Brandon
Glad that it was Friday, Brandon had arrived at work that morning, somewhat dreading to see Regina. He’d been both surprised and disappointed she never showed up or even called him back last night. Twice he’d almost given into the temptation of calling her. Even arguing with her would be better than going the whole night not seeing or speaking to her.
Mainly he’d dreaded seeing her today because he knew how badly it would hurt if she did or said nothing to try and rectify the situation. Clearly, she didn’t care enough to call him back last night, and he knew telling her to go to hell had a lot to do with it. He’d actually been disappointed when he realized she hadn’t come in to work today.
He thought of her anxiety issues. The possibility that maybe this fight and his telling her it was over could have made her lose it, had him calling her by noon. He’d put it off, telling himself she was fine and that she was probably just being melodramatic by not showing up today. Even he had considered staying put today—calling in sick—something he’d so rarely done in all his years in the Marines. He’d seriously considered it today, not to be melodramatic but because after tossing and turning nearly the entire night he’d been tired as shit this morning. He knew he’d be a zombie all day. The only thing that got him out of bed and to work was the possibility of seeing her.
Regina had ignored all his calls, but he left no messages. Even though a small part of him worried that she might not be well, an even bigger part was still pissed—pissed that she’d gone as far as calling Sofie to get the whole truth. It still burned him up that it’d taken one conversation with the sweet and fair Alex Moreno to trigger enough doubt or suspicion that she’d be acting like she did when she got home. One fucking conversation. She’d even flinched at his touch! It’d been such a huge blow—such a huge disappointment—he still couldn’t get over it, and he doubted he would any time soon.
He’d actually driven around his block twice after work, talking himself out of driving down to her place, because he could hardly stand going another minute without seeing or hearing from her.
Deciding he’d call her again, he frowned when the line beeped just as her line rang. He glanced at the screen on the off chance it might be her, but he didn’t recognize the number. He waited for her line to ring again, but it didn’t. Like all the other times, it went to voicemail. Then suddenly it hit him. The phone number on the screen was familiar, and he remembered Pat had his number. He glanced at the number on the screen and cursed himself for not saving her number that day.
Remembering why Pat had called him last time, he hit the answer button, dreading why she might be calling him again if this was her. “Hello?”
“Is Gina with you?” Pat asked a little too quickly—too panicked.
“No why?” he asked, turning left towards Regina’s place as his heart sped up.
“I’ve been calling her all day. So has Bell. She hasn’t returned our calls. None of us remember her saying if she was going into work today or not. She was fine last night when she left the hospital, but—”
“The hospital?” he asked, punching the numbers into the keyboard at the entrance of the closed gate of Regina’s community gate. “Is your dad sick again?”
Pat went quiet. “She didn’t tell you?”
“No,” he said, speeding towards her condo, the sheer panic spreading like fire “What happened?”
“Daddy had another heart attack last night,” she said, her trembling voice breaking. “Only this time he didn’t make it.”
It wasn’t until he was at Regina’s door that he realized he’d dropped the phone without so much as telling Pat he was sorry or even good-bye. To his enormous relief, the door wasn’t locked, but the relief was short lived. Her front room was ransacked. The sight of everything in it smashed including the mirror nearly stopped his heart.
He went cold when his eyes zeroed in on the empty wine bottle on the floor next to the big open chest in the corner. It looked as if it’d been rifled through.
I never got rid of the gun. It’s buried in there somewhere.
The instant it hit him he shot upstairs like a madman. “Regina!” he yelled out. Seeing how she’d trashed her room as well only panicked him further as he searched around frantically for her. “Baby, where are you?”