CARMEN“Mariah has gone missing, Carmen.”It sounded more like a joke than anything else, and I knew for a fact that Terri would never joke about something like that, so it was obviously true.“What do you mean, Mariah has gone missing? She was just in surgery. Shouldn’t she be at the hospital by now, recovering, if she hasn’t been discharged yet?!” My voice rose in pitch as I dropped my bags and walked out of the house.“That’s the thing. She…she was in the hospital one moment, and just minutes later, she was no longer in the hospital,” she explained. “It all happened so fast, and I still can’t bring myself to comprehend it.”“When did this happen?” I asked, frustration working me up as I found it hard to even see a taxi to get into.“Just two days ago. Jasper has been unable to sit still since then. He and his father have shut down the hospital, and I can’t help but think it’s my fault for not being there for her,” she cried out.“No, don’t say that.” I shook my head. I knew just ho
CARMEN“Jasper, I need you to hit the breaks on the car right now. You don’t even know where I am,” I said, walking towards the door as I waited for him to give me a response before I would go out on a goose chase.“You said you came back, right? Aren’t you at home then?” he slurred, and I closed my eyes as I heard even louder honks that made my heart rate and the hairs on my skin go up.“Just pull over on the side of the road, and I’ll come meet you wherever you are. You can’t drive while you’re drunk!” I was trying hard not to raise my voice, but he was making it hard for me.I had seen, first hand, how hard it was for Jasper to keep his control when he was drunk, and adding a car in the middle of a possibly busy road in the middle of the night was something I didn’t want to think about but was left with no choice.“You don’t know where I am as well. Let’s just meet at the house, Carmen. I’m not going to pull over.”“Jasper, hello! Hello!” I looked down at the screen of my phone to
CARMENJasper stared at me, and I stared back at him. I could tell that we both had completely different things going on in our heads; I was thinking about what his reaction would be to me admitting that I wanted a divorce, and him…I couldn’t tell what Jasper was thinking no matter how hard I tried.“You want a divorce,” he chuckled, leaning back against the chair and shaking his head.“You know, Carmen,” he started. “I have never seen a person as ungrateful as you in my entire life, and I’m not saying this because I’m angry or bitter about what you just said. It’s a fact.”I felt a small sting from his words, and I could understand where he was coming from if he was having the same thought process as I did.“I have been lied to by you this whole time. I told you that I loved you, and of course you’re not obligated to say it back, but the least you could do is communicate with me about things like this. Did you get married to me with the intent of getting a divorce?”“You know, you’r
CARMEN“I’ll call you back,” I said to Dave on the phone before hanging up and getting out of bed with a suspicious look on my face.“What do you mean, you’ve made a decision on the divorce? Was there ever a decision to be made?” I questioned, not sure if that was a part of the conversation that we’d had when he was drunk just last night.“It was not exactly your decision to make so I didn’t tell you about it, of course.” He shrugged, taking my hand and leading me back to the bed so that we could both sit on it for what he was about to say.“What is this about?” I questioned.“I told you how much I’m in love with you, Carmen. Yes, I know I’m not worth believing because I’m a total asshole to you. I have done questionable and sick things to you that nobody deserves to go through in the hands of someone they’re married to,” he started, and I could only nod.“When you told me last night that you wanted a divorce, I wasn’t in the right state of mind to think about it as I am this morning.
CARMEN“Do you now see why I said that there are some inconsistencies? You assured us that she hasn’t been able to use her legs for the past four years now.” Detective Johnson crossed his arms as he gave Jasper a stern look. “What do you want us to believe here, Mr. Hayes?”“I swear, I didn’t know she could walk. You can clearly tell from this footage that she’s struggling to walk,” Jasper defender himself, pointing to the screen and looking back at it to feed his shock once again.“Mrs. Hayes, did you know anything about this before her disappearance?” Detective Johnson interrogated, and I suddenly felt all eyes on me.I couldn’t afford to lie to jeopardize a whole investigation, but he had asked if she could walk, not talk, and I only knew that she could do one of them.“I didn’t know she could walk. She spent all of her time in that wheelchair. Maybe she couldn’t tell anyone, so…” I stopped when I realized that what I was saying didn’t seem to make any sense to anybody else in the
CARMENJasper stared at me with wild eyes as the thought of it crossed his mind, and he placed his hands over his head in complete stress and confusion.“How come we forgot to ask such an important question?” he groaned as he sat on the couch and pulled out his phone to call Detective Johnson to ask him about the security guards on duty that night and how come someone had deleted the footage.Just as he was making the call, the front door opened, and in walked Emily in all her beautiful glory. Her smile faded for a split second when she set her eyes on Jasper, but she was quick to mask it when Terri opened her arms for a hug.“How are you feeling?” Emily asked her mother, who only shook her head in response and waited in silence for a while before giving an answer.“Things are just a little complicated right now, but I am certain that we will find Mariah and bring her back,” Terri said.Jasper finally got off the phone with the detective just as Emily walked towards me and enveloped m
CARMENI shot out of my lounging position with a loud gasp that made Jasper look at me with a raised eyebrow and curiosity written all over his face.“Please, don’t let him know that I’m the one on the phone,” Mariah pleaded, and I immediately knew that she was talking about her son.“I’m sorry, it’s a client,” I whispered to Jasper as I walked out of the bedroom. “I have to get this as soon as possible.”“Hold on, I’m going out to the garden where we can talk in full privacy,” I announced to Mariah as I rushed down the stairs and bolted out of the house where I was sure that Jasper could not hear me.“How are you? How and why did you leave like that? I have so many questions that I want to ask you, and you have to give me answers to all of them!” I rambled, and I could hear her laugh at me.It was good to know that she could laugh in whatever position
CARMENMy mother grabbed a hold of my hand before I could finish speaking to Steve, pulling me towards the door with a glare that told me that she could say or do something I wouldn’t like.“What are you doing? Don’t you see that he’s weak and can barely even keep himself awake? Are you planning to stress him out even more than he already is?!” She snapped at me, and I was quick to pull my hand away from hers.“Let me take him to the hospital then. If you don’t want me to say what you think I’m going to say, then let me get him admitted,” I negotiated.“I didn’t say you couldn’t.” She crossed her arms, stepping aside for me to watch him.