Chapter 2
A short time earlier
I was at my desk drinking my lukewarm coffee when a text message came through: the roses had been delivered. Once a month, I sent my wife roses. Sometimes she would respond to say thank you; other times, it was her grandmother who confirmed delivery. I hated what our marriage had resulted in.
The night we had our date night and I was called into work had been the worst night of my life.
After performing surgery on a gunshot victim, I wanted nothing more than to go home and lie up with my wife.
Instead, I arrived at an empty house and a note on my pillow telling me she needed space.
I called her multiple times that night, but she never answered.
The look of disappointment on her face haunted me since that night. I didn’t think she would leave, though.
Three months passed since she left, and I’d been sick ever since.
I tried to talk to her and fix things, but she wasn’t trying to hear it.
Since she wasn’t messing with me, I worked even more.
There was no need for me to be home alone.
When I was home, things weren’t the same.
I ate frozen dinners or ordered food and resorted to eating on the couch.
I couldn’t bear eating at the table without my wife.
I didn’t even want or have the energy to cook without her.
Some days I thought about how we would cook together, or how she would sit on the counter and talk to me while I cooked.
I thought about the things we did in the kitchen while we waited for the food to cook.
I missed her little ass so much. The house was cold and quiet now that she was gone.
I tried to hold on to her scent on the sheets, but after a while, I couldn’t.
When I missed her too much, I went into the closet to sniff her clothes to see if they still held the smell of her perfume.
I was down bad, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it.
Janiyah was my world, and I worshipped the ground she walked on.
I just needed her to give me a little more time.
I was trying to secure a future for us and our future children.
Being a trauma surgeon had been a lifelong dream of mine, and I loved it.
I loved my wife more, though, but we needed some type of compromise.
I granted her the space she wanted, but I didn’t expect it would be this long.
In my heart, I knew our shit wasn’t over.
We had too many years together to throw it away.
I still remember the day we met in college.
She was by far the prettiest girl on campus to me.
She was petite, and I loved petite girls.
She was no more than five feet, while I stood over six.
People would always comment on our height difference, but I loved it.
I loved being able to toss her little ass around.
Just the thought of her made my dick hard.
We had never gone this long without sex, let alone seeing each other.
I wasn’t worried about her messing with anyone else, because she wasn’t that type of person.
I damn sure wasn’t thinking about anyone else. Janiyah and I took our vows seriously.
I ran my hand over my face.
“Damn, I miss her.” I pulled out my phone and stared at my screen saver. It was a picture of her when we went to the beach for a weekend. She had on a black bikini, showing off her cute little curves and blowing me a kiss.
“Dr. Smith to trauma bay one! Stat!” I heard them paging me on the intercom, so I put my phone in my pocket and quickly made it to the trauma bay.
“What do we have?” I asked as I walked up to the paramedics.
“A two-car accident; firefighters got there first. Onyx said they had to use the jaws of life to get them out,” Christina, one of the paramedics, informed me as she provided manual breaths to the patient with an Ambu bag.
“The wife is in the ambulance behind us,” Josh, the other medic, stated.
My steps faltered when I got a good look at the patient.
“Shit,” I whispered. “Let’s get him on the table.”
With the help of the firefighters, Onyx and Darren, and the medics, we got the patient on the table.
I tried to assess his injuries, but for a second, I had trouble. This wasn’t a normal patient; this was one of my friends, Trevor. To see him like this, and knowing his wife was injured, too, fucked with me. I wanted to call Janiyah, but I knew I needed to work on him first.
“We had a weak pulse in the field,” Christina informed me.
One of the nurses took over, and the paramedics left the room. We all worked together to fix him, but it didn’t look too good. I prayed that his wife wasn’t as bad.
A minute later, I heard the other doctor in the emergency room yell out a code blue. I glanced up to see it was Monica, Trevor’s wife.
“He’s coding!” one of the nurses in the room yelled.
We all jumped into action to save him, but the monitor showed our efforts weren’t working. I did CPR, but the numbers weren’t changing.
“Dr. Smith.” I heard someone call my name, but I couldn’t look up.
It wasn’t until I felt a hand on my wrist that I snapped back to reality.
“He’s gone, sir. According to Dr. Roberts, his wife succumbed to injuries as well. Did you know him?”
Three minutes—that was how long it took for Trevor to pass.
I stepped back from the bed and let a few tears drop.
Monica and Trevor had been friends of Janiyah and me since college.
Over the years, we hadn’t been as close, but there was no love lost. Life had just gotten in the way.
We were the godparents of their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
“Yeah. I have to go.” I left the room and walked to my office. I dropped into the chair and put my head in my hands.
For a minute, I cried for my friends and their little girl. Both of their families lived out of town. It made me wonder where Mikayla was. I figured she was at day care or something, so hopefully, that was where she was. Nobody mentioned her being in the car, so that was a good thing.
Once I got myself together, I pulled my phone out to call my wife. The phone rang multiple times before it went to voicemail. I called back again, and she answered.
As soon as I heard her voice, my heart rate accelerated. I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible because I didn’t want to scare her.
“I need you to come to the hospital.” They called my name over the intercom again, so I couldn’t answer any questions.
I knew she would come, so I put my phone away and headed back to the emergency room. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious, because I needed to be around for Janiyah’s arrival.
Twenty minutes later, Janiyah came barreling through the emergency room doors. I moved in her direction and pulled her into my arms. I took a minute to inhale her scent. I closed my eyes as I held her in my arms.
“Arsel, what’s wrong?” She tilted her head up to look at me.
God, I missed her so fucking much, and after today’s events, I needed to make shit right with her. I couldn’t imagine something happening to her. The thought of it made my blood run cold.
I released her and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go to my office.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I promise I’ll tell you what’s going on.”
It didn’t take long for us to get to my office. Once inside, I closed the door and sat on the edge of my desk.
Janiyah stared up at me, concern etched on her beautiful face. I took a second to admire her. I could tell she just threw on some clothes to get here, but she still looked pretty to me. My wife was bad, and she looked it at all times, even when she didn’t feel it.
“Arsel, what’s wrong?”
My eyes watered, and I hated to be the one to break the news to her, but it had to come from me.
I grabbed her hands and held them in mine. “There was an accident.” I paused for a second. “It was Monica and Trevor.” Janiyah gasped and put her hand over her mouth. Her other hand was still in mine. “Baby, they didn’t make it.”
“No.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
I pulled her up from the chair and held her in my arms as she cried.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I tried my best.”
I told her everything that happened, from the moment the ambulance arrived on the scene to when I tried to save Trevor.
We stayed in my office for a while, until Janiyah was ready to go. We spent a few minutes in both of their rooms. I was told their families had been informed, and they were coming.
We might not have been best friends, but we had a pretty solid relationship, and this kind of shook me up a little. With us being the godparents, I wasn’t sure what would happen to their daughter.
I comforted my wife until she was ready to go home. I was still on the clock, but I assured her to call me if she needed me. She agreed and went back to her grandmother’s house.
I had a feeling things were going to change for us; I just wasn’t sure what those changes were going to be.