Gregory Cambell was feeling uneasy, he had spoken to Beth about what happened and she couldn't wait for "the drama to unfold" her words had made him realize that there was no turning back from this. He wasn't very eager to leave, he loved Beth but he also loved being with his kids. He had talked to Beth about having kid, but had not been too keen to have the conversation, said she had issues having them. He had not pressed on the matter.
Sometimes he would wish his life wasn't as messed up as it was, he should have come clean with Caitlynn the moment he started to grow feelings for Beth. More than a wife, Caitlynn was his only friend, he could never forget how she had stood up to the bullies and went up to any extend to make him smile. He was having a bad feeling that something was about to go wrong when this trip was over. The more he thought about Caitlynn and the kids the more he didn't want this trip to end. He wasn't sure how were they going to sit down with the kids and tell them that they are going to get separated. Heck he wasn't sure if he would have asked for a divorce if she wouldn't have found it in his study.
He knew Caitlynn's anger had not subsided. What happened the previous night was just a tip of the iceberg. He had known her his whole life and he had seen her change from a reckless teenager to a responsible mother.
If Violet, Matthew and Ian knew the real Caitlynn Clark, they would know that she was full of life, no one really knew how rogue she was from the inside, but some thing changed in her since her parents passed away, she started becoming extra cautious about what people thought and said, Gregory's parents Heather and Eric loved her like their own but she never felt like home, only Gregory knew and saw what Caitlynn really was capable off. He was the only sane thing that kept her from running away from his house. She never liked people sympathizing over her situation and acting like they knew what it felt like to lose both parent felt like, but she never spoke a word against anyone. Slowly she shut herself off from everyone at school and in the town. The first gossip that people got against her was her being pregnant. They couldn't believe how the goody-two-shoes-Caitlynn could get recklessly pregnant. But for Caitlynn, carrying a child had turned her life around. She was scared and excited at the same time. Scared thinking now whatever she did effected her child and excited because she was finally going to have someone who she could call her own.
Caitlynn became a perfect mother, who woke up before the kids, started the day with coffee and gets the laundry going, made breakfast and got their lunch bags sorted, woke up the kids, gave them a bath made them wear their neat cloths and got them ready for the day. The drive to their school were filled with advises on how important it was to chose the right friends and to never let anyone bully them and they tell her about the things that happened at school. After school Violet had Ballet classes and Matthew had his Karate Classes. Ian had his play group during the day and then he had his swimming classes. She would be done making dinner by the time it was time to pick them up from their respective classes. Both Violet and Matthew would be done with their homework before dinner time and they slept by eight. And that was the time when Caitlynn would sit down with her laptop and work on her books. She wrote self help books, she was modest about her writing, Gregory had said that she didn't have what it takes to be a good writer. It broke her heart, writing was all she did her entire life. His words had broke her and she had given up writing for a very long time. It was only after Matthew was born that one day she happened to get a call from a publisher saying they had read her blog and asked if she could write a book for them. And within a month she met with a publisher and they had liked her work and signed the contract. She insisted that it gets published under a pen name, Tiffany Clark.
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The last time Caitlynn and Gregory took a road trip was when their daughter, Violet was three years old. She had been easiest to deal with and slept through the whole eight hour trip they took. Usually Caitlynn and Gregory took turns to drive. When she drove, Gregory would sleep and that gave her time to listen to her favourite song rather than the Jazz music which Gregory preferred and while he drove Caitlynn never slept, like a partner she would stay awake and speak about everything under the sun to keep him from getting sleepy or tired.
Caitlynn was more in love with driving than Gregory, for her driving was more like a therapy rather than a necessity. The only time she did not think about the million things to be done or organized and purely enjoyed the way the it felt to have the absolute power over something. And that day out of all the other day she really wanted to drive but Gregory thought she was too disturbed to be driving safely. She had rolled her eyes and went along, mainly because the car they had taken was rented and she didn't want to start a fight in front of the kids, besides she was too tired of pretended like everything was just peachy!
Caitlynn hardly kept in touch with her friends, she had no one to talk to, somewhere down the line she had stopped living for herself and started taking care of their three kids and juggling between house work and writing books she had no time for the outside world. She would bump into a few known faces when she went for grocery shopping but that's just about it, she never promised her friends forever and they never bothered to catch up with her. She had never been part of a group, it had always been Gregory and Caitlynn.
But now, her life was falling apart and she didn't knew what went wrong with them. She knew his heart didn't belong to her, but that she had known for quite a while and the kids were the only reason why he stayed this long. Now that she was going to be alone she really wasn't sure if she could do it on her own. She wanted to curl in a corner with a bucket of her Belgium chocolate chip fudge ice-cream and drown her sorrow by read a decent book. What does one have to do get some alone-time around here!
Violet, Matthew and Ian were sleeping in their seats and even though Violet had swore she was going to stay awake for the whole trip she dozed off an hour into the journey. Caitlynn smiled for the first time in that trip. The only good thing about this trip was that she had decided to the kids along. Her heart ached seeing her three kids. How was she going to up bring all three of them alone? Violet was ten, Matthew was seven and little Ian was almost two. The kids loved their father and he loved them back she was sure, he was always the fun person and Caitlynn was the stiff mother who disciplined them and kept them from burning down the house.
Caitlynn had discussed with her kids about the upcoming trip and planned everything on her own but forgot to check with him if he was going to divorce her over their tenth year anniversary. She closed her eyes hoping that when she opened them, all this was just part of a horrible nightmare and that she was still loved and appreciated by her partner. Her eyes jolted open when she felt the car was gaining speed. She looked at him and he looked worried and looked at the speedometer of the car, the car was not reducing its speed even when he applied break, she realized something was terribly wrong with the car.
"Is something wrong with the car or have you done something to it?" Caitlynn asked in frustration.
"I don't know! Something is wrong with the brakes! The car isn't slowing down." Gregory said looking horrified.
"Be careful there's a bend coming ahead!" she warned, Gregory turned the car and somehow they were saved.
"Caity, this doesn't look to good." Gregory feared, Caitlynn had tears in her eyes, was this going to be the end of them. They all were going to die.
"I'm sorry Caity, I didn't mean for this to happen, but I have to do this. I want to live!" Gregory said unlocking the door, he took one last look at the kids.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" Caitlynn yelled but Gregory opened the door and jumped off the moving car. The kids were awake and all three of them were crying. Caitlynn caught the wheels and tried to control the car, she didn't have time to think what Gregory had just done, she didn't have time to recover from the shock and pain he had just given her, the only thing on her mind was the safety of her babies, she feared its possibility, but she couldn't just sit there waiting for their doom. She sprung into action, she unbuckled and jumped into the driver's seat, she tried to apply the break but it was up to no avail. She saw another bend coming up, and if she remembered right there were two more coming up, the chances of survival was diminishing right in front of her eyes, but the sound of her kids voice wasn't allowing her to give up, she had never given up till date, she wasn't going to start now, even if it was the last thing she did on the face of this earth.
"Where's daddy?" Violet asked in horror. Caitlynn tried to focus on the road, tears clouding her eyes weren't helping. How could he do what he had just did was beyond her imagination. She wiped her tears and said.
"Momie's here guys, don't worry, daddy stepped out to get help."
"What does that supposed to mean? he stepped out?!" Violet snapped back.
"Means he jumped off. I saw him jump off. He looked at me before he ---" Matthew said slowly as though he couldn't believe what he had seen with his own eyes.
"Matt! Nothing of that sort happened, do you hear me! He loves all of you too much to just leave us like that, he went to get help. Help is on its way do you guys hear me. So stop freaking out!" Caitlynn said raising her voice so that the kids knew to stop talking. She couldn't imagine what was Matthew going through after he had witnessed.
At that moment she saw a car coming from the oncoming traffic, she mumbled a silent prayer and turned the car towards the left, the car hit a tree and halted. The airbag came in front of Caitlynn and she could feel the blood oozing from the side of her head. She was giving up, she didn't want to live anyway, her whole life flashed in front of her eyes, all the milestone she had achieved with Gregory. She could still hear the cries of her babies and also she heard someone call 911 for help. Caitlynn looked at the strangers, they were trying to get her out of the car, but her door was jammed into the tree.
"My kids!" she cried. "Please save my kids!" she pleaded, her eyes were getting heavy and she could feel the blood dripping from the side of her head.
"They are fine ma'am. Your kids are fine." the man assured, she could hear his friend talking to Violet and Matthew. Violet held on to Ian was calming him down.
"My husband.. please find.." saying that Caitlynn was feeling dizzy again, she could feel everything spin, she could hear the strangers panic and asking her about him, but she couldn't answer them, she tried to speak but no words came. They found her ID and started calling her name to keep her from losing conscious. she could hear them as clear as day but she couldn't respond. She was too tired, she didn't want to fight this, she felt like she was loosing grip of the last strand of hope in her life. She was thinking how could he jump off leaving them to their fate? Who was she living with her entire life? it couldn't be love if he could let his wife and his children to what could have been a tragic death. she didn't want to live. She was done fighting. Was there a point of living without love? How was she supposed to do this all alone?
'Stop thinking about him and think about you beautiful Violet and how prettier she's going to get with years. How sophisticated Matthew would be when he gets older. And Ian, being the youngest, he would always be blamed for all the wrong things at home. You are leaving all this for someone you think you loved all your life? Are you really giving up and leaving without seeing your kids graduate, your Vi telling you all about her first love and god forbid get her through her first heart break. Their graduation, them getting married and being a grandmother. Are you willing to give all of this up?'
The last thing Caitlynn heard was the sound of the ambulance getting closer.
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