Chapter 22

Jeni

The delivery men took me into town and I was able to call an Uber to my apartment. The city was covered in snow, but life was slowly starting again. There was another storm predicted, but people looked like they needed to get out and stretch their legs before the next bout. Soon, I was back home in my cozy apartment. Before Dash, the apartment was my sanctuary; now it was a cold shell of a life I didn’t really want to lead anymore.

In order to ward off the sadness, the first thing I did after I set my things down was call Lydia and Gramps. Both of them had weathered the storm well and were worried about me. I alleviated their fears and tried to sound as cheerful as I could despite the circumstances. I promised I would be up the following weekend to see them and swore I wouldn’t attempt any more mountain climbing for a very long time. Lydia let out a great sigh of relief.

“Ah, the crazy nut’ll be on the hill the minute the snow melts,” my Gramps hollered out from the background.

“You better not be,” Lydia cautioned.

“I promise, I’m done climbing for a while.” I didn’t tell them about the fall and of course, I said nothing about Dash, but Lydia noticed I had a limp and looked at me suspiciously when I visited them.

I liked seeing them as it brought some normalcy back to my life, and since their house was so close, visiting them brought me back to Dash’s mountain. We were less than a mile from one another. When I visited, I was so tempted to drive to his cabin and just be where he was, but I knew even driving there would bring unwanted attention, so I basked in the thought of being near him, without ever… being near him.

Lydia and Gramps had their speculations about my injury and the time during the storm when I was mysteriously housed in an Airbnb on the hill. If they’d done their investigative work, which I didn’t put it past Lydia to do, they would have found the only Airbnb on the hill was booked that weekend, but we never spoke of that time and it was for the best.

I could hardly get through a day without crying. It wasn’t like I’d known Dash all that long, but there was a deep connection between us as if we were always destined to be together, like soul mates. What kind of God gave you a soul mate for only three days? The very thought of it usually had me weeping again. I wasn’t one to be so emotional and yet I was crying all the time.

It had been just over two months since my time with Dash, and I visited Gramps and Lydia every weekend. During that time, I did my research and discovered the deliverymen were right. Dash was, in fact, Dashell Frye the famous scientist and billionaire who’d discovered a drug to slow the effects of many cancers and was working hard on a cure. He was supposedly killed in a horrible car accident with his wife a year ago. I felt like a jerk for doubting him, and sadly, learning about his life made me love him even more. Now he was a hero trapped in the mountains having to live his life in solitude because he was being pursued by monsters fueled by greed and corruption.

I was obsessed with learning about the drug cartel. They were the organization behind the Halo epidemic and there was a lot of speculation around Dash’s childhood friend Mark Leviathan and his misuse of his big pharma company, which was rumored to be pressuring doctors to use a generic drug which was just Halo masked as a generic on their patients, causing widespread addiction both inside and outside of legitimate medicine.

I had a friend whose sister was addicted to Halo and several of my client’s parents used it, which was the reason why some of my clients were in foster care. It was a nasty epidemic that had to be stopped.

I wondered why they’d gone after Dash, but after doing my research it seemed that Dash knew Mark was involved with Halo, and at the time of Dash’s accident, Mark was trying to buy Dash’s company Rainseed out from under him and failed. From the looks of it, both of them were on the path to finding a cancer cure, but Mark got derailed into organized crime and Dash was the only one who could prove Mark’s involvement.

All the information just made me hurt more for Dash. This man who was supposed to be his friend was ruining both of our lives and countless others. In addition to my discovering Dash’s story, he gave me ten million dollars. It was too generous, but he insisted I take the money. Everything was arranged through his accountant. On top of that, Rainseed donated a million dollars to the Center where I worked. There was a huge ceremony to honor Rainseed’s contribution to the Center.

Our center helped both the rich and the very poorest of the city. In fact, most of our clients were homeless kids, kids in foster care, or kids whose parents were struggling. Only a very small percentage of my clients even had enough money for basic necessities, so Rainseed’s contribution and their commitment to an annual donation would greatly help those families who were struggling with poverty and children who needed therapeutic services, making Dash a hero, yet again. His legacy made me work even harder at my job, knowing the good my efforts would do for the community we served.

At the ceremony, I met Gloria Frye, Dash’s sister. I wanted to reach out to her so badly and get to know her. She seemed like someone who I’d get along with, but I had to keep Dash’s secret safe, so I shook her hand and listened to her speech while my insides crumbled to pieces.

The worst thing about leaving Dash was I was very sick every day. Since coming down from the mountain I was vomiting every morning. I’d get to lunch, have something light as I wasn’t really interested in eating anything and get home and vomit again. I assumed all the vomiting was because I was depressed, however, when I visited Lydia and Gramps that weekend, Lydia pulled me aside for a private conversation while Gramps napped.

“Honey,” she said as she sat me down with a plate full of fresh banana bread she’d just baked, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something. Now, I don’t want you to get offended or troubled by the question. You’re a grown woman with a good job and you’re a wonderful person who we’re very proud of, even though Gramps has a hard time showing it.” My heart raced, and I was feeling sick again. What on earth was she going to ask me? It sounded so serious.

I tried to play it all off like whatever she was going to ask wasn’t a big deal. “Sure, Lydia. What do you want to know?” I asked, taking a big bite of bread even though I wasn’t hungry, just so my mouth would be busy and I’d have time to think of an answer.

“Well, I’ve noticed you’ve been sick a lot since you’ve been up here, and I was just wondering if there was any chance you were with child?”

I nearly spit out the bread onto the counter.

I don’t know why I didn’t even think of it, but yes, there was a good chance I could be pregnant. I’d taken a birth control pill the day of the climb and I was with Dash for three days after that. The pill was probably effective for only one day.. Oh my god, was I carrying Dash’s child?

I’d had so many weird and unexpected changes to my body, I just assumed it was grief. I didn’t like Lydia’s pie anymore, which I always loved, however, I had a craving for sardines which I hated. She noticed those telltale signs and just put two and two together.

“Honestly, Lydia, I don’t know. I might be,” I lowered my head in shame.

Part of me was thrilled I could be pregnant with Dash’s child and the other part of me flooded with dread. I would have to be a single mother raising our child alone without a father. Not only would the baby not have a father physically present, but I wouldn’t even be able to tell him or her who the father was. I couldn’t even tell Dash.

All of it felt overwhelming and so, thanks to hormones, I collapsed into Lydia’s arms and cried.

“Good heavens, child! I was hoping this would be a good thing.” She was much more liberal and open-minded than I expected.

“What if I am pregnant, Lydia, what do I do?” I was being silly, I knew exactly what I’d do.

I’d raise the child. Certainly, Dash left me plenty of money; it was just too much for my poor brain to handle at the time.

“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” was Lydia’s sensible answer.

After crying on her shoulder for a while, she offered me some warm apple cider and I retired early for the night. The next day I went home. On my way home from work on Monday, I stopped by the drug store and picked up three pregnancy tests. I don’t know why I got three exactly, but I figured three times yes or no was pretty much all I needed either way.

That night I took all three tests and all three showed two tiny blue lines. I was definitely pregnant. The final proof was an enthusiastic “Congratulations!” from the nurse after I went to the doctor that week to confirm my pregnancy.

Again I cried… mostly happy tears. When I visited Lydia and Gramps again that weekend, I did the craziest thing I’d ever done in my life.