CARMEN“Terri?!” I called, rushing into every room I could, opening doors and slamming them shut in frustration whenever I didn’t find anyone in.“Terri! Mariah!” I didn’t consider the fact that the neighbors would probably be annoyed in that moment, I just wanted to find out where they both were without Mariah’s wheelchair and with blood drops on the floor. There was no explanation that I thought of in my head that made any of that scene make sense completely.I took my phone and dialed Terri’s number, walking out of the apartment and going down the stairs to pace back and forth, looking around for any sign of them. My stomach was starting to scrunch itself, and there was nothing that I said to myself that calmed me down in any way.I tried to call Terri three more times, but she never picked up the phone.I debated calling Jasper and telling him about his mother going missing, especially with the state that he was in, so I decided to call Dave back.“Is something wrong? Do you want
CARMEN“I don’t think I understand what you’re saying.” I pulled my hand out of Terri’s grip to make sure I still had a hold of my phone and could call Steve to hand me Frank’s number. “What do you mean he doesn’t want to give his permission and signature? Does he know how serious this is?”“I’m sure he does,” Terri replied. “There is a long history that I’m pretty sure you don’t know of between Mariah and Frank before her health went down the drain and she got sick. That’s why she stays with Jasper. I don’t believe they got married out of love,” she explained with a low voice.I couldn’t say I was surprised, especially after what Frank had attempted to do to me and what Jasper said he did with other women after Mariah fell sick.“I can go get Jasper,” I suggested.“He cannot sign the document under the influence of alcohol, Carmen,” she said to me, and I sighed in frustrated. Just how unlucky did a person have to be to be stuck with two people who had such problems and just didn’t ca
CARMEN“I don’t understand, doctor,” Terri said before I could. “What does that mean? She takes her prescribed drugs at the perfect time, and I make sure of that.”“We’ll need all of the drugs that she takes every day brought into the hospital to test and see. The one that seems to be a lot more in her system on an abnormal level might have some form of arsenic in it.”My eyes widened in shock, and Terri shook her head to deny what the doctor had just informed us about.“What do you mean, arsenic? There’s no such thing in her drugs. I’ll go over to my apartment and bring some of the ones I have over here,” Terri said, stepping away and heading out before she looked at me.“Wait here until Jasper comes, okay? I’ll be back in no time,” she told me and got out of the hospital, leaving me with the doctor who was starting to leave as well.“Wait, doctor. How much of the arsenic is in her system? Is it so much that it looks to have come from a powder of arsenic?” I asked.“We’re not sure. W
CARMEN“You’re not going to India, Carmen.”I looked at Jasper as if he had just popped another head out of his shoulder as he told me those words with a cool air of finality, as if I shouldn’t dare argue with him about it.“You can’t do that, Jasper. Not right now at least.” I shook my head at him. “I am going to talk to my mother today, and we can talk about this later. You can’t make that decision for me and just expect me to—”“You’re not going!” He raised his voice, drawing attention from everyone present and causing me to flinch.“You’re still hungover from the alcohol you took last night. I don’t want to believe that you want to argue about this right now, with your mother in there,” I raised a point, but he laughed about it right in my face.“If you have any respect for her, then you wouldn’t be thinking of taking a leisure trip to a whole different country while she lays in there and needs you now more than ever,” he accused.“This is not a leisure trip. A lot of things depen
CARMENWhen Jasper returned to the house, he refused to say a word to me – not when I asked him how his mother was, and certainly not when I zipped up my bag and was done with packing up for the trip to India.Even though he was doing it on purpose and not because he was okay with me going, I thought it was too good to be true that he wasn’t bringing it up anymore, but I still wanted to know how his mother was doing.“If you could just tell me if she’s doing fine and is out of surgery, then maybe I’ll find it easier to fall asleep tonight,” I mentioned as soon as he got out of the bathroom after his shower that evening.“Now you care about her?” he scoffed, and I raised my eyebrows at that.“What makes you think I don’t?” I asked, knowing fully well that that was not the point of the conversation, but I also knew that he would probably be acting different if his mother’s health had deteriorated.“Is it because of the entire thing about going to India? The flight is tomorrow, Jasper. I
CARMEN“DAD?!” I exclaimed, frozen at the doorway as my father sat on the bed in the room and looked over at me with a smile and a slightly surprised look on his face.“I had my doubts about you coming, but I know you as someone who does something when she sets her mind to it. Come on over here,” he said, his arms wide open for a hug, and I didn’t know how to run into his arms.I was afraid that if I ran into his arms and tried to hug him, I would swipe at the air that he would disappear into, so I settled for standing there and staring at him, taking everything in.“You look miles different from when you were sick in the hospital,” I said, finally finding the strength to walk forward.The closer I got to the bed, the faster my heart beat, almost as if it was going to burst and break through my chest at any moment.When I got to the side of the bed and looked down at him, he laughed at the look I had on my face as if he was reading my thoughts to know what I had in mind.“I am not a
CARMEN“Is that why I’m here, then? You want me to help Steve – to get him out of the mess he doesn’t even know he’s in with Mom?” I asked, and my father smiled at me, silently telling me that I was right in my guesses.“I know that you haven’t gotten yourself trapped in your mother’s hands. You being here is a perfect way for me to know that,” he said. “Knowing her, I would know that the last thing she would want is for you to come here.”“You know I’m married, don’t you?” I asked, and he froze as tension hit him.“I didn’t think we would be talking about that this soon. I am truly sorry that I didn’t get to see you walk down the aisle. How is your marriage to…” He stopped, not knowing what Jasper’s name was or not remembering it.“Jasper,” I said, and he nodded.“How is your marriage to Jasper?” he asked me, a hopeful smile on his face as he waited for me to say something dreamy with my head in my hands, but I watched his smile fade as he soon started to realize that it was not the
CARMENAs I accompanied my father to the hospital a few hours later for his very last shot of treatment that he had been getting to help him recover, the thought of my mother working with Jasper did not leave my mind for a second.That would explain why Jasper was quick to call my mother and find out about the aviation company lie that I had made up. Perhaps they had always been in contact.“Do you think it’s possible that she would be working with him? I mean, in the sense that he hits me. Do you seriously believe that she knows about it and is in full support of it?” I asked my father.“I can’t say for sure, but it’s not something I would put past her. She has surprised me a lot over the years that I just don’t think this would be the most outrageous thing she has done,” he replied.I saw the sense in what he was saying, especially after what had happened with the chef and the video she had recorded, but there was something holding me back from believing that my mother could be that