here.” She buried her face in his shirt.
I nodded and stepped back, because I did not want to intrude on a private moment. “Please,” she pleaded as she looked up at me and held her hand out. I walked to her and let her take my hand. She tugged until I sat down beside her.
Sevyn buried her face in his shirt, and she squeezed my hand as she inhaled.
My heart broke a little as she cried. She leaned into me, and I wrapped my arm around her.
I had no idea how I got in this position.
In the past, I had always been a good guy to my female friends, but not once had I comforted a woman while she cried over another man.
Somehow, this felt like the least that I could do, considering he wasn’t here any longer because of me. I needed to tell her that it was my fault her husband was dead. I waited until she got herself together and looked at me with a smile.
“Deuce, I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s good. You needed that, and that’s what friends are for, to support you when times are hard.”
“You’ve been better to me than I deserve.”
“No, I haven’t. There’s something that I need to tell you, Sevyn. The night—”
“Who could that be?” she asked when the doorbell rang.
“I don’t know. Maybe one of your neighbors came to welcome you home,” I suggested, getting up and helping her into her wheelchair again.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Were you friends with them?” I asked as she rolled back to the living room.
“Not that I can recall. Maybe? But I don’t think so. I feel like I would know.”
“Let me answer the door, just to keep you safe.” I always carried a piece with me, even when I was off duty. I was always prepared for whatever happened; it was a job hazard.
She allowed me to go to the door first, but she was right behind me. I frowned when I saw who it was, but I figured we might as well get it over with. I opened the door and stared into a pair of identical eyes.
“What are you doing here in my son’s home?” Mrs. Shields asked in shock.
“I was escorting Sevyn so that she can get settled in.”
“There’s nothing for her to settle into. We’ll be taking possession of this property again.”
“Excuse me?” I growled.
“This condo is in my husband’s name. It was a gift to him, but it was never transferred to his name. I’m sure that she will be able to find somewhere else to settle.”
“You can’t do that to her.”
“You’re an officer of the law. You know that we can,” her son declared, standing beside her and holding a sheaf of papers up.
I snatched the papers from his hand. It was a property deed, and it did have Elaine and John Shields listed as the property owners. She thrust another piece of paper at me, which was a Writ of Possession.
“You may have been able to keep us from visiting her in the hospital, but you will not keep us out of our own home. She’s been out of the home for more than sixty days. I filed for eviction,” Mrs. Shields stated.
“You knew that she was in the hospital under a doctor’s care. You couldn’t let her get out of the hospital and get home settled first before you broke out the talons?”
“Deuce, can they do this?” Sevyn asked from behind me. There was a hitch in her voice, and she sounded so broken.
“Yes, Sevyn,” I responded just as brokenly. “We could hire lawyers and fight it in court because of your medical condition, but it will take time. It won’t happen overnight.”