“Angeline? Eat.”
Terri Ludgate was about to pop.
Somehow, some way, Angeline held onto her nurses’ license. Lillian Palmer’s OB practice was the last place that Angeline had expected to find herself, but it brought a good wage with a fair boss.
And a friend.
“Why not eat for three, Terri?”
The pregnant lady tilted her head around the joke before reaching across the table for Angeline’s plate. Snatching an untouched fry, Terri brought it to her lips with a laugh.
“Under protest,” Terri said. “You are getting too skinny.”
Angeline smiled even as she knew that she was barely eating. He father had also taken note. She couldn’t tell anyone why she was going without.
“I can fix that,” Angeline said.
She took her sandwich in both hands, chewing and choking down the turkey and gouda doused in lettuce and mayo. It tasted like cardboard, but Angeline swallowed a small bite as she pushed her plate aside.
“Will power!” Terri said. “I envy you, Angeline.”
Terri didn’t know the half of it. Only some. Angeline liked it that way.
“So,” Angeline said. “What’s the name?”
Terri blushed and bit into her burger.
“You know I don’t want to know ahead,” Terri said.
“Of course. It’s more fun that way.”
Terri dabbed her lips with a napkin and smiled.
“So fun,” Terri said. “We’re doing the nursery in yellow. So it’s good either way.”
But Angeline couldn’t help but lean towards layettes in blue.
“So… if…”
Terri starred to protest as Angeline threw her hands into the air.
“Just wondering,” she said. “If it’s a boy, if it’s a girl. Terri…”
Angeline took hold of her hands and smiled.
“You should have a plan either way.”
Terri laughed as she lowered her eyes.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I have ideas.”
Angeline sat back and waited.
“So let me hear it.”
Terri brought another mouthful of fries to her lips before she answered.
“Okay,” Terri said. “A girl? June.”
The month when she had met her husband. It was simple and obvious. But it was sweet. If she had the chance, Angeline might have named her imagined child May. Girl or boy. She found Kane at the start of spring. It would have felt right.
“June,” Angeline echoed. “I like it. A boy?”
Terri blushed.
“Eli Jr.,” she said.
Made sense. If she had brought Kane’s son into the world, she would have wanted that boy to have his name. Now that wasn’t happening.
So…
“Love it,” Angeline said. “The best.”
The waiter returned with an offer of brandy in their coffee.
“Yes please,” Angeline said.
Terri waved him off as she rested her elbow to the table.
“So you never told me,” Terri started. “What happened with his boss or whatever?”
That was how Kane saw him, and Angeline followed suit when he darkened her door. It quite literally turned it black. Noel’s words meant that Kane was gone. And Angeline was numb when he took her. Showering like mad failed to erase his touch. And it didn’t bring Kane back.
“It doesn’t matter,” Angeline said.
Terri laughed.
“Doesn’t matter?” Terri asked. “Okay.”
She twirled her blonde hair around her fingers and smiled.
“Even now that he’s back?” Terri asked.
Back? That didn’t…
Angeline looked at her friend with wide eyes.
“Why would you say that?” she demanded.
“I…. Just…”
“He’s never coming back,” Angeline said. “And screw you for saying anything else.”
The color left Terri’s face. Angeline expected an apology.
But there was something else.
“I mean… I mean you do know. Right?”
She knew that he was gone. That it was her fault. And she’d have to live with that. Whatever Terri thought she knew…
“Terri, what the hell are you talking about?” Angeline asked.
Reaching into her purse, Terri brought up the most recent news feed. Scanning through the fluffy bunny photos and the terror of heads sliced overseas, Angeline settled her gaze on a small item in the corner.
“Let me help,” Terri said.
Bringing the picture into focus, there it was. One Kane Peters was released, and the words below his picture were followed by a litany of how drugs and gangs were so very dangerous. Angeline scanned he words carefully, but her eyes settled on Kane’s image. Mug shot or not, it was still Kane, and she fixed her eyes on the digital print.
How could this be true? Why would Noel… Had he lied? Angeline’s mind raced towards a way to make things right even as the reality sank in.
“Oh my God,” Angeline muttered. “He’s… Kane is…”
Terri ‘s lips turned up, and Angeline went into a rage.
“Why are you smiling?” Angeline demanded. “If it’s true, then…”
Terri caught Angeline’s wrist in her hands. Her hold was strong, and Angeline saw no point in struggling.
“Honey, relax,” Terri said.
Angeline felt Terri’s hands, but her friend’s words made no sense. Kane was not free, could never be free. If he was, if somehow he had transcended near death, he would have wasted no time getting back to her.
“Is this a trick?” Angeline asked. Terri loved to joke. Angeline had even played along when Terri told Eli that triplets were in their future. Eli nearly collapsed, but Angeline held him steady and smiled.
Now Terri pulled back and swiftly shook her head.
“I’m not, playing,” Terri swore. “But I… I just thought you…”
Again Kerry pressed her phone to Angeline’s face. And there was Kane and the reality of his release. But Noel had painted a very different picture. So…
“No,” Angeline said. “It can’t be true.”
She wanted nothing more than for this strange turn of events to be her new reality, but her heart fell. Taking hold of the phone, Angeline stroked the image of Kane’s face. Even through the screen, her body tingled at just the sight of him, and she nearly gave over to the possibility of getting him back.
But why would Noel lie?
“It’s a hoax or something,” Angeline said as she turned the phone to the table and pushed it back to Terri.
“Angeline—”
“I know what I know,” Angeline said as she started to pick at her food. Terri watched her for a long second before taking her hands.
“His boss,” Terri said. “Or whatever. What really happened with him?”
Just thinking about it made Angeline sick.
***
Noel White laid her out on the bed and straddled her weak, whimpering form. Angeline had been too spent, too sad to even try to fight back. She just took it and tried to pretend that he was Kane, finally returned to her. But Kane never touched her, never would have touched her like this. Angeline could have been anyone as he released inside her.
But then it went beyond the climax.
As soon as he was finished, Noel pulled out and zipped up. Laying a cruel kiss on her brow, running his hands through her curls, he finally patted her cheek as he started for the door.
“Sorry, babe,” Noel said. “Really.”
Straining up on her elbows, Angeline watched his hand coil around the doorknob. She felt filthy, wanted him to just go. But then he glanced over his shoulder and cocked his head to the side.
“If you’re ever lonely again,” Noel said, “You know where to find me.”
He started back into the room, and Angeline hurried towards her pillows, wrapping the quilt around the body he had defiled.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t touch me again.”
Ignoring her, Noel lowered his body to the edge of the bed. He reached for her face, and Angeline sobbed as his finger worked its way around her eyes. Now that it was sinking in, the loss of Kane, the truth of what she had done, what she had let Noel do, Angeline swore to herself that she would fight if he tried it a second time.
“I’ll bite it off and spit in your face if you try to touch me again.”
Wherever Kane was now, he would be proud.
With a grunt, Noel tapped her cheek, and his touch lingered around her hair. He moved closer, inhaled her scent before he backed off and headed towards the door.
“I kind of get what he saw in you,” Noel said as he stood framed by the open doorway. Shaking his head sadly, he peered into her eyes.
“Such a shame,” Noel said. “But life goes on, right?’
Angeline couldn’t breathe until he was gone. Slowly, she moved to the front window and relaxed when she saw his bike gone. But as she brought her hand between her bruised thighs, touched her swollen flesh, Angeline knew that she was ruined in every way. Maybe it was better that Kane couldn’t see her like this.
***
“Holy shit!”
Terri’s voice pierced through Angeline’s waking nightmare, and she stared into her friend’s face.
“What—?”
“Angeline, that tool played you,” Terri continued. “Set you up like a leaf in the wind just hoping that you’d go quietly.”
Considering the words carefully, Angeline realized that she had never even allowed herself to imagine the possibility. Kane had sworn that Noel was his friend. And he had told her that he’d have eyes on the outside looking after her.
Did he mean Noel’s eyes? Did Kane know what he would do with them?
“Check, please.”
Angeline paid the bill and hauled her friend to her feet. As they entered the car, Angeline knew where she was going. And she had to get there fast.