Page 32 of Tomorrow Belongs to Us
“That’s what all people do.”
Another nod. “I want to make it up to you,” he says, decisively.
I laugh. “Make what up to me?”
“For leaving you the way I did.”
The hell I’ll let him back in my life. “Stay away from me, that's how you can make it up to me.”
He takes a step towards me. “My sister died, Megan.”
“My mother overdosed.”
“Tit for tat?” he asks. “Is that what we’re doing?”
I’m just about to give him a snarky answer when his phone rings, and I briefly catch a picture of a young girl on it. His niece.
“Stay away from me,” I snarl.
Chapter 14
LANCE
“You have to come quickly!” Vivian sounds distraught. It takes me a few moments to shift the focus from Megan to the banshee shriek of my ex-wife.
“What’s happened?”
“Cassie’s hurt. She had an accident.”
I feel a pinch in my chest. “What?” Cassie is my life. My world. My everything.
“She bounced off the trampoline and went headfirst into the wooden bench. She’s got a gash on her head. There’s blood everywhere.”
Fuck.
“I’m on my way.”
“I’m taking her to the hospital.”
The pinch in my chest becomes a vise, clamping on to my heart and not letting go. “I’m coming.”
They used glue instead of giving her stitches.
“Does it hurt, Sweetpea?” I ask, examining Cassie’s head carefully.
“No, Daddy.” Cassie shakes her head super slowly. Thankfully the cut doesn’t look too bad. I blanket her with a gentle hug and bend down to kiss her cheek, grateful that the injury isn’t worse.
“I’m going to move that trampoline away from the bench,” I tell her, and while I’m at it, the fence and other objects which could harm my little girl. I hold her tightly in my arms and stay like that for a while. I miss her so much. It’s soul-crushing, how I can’t see her smiling face every day.
For years the thought of not being with her kept me shackled to a miserable marriage. But a few years ago, still trying to make things work for Cassie’s sake, I moved into an apartment around the corner from the family home so that I could remain a big part of her life but I realized all too soon that it was a mistake. Vivian thought she could convince me to change my mind. She pleaded with me to try Couples counseling. I did. I was open to trying anything, but she was the one who often didn’t turn up for the sessions. She didn’t think she was in the wrong. Couples counseling with just one half of the couple attending was never going to work. There was also the truth of our situation; that when you no longer love someone, you can’t start to fall in love with them all over again. It’s impossible to feign it.
When moving nearby didn't work, I moved to Boston, and it’s been the best thing.
Before, the long commute to work and back in the heavy traffic made me even more resentful and frustrated with my life. Now I am only twenty minutes away from my college. While I love having the physical distance between me and Vivian, not seeing Cassie daily, or having her be around the corner, is tough.
But Vivian has become worse since the shooting.
Clingier.
