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“Dear God, long time ago, I put my only daughter in Your capable hands. I know with you all things are possible. There is no bullet, beating or strife that is stronger than Your will. Please see my baby through this and restore her, in your name! Let her be healed by your Holy hands, now and forever.” The tears that were falling down Ms. Clara’s face had dried up by the time she finished her prayer.
I looked down at the woman I still considered my wife. She didn’t look like her usual gorgeous self. Her face was riddled with red bruises that were beginning to darken. Her forehead was swollen, and she was completely out of it. Still, an aura of eternal beauty surrounded her. I wanted to kiss her on her full lips and tell her how much I loved her, and never intended to let her go again.
“Everything I did in our marriage, I did for us,” I said as I held her hand and kissed it. “I love you, Destiny.” She slightly squeezed my hand after a while of my gripping her tender hand and praying for any sign that she would be okay. “Ms. Clara, she squeezed my hand!” I breathlessly said.
“Praise Him! God put it in my spirit that my baby is going to be just fine,” Ms. Clara said as she continued to hold one hand and I held the other. “She’s going to be just fine!”
I went to tell Dr. Searcy what Destiny had done. He came into the room with a nurse. “If you wouldn’t mind stepping out for a while. We’re going to send her for those neurological tests,” Dr. Searcy said. The nurse began checking Destiny’s manual blood pressure and writing notes.
Ms. Clara held onto Destiny’s hand. She didn’t want to let go. Hell, I didn’t want to let go either, but I knew we had to let the pros do what they had to do. I went around the bed and took Ms. Clara’s hand.
“Come on,” I said. “We can go get the kids from my mother’s house and go back to your house to rest for a few hours.”
“I’m not leaving her,” Ms. Clara said, holding tight to Destiny’s hand.
“It’ll only be for a few hours,” I said reassuringly.
“Here, here is my key. Go to my house and get me a change of clothes and I’ll change here,” she said, unwilling to leave Destiny’s side. “I’ll wait in the waiting room until they bring her back from her tests. I don’t want her to be alone for one second.”
I knew that was Ms. Clara’s final answer from the look in her eyes. “Sure,” I said as I walked out of the hospital room with a heavy heart.
On the drive to my mother’s house, I thought about where things went wrong. Destiny didn’t understand my ambition when we were together. I put in a whole lot of work to be able to make six figures at my own company. While Destiny was at home raising our kids and taking care of our home, I was constantly working at building my business. I worked well into the midnight hour many nights, so even when I was home, I wasn’t.
She eventually grew tired of the distance growing between us. She offered to work with me at the company, but I declined. I had my own vision and I thought her working with me would cloud it. Even as we stood in the courtroom and said our ‘I don’ts’, I always felt that one day we would make it back to each other.
I remembered when she handed me the divorce papers like it was yesterday. I’d spent every weekend away from home for a month. During those business trips, I didn’t call home and I didn’t answer her calls. That was her final straw. “If I have to feel alone, I might as well not be married,” were her exact words.
I asked her to rethink the divorce and she did for a while, but my work schedule did not change. I was on the verge of making my business successful. My new software design was about to become a hit, so I couldn’t slow up. I wished she would’ve held on a little longer, but she didn’t. All of which led up to this moment.
CHAPTER THREE
Destiny
The Meaning of Goodbye
An unspeakable fear traveled through me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t even open my eyes. The doctors had been in my room discussing how to lessen the swelling on my brain. Nurses were in and out moving me around and running checks and tests on various parts of my body. From the tone of some of them, they didn’t know if I would make it another forty-eight hours.
My heart beat to the rhythm of the beeps on the monitor. A mixture of thankfulness and vengeance ran through my mind as I struggled to understand what all was happening. I wanted to get up out of that bed and go see my kids. I wanted to move on my own, but I couldn’t. I wanted to talk, but tubes were down my throat.
“What happened to the woman that did this?” I heard Montie ask.
“She’s at another hospital. I can’t disclose which one. Because of the nature of this incident, we are on high alert. You will have to talk to the police to get more information about what happened before she arrived here…”
Their conversation was a brutal reminder of what Justine had done. I didn’t like the fact that Justine was not in jail, especially when I lie in that hospital unable to move or talk.
The first moment of security I felt was when Montie held my hand, kissed it and said, “Everything I did in our marriage, I did for us. I love you, Destiny.”
I was content that he was there. I was assured that he would not let anything else happen to me. I spent seven years with Montie and nothing like this ever happened. He had his faults, but my not having one trip to the emergency room accounted for something. I never thought I’d be lying in a hospital bed in the name of love.
I squeezed his hand as hard as I could to let him know, without words, that I loved him, too. I never stopped loving him. After all, he was the father of my children.
“Ms. Clara, she squeezed my hand,” Montie zealously said.
“Praise Him! God has already put it in my spirit that my baby is going to pull through this. She will be just fine,” Mama said, holding my other hand tight. Mama had the spirit moving on my behalf and Montie was showing his unconditional love.
Meanwhile, I kept listening for the sound of Jacob’s voice to break through the noise. I loved Montie, but only the man I was in love with could put my mind at ease.
As I lie battered and bruised by Justine’s hands, Jacob’s unwavering show of support that he so freely extended to her hours ago was grossly absent. That detail sunk in as I succumbed to whatever medicines the doctors had flowing in my IV and my mind went completely black.
