A Promised Fate (20 page)

Ava arched her back in a stretch and I slipped my
pinned arm out from underneath her. She peeled her legs from mine
and my thigh felt as though its tender skin was being pulled away
from a leather car seat on a hot summer day.

Ava rolled onto a pillow, kicked more blankets away
from her body and went straight back to sleep.

“Ava?” Disappointed, I nudged her again, but got no
response.

My lips brushed the top of Max’s head and I rolled
with him to my side, easing him to the mattress beside Ava. He went
willingly, probably just as hot as the two of us, and embraced the
dry and unused pillow beside me.

Staring straight ahead at the dark ceiling above me,
I tried to examine and thus dismiss what I had seen in the
nightmare, to find some other excuse for what I had done. I had
given my life to the sea but as soon as my body started to die and
it was too late to save my own life, I uncovered the will to fight.
The regret over what I had done was unbearably fierce.

My head spun, the room felt like a tilt-a-whirl ride.
My vision blurred and a dizzying nausea hit me like a ton of
bricks. Bitter bile tossed up by my stomach burned when the fluid
shot up my esophagus. I kicked at the sheet in desperation to free
my tangled foot, ran down the hall to the guest bathroom and shoved
my head face first into the toilet. The sick sound of half-digested
hotdog chunks splashing into the toilet water only made me puke
more violently. A new tidal wave of sweat stung my pores and in
between my gags, I pulled the wet shirt from my back. My fingers
clung to the edge of the bowl and I emptied my stomach completely.
Swear words muttered from my lips between my heaving, spewing and
panting.

“
God damn it.”
I cursed and spit mustard
flavored stomach acid from my mouth.
“Shit.”

“Watch your language!”

Moaning, I pushed my hot sticky back against the
smooth, cool bathtub, bringing my knees to my chest, my elbows to
my knees, then buried my face in my hands between my legs.

My father kicked the lid down on the toilet and
flushed. He grabbed a hand towel, ran it under the sink faucet and
dropped it on the back of my bare neck. The first contact with the
cold terry cloth on my skin was a shock to my system. My nerves
shuttered and gave a jolt, then relaxed as the cool sensation
brought down my body temperature.

“What are you doing up?” I coughed.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Isn’t it obvious? I am puking my damn guts out.”

“Again with the language. What’s your deal?”

“What do you want?” I was too sick and annoyed to put
up with being chastised.

“I thought I’d come in here to help you out, but I'm
starting to regret my decision.” My dad smeared a glob of
toothpaste onto a brush. He stuck his hand out, helped me to my
feet and handed the toothbrush over to me. I shoved the bristles
into my mouth greedily and scrubbed the nasty grit from my tongue
and the back of my teeth.

“Was it something you ate?”

“Next time remind me that I don’t like hotdogs, would
you?”

“I think that is what your mother was trying to
do.”

I nodded then turned the faucet back on, spitting
toothpaste and grime into the sink. Sucking water from the faucet,
the cool liquid soothed my burning throat. My stomach protested at
being filled again and I gagged.

“Take it easy,” my dad warned and he turned the
faucet off. “You'll just throw it back up.”

The bathroom door handle turned and my father jumped
to the side and shoved his palm against the wooden panel, keeping
the door from being opened by whoever was on the other side.

“Oh. Andy?” A mouse-like voice called from beyond the
bathroom door and my father tugged at the handle, opening it only a
crack.

“I’ll be back out in a sec,” he said quickly and
quietly.

“Uh … I think I’m just going to head home now.”

“I’ll see you out, then,” he said to Julia and then
turned to speak to me. “We can have a talk in my office, Ari.”

I blinked in complete shock at sound of Julia’s
voice.

For the first time that late night -- or early
morning -- I looked down at my watch to check the time. I hadn’t
removed my watch that evening as I usually do because Ava and I had
been up for hours fighting in my old bedroom at my parent’s house.
I had accused her again about keeping something from me. I yelled
and blamed her for what was happening. She vehemently denied
keeping secrets but I wouldn’t let the topic rest. Eventually, she
turned away from me and closed her eyes, and I crashed right after,
without brushing my teeth, washing my face or removing the watch.
We made up in our sleep by curling our bodies together and
snuggling close. Later, we were joined in bed by Max who stumbled
down the hall in a sleepy state from the guest room. After all
that, then my nightmare and then the toilet full of hotdog vomit,
it was only three a.m. and Julia and my father were awake together
in the middle of the night.

****

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

Julia responded with a head nod. The two of them, she
and my father, stood close together at the back door in complete
darkness.

“You’re welcome to stay the night, you know that,
right?” He talked in whispers near her ear.

“I know. Rory will wonder where I am if I don’t go. I
can’t keep lying.”

“Be safe. The others are still near, don’t let anyone
see you.”

“I’ll stay down by the water.”

My dad wrapped his arms around Julia and brought her
to his chest in a hug. Her shoulders fell and her knees sagged as
she caved in toward him and cried. Julia’s hands clenched fistfuls
of my dad’s shirt.

“I hate this,” she sobbed. “I hate what we are doing.
I hate who we’ve become.”

“Me too,” he whispered back and laid a kiss on the
top of her head.

Julia looked up over his shoulder and saw me staring
at them from across the dimly lit room. Her eyes flashed, her grip
immediately loosened, and she let go of him. She wiped her face dry
and squeezed my father’s hand then disappeared in to the black
night, pulling the hood from a black sweatshirt over her head.

My dad turned coolly around, nodded his head at me
and then in the direction of the back hall towards his office.

A small pile of legal folders sat to the side of one
open file containing a fat stack of documents. The tab was marked
with a small x circled in black marker. My father closed the folder
and placed it on top of the others with a heavy sigh.

“I was working before she came by.”

“It’s three in the morning.”

“I am aware of the hour, thank you, Ari.” He shoved
his palms into his eye sockets and rubbed his eyes, then raked his
fingers through his hair.

“What was Julia doing here?”

“She came by to talk.” Slowly he spun his wedding
band around his finger.

“Bullshit. Tell me what’s wrong. What are you two
doing?”

“How is Ava?” He changed the subject on me. “Did she
speak with Dr. Phillips?”

“It’s really none of your business.”

The skin around his eyes pulled into crowfeet like
wrinkles. He rubbed the scruff on his cheek and gave me a cloudy
answer, “You don’t need to concern yourself with Julia, you’ve got
your own issues to deal with.”

“Is she in trouble?”

“She has me in her corner. I plan to help her
navigate this path.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you have your own life and your focus
should be on Ava and Max. Not Julia.” He tried to force a
reassuring smile up his lips, but the look wasn’t convincing. “How
is Ava dealing with the break-in that happened today? Is she okay?”
He changed the subject back to Ava again and I allowed it.

“I’m not sure. I know she’s upset but I can’t help
but feel as if she is keeping something from me. What happened
today wasn’t a normal vandalism. This was vicious and cruel. Every
photo of Ava and me was ripped in two -- right down the middle. It
was a message. She has to be keeping something from me. She has to
know something.”

“What could she know that you wouldn’t? Ava wouldn’t
keep things from you.”

“No. 8! No 9! No 23!” I yelled in a half whisper as a
spasm of panic took over me. “Whatever kind of name she wants to
give these, these demons. She knows someone is out there hunting
her and she isn’t telling us.”

“There were seven Kakos, Ari, no more. Ava wouldn’t a
keep a secret like that -- not anymore. Not with a baby and Max to
worry about. You need to put your trust in her.” He exhaled and
released a puff of breath from his pressed lips and then looked
down on me with pity and with sorry eyes. “Perhaps the detective
was right, maybe this act was done by someone with a passion … an
obsession.” He looked back at me, straight in my eyes as if he were
telling me something.

“An obsession?”

“Yes.”

“Some crazed person, obsessed with Ava, walked into
our home just to rip up our pictures. I don’t believe it.”

“Maybe you've stated the situation inaccurately.” He
spun his ring again.

I pushed up from the chair with clenched fists and a
tight jaw. Nausea churned and made my head spin again and I turned
away from him and left his office.

Back in the bedroom, I stumbled in the dark on our
overnight bag, which had been blocking the air-conditioner vent and
when I did, a cool rush of air shot up from the opening with a
hiss.

Max had spread completely out with his arms and legs
taking up the majority of my side of the bed. Ava was curled up and
facing him, leaving me with the other side of the mattress, the
side no one ever slept on. I snuck carefully onto the bed, trying
my best not wake the two people I love the very most in the
universe and I curled up with Ava, spooning her. My arm draped
lightly across her body where my hand rested on her belly. Ava
sighed in her sleep and inched back, pressing her body into my
chest. I rubbed my face into her hair and silently thanked God for
bringing her to me. I prayed for her and for Max and for the three
of us until I fell into a dreamless sleep.

Bright sunlight blinded my already blurred vision. I
rolled my face into a pillow and searched the bed for Ava with my
fingers then moaned when I found that I was alone.

A peal of Max’s laughter echoed down the hall,
followed by the smacking of his bare feet against the floors and
then my sister calling after him, begging him to slow down and be
quiet.

“Max, no!” she pleaded but the bedroom door flew open
anyway and he came barreling into the room and leaped onto me in
the bed.

“
Ow
!” I groaned when his knee flew into my
stomach.

“Sorry! I tried to stop him but he’s a spoiled little
monster and doesn’t know how to listen to me when I tell him not to
do something!”

“He’s fine,” I groaned again. Max’s happy smile was
worth the discomfort and I let him torture me with his tickling,
fast moving and sticky fingers.

Lauren leaned in the doorway on her shoulder and
crossed her hands over her chest.

“Everything alright?” My eyesight was still blurred
and my glasses were next door at home and probably shattered along
with everything else in the house. I could only focus my vision by
forcing one eye completely shut and relying solely on the other for
sight.

“No,” she said with attitude. “Everything is not
alright. When are you going to wake up?”

“What time is it?” I felt around the covers for my
phone, but with all the tossing and turning that had gone on
between the three of us the night before, my phone was likely lost
somewhere deep and dark in the king-sized bed, sheets and
blankets.

“Ten o’clock!” She huffed.

“What the heck!” I shot up and Max went flying from
my chest and landed on a stack of piled up pillows. “Why did you
guys let me sleep in this late? You cannot be serious! I had to be
at work at eight! Holy hell. Where’s Ava?”

“She’s working on something with Dad for the
foundation fundraiser. They had a meeting this morning. Ava didn’t
want anyone waking you. She said you needed to stay home and rest.
She called your work first thing this morning and told them you
would not be in and not to call you all day. Meanwhile, I have been
watching
him
all morning
again
today when I should be
over at my friend Mandy’s house with all of my other friends, lying
out by her pool while her mom makes us virgin daiquiris. But no!
Here I am with cuts all over my hands from picking broken glass out
of
your
rug and a queasy stomach from cleaning a toilet with
puke stains in it! I totally hate you right now, Ari.”

“I’m gonna tell Mom you said the
H
word.” I
teased. “Hate” is a word that has always been forbidden from our
parent’s home and the use of it could land us in up to a week of
horrible chores like cleaning toilets or vacuuming sand out of the
crevices on the sun porch.

“Go ahead and tell her whatever you want – she cannot
possibly punish me any more today. Thanks to
me
, your house
is clean now. You two,” She pointed to Max and me, “are free to
head home whenever … the sooner the better.”

“Why did
you
clean it?” I had grown beyond
annoyed with my sister.

She shuffled from foot to foot and flopped down on
the bed beside Max. “I got caught sneaking out last night,” she
admitted. “Helping you and watching him are only a few of my
punishments.” Her eyes looked anywhere but at me.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Shut up.” She threw a pillow at me and Max laughed,
hopped off the bed and flew down the hall in search of something or
someone else to entertain him.

“I’m serious,” I pushed myself into a sitting
position and found my cell phone switched to silent mode, resting
on the bedside table with the charger attached, all thanks to Ava.
“Don’t sneak out anymore, Lo, it’s dangerous. I never -- not one
time -- ever snuck out of the house.”