Chapter 10 #2
Glow’s body was still jolting, her weight growing heavy as if her body was giving up. The nurses reached for her again, but I shook them off and laid her on the bed that had been rolled out. As soon as I did, they pushed me aside and wheeled her away.
Running my hand down my head, I watched Glow as she slept.
A feeding tube lined her throat, and watching it made my stomach turn with nausea.
When we first walked into this hospital, I had no idea she’d be assigned a room in the ICU.
She’d had a scary night—four seizures, one nearly fatal.
The room was just two doors down from her sister.
When their parents arrived, their mom cut up so badly that their father had to take her to a hotel room.
Everything was bad, but both sisters made it through the night.
Glee was still in a medically induced coma, while Glow was merely exhausted.
There were two knocks on the door before it swung open.
I expected a nurse, since they’d been rushing in and out all night, but it was Glow and Glee’s twin.
They’d gotten their coloring from both their mother and their father, but Glow resembled their mother more, while Glee took after their father.
She was average height and weight, and pretty as hell.
However, if my worry lines matched hers, I knew I was in bad shape.
I hadn’t slept a single wink and kept alternating between standing and sitting by Glow.
My phone had been ringing all night and wouldn’t stop until I told my siblings and mama I’d update them later.
When Glow seized, I panicked and called my sister, who three-wayed my mama onto the phone.
I was on the verge of tears, not realizing how much I cared for Glow until the thought of her being gone was a possibility.
Tuscany and my mama wanted to take the ride here, but I assured them it was enough of us motherfuckers walking around this bitch, making sure the girls were getting the best care.
Closing the door behind her, Cathy wrapped the black and gray cardigan around her waist, shivering.
I wasn’t sure if it was from seeing her oldest daughter in the hospital bed or the Alaskan temperatures that kept flowing through the hospital.
Her hair was styled in a pixie cut, showing me that if Glow ever did a big chop, she’d still look good.
She stood on the opposite side of the bed, gazing down at her firstborn.
A comfortable silence surrounded us. I hadn’t met many mamas before and wasn’t sure how to converse with the woman who was now my mother-in-law. Stella had been my only serious relationship outside of some high school shit before Glow.
“Glow had been trying to retire me for over a year now. She offered to help me sell the house and suggested I come stay with her. My baby girl, Glee, was accepted into the college of her dreams, so I had no reason to stay in my home. I’ve worked for twenty years, and it was about time I sit back and enjoy a calmer life, but I couldn’t do it.
“I told my baby ‘no’ because I was selfish. Jagoda Bay is too painful for me. I was happy there once with my ex-husband… their father, but then I wasn’t. Our arguing was constant because he wasn’t a faithful man to me.” She chuckled while rubbing on Glow’s arm gently enough not to wake her.
“Pretty Tony… That’s what they called him.
Back then, the ladies liked light-skinned men with curly hair.
Everyone wanted a Prince or an LL Cool J, and Pretty Tony had ’em going wild.
And it drove me crazy as hell.” She paused again, this time laughing.
She sounded like Glow, which brought a small smile to my lips.
“I stayed because no woman was gonna break up my happy home. But our arguing started affecting the children—especially Glow. Then, words turned violent. After our first physical fight, Glow didn’t eat for a week.
I didn’t notice she hadn’t eaten; it was her father who had.
We promised not to let it get that far again, but then, it happened again.
And again, and a few more times until I realized I was failing my daughters—failing my damn self too. ”
Swallowing down the breath that seemed to be stuck in my throat, I watched their mom while she watched Glow, pain and shame etched on her face.
“Me holding on to my marriage sent my daughter deeper into a hole that I didn’t know how to pull her out of. And when I finally left their father, the hole had been made. It was there for her to climb in and out of at her own doing.”
She reached for Glow’s left hand and swiped her thumb over her ring finger. They’d tried to remove it, but I wouldn’t let them, and I wasn’t even sure why. I was surprised that she was even wearing it to begin with. But seeing her walk into The Dungeon, rocked up, caused a stirring in my chest.
“I’d always thought Glee was going to be the first one married, and now…
She has a whole child, and this one is a wife.
Glow had always said she would never get married.
My marriage did something to her that changed my baby forever.
I’ve been running from my past so much that I missed pivotal milestones for both of my daughters. ”
“Glow and I…. It’s a marriage of convenience. She’s doin’ me a favor.”
I didn’t want to lie to her. When Glow woke up, she would see firsthand that we weren’t the doting newlyweds we should’ve been.
We barely talked, and when we did, it was so full of sexual tension that much wasn’t accomplished outside of me folding her firstborn up like a pretzel.
Unless Cathy were a fly on the wall while I was buried deep inside of Glow, she would never see us close in nature.
Unless something changes when Glow is back on her feet.
Before I could sit with the thought, she said, “A husband of convivence doesn’t stand up beside a bed all night. And they don’t have that look on their face either.”
She gave me a look that was calling my bluff.
I had no rebuttal because she was right; I had been up in this bitch like I was Glow’s ride or die.
My feet were numb, my legs were stiff, and my throat was drier than a Popeye’s biscuit.
Still, there was no place I’d rather be than at Glow’s bedside.
Paper husband or not, I was man enough to know I needed to be here.
They were still running tests on Glow, and a doctor hadn’t come in and given me a full report yet.
What I did know was that she was dehydrated and malnourished, hence why she was being fed by a tube.
But malnutrition didn’t usually lead to a series of seizures, from what Google was talking about.
What I knew now did nothing but lead to more questions—one being how a fucking food vlogger was malnourished to the point of fainting.
Glow was on the slim side while being thick in all the right places.
Even with the recent weight loss I noticed at The Dungeon, she was still curvy and fine as fuck, so malnutrition was a mystery and threw me all the way off.
Rubbing my hand down my face, I peered down at Glow.
She was smaller than when I’d first seen her sitting under the dim lights of the steakhouse.
I’d seen her naked just last week and hadn’t paid enough attention to the difference.
Now that she was vertical on a bed with IV cords and shit running in and out of her, the change was evident.
“I… I don’t know how to help her,” I stated truthfully.
“I knew she had a thang with food. She’s a vlogger, but she only takes two bites for da camera, and dat’s it.
Errtime she ’round me, she cringes at da food on da plate.
I thought it was just some girl stuff. Like, she not wantin’ to eat in front of me.
Now, I see dat was some deeper stuff. Ion know how I hadn’t before, but I see it now. ”
Glow’s chest rose and fell. Her face was flushed and pale, and her neck was pinkish.
She’d scared the fuck out of me. She’d scared the fuck out of all of us.
The men had to force the women to go to a hotel a few hours ago.
They didn’t go without a fight, without going to the gift shop in the lobby, and without cashing out, filling the room with bears and floral arrangements.
As dramatic as the gesture was, the gifts brought light to the dreadful atmosphere in the room.
“She probably ain’t ate in days. I haven’t been ’round to check on her. I been havin’ so much shit—I mean, stuff—goin’ on. I… I really ain’t know da do’s and don’ts of a fake marriage.”
One minute, Glow was crying out, “This is just for the paperwork,” and although I agreed, I still caught myself wanting to pull up on her.
The truth was, Glow and I didn’t know shit about each other.
All the banter and flirty shit remained surface, and the glimpse she got in Memphis wasn’t enough for her to really get a feel for who I was as a man.
I assumed she had her life together, not needing me to play a huge role, but social media wasn’t real.
Glow looked like the total package on the outside, but her lying in this bed, hooked up to machines, told a different story.
“Son…” Glo’s mama solemnly smiled at me.
“Nothing about your marriage is fake. It’s a lot of things I don’t play about, and my girls are included, but God is at the head of the list. Y’all took up vows, sealing you two as one.
This is your wife, no matter what type of agreement you have.
And you being here all night tells me it’s more than paperwork…
No matter what your mind is telling you. ”
The door opened, and in stepped a white, blonde, green-eyed doctor who didn’t look any older than my sister.
“Good morning. I’m Dr. Milton.” He smiled, then shifted the clipboard from one hand to the other.
“Good morning, Dr. Milton. I’m Glow’s mom, Cathy, but you can call me Glory. This is—”