A Tough Moment

Chapter Twenty Two

After what felt like an age, Georgia eventually calmed down. I had never seen her this devastated. She wouldn't stop crying.

"We can go and see Grandad later if you want?" I offered.

Even though she hadn't met my Father yet, they regularly spoke on the phone and he'd been dying to meet her. She nodded slowly and smiled happily.

"That's better, now why don't you go and fetch your hairbands and I'll do your hair." I suggested.

She nodded and quickly ran out of the room.

"I'm sorry she was rude to you, she's just a bit upset." I told Caleb.

"It's okay, I understand." he said quietly.

We both jumped as Caleb's mobile started ringing.

"It's Ethan." he said quietly as he stared at the screen.

"Give it to me." I said quickly, holding out my hand.

"But..." he started.

"I said give me the phone." I stated sternly.

He sighed and handed it to me.

"Ethan!" I exclaimed when I answered the phone.

"Oh hi." he said sounding surprised.

"I've been trying to call you." I told him.

"Yeah." he replied.

"So are you coming home?" I asked hopefully.

"No, I rang to ask if I could take Georgia out for the day." he asked.

"Yeah of course you can." I sighed, slightly disappointed.

"Great, we need to talk later as well." he said.

I fell silent, my brain spinning as I wondered what he wanted to talk about. Knowing how things had been lately it couldn't be anything good.

"I'll be over in about an hour." he said quietly.

"Fine." I said shortly and quickly hung up the phone.

"What did he want?" Caleb asked, as soon as I hung up.

"He's coming over to see Georgia." I said quietly.

"Oh well, at least he's making the effort to see her, I'm sure she'll be happy to see him." he stated.

"Yeah and apparently he wants to talk." I sighed.

"About what?" he frowned.

"He didn't say, so I guess I'll have to wait and see." I muttered.

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I quickly hung up the phone and smiled slightly, I hadn't spoken to my Dad in a while, so it was nice to hear his voice again. Even with everything that was going on, I was still excited for him to meet Georgia, but I was a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to meet Ethan. After all we weren't a family anymore. Dad hadn't been able to afford to fly over to see us, and I'd only been back to England once since we left, during which time Ethan had stayed in Florida with Georgia.

"When are you seeing your Dad?" Caleb asked. I knew that he was trying to break the uncomfortable silence, as I sat and stewed about what Ethan could possibly want to talk about.

"I'm taking Georgia to meet him tomorrow." I answered.

"You haven't seen him for a while have you?" he asked.

"About a year." I told him.

"Huh?" he frowned. My heart stopped for a moment when I realised that Caleb didn't know that I came back to England. It was back when he wasn't talking to us.

"I saw him last year." I sighed.

"I didn't realise you came back." he said quietly.

"Yeah I went to Stuart's funeral." I muttered.

"What, Stuart is dead?!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, I forgot you didn't know that." I sighed.

"What happened?" he breathed.

"He killed himself." I answered quickly.

"Oh my god." he whispered.

"Yeah well I guess he couldn't cope with finding out that Mum was murdered by our sister." I explained.

"Plus it probably didn't help that I moved away, he had no support system." I added.

"You can't blame yourself, if he was having problems then he should have told you." he pointed out.

"That's what Ethan said." I said quietly.

He sighed and looked away from me as soon as I mentioned Ethan.

"I think he's back." he muttered, when he heard the door close.

I nodded and remained seated. Even though I wanted to find out what he needed to say to me, I was terrified of what it could possibly be.

"Hey." Ethan said as he entered the room, holding tightly to Georgia's hand.

"Hi." I said awkwardly.

"Is it okay for us to talk?" he asked nervously.

"I guess so." I muttered.

My eyes darted to his hand as I saw that he was holding an envelope. My heart pounded against my chest as I stood up and followed him into the hallway. I stood on the staircase and watched as he stood opposite me and handed me the envelope.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Open it." he said quietly.

"No tell me what it is." I pleaded.

"Divorce papers." he stated quietly.

I felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest. All the hope that I was clinging to that maybe we could fix things had suddenly vanished. My legs buckled as I lost all my strength. He quickly reached out and held my elbow, to prevent me from falling.

"You can't do this." I whispered, my voice breaking slightly.

"I thought we were going back to Florida?" I added.

"I've cancelled the rent on the house, and I've got my job back at Holby, so I'll be able to support you and Georgia." he told me.

"I don't want your money!" I snapped.
"Please don't make this difficult, we need to remain amicable." he said gently.

"Ethan I'll do anything, please don't leave me." I whispered, as I moved my face close to his. Our lips were mere inches apart, I could feel his warm breath on my face. I gently brushed my lips against his and closed my eyes. This was so familiar to me that I found myself finally relaxing. My heart sunk as he slowly pulled away. Warm tears rolled down my cheeks as I gazed into his eyes. He sighed and gently brushed them away.

"Please don't cry." he whispered sadly.
"Where's your ring?!" I exclaimed when I noticed his bare hand.

"I took it off." he whispered.

I thought that he couldn't possibly hurt me anymore but I was wrong. I'd lost the love of my life, and no matter what I said or did he wasn't coming back to me.

"I guess you should go then." I said bluntly, as I walked upstairs and slammed my bedroom door.