The Unexpected Nanny

15- Saving a life

It's been a little over two months since Harlow passed away, and when Gabriella sked Antonio if Sadie was going to be her new mommy. He thought about her question often, and never responded to her about it, not know what to tell her, without hurting their feelings, or getting them excited for something that wasn't true. He already lied to Ethan, and felt guilty about that, but he couldn't lie to his little girls, especially something like that.

Each day without Harlow had been a challenge for him, he had been trying to go on with life without her, and couldn't stop thinking to himself about how to go on without her. Everything he did, reminded him of her, with her clothes still in the room smelling like her, when he laid in bed, he couldn't sleep from seeing the empty spot next to where he slept, it was becoming too much for him. After eight years of being together, and loving someone so much to where you thought you would be together forever, was killing him more and more each day without her.

Every time he looked at his daughters, all he could see was Harlow, and they were spitting images of her, hurting him even more. He began avoiding them, trying to stop the pain, he even avoided Sadie. Every day he would drive around for hours, go to parks and sit in his vehicle staring off into nowhere, and would even stay at work later just to avoid seeing everyone when he got home.

Antonio also visited her grave nearly every day, after his latest visit with her, he was at his wits end and not thinking clearly, he drove to a sporting goods store, and walked inside looking at various handguns. Seeing one he liked, he showed them his permit to purchase, and purchased the handgun. On his way home, he kept looking over at the gun he had sitting on his passenger seat, wondering when, and where he was going to do it. When he got home, he quickly went into his office avoiding Sadie and the girls.

He placed the handgun in the bottom drawer of his desk, and pulled out pictures of Harlow placing them on top of the desk for him to see. He pulled out a bottle of bourbon, and poured himself a drink. As he sat in his chair with the drink in his hand, he stared at her pictures for the longest time, then closed his eyes remembering when they met, where they met, and all the trips they took together. He began remembering some of their biggest fights, and her last days there on earth with him. He was still hating himself for not being there at the time, and trying to save her life.

Sadie was outside with the girls, and looked at the time, figuring it was time for their nap. She brought them inside and headed upstairs to lay them down.

She went back down the stairs, and was about to pick up their toys when she noticed Antonio's office door was closed. Seeing that it was closed, she knew he was home, and decided to go talk to him, wanting to give Antonio a piece of her mind.

She was fed up with him ignoring his kids, and doing everything possible to never be home. She was surprised he was home, and walked up to the door, taking a deep breath before barging in without knocking.

Her stomach dropped as she opened the door, taking one step in, shocked to see Antonio holding a gun to his head. "Antonio! Stop! What are you doing?" she screamed, running over to him, and trying to carefully pull the gun out of his hand.

Sadie finally got the gun out of his hand, and stepped back away from him, her heart was pounding hard, and her hand was shaking wildly, afraid to drop the gun, and have it go off. "I can't do this anymore." he sobbed, reaching for the gun she was able to get out of his hands.

"You can't do what? You do realize that you have two beautiful girls that lost their mother, and now you want them to lose their father too? What are you thinking?" she yelled. She looked over at Harlow's pictures that were placed in front of him, on his desk.

"Is this really the answer?" she asked loudly, and wide eyed. She grabbed one of Harlow's pictures, and held it in front of him. "Look at her! Is this what she would have wanted?" Sadie snapped. She turned half way and noticed a picture of his little girls on the corner of his desk, she reached over and grabbed the picture, placing it inches away from his face.