I am awoken by the sound of my phone ringing, and I rub my eyes to clear the fogginess away. My phone was on silent, so it had to be someone on my favorites list. I reach to the side, and I am surprised to see the name Dr. Leslie Howard written across my phone. Answering the phone, I try to suppress a yawn.
“Hello?” I say sleepily.
“Carmen,” says a woman’s frantic voice. It is evident that she is crying. “Carmen, sweetie. You have to come home. It’s your dad.”
“What’s going on, Leslie?” I say in surprise. My mind races, and I instinctively know that Brad has done something. “Was he... poisoned, or something like that?”
“What? No, no. Sweetie... there was a fire. At your house. A really bad fire, and he was inside. I just got here in time. They took him to the hospital.”
“A fire?” I repeat in shock, bringing my hand to cover my lips. “Leslie, is he...”
“He was badly burned, sweetie. But I’m more worried about the smoke inhalation. You know his lungs and his heart aren’t that strong in the first place…”
My head is spinning and it’s difficult to concentrate on what Dr. Howard is saying.
Brad did this.
I know he did.
My mind clears enough that I can process that Leslie is crying softly and speaking in a frantic tone. “…since dinner the other night. We were just starting to find each other again. I haven’t felt this way about anyone since... since, oh god. I must sound like a stupid old fool.”
“I’m coming home, Leslie,” I tell her tearfully. “Please stay with my dad. Let him know he’s not alone. Tell him that I love him. And that Helen does too!”
“He knows, sweetie. He knows.”
Hanging up the phone, I press my palms into my eyes and try my best to avoid bawling like a baby. “Owen,” I say hoarsely, in a voice that is barely a squawk. “Owen.”
He doesn’t respond. I reach out to shake his shoulder gently.
“Owen? Please wake up.”
He groans at me in response, obviously still hung over.
“I need you, Owen. Please.”
Grunting, he turns away from me. “Five more minutes.”
I press both of my hands against my face, trying to keep my emotion from exploding in some kind of violent outburst. This is it. This is the only thing worse than a murdering rapist: a lazy man-child. Taking a deep breath, I climb off the bed and grab my purse and car keys. I don’t bother changing out of the pajama-dress I’ve been sleeping in as I stumble out of the bedroom. I move toward Helen’s door, and my hand is poised to knock when I pause.
No. I’m not going to drag her into this. He’ll hurt her too.
Turning on my heel and running to my car, I don’t even bother stopping to put shoes on. I don’t even remember jumping into the driver’s seat and starting the engine as I blasted back in the direction from which we came. I don’t even remember programming my home address into the GPS. I didn’t even bother to put my seatbelt on for at least thirty minutes, because my body was so tense that I couldn’t focus on anything other than driving. The frenzied beeping of my car finally reaches my brain and convinces me to grab the belt and fasten it.
Racing down the highway, everything is a blur. The cars speed by me, and they are all going backwards. I am crying uncontrollably, and I vaguely remember Helen’s description of how she felt right before she crashed.
But I am not my fucking sister.
Reaching into my purse, which sits in the passenger side of the car, I reach for my phone and dial Lauren. I must be driving a hundred and twenty miles per hour, but who really cares? Lauren answers, and I am so livid that I begin speaking before she can even say hello.
“I think the bastard just tried to kill my father. Tell me everything you found.”
Lauren pauses before speaking. “Okay, Carm. I’m so sorry, doll. Okay. So, the reason I couldn’t get anything is because his name isn’t actually Brad. I know you mentioned something about this to me a while back, but I never thought to look into it.”
“What did you find?” I demand, through gritted teeth.
“He’s not actually that smart, Carmen. I was having him followed, and I realized that the guys he was working with weren’t calling him Brad. They were calling him Branko, which I found out is a nickname for Branislav. He’s a wanted fugitive under his real name, Dmitri B. Petrov. Carmen, are you listening to this? He’s wanted by the FBI! For all kinds of things. Assault, robbery, rape, drugs, weapons, arson.”
“Arson?” I whisper.
“Yeah! I don’t know how he’s managed to get away with it all this time,” Lauren says. “All your work is done for you. We just have to turn him in. That should be easy, right?”
“Right,” I say softly. “But no. He just tried to burn my father alive, Lauren. I’m going to have to deal with him myself.”
“Carmen, no! What are you going to do? Carmen? What are you going to do!”
I hang up the phone and keep driving. At these speeds, it helps to have both hands on the wheel.
I drive for another half an hour before my phone rings. I expect it to be Brad, but it’s actually Owen. I think for a moment about what I’m going to say. I know that I can’t tell him the truth and risk involving him and my sister. I know that in order to protect him, I have to make him angry at me. So angry that he won’t want to see me or talk to me for a while.
If I can scare him away, then it won’t hurt him so much if something happens to me.
Taking a deep breath, I answer the phone.
“Carm?” he says with concern. “Where the hell are you? I woke up and you were gone. Your purse, your keys, your car...”
“You wanted five more minutes,” I say in a disgusted tone.
“What?” he asks in confusion. “Carm...”
“I’m done with this, Owen. It was fun while it lasted, but you can stop pretending to be broken up with your girlfriend now. You played hard to get, and you won. You got what you wanted. She proposed to you and humiliated herself. For god’s sake, just go back to her.”
“Carmen, where the hell is this coming from? Did I say or do something to offend you last night? Was it when I was drunk? Please, tell me I didn’t. I couldn’t live with myself if I ever did anything to hurt you. Nothing could make me hurt you.”
“I’m going home, Owen. I’m going back to Brad. I’m going to finish what I started. You should go back to Caroline. It’s over between us.”
“Carmen? Fuck! Are you serious? What the hell?”
I hang up the phone and shut my eyes tightly for a second. Unfortunately, I can’t keep them closed for long or I’ll crash. I smash my hand onto my dashboard a few times in anger and regret. I probably just lost my one chance at happiness. But I needed to do this. Because from now on, my focus is Brad.
I’m not going to sleep until he gets what he deserves.