Shattered Ch. 03

Jill sunk into the hospital's pillow at Steve's revelation. She frowned and tried to convey her sincerest apology, "Oh God, no! Steve, no! That was the sex talking. Oh please, you have to understand that I didn't mean that! I didn't waste anything with you. Please believe me!"

"I wish I could, Jill. I really do."

Steve started to turn back for the door. Jill wanted to jump out of her bed, race over to her husband and cling onto him so that he would not leave. However, the accident prevented her body from doing just that. She clutched onto the railings of the bed and tried to will a miraculous recovery. All she accomplished was the rattling of her IV bag. The helpless feeling consumed her, much in the same way that Steve was helpless on that fateful night when he discovered his wife's infidelity.

"I won't fight the divorce, Jill. The boys are grown. There's enough equity in the house for you to live on. I'll move out and find some apartment some where. You can live in happiness with Chris and Gloria and Dan. But I'm going to let you explain to the boys why we're getting divorced."

Steve paused at the door of the hospital room. He faced Jill for the last time, "Oh, and silly me. I almost forgot. What's the prognosis? What did the doctor say about your injury?"

Jill tried her best to sound upbeat, though the loss of the husband is hard to hide, "He said it was too soon to tell. We should know something in the next couple of days. He did say that it was an incomplete spinal cord injury, and that I should regain the use of my legs in time."

The silence in the room carried before Jill spoke again, "I'll be staying with my sister until the doctor thinks it's all right for me to be on my own."

Steve nodded his head and found the willpower to leave the room.

Her parting words did nothing to ease his suffering, "I'm so sorry, Steve."

*****

The town never felt so small until now. What used to feel like home and family had grown cold and uncaring. Buildings that had meaning are just structures made of stone, concrete and wood. Streets that used to lead somewhere full of excitement now are just concrete pavement that connect the lifeless buildings together. Only the fluorescent sign in front of the small school building had any life as it promoted the twenty fifth reunion of the small town's high school.

The parking lot was filled with cars of various makes and models, though none quite as expensive as the BMW roadster that Steve drove. His walk towards the side entrance of the school reminded him of times when the members of the football team would give him wedgies or knock books out of his arms, but all of that was in the past. Steve cared very little as he stepped over the sacred turf those football bullies claimed as theirs.

People inside the small school were dressed as in a variety of fashions, ranging from the casual to the elegant. Steve could easily tell the family's income level by the choice in dress. The blue collar workers wore jeans and a nice shirt. Mid-managers wore business casual such as khakis, slacks, and a button down shirt. And then there were those in administration, choosing to also go with business casual but wore a sports coat. They wore enough of a casual look, while still looking dignified and commanded respect.

Steve looked around the gathering in an attempt to find his wife. His eyes scoured through the dimly lit room. His gaze fell upon a woman that had curled her brown hair in soft ringlets, but wore it up off the neck. She wore just enough make-up to make herself presentable, but not stand out. The dangling earrings drew attention to the soft lobes of her ears, and highlighted the gracefulness of her neck. Seeing her in such regality caused his heart to skip a beat. In that pause, the woman noticed him and started walking towards him with her cane in hand.

"Steve, I didn't expect to see you here," she said with a touch of fondness in her voice. Her eyes, though, betrayed her composure. Excitement, hope, and life danced within those eyes.

Steve smiled politely, "Well, I didn't expect to be here either. However, sometimes a man's got to do what a man's got to do." He then paused to give a noticeable once over. "Jill, you look quite lovely this evening. I like what you did with your hair."

Jill could not help but blush at the compliment. She raised her hand up to fiddle with a barrette located at the back of her head, "Thank you, Steve. It looks like you've lost some weight?"

Steve looked down at himself, opening up his sports coat to reveal a trim waistline, "Well, I got tired of carrying that spare tire around my waist." His smile touched his lips, though the merriment did not quite reach his eyes. "So how are you doing, Jill? How's Chris?"

Jill looked down to her feet, absorbing the mental blow of the question. She looked back up with a feigned smile and answered, "Chris left town a few months after we got divorced, Steve. No one was hiring an out of work forklift operator. He said that he would call when he found a job, but I haven't heard from him."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Jill. I really am. I remember the way you said he made you feel. You deserved that in your life."

Jill sighed, shaking her head, "Don't patronize me, Steve. Go ahead and gloat. Say it." She mimicked, "I told you so."

Steve simply shook his head, holding up his hands, "Honestly, Jill. I have moved on. You said that he made you happy, and I was hoping that you were. I'm sorry that he didn't turn out to be the man you wanted him to be."

Jill bit her lip while altering her posture in an attempt to view Steve in a different light. She narrowed her brow, trying to decipher his body language and meaning. She asked, "So how are you?"

"I'm doing well. I have been offered a position at St. Mary's Medical as Regional IT Director, with the provision of becoming Chief Information Officer after a year. I never thought I'd finally get a chance to be a CIO, but it's only a matter of time now. What about you? How are things in your life?"

Jill smiled with sincerity, knowing Steve's dream had finally come to fruition. "Steve, that's wonderful. I'm so happy for you. That's what you always wanted." She then shrugged helplessly, "Me? I work at the local library as their chief librarian. It's not much, but it pays the bills."

Steve nodded with his own sense of understanding, "Well, you always did have a thing for books. Now you can share your love of books with the community."

Jill clucked her tongue, annoyed but not with Steve. She said dejectedly, "Well, we're moving more towards the digital age such as books on mp3s or as downloadable media and internet access. We do have some hard back books, but we're getting less and less. As the town continues to cut our budget, we rely more on donations." She wrinkled her nose, "So we mostly get trashy romance novels."

Steve could not help but chuckle at the predicament. "I'm sorry, Jill. That sounds horrible. Hopefully, you can get better donations in the future."

The word 'future' brought Jill back to the here and now. She could no longer contain her curiosity. "Are you here with someone? Or are you by yourself?"

"You would think I was by myself," Steve answered cryptically as he tried to look around the room once more. Jill understood the implied meaning, causing her shoulders to drop.

Steve responded in kind, "So what about you? Since Chris is no longer in the picture, have you found someone?"

Jill stammered for a moment, before she finally said, "Well, Jimmy and I are dating, though I don't think it's serious. He works at the gym now." She shook her head with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "I swear he can't keep his eyes to himself."

"He works at the gym? What happened to him being a police officer?"

Jill chuckled at the question. "Apparently, there was some clerical error and Chris' car got demolished rather than impounded. They blamed Jimmy for the mistake. Jimmy denied any involvement, but he was jealous of Chris. Even now, he wonders if he's better than Chris."

Steve raised an eyebrow and questioned his ex-wife, "Well, is he?"

"Only one person ever truly rocked my world, Steve."

The look on Jill's face revealed the answer to Steve. He was touched by the sentiment. However, it was at that moment that Steve saw who he was looking for since his arrival. He smiled warmly, which Jill mistook for a response to her statement.

"Jill, I would like for you to meet someone," explained Steve.

Steve offered her arm to Jill, so that she would not have to use her cane during the short walk. The two them came upon a circle of women, cackling and giggling like hens in a hen house. One of the women wore a little black dress that hugged her curves rather elegantly. She wore her long red hair with blonde highlights. Her small stature did not seem to phase her air of confidence and radiance. Her back was turned to Steve and Jill.

"Believe me, girls. I had to come up with the most asinine excuse to push him towards her. It was hard for me to swallow that advice, but I wanted to make sure that he had full closure. I didn't want any doubts to linger. I wanted him for myself, and I wasn't going to share him with a 'what if'," said the red head.

Steve cleared his throat as the other women in the small gathering tried to hide their giggles. Amber turned around and smiled brightly. She wrapped her arms around Steve and placed a kiss upon his lips. She did not even acknowledge Jill until after the embrace.

"Jill, I would like for you to meet my wife, Amber," Steve said with a hint of pride and love.

Jill's heart sank as Steve wrapped his arm around the small of Amber's back, leaving Jill to return to the wooden cane for support.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. While Jill was resigned to her fate as being second fiddle, she played up the role as a supporting friend to Steve and his blushing bride, Amber. Conversations bounced from one topic to another. By the end of the night, Steve learned that Dan Hart had to file for bankruptcy after he lost most of his customers, due to a systems malfunction which caused his shipments to be late. While he managed to maintain a small client base, it was not enough to support the fleet. When he filed for bankruptcy, any remnants of wealth he had left belonged to Gloria after the divorce settlement.

It was also discovered that Jonathan, the former CFO of the hospital, was fired. Steve never shared the fact that he was almost fired, himself, for violating HIPAA regulations. When Jonathan confronted Steve about the violations, Steve threatened a lawsuit of sexual harassment. Jonathan cowered and catered to Steve's demands of a severance package that included a base settlement twice his salary in exchange for Steve's silence. Jonathan's womanizing ways, though, caught up with him and karma proved the victor.