46 Marley
Marley
The sun was truly shining by the time the police SUV had pulled around to the front of the house for Marshall.
Marley stood outside with the ice pack on her head as the two burliest of the EMTs toted her husband out the door on a flat orange board.
They had attached an IV bag to his wrist, and one of the police officers held it up as they passed by.
“I’m gonna follow them out,” Josh said, lifting his overnight bag onto his shoulder as he stepped up next to Marley from behind.
Tini was behind him, carrying Beckham, but she looked as shocked by his statement as Marley was.
She also looked like she hadn’t slept in three days, which she probably hadn’t.
“Should I get Beckham’s things together?” she asked wearily.
Josh turned and looked at Tini with an irritated expression. “I can’t deal with him right now. You take him.”
Tini’s mouth dropped open. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah, what?” Marley demanded.
Over at the SUV, one of the EMTs climbed in through the side door to pull the stretcher in. They had flattened the back seat to accommodate Marshall. While no one seemed to be in a complete panic, they clearly thought Marshall needed to get to the hospital stat.
“I have to make arrangements for Juliet, send someone back out here to . . . collect her. Call her parents. Call her assistant. There’s so much to do.” He seemed distressed, and on some level Marley’s heart went out to him. But was he seriously just telling the nanny to “deal with” his kid?
“I’ll compensate you, of course,” Josh said, slipping a pair of mirrored sunglasses on. “Triple your usual rate?”
Tini’s face was slowly turning the color of red mud. If Marley didn’t know any better, she would have been sure that steam was about to start bursting from her ears. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
“Quadruple?” Josh said, oblivious.
“I’ll take him,” Marley said.
“You’ll take him?” Josh repeated.
“Yes.” Marley reached for the baby with both arms, still clutching her ice pack in one hand. Tini handed him over like a hot potato. Beckham dozed in blissful oblivion in her arms, not knowing that his mother was dead. That his father was abandoning him.
“Cool. That’s great, Marley. Thanks.” Josh was already tapping away at his phone. “I’ll call you when I get back to the city.”
Marley nodded. Her throat was so full of emotion in that moment, she didn’t trust herself to speak.
A car door slammed. They all looked up to find that Marshall had been successfully installed in the SUV. The smallest of the EMTs, the woman who had helped Marley, climbed into the back with him and sat with her knees pulled up to her chin, next to his legs.
“Crap, I should go get in the car. Thanks, Marls.” Josh gripped her upper arm, planted a kiss on her temple, and jogged off toward the garage.
It wasn’t until he was halfway across the house to his car that she realized someone would have to stay here with Juliet’s body until a coroner could get out here for both her and Lincoln.
Had he even asked Hazel if it was okay that he leave?
Had he offered to stay? Unfortunately, she had a feeling the answer to both was no.
“What an abhorrent dickhead,” Tini said.
Marley cleared her throat. “No arguments here.”
She went to the back of the SUV to peek in on Marshall, and one of the EMTs opened the side door so she could talk to him.
“Just be quick,” he told her. “We should really get him out of here.”
She couldn’t have agreed more. “Hey, babe. All good?”
Marshall lifted a thumb, turning only slightly to look at her. His face was pale and soaked in sweat. He clocked Beckham in her arms but didn’t mention him. “You?”
“Yeah, we’ll be right behind you,” she said and dropped the ice pack on the ground so she could reach in and squeeze his hand. “Everything’s gonna be all right, okay?”
One tear squeezed out the corner of his eye, and she knew he was thinking about Lincoln. About Juliet. About Trevor. About Grant and Gemma and Lily and everything those awful notes had brought to bear.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice cracking. “We’re gonna be all right.”