Bad Day

I had wondered why we'd not talked inside at the time but it all became clear when we finally entered the house. Willow introduced me to Peter, her son, who was on the floor playing with a girl that was about twelve years old. She was introduced to me as Ashley, the daughter of Willow's sister. It was her that Willow and her parents wanted to protect from hearing about today's events.

Ashley left pretty much as soon settled in. Willow told me that her sister only lived a block away when I asked if someone should walk her home. It took Peter a few minutes to realize that she'd left and when he did, he looked around the room then reached his arms out towards me. He wanted me to pick him up and looking around the room this was a surprise to everyone. Willow nodded that it was okay for me to pick him up. So, I did just that and to my surprise, he nuzzled into my chest and fell asleep. The adults in the room continued to stare at me.

"What?" I asked.

"He never does that," Willow replied.

"He always takes time to warm up to strangers. Usually a long time," her mother added as she stood up, "here, let me take him."

With that, she lifted Peter from my lap and took him over to the playpen in the living room. Setting him down to sleep. Willow's father turned up the volume on the TV.

We watched as a police car had pulled up close to the passenger side and offered a cell phone to them via a long pole. A woman's naked arm, my wife's naked arm, reached out and took the phone.

Minutes later, my phone began ringing. I pulled the phone from my pocket and looked at the screen. It showed a number I wasn't familiar with below the text 'Unknown'.

"Who is this?" I asked by way of greeting after pressing the answer button.

"It's me," my wife answered.

"Annie, what's up?" I asked, as Willow jumped up and grabbed the house phone.

"I think I got myself into a bit of trouble. Er. Are you still in Pittsburgh?"

"No, I'm in town at your lover's wife's parent's house."

The line went dead. I pulled the phone from my ear and stared at the screen, it showed that the call had ended after fifteen seconds. In front of me, I watched as Willow reported to the detectives what they already knew. That my wife had called me. They even seemed to know what had been said from what I heard listening to Willow talk to them.

After Willow's called ended, we settled down to watch the events play out on the television. An hour after we'd got there, the truck ran out of gas then rolled to a halt on the freeway. Two naked people, pixelated by the television to cover their private areas, got out of the truck with their hands in the air. Pretty quickly, the Police had made the arrest.

The rest of the evening was pretty normal or would have been if I had been at my parents' house, in that we sat and watched television, ordered pizza and talked only during the adverts. It made me feel at ease and calmed me down after the craziness of the day. Indeed, my only thought of the events surrounding my wife's behaviour came when my phone rang and the police told me that I would be allowed in my home again tomorrow morning.

I didn't go back that day, indeed it would be a week before I re-entered that house. Instead, that first day was spent dealing with the bank, talking to work and then looking for a lawyer to help with what came next. Willow and I went with the same one and she was nice enough to offer us a discount. Willow's dad clued me in that the discount came by the fact that she was his cousin.

For the week, I stayed with Willow and her parents. With my car still impounded as evidence by the Police, my trips to and from work came via the generosity of Willow's dad.

At the end of the week, the police returned my car and I felt that shouldn't impose on the hospitality of Willow's parents any longer. So I returned to the place I called home and found it to be full of hurt. Everywhere I looked in the place dredged up a happy memory that instantly soured with thoughts of my wife's betrayal.

With the return of the car, came the return of most of the money that had been taken. Willow told me that most of the money taken from their accounts had been returned as well. She also told me that money her husband and my wife had taken from the hospital had also been recovered. She also told me the detectives had discovered what had started the chain of events leading to that day.

Doctor Zach Powell had one too many complaints registered by spouses of patients he treated for his behaviour towards their wives. The last complaint came at the same time as a lawsuit for a botched surgery landed on the administrators' desks. They had decided it was time to cut their losses and turn the doctor loose. To support the suspension of his license.

The good doctor knew this, knew that the next meeting of the administrators would see this course of action set in motion. So, he cultivated the affair he had with my wife and somehow sweet-talked her into running away with him and that the hospital owed them for their years of being under-appreciated. And that if they did that, then they should take as much money as they could from any source that they had access to.

It took but a few days for them plan everything. Book tickets to get them out of the country, they would not be coming back and to steal nearly five hundred thousand dollars from the hospital. Payment for services rendered he had told my wife. They had checked into that motel room for a few hours to pass time before they headed to the airport. They had used the bed for a little stress relief.

Six months after my bad day, my divorce was completed and my wife had been found guilty along with her lover of a whole series of financial offences. She managed to get a deal done with the assistant district attorney, offering her testimony to help convict her lover in return for a lighter sentence. I wasn't really aware of this though. I didn't watch any of the coverage on television and everyone knew not to talk to me about the trial or her.

Once the convictions had been handed down, the police officially closed the active search for the shooter. They had not recovered any usable evidence from my rifle or car. Just like they'd had got anything at the motel. My rifle remained in Police hands. In case they somehow cracked the case without having any manpower assigned to it.

Over those six months, Willow and I would get together frequently to talk. Often she would bring Peter with her and he was always happy to see me.

Shortly after the convictions, these meetings turned from friends getting together to a couple dating. To a family getting together and I don't just mean Willow, Peter and I. Often we'd spend some of our weekends around her parent's home.

As the six month mark passed, our talks turned to discussing her and Peter moving in with me and Trillian. Her parents were supportive of the idea and were indeed convinced that should that happen it would make Peter the happiest kid in the world.

At seven months after, I proposed to Willow. She accepted and finally moved in with me. I think her parents were sad to see her move out, at least I assume so, given they were crying as we drove away that day. Not that we drove far, I had sold my old house and bought one that was only a block away from her sister and two from her parents.

Willow had helped me minimize the imprint my former wife had on the new home despite my bringing most of the belongs from the old one. With only the master bedroom having a complete overhaul.

Days after she moved in, a letter arrived from my ex-wife asking, no pleading, for me to visit her. I had no interest in seeing her, but Willow convinced me that I should go for closure and offered to accompany me if I wanted.

So, on a rainy Wednesday, I found myself waiting for Annie to come into the visitors' area of the prison. I sat there wondering what to say to her, what I would ask her, what I would learn from her and if I really cared at this point. Willow and Peter were my future now. That all flushed from my mind when I saw her.

I watched for her when the doors opened and the prisoners shuffled in. She was one of the first to enter, ensuring I had a clear view of her. I think she smiled at the sight of me but I'm not sure. I was too shocked at that moment to be sure.

The shock caused by the fact that she was extremely pregnant.

"She's yours," Annie announced for a greeting when she got to the table I was sat at. From that point on, all I can tell you is that we talked, but I couldn't tell you about what. When I got up to leave, I do remember her asking me to take the baby when it was born and to think about taking her back when she got released.

In the prison parking lot, I told Willow about the baby. Willow's response shocked me, more than seeing a very pregnant Annie and hearing her tell me it was mine. I nodded confirmation that I'd heard her then set about driving us home.

I didn't really come back to reality until we got home and Peter climbed up onto my lap, then called me Daddy for the first time.

What Willow had said was, "I'm glad I didn't shoot to kill now."