What Did I Walk Into?

ADRIENNE

“Is this man assaulting you?”

That question hung in the air between the three of us. It was a simple, yet devastating question. And with the way Eddie’s eyes moved, I was sure he knew it too.

Somehow, he was the first to recover. The smoothened his shirt with trembling hands and performed a nervous laugh. “Assaulting her?” he scoffed. “Mr. Warren, this is a private conversation between me and my fiancée. I don’t know what you think you walked into, but –”

“I wasn’t asking you.” Marcus said softly. His voice wasn’t loud, but the impact was big enough to shut Eddie up. “I was asking her.”

I swallowed as his eyes landed on me. I didn’t look at Eddie, but I could his smug smile as he scoffed again. He thought I would defend him, after all, it was all I did for the past three years. I kept up the charade no matter how badly he treated me.

But I was tired of that.

“Yes,” I said quietly, shocking Eddie whose head snapped to me. “He was.”

Three words. I realized. Three words was all it took to ease myself of some of the burden I felt. I sighed as the truth sat in the room, heavy as it was.

Eddie’s face went through several emotions at once – disbelief, anger, and panic. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water several times before he found his words. “That – that’s not –” He turned to Marcus. “She’s exaggerating. She’s always like that. Always trying to make herself look like the victim, so people will…”

He trailed off, probably realizing how that sounded. Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “With all due respect, Mr. Warren, this isn’t your business.” He stated dryly. “I don’t know why you’re even here. This is a private room, a private matter between me and my fiancée.”

“I’m not his fiancée,” I blurred out before I could stop myself. I had no idea why I felt the need to say those words, to clear the air in front of a complete stranger but the look on Eddie’s face was satisfying.

He looked like he wanted to chuck me into a hole that led to the deepest part of hell.

Instead, he smiled and shook his head. “There she goes again,” he glanced at Marcus as if they were sharing some private joke about a difficult woman. “She says this every time she wants attention. Don’t listen to her, Mr. Warren. She just can’t stand not being the center of things.”

“Get. Out. Eddie.”

He blinked at me.

“I said GET THE FUCK OUT!!!” I was almost surprised by the venom in my voice. “We’re not engaged. We are not anything. I’ve told you this not times than I can count, and I won’t stop saying it until you get it into your thick skull. You and I are done! I won’t say it so nicely the next time. So you better leave now that I’m still nice, before I ask the hospital to have you removed.”

For a moment, Eddie just stared at me. I had no idea what was going on in his head but the look on his eyes mirrored his shock and confusion. It was quite hard for him to understand how the woman in front of him stopped being afraid of him. Stopped loving him. Stopped revolving around him and his every word.

He glanced once more at Marcus, his expression changing from confusion to anger, before he turned and walked out without another word. The door clicked shut behind him gentler than I expected, given everything that had transpired.

The silence and awkwardness that followed his departure was quite loud.

I didn’t know where to look or how to behave. Marcus hadn’t moved from his spot near the door and he watched me with an expression I couldn’t read.

“Are you okay?” he asked finally, his voice even softer than it was before – if that was even possible.

“I – yes,” my hands clenched into fists underneath the blanket, but I forced a smile on my face. “I will be.”

He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “Of course, you’re a strong woman,” he broke eye contact, looking hesitant for a second – or maybe it was just my mind making up things. “I should let you rest. I need to check on Lydia.”

Lydia.

The name landed strangely in my ears. A distant bell went off in my head, as if it was only then that I was recalling what or who he actually was in all of this. This man wasn’t just the man who kept appearing exactly when I needed someone. He want a knight in shining armor.

He was Lydia’s father.

The father of Eddie’s mistress. The man who by every reasonable measure should have no reason to care about what happens to me.

And yet, here he was.

I took the next seconds to really look at him. To trace the sturdy lines of his jaw, his high cheek bones, his beautiful grey eyes which looked like they were piercing my soul, his full lips which pulled me in…

There was no resemblance between the two of them. Did it mean Lydia looked like her mother more? Still, this man seemed too young to father a child as old as Lydia. He had to be around thirteen when –

“Will you be alright by yourself?” his words cut through my thoughts, pulling me back into the hospital room. “I can report this to the director and have him increase your security or keep Eddie out, if –”

“I’ll be fine,” I said quickly. “Thank you, for…” I gestured vaguely at the door where Eddie had disappeared. “…For everything.”

The smile that spread his lips was contagious and warm. So warm that it melted some of the ice in my heart. He took a step forward, then stopped. “Its okay, no need to thank me for anything. I will always help you in any way I can.”

Before I could figure out what that meant or how to respond to it, the door opened again, and Arlene stepped back inside. Her eyes shifted from Marcus to me in confusion.

“Mr. Warren,” she said, quickly composing herself. “I didn’t realize –”

“I was checking on Lydia,” he said smoothly, already turning towards the door. “I’ll leave you two.”

He glanced back at me once more before he finally disappeared behind the door.

Arlene’s eyebrows were almost kissing her hairline when she catapulted herself to my bed. “What the hell?” she fired excitedly. “Why is Mr. Warren of all people here? What did I just walk into?”