Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 80342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
DERRICK
I was on my lunch break and just about to call the house to check up on my girls. Lauren had been acting more like her old self lately, and I was beginning to relax a little. Jenny hadn’t been mentioned in a while, and I was sure we were finally getting back on track and that whatever had flipped Lauren’s switch had been taken care of.
I’d even heard her humming to herself this morning as she moved around the nursery, tidying it up. We have a service that comes in five days a week, so there’s not that much for her to do but take care of the kids, and if she wants to run an errand, there’s always Ms. Cummings.
The holiday was only two days away, and my family was planning to gather at our house early Thanksgiving day so that the women could cook together in the massive restaurant-style kitchen. Lauren seemed to be looking forward to her first Thanksgiving in our family home, and I could see a little bit of the spark I was accustomed to in her.
I didn’t understand what I was hearing when I first took my phone from my desk drawer where I kept it. Then I remembered that I’d gotten into the habit of leaving the sound on, on the nanny cam in the twins’ room.
Why were they bawling like that? I brought up the live view and had to blink twice. “Listen to me, Lauren, these are your beautiful babies. You love them; you will never hurt them, no look at me.” I stood there half in shock half in disbelief as what she was saying started to compute, and then I saw the knife and took off running.
“Hold all my calls!” I think that’s what I yelled to my secretary as I took off running for the door with my heart in my lungs. I felt cold all over like a sudden chill was coming on.
I don’t remember putting the key in the ignition in the Rover, or stepping on the gas. I don’t even remember driving to the house or how long it took me to get there; I think I’d shut down everything.
I slammed out of the Rover, leaving it running and the driver’s side door open and hit the door running. Up the stairs and down the hallway into the nursery. It felt like it had taken me a lifetime to get here, but I knew that I’d gotten here much faster than the fifteen minutes it usually takes because they were still standing in pretty much the same position they had been when I saw them through the screen.
Lauren took one look at me and took off running. I took off after her after one look at Jenny to make sure she was okay. There were tears in her eyes, but other than that, she seemed fine. And the look in her eyes. It was the most emotion I’d seen in her since I came back.
Derrick
Everything happened so fast it was like a blur. One minute I was running outside after Lauren, who still had the knife in her hand, and the next she was in the Rover gunning for me. I heard the wild maniacal laugh just as I tried to jump out of the way.
Too late, I felt searing pain shoot through me as the engine revved again. I thought for sure that she was going to reverse and drive over me again, but then Jenny came out on the steps, and for whatever reason, that made Lauren reverse down the driveway until she could turn around.
Jenny came rushing over to my side. “Don’t move Derrick, let me call an ambulance, you have a pretty nasty cut on your head.” I felt my head, and my hand came away sticky with blood as Jenny reached into her purse for her phone.
I listened as she called nine-one-one and then had the presence of mine to pull my own phone from my pocket to call mom and dad. I just remember telling mom to get here seconds before I passed out.
I woke up in the hospital groggy and incoherent. I saw mom and dad through the dull blindness brought on by the overhead lights as memory came back my heart rate spiked. “Where are the girls?” My voice didn’t sound like my own as I struggled to get out of the narrow hospital bed.
“No, son, you might have a concussion, stay still, the girls are fine, they’re with Jenny.” It felt almost surreal, like none of this was really happening, and I would wake up any second and laugh at the crazy dream I was having. Is it even possible for life to unravel this spectacularly without warning?
“Lauren, where’s Lauren?” Mom’s pinch lip frown told the story of how she was feeling and also dashed any hopes of this being a twisted nightmare. I can’t say that I blame her, but Lauren is still my wife, still the mother of my children. My head hurt and throbbed like they were drunken rabbits running around inside it.