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Jack was mistaken, she wasn’t strong, and just like she feared she had become as dependent on him as she had on her pills. This is what she had been afraid of; Jack would leave her and she would fall to pieces. Did he leave her? Or did she leave him? Oh, who the fuck cares, they weren’t together any longer and that’s all that mattered. Desolate and beyond sad, she longed for the medication that would ease her from her misery. She wished she had hidden some tablets away. She’d take one now to help her get through the pain.
After seven days, Adrianna’s back was hurting again and she felt hopeless. There wasn’t any use staying clean and she needed a way to dull the ache that she was certain was going to kill her. Even though she knew it was useless, Adrianna tore her apartment apart searching for a painkiller. When she came up with nothing, she cried more in frustration. She couldn’t go back to her doctor and beg; Doctor DeLuca had made her sign a consent form so that he could send correspondence to her old doctor telling him he was treating Adrianna for drug dependency. She wasn’t about to go out on the streets searching for drug dealers but she was so desperate. Coming up with only one person who could possibly help her, she said a silent prayer and picked up her phone.
Jack was just as miserable as Adrianna and though he wanted to shut himself up in his apartment, he didn’t have that luxury. He needed to run his business and he still had a lot to take care of as far as his father’s death was concerned. He tried calling Adrianna a few times over the last week but she didn’t take his calls. He couldn’t blame her. Why the hell was he so stupid? Why couldn’t he get his brain to comprehend what he was feeling?
Jack handed the last box of his father’s belongings to the volunteer from the Salvation Army. He had decided, and his sister agreed, to donate everything his father left behind, from clothes to furniture. Jack kept one memento, his father’s sterling silver money clip with their initials, J.H.L, engraved on it, and then packed everything else up. He didn’t want to sell off his father’s things for money and it’s not like Gillian needed it. They’d both do well from the sale of the house, anyhow. After the truck hauled away the donated items, Jack walked back into his father’s empty house to where his mother was waiting.
“All set?” she asked him.
“Yeah,” Jack said, his deep voice echoing in the vacant living room.
“You heading back right away or can you come by the house and have dinner with Denny and me?”
“Thanks, but I can’t,” Jack told his mom. “I’ve gotta get back.”
Roseann walked over to her only son and took his face in her hands. “You okay, kid? You aren’t working too hard, are you?”
Jack half smiled at his mother and shook his head. “I’m alright.”
“Well, you better come back soon and bring Adrianna, will you? I’d really like to see her again.” When she saw her son’s face fall she narrowed her eyes in worry. “What happened?”
“We broke up, Ma,” Jack confessed.
“Oh, Jack,” she cried. “Why?”
“Because...” Jack flustered, not even knowing how to put into words how he fucked it all up. “Because I’m an idiot.”
Roseann tsked and asked, “What did you do, Jack?”
She listened, sad and concerned for her son, as he told her everything. He admitted to his mother that Adrianna had been dependent on Vicodin when they met but how, with his help, she stopped using them and got better. He told her all about Adrianna’s accident, Rachel dying, her guilt over that and then meeting with Jason. He explained to his mother about Adrianna’s relationship with her parents and how she lied to them and even after she had come clean, they didn’t offer her much support. And then he finally recounted the conversation he had with his sister and how what she said made him fearful that he really was after Adrianna just to save her. He talked, and talked, and talked, and he felt like the words poured out of him like blood gushing from an open wound. A wound within him that only ached more with each word he spoke about Adrianna.
