Darrell
DARRELL
Entering the house, I felt like the walls were closing in on me. My heart was heavy. I was relieved not to hear any signs of Charon throughout the house. The last few days had been intense and draining. Thankfully, Legacy would survive the attempt on his life. But my marriage wouldn’t. Each day that had passed without Charon visiting Legacy in the hospital had increased my disgust with the woman I had been married to over twenty years. I couldn’t look at her.
I headed towards our bedroom eager to undress and get in the bed. But I found Charon lying in bed. She was content as hell, rubbing her feet together as she ate Garrett’s popcorn while gabbing on the phone with a friend.
“Chicago PD, Chicago Fire and Chicago Med comes on today!”
The sight of her, so unbothered, made my blood boil. Without a word, I marched to the walk-in closet and grabbed a suitcase. I threw it out of the closet and onto the bed so close to her that she had to move her legs quickly. Frowning, she watched me curiously from the bed as I started to tear clothes off of the hangers.
“What are you doing, ?” she snapped. I ignored her, making her tell the person on the other end of her call, “Let me call you back.”
I left the closet and threw the armful of clothes into the suitcase.
“Where are you going?” I could hear her repeated questions, her voice growing shriller with each one. ", answer me! What the hell is going on?"
Still, I said nothing. I went back into the closet and grabbed more clothes. The sound of the hangers scraping against the rod was almost therapeutic. I needed to get out, to get away from the woman who was breaking the rest of my family apart.
", you better tell me what's going on right now!"
I emerged from the closet, arms full of more clothes, and dumped them into the suitcase. “I’m leaving you, Charon.”
She gasped, brows curling tightly. “What do you mean you’re leaving?”
"I can't do this anymore," I said with a tone that was so calm and final that her eyes grew in panic. "Legacy was fighting for his life. We almost lost another child, and you haven't even bothered to show up. I’m done."
Her face twisted in anger. “This is about Legacy? You’re leaving me because of him ?”
I zipped up the suitcase as I told her, “Yes. I’m leaving you because of Legacy, because of your complete lack of compassion, because you’re so gawd damn ornery that you can’t even love on him when he needs you the most. I can’t look at you anymore, Charon. Not after what you've done or rather, what you haven't done.”
“You can’t be serious, !” she shrieked as I marched back into the closet. “You’re going to walk out on me after all these years?”
I had retrieved another suitcase from the closet and thrown it on the floor beside the bed.
“Yes, I am. I should have left a long time ago!”
She laughed psychotically. “You can’t be serious.”
I opened the suitcase and went back into the closet to retrieve more clothes.
“I’m very fucking serious. I lost two kids because of you! My own damn grandkids can’t come to my house because of you! That boy already felt guilty, and you made it worse, pushing him to do drugs! You saw him crumbling, killing himself because of how guilty he felt, and you did nothing but push the fucking shit up his nose!”
As I left the closet with more clothes, her widened eyes anchored on me. “Ri would have never been at that party if it weren't for him!”
“That girl was smart! She was a genius! She knew what he did to get his money, and she went anyway! You were reluctant. You didn’t want her to go, and you watched her walk out that door just like I did! We are all to blame, even Ri! But you’ve spent five years dumping on my son. I let you grieve in your own way while trying to help him, but I should have done what I’m doing now and got you the fuck away from him! I don’t want you anywhere near him with your hate.”
“…” Her voice cracked as tears came to her eyes.
I tore my disgusted gaze away from her. I went back into the closet for a few pairs of shoes. I then threw them into the suitcase and zipped it up.
I could feel my pulse rising. My chest was growing tighter and tighter. I could feel how dangerously high my blood pressure was getting. Realizing that continuing the argument could give me another stroke, I forced myself to calm down. I stopped arguing with Charon, grabbed the suitcases from the floor and bed and dragged them out of the room.
She jumped out of bed and followed me down the hall. ", you aren’t going anywhere!"
I chuckled psychotically at her audacity to be serious.
", please! You can't just leave!" she cried. She was desperate and broken. Yet, I wondered how she couldn’t be that desperate to be there for her own son.
She followed me outside, tears streaming down her face. Her cries filled the quiet block, as I popped the trunk of my SUV and threw the suitcases inside.
", don't do this! Please don't leave me!" she sobbed, standing in the yard.
Her face was a mask of disbelief and anguish, but I ignored her pleas, got into the car, and started the engine.
As I backed out of the driveway, I glanced in the rearview mirror. Charon was standing there watching me through tear-soaked eyes, her face a picture of heartbreak and disbelief. I took a deep breath, steeling myself against the pain, and sped away, leaving the house and the woman I once loved behind.