Chapter 2

Priscilla

I feel lightheaded but I’m vaguely aware that Conrad is arguing with someone, another man it sounds like. It slowly dawns on me that they’re talking about me. I try not to move around too much because I feel like I bleed more when I move.

Mia is still as death behind me. One of her hands comes up to grasp my shoulder. “Mommy, are you okay?” she whispers in a small, terrified voice.

I respond in a barely audible tone while holding my hand to my chest. “Yes. Be still, baby. Your papa’s having another bad day.”

My Mia would normally remind me that she’s not a baby anymore. And that ten-year-olds are practically grown. But not today. Right now we’re both in survival mode. Everything hangs in the balance of not setting Conrad off even more.

Her small hand flexes on my shoulder. “I’m scared, Mommy. Really scared this time.”

For the first time ever, I respond, “I am too, baby. No matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you.”

That’s when Conrad opens the door to let the medical person in. I don’t know if this person is a doctor, nurse, or EMT. All I know is that my chances of surviving this day just increased exponentially.

I can hear the man kneel in front of me and he tries to move my hair out of my face, probably to ask me where it hurts. Isn’t that normally what they do? I can’t think straight because Conrad is losing his mind over the man helping me.

He raises his voice to match the energy Conrad is giving off. “I’m here to save your wife’s life. Have you seen how much blood she’s lost already? She needs help before she bleeds out on your living room floor.”

“Don’t try anything stupid.”

“There’s only one person who’s doing anything stupid today,” the man mutters under his breath. His voice suddenly sounds so familiar, but I can’t seem to place it. My mind is all muddled. All I know is that I have to protect Mia and survive this day because I can’t trust Conrad not to start taking all his rage out on her once I’m gone. Therefore, I fight to stay conscious. I fight hard to survive. The first thing I do is take my hand away from my chest.

When he sees my index finger shift from the bullet hole, he curses under his breath again. He doesn’t like that I’m injured. It makes him angry. My foggy brain likes that because it means he’s protective. It’s been so long since anyone protected me that I relax into his care.

He gasps and his hands still on me for a second. Then he states softly, “You’re gonna make it through this Prissy girl. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”

I suddenly place that voice. There’s only one person who ever called me that. Raymond Anderson. I reach out with one bloody hand and grasp his arm. It’s really him. He’s not dead, like they said. He’s here and real and whole.

No, I’m hallucinating, he died over ten years ago. Am I dying? Has Ray come to take me to heaven?

It’s getting harder to talk but I force myself to get out, “Mia. No matter what happens to me, you’ve got to protect Mia.”

His hand comes out to cover my wound with something thick and soft like bandages. He whispers, “The little girl. Is her name Mia?”

I nod as darkness closes in around me. I feel lightheaded. It’s so painful it takes my breath away.

“Come on Prissy, stay with me.” My brain is on slow motion and although I can hear his words, I can’t really process them. He goes back to messing with the bullet wound, packing it with more gauze, I think. I can hear Mia crying, then suddenly the room explodes with men in black riot gear.

I barely catch a glimpse of them before Raymond throws his body over mine and shouts to Mia, “Stay down kid. All the way down. I’ll cover you.”

It’s all too much. I don’t know if I got shot again or what but my eyelids close so slowly that I can see them shutting in a way that I never did before, and I’m frightened that this is the last thing I’ll ever see.

***

I wake up, expecting to be in an ambulance but I’m in a regular vehicle, a truck maybe. I can hear Mia crying in the back and an IV bag hanging off Raymond’s rear view mirror.

When I lift my head to look at him, he reaches out to touch my cheek. “Sorry, all the ambulances are at the site of a large motor vehicle accident. I’m improvising because you need to be at the ER, ASAP.”

“Mommy, are you okay? I thought you died.”

Damn Conrad all the way to hell for putting Mia through this. I try to organize my thoughts so I can say something to make her feel better, but Raymond beats me to the punch.

“Hey, your mom is going to be fine. She’s just lost a lot of blood and needs to conserve her energy to get better right now. Let’s let her rest, okay pumpkin?”

“Alright. I get it,” Mia responds, sounding more than a little despondent.

I snatch up all my energy and tell him, “Don’t let Conrad take her.”

He glances at me for a second before saying, “Conrad didn’t make it.”

I want to ask more questions, but I just can’t. I lay my head back down and try to gather my scattered thoughts. At first, I can’t believe it’s true, that the man I’ve been trapped with for the last eleven years is gone, just like that. And what are the chances that Raymond Anderson walked back into my life the very moment I needed him the most? It’s one in a million.

***

I must have blacked out again because when I wake up, I’m in a hospital room. There are two chairs beside my bed, one for Ray and the other for Mia. Seeing them side-by-side is strange. They both have the same green eyes, and brown, naturally curly hair. It makes me wonder if he can see what I see when I look at them together. For a moment, a strange thought springs into my mind, but then I come to my senses. It can’t be true, it’s wishful thinking. Then another thought crosses through my mind, Ray is dead, he died over a decade ago in a motorcycle accident. I saw his grave for myself.

My heart starts racing and it must have set the machines off bleeping because Ray jumps to his feet and rushes to my bedside. Mia is standing beside him in an instant, her eyes wide with concern, “Mommy, how are you feeling? The doctor said you were going to be okay. Do you feel okay yet?”

I reach out to take my innocent little daughter’s hand in mine. Something really weird is going on because my hand feels like it weighs fifty pounds. I try and calm down my racing thoughts and I do my best to smile and ease her fears. “I’m feeling a hundred percent better, baby. Once I’m all rested up, we can go home.”

That’s when Raymond speaks up. “It looks like you might here for a bit. Your injuries were pretty substantial.”

“Thank you for saving us, Ray. I can’t thank you enough.”

“You’re very welcome. Do you have anyone Mia can stay with while you’re hospitalized?”

I shake my head, then wince in pain. “I’m not in touch with my parents, we haven’t spoken in years. They’re living on the East Coast now.”

“What about her paternal grandparents?” he asks.

“Her paternal grandmother died a few years ago and her grandfather has similar issues as my husband. I’m not sure I’d want her being around him.” I don’t even mention Ashton, Conrad’s brother, who was lurking on the fringes of our life since before we got married. At the thought of him I have to resist the urge to shudder. Now with Conrad gone, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be safe again.

Ray’s head tilts to the side and he looks at me strangely. “Similar issues as your deceased husband.”

“What happened? How did he die, exactly?” I ask.

Mia is the one who answers. “The police shot him and then they came here and asked me a bunch of questions.”

I freeze in place, trying to imagine my ten-year-old going through all that on her own. “How long have I been unconscious?”

Ray answers, “Two days. I’ve been here with Mia the whole time. Children aren’t really supposed to be here outside of visiting hours, but I talked to the hospital administrator. Since no family stepped up, they agreed to make an exception. They allowed her to stay until you woke up and were able to make arrangements for her care.”

I let that roll around in my head for a few moments before making a decision. “I know this is a big ask, Ray. But would it be possible for you to take her in for a few days, just until I’m on my feet? She goes to school so it would really only be evenings. Hopefully, I’ll be discharged before the weekend.”

He frowns down at me for a second or two before answering. “Prissy girl, you know that I’d do absolutely anything for you, but surely you have friends or family that would make a better caretaker than me?”

“I can’t really discuss it right now, Ray. But I don’t have anyone I trust. It has to be you.” I start to get agitated, the only people I can think of were Conrad’s father and his brother and they were the last people I want near my child. “Seriously, right now, you’re the only person I trust with my child.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “You got it, Prissy. I’ll make sure she gets to school, eats three squares a day, and gets a good night’s sleep.”

Mia speaks up, “And I get to visit my mom every day, right?”

Ray glances over at her, smothering back a smile. “Yeah, that goes without saying. Kids need their mothers.”

I relax back into the bed as relief floods my weary brain. “Thank you, Raymond. I’ll make it up to you.”

“No need,” he responds. “I plan to have her work off her keep by baking cookies.”

Mia spins around excitedly and asks, “Chocolate chip cookies from the secret recipe?”

“Of course. We can even add walnuts.”

I look from one to the other, confused about this secret cookie recipe. “What’s this about?”

Ray just shrugs, “Long story, maybe best to save it for another time.”

Mia isn’t having it. She launches into a big, long, drawn-out story about how Ray bought a bunch of cookies that turned out to be amazing. He apparently had a whole pile of them, and they’ve been snacking on them because they’re comfort food and things have been stressful. I honest to goodness fall asleep during her story and wake up to find that I am alone in my hospital room and it’s dark outside.

I’m thoroughly confused about exactly what happened. All I remember is getting back from the grocery store and Conrad had been drinking. The moment I walked into the house, he threw me face first into the wall and started accusing me of sneaking out to see another man. This wasn’t unusual behavior, as he’d started acting really weirdly over the last few months so I just kind of stayed quiet and let him rant. Mia came home and he began shouting at her for not taking off her shoes at the front door. All he did for hours after that was to pace and rant while not letting us leave the living room. When he pulled a gun out of his safe, I knew our situation was going to get out of hand. Even with all his erratic behavior, he’d never once pulled a weapon on us let alone be physically abusive.

I fall asleep again and that’s when the bad dreams creep up on me. That awful night that destroyed me, running away to college to escape the shame. Then finding out I was pregnant, and knowing it had to be my attacker’s baby. Of wanting to come home and see if Ray would forgive me. Dreams of being shown a grave with his name on the headstone, of grieving so hard I thought my heart would stop. And after fighting my parents for weeks, being forced into a marriage I didn’t want with Conrad. He knew the baby wasn’t his as we’d not even had sex. He’d thought it was Ray’s, but what he didn’t know was that Mia was his brother’s. That was a secret I’d take to my grave. If his brother or father even got an inkling that Mia was their blood, then they’d take her away. I wished with all my heart that she was Ray’s, if that was the case then my life would have been so much simpler.