"Here." He's sitting at the bed when I hand him the letter that I gave him at the wedding. I can't believe we're having to open these already. I figured we wouldn't have to for awhile. "Can I just be alone for a minute please?" He asks with a touch of annoyance to his tone. "Okay." I put my hands up in surrender as I back away from him. "Read the letter." I walk to the other side of the bed and lay down. I settle in for sleep.
The next morning I find Blake sleeping on the couch. I see that he hasn't even bothered to open, let alone touch, the letter. It still remains in the same spot that I left it on the bed. Hopefully he's awake by the time I return from breakfast.
When I get back Blake is in the room packing his suit case. "What are you doing?" I ask. "Packing." He replies. "Why? Because of yesterday?" I ask.
"No. I got a called in a for meeting."
"So that's it? We just leave because you got a call?"
"Yeah."
"Is it really that important though?"
"Yeah."
"Well, you can't put it off awhile longer?"
"Not really. Look, you want to eat don't you? You want to keep living in that big ass house we live in? How else is it going to get paid for?"
"Whatever." I begin to pack my bags too. We get on a plane later that night. I spend most of the plane ride sleeping. We don't really talk the whole way home. A car picks us up at the airport. He tells the driver where to take him before he settles into his seat. The awkward silence continues. I need to break this fucking silence, it's killing me. "I take it you're still mad at me." I say as we sit in the backseat of the car. "No." He replies.
"Yeah. You're not talking to me with your simple ass replies."
"What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know? Say something."
"What the fuck do you want me to say, Aaliyah?" He says angrily. He stares at me coldly. "I fucking hate it when you bring up the past. In all honesty, that shit is ruining us. If you can't move forward from the past then how can you expect us to move forward in our relationship, our marriage. Do you know how much this shit fucking sucks to have to prove myself to you day in and day out. And what sucks even more is that it's just not enough for you. Like, what do you want Aaliyah? What more do you fucking want? This shit is draining me. If you can't accept me for my mistakes, my past. Then what the fuck are we doing?" I don't know what to say. It's crazy to me that he's even getting mad at me right now. But he's right. We pull up to his destination and he gets off. "I'll be home later tonight, I might crash at DJ's, I don't know. Whatever." He grabs his backpack and slams the car door hard as fuck.
After stopping to pick up Blaine from Desi's house we head home. "Mommy." Blaine calls to me. "Yes." I reply. "Where's daddy?" She asks. "He's at work, baby." I tell her. "I want to see Ford." She says. "Well, you have to wait for daddy to come home and you guys can go get him." I tell her. "Okay." She replies.
It gets late. It's already midnight and Blake isn't home yet. I need someone to talk to. I call my mom. I grab the phone and dial her number.
"Hello?" She answers.
"Mom."
"Heeyy, you're back already? What happened?"
"Uh, Blake had an important meeting. What are you doing?"
"Up late cleaning the house. How's my grandbaby?"
"She's good. We ate and watched Pixar movies all night. I just got her down a bit ago. She was fighting her sleep. Waiting for her dad to get home."
"It's midnight, why isn't he home yet?"
"Uh, we're fighting. He said he'd be home late or he might stay the night at DJ's."
"Wait, wait... What? It's that bad, he has to stay away? What's going on Aaliyah?"
"I don't know, we exchanged words the other night and I said some pretty harsh things. I brought up his past and he got mad." I continue to explain what all was said. "What do I do? He's sounding like he just wants to throw in the towel. Do we just give up?"
"No. You obviously love each other. You're married, you built a life together, and not only that, you have them babies involved. You two have a lot of growing up to do. You married him for a reason and for that same reason you should stay and fight for your marriage. I hate to say it Aaliyah, but he's right, how can you expect to move forward if you're living in the past? You do need to accept him and his mistakes. You're both going to make mistakes. What's done is done. There's no point in bringing it up. You need to move forward from all that."
"Yeah, you're right. I'll talk to him tomorrow. But for now I'm going to get some sleep. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Okay. Kisses to Blaine for me. And I love you both. Remember what I said."
"Okay. I love you too. Bye." The call ends. I focus on trying to get sleep but it's not easy, not when the spot on the other side of the bed is empty. Being pregnant doesn't make it any easier.
The next morning I wake up and do my usual routine with Blaine. Starting with breakfast then bath time, we head out to run a few errands. I take a moment to text Blake.
Me: where you at?
Half an hour later I finally receive a response.
BG: early practice and conditioning.
Me: can I stop by so we can talk?
BG: I'm pretty busy. It can't wait till after?
Me: no. I'm coming anyway.
I don't wait for a response. I head over to Desi's to ask if she'll watch Blaine while I stop in to see Blake.
After having a difficult time of persuading Blaine to stay with Desi and telling her I'm coming back, I finally head over to the Staples Center. I pull up to the parking building and find a spot to park. It's not a good parking spot but it'll have to do. Now for this long ass walk to the staples center. As I'm walking in the parking lot I see a group of girls. I see that one of them is Gia, the groupie who was supposedly pregnant for Blake awhile back ago. I walk past them, I only get so far when I hear Gia say something. "Hey." She stops me. She approaches me. "You're Blake's wife right?" She asks. "Yeah." I reply. "Well, you're kind of getting in the way of me and him. So, with that being said," she reaches behind me and grabs the back of my neck. I feel a sharp pain in my back. I touch my back where the pain is coming from, I feel an object protruding. "Here want it?" She rips the knife from my back. I scream in pain. She stabs me again and again. The excruciating pain from the wounds drops me to my knees. Everything gets blurry. "Let's go! Let's go!" I hear Gia shout. I hear her run past me. I'm in and out of consciousness. I come to and hear a woman screaming for help. Everything goes dark again. When I regain consciousness once more there are a group of people hovering over me. "E.M.T." Are the big white bold letters I read on their shirts. "Her eyes are open!" one shouts. "Ms., can you tell me your name?" Another asks. "Aaliyah." I weakly reply. "Just save my baby. Please. Save my baby." Everything goes dark again.
