On the Mend

Rose was also in critical condition. She also had a minor fracture on her skull; she had multiple lacerations and two broken legs. However, the most significant issue to Rose was the loss of her left hand as well as part of her left forearm. It was crushed when the semi collected the car. The surgery team were working hard to suture the wound as well as fix several other punctures. In addition, Rose had extreme blood loss thanks to being unable to staunch the blood flow, but fortunately, if there is such a thing in this type of accident, her mangled arm was above her head when the emergency crews pulled her, so thankfully, she had not bled out.

The rest of the day was a haze of conversations and calls. I have to hand it to Robbie. After an initial bout of shock, he sat with me for the afternoon while we waited for news of Rose and started calling people. We called his grandparents first, then Toby's brother up in Brisbane. We called Rose's brother next; when the people from the mourge came, both Carrie and I had to help Robbie through the forms for the passing of his father.

Carrie called Sara, and within an hour, she was at the hospital, hugging Robbie and crying with Carrie. After a while, she looked at us.

"Where's mum?" she asked innocently.

Carrie and I looked at each other.

"She won't be coming," Carrie said bitterly.

Sara looked at Carrie then over at me.

"I take it that's Rogers doing?" my youngest daughter asked darkly.

To say that Carrie and I were rocked in a day where everything that could go wrong did was an understatement.

"Sara, are you saying you know something about your mum and Roger?" I asked quietly.

Sara nodded her head solemnly; fresh tears started to fall down her face.

"I saw mum bring in some new lingerie a couple of weeks ago, I asked if she had bought them for you, dad." I looked as her shoulder sagged.

"It took a few days of pestering her, but at one point when she wouldn't tell me that the underwear was for you, she got upset at me then blurted that it was for a date for some guy named Roger, telling me there wasn't a chance in hell that you would ever get to see it."

"Sara, why didn't you say anything?" Carrie's tone was carrying a very accusatory tone. If my youngest daughter's pose could get any lower, she'd be a puddle on the ground.

"I don't know. I don't..." she looked at Carrie. "We've been talking about how apart mum and dad have been recently. I didn't know what to do, so I stayed away from home as much as possible once I knew something I didn't want to know. I didn't want to face mum," she looked at me. "Or you, I'm sorry, dad."

I pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay, baby girl. I wish you would have said something, I didn't know till last night, but it's alright."

She started crying, "I'm so sorry, dad, if I had said something, then perhaps Auntie Rose and Uncle Toby..." she never finished the thought, instead of breaking down.

We only left later that evening to have showers and get a change of clothes. I brought Carrie and Sara home with me, we sorted ourselves out, then Carrie took her car back to the hospital with Sara while I followed behind them.

I think it was around four in the morning, Sunday when they brought Rose out of surgery. She was battered and bruised, in critical condition, but alive. She would be in the Intensive Care Unit for at least a few days. They wanted her to wake up and make sure there was no brain damage before taking next steps.

Even in his grief, Robbie was gracious to the doctors and asked to meet the surgical team that had laboured for hours to save his mother's life. I had never been prouder of my daughter's boyfriend, and I earnestly hoped at that moment that one day I would be able to call him my son-in-law.

We spent the rest of the day at the hospital. I had grabbed my laptop and phone chargers at home, receiving a confirmation that papers had been drawn up ready for serving to Louise, Roger and their workplace Monday morning. I was relieved I had a bloody good lawyer, better the Roger I was betting.

I also contacted my duty managers at work, ensuring they would take the load for a week as we had a family tragedy and I needed some time. I wouldn't tell them I had more than one emergency, but they knew their stuff and would keep things running. One piece of good news was that one of my support team managed to fix the remaining issues on the machine that broke Friday throughout Saturday.

That afternoon, we started working with Robbie around planning Toby's funeral. Robbie left a message with their family lawyer so they could get instructions. It wouldn't be needed as long as Rose pulled through, but Robbie was trying to be prepared.

We talked through the funeral for a few hours, joined later in the afternoon by Edwina, Rose's mum, an older woman in her early seventies but still as sharp as ever. She hugged her grandson then gave me a huge hug. Edwina had always treated me like a son. She loved Toby but always spoke of me as the one that got away from her daughter in joking tones. She let us know that Camilla, Toby's mum, would come by later in the week once she could get someone to drive her from her retirement village as she couldn't drive.

We spoke easily for the afternoon, Edwina sitting with us in the hospital waiting room as we planned. I wondered if the staff would move us on; however, when I asked a nurse if we had to move, she shook her head.

"No, this, unfortunately, happens more than you would expect. But, as long as it's not too busy, then you are welcome to stay. We know the grief you are all going through right now, I know you need to be close to Mrs Getting's while you wait for her to wake up."

I smiled at her response, thanking her.

Time flew by as we all talked and reminisced. Louise was only mentioned in passing, and once Carrie brought Edwina up to speed on Louise, any time no one was watching her, there was a dark scowl on her face.

It was about eight o'clock Sunday evening when I picked up the call on my mobile without looking, all our phones had been ringing hot all day as news of Toby's passing and Rose's injuries circulated.

"Hello, Cameron Other speaking," I said as I watched as Robbie, with an arm around Carrie, hugged her, smiling as I watched the two young lovers look into the eyes of each other. I saw an exchange of 'I love you's' followed by a gentle kiss. In their mourning, they were falling more in love.

"That's not the way to great your wife." I heard Louise scold me over the phone. "I told you not to make waves, or you would regret it. Roger is fierce and will take you down if you have said anything to anyone. Where the fuck are you, Cameron. You were supposed to be home when I got here."

I'm not sure what happened with Louise over the weekend, but if there was any of the uncertainty or regret left that I saw Friday night, it had been removed by the shrew of a woman now talking to me on the phone.

"Louise..." I said, disdain dripping from that single word. All conversation stopped around me, everyone looking at me simultaneously.

"That's me, you great lunk. Where are you and where are the girls. If you told them anything, I told you I would turn them against you. So, you had better get home now or I will make you regret..."

I hung up mid-sentence. I wasn't interested in threats. Tomorrow, Louise would find out that her neatly constructed narrative would unravel.

"The slut just got home." I shrugged.

"We could hear her dad," Sara said quietly. "I don't know why you picked up the call in the first place," I had spent a few hours today talking one on one with my youngest daughter. She had apologised again and again for not saying anything, but once she heard the breadth of deceit from her mother, she was almost as incensed against her as Carrie.

"Dad, in the divorce, I will be living with you, alright?" Sara told me suddenly as we talked earlier.

"Of course, baby girl, of course," I said as I hugged her.

Back in the now, I looked at Sara smiling.

"It was instinct. I picked up the call without thinking. It just took me a moment to get my bearings." The next moment, my phone started ringing again, Louise of course. Over the next ten minutes, she tried to call a dozen times. Then she tried calling the girls.

Half an hour later, Carrie got tired of it.

"What?" she screamed at the phone, picking it up.

Louise was admonishing our oldest child for her tone.

"Mum, stop. I have absolutely no interest in talking to such a deceitful cheating cunt right now. I am here with my family. Including my sister and father. We're in mourning right now, and we don't need you interrupting our grief."

I could hear Louise screeching down the phone with a string of curses and swear words that I never knew she could put together, let alone say to her daughter. The gist was that she thought that Carrie was talking to her about the breakdown of the relationship between Louise and me, not the death of Toby and Rose hanging to life by a thread. I realised that Louise had no idea what had happened.

Louise carried on for another moment before Carrie interrupted her.

"Mum, I have no intention of having you scream at me anymore, and before you start, yes, daddy has told us everything also, so you know, I have zero interest in living in the same house as you. You are a slut, mum. You had a man who loved you as well as children that adored you as role models. Now you've traded dad for a fuck buddy that is most likely going to drop you like a hot potato, and you have lost the respect of both your daughters."

She paused, her mother obviously talking.

"Yes, both Sara and I, yes, Sara told us of what she knew. My dad is awesome because he forgave her, and right now, she hates you as much as daddy and I. So, pack a bag mum, because none of us wants you there when we come home."

She again paused, listening.

"No mum, I'm not telling you where we are or when we're coming home. Why don't you call Roger and go to his place?" She did a faux pause for half a second. "What's that, you can't because he's gone home to his wife who has no idea that he's a low life cheating bastard that helped you destroy any respect your family has for you... Too bad mum."

Louse started to reply.

"Sorry, mum, I think they're calling our flight. I will talk to you later," then she hung up.

She looked at all of us staring at her, then pointed to her phone in her hand.

"Wrong number," Carrie said simply.

Despite everything happening and the seriousness of the situation, everyone giggled. Even the nurses at the nurse station opposite us.

Edwina had headed home for the night, promising she would be back early in the morning. Meanwhile, Sara and I were preparing to leave for a few hours. Carrie and Robbie would stay longer, then Sara and I would be back around midnight, trading places, letting them go to have some sleep. Sara and I were throwing our gear back in bags when a trauma nurse came up.

"She's awake!" she said excitedly.

We all smiled, a very nervous laugh came out of everyone. Then, we asked about Rose's condition.

"A doctor is checking her over at the moment, she's really out of it, but as she is awake, you will all be able to see her briefly."

Over the next hour, we cycled through to see Rose, well, what we could see of her. Almost every part of her was wrapped in something medical. She had wires coming out of practically every part of her. Rose's head was wrapped in bandages. However, most disturbing was the wrapped stump where her left forearm used to be.

"Hey there, Petal," I said, using my nickname for Rose. When we first met, I called her my Rose Petal. If anyone other than myself ever called her that, they always got an ear-bashing from her. "You gave us quite a scare back there, but it's good to see you're on the mend."

She couldn't yet talk with a breathing tube down her throat. Of course, she was also still very sedated with what I am sure were some powerful drugs. But her eyes held the question I didn't want to answer. I shook my head, and she knew. A single tear slid out of her left eye, quickly absorbed by the bandages.

I couldn't touch her, so for the rest of my visit. I sat with her, quietly talking to her about how proud I was of her, how she was my family, and we were all going to get better together.

I was exhausted when I left the room, and a nurse handed me a tissue as I walked out. I had been crying, but I hadn't even known it. I thanked her then went back out to the lounge. Half an hour later, Sara and I hugged Carrie and Robbie, heading home.

[:::: - 5 - ::::]

Sara and I were bone tired. We both had time for about three hours of sleep before heading back to the hospital to let Carrie and Robbie take a break, though now that Rose had woken up, we were all somewhat relieved. We smiled as we drove, speaking of sleep, how happy we were Rose was awake, but then both of us frowned as we pulled into our street. There was a strange BMW X5 in our driveway.

"Shit," we both swore at the same time. I saw the front lights were on, so I drove past did a U-turn pulling up on the curb outside our house. We saw the curtains move, but no door opened.

"Should we go in or just drive away?" Sara asked me.

I shrugged then sighed.

"We need to go in, sorry, sweetie, but I don't know it would be safe for me to drive too much longer tonight without a break or some caffeine. So, I suggest we go in. You head to your room, close the door and try to ignore what I am sure is going to be a bad conversation."

"You sure, dad, I can stay with you?"

I smiled. Sara hated confrontation. It was one of the reasons she hadn't said anything to me. But that she was willing to confront her mother with me told me how much my fifteen-year-old daughter was upset with her mother.

I pulled out my phone, hitting record. Sara looked at me, doing the same thing with her phone.

We both exited the car walking up the path to the front door. It was unlocked, we walked straight in. The fine fellow Roger Fellworth, going at us not two seconds after stepping over the threshold.

"Ah, here he is, the little cuckold himself. Come back to ask forgiveness and going to play ball before I ruin your fucking life?" he said coldly, with the arrogance of someone who got what he wanted despite any objection.

Sara walked into the room, causing Roger to come up short. Louise baulked for a moment, her lover handing us a verbal discrimination suit with a minor in the room.

"If you don't mind, dad, I'm too tired for this. I'll turn in and make sure you're up by eleven-thirty so we can get back." She walked past a stunned Roger and Louise, only uttering "Prick" and "Slut" to both of them, saying nothing else. The moment Sara's door closed, they came at me again.

"Louise told you not to say anything to your daughter fuckwit." Roger said, steaming at me.

I held my phone up.

"I am letting you know that I am recording this conversation. It has been recording since we walked in the door and will continue to be recorded until you leave," I said, looking at both of the cheaters.

Louise looked at me, going pale. Roger did a little as well, looking at the phone in my hand and then shrugging.

"Doesn't matter, cuckboy." He smiled.

Roger was an imposing man. He was taller than me and had broader shoulders than I did. However, it wasn't muscle that made up most of his bulk; It was fat. In addition, he was balding and had jowls around his chin. I would say he was late forties, perhaps early fifties. Honestly, I struggled to see why Louise would take up with someone like him.

I ignored Roger for a moment looking directly at my wife. "Louise, I asked you not to be here when I got home tonight, then you insult me further by bringing your lover here. Is there no depth to your depravity?"

"Cameron..." she started but was cut off by Roger. He took two steps forward, getting in my face.

"You listen here, you fucking cuck. We both told you how it was going to be and told you not to say anything. Now I am going to make your life hell." He talked loudly. He didn't care a fifteen-year-old girl may be able to overhear him.

"Mr Fellworth, is it?" I said calmly into his face. "You are not welcome here. I will ask you to watch your language as my young daughter is in the other room."

"So the fuck what." He yelled, "she's not going to tell anyone, and neither are you!"

With that, he swiped the phone out of my hand threw it on the ground, stomping on it before we could do anything. Then, he smiled viciously at me and started yelling at me.

"You're just some fucking hick printer whose wife got so bored with him that she begged me to fuck her. And fuck her I did, all weekend long. I even fucked her ass. I know you never had her ass before. I gave her so many orgasms that she will never want your pathetic little cock again." He smiled menacingly at me as I eyed my crushed phone on the floor.

Louise decided then to join in, I had no idea what he had done to her, but she was in no way my wife anymore with the words she said next. "Cameron, it's true, Roger is ten times the lover you are, but now you have told the girls it's going to go very hard on you. I wish you would not have said anything because now Roger and I are going to have to destroy you."

"Louise, what are you..." I didn't have time to finish as while I was looking at Louise, good ol' Roger swung a haymaker at me. I fell to the ground as it connected, moving with the punch as much as possible, but it still hurt.

"What the hell man, you hit me in my house," I said loudly, rubbing where he hit me.

"So what, Louise is going to back up anything I do to you. I could fucking kill you right now, and she would tell the cops that you came at me, saying I had to defend myself. Don't you get it, cucky boy, I'm a fucking lawyer. I make it how it needs to be. You may think you are some hotshot in the printing world. But my kind makes the fucking green that keeps this world turning." He started laughing. "I take what I want from who I want when I want, and there is nothing anyone can do about it."

I looked at Louise from the ground.

"Louise, is this true? Are you going to back this asswipe up?" I said as I stood to my feet. Roger took a defensive stance, ready to try to fight me. But I looked at Louise, and he relaxed a little.

She stiffened a little but looked defiant. "I'm sorry, Cameron, but yes, I'll back Roger up with everything. Even if he killed you, your just not a man like he is." I looked at her again like she had been hit with the stupid stone. Seriously, what happened to her to become so utterly brainwashed by this waste of a human being.

I shrugged my shoulders, sighing. "Well then, dear wife, there is nothing more to say, but both of you need to leave now, or I will return the sentiment that you just gave to me and unleash hell on both of you that neither of you will be able to look at anyone you know ever again without them ridiculing either of you."

Roger snarled; encouraged by his earlier sucker punch, he made the mistake of thinking he could take me. Like I said earlier, Roger was a big guy, but he was all fat, not muscle. I wasn't as big as him, but working on printing machines all day, I had a solid build, I had also been in a few fights over the years and even done some amateur boxing, so I knew how to fight when needed.

Roger rushed towards me, and I quickly sidestepped him while narrating that he was foolish to attack me in my own home. I tripped him, and he went down, he smashed a coffee table, but he was back up in an instant. Sara came out of her room, hearing the crash and started screaming to leave her dad alone. Louise tried to silence her by grabbing her, but Sara was screaming, trying to break free and run to me.