Chapter 41
Pricilla looked up and saw Brandon running down the hallway toward them. She stood up and charged at him insolently. “You have a nerve coming here,” she yelled at him. “Why aren’t you in jail anyway?”
Brandon stopped a few feet away from Pricilla. “I’m here to see how my wife is doing. How is she?” he asked anxiously.
Pricilla got up in his face. “You sick—”
Mrs. Turner yanked her back. “Now is not the time, Pricilla.”
Pricilla pointed her finger at Brandon’s face. “How do you think she is after you tried to kill her?” she asked him fervently.
Brandon held his hands up in the air in a peaceful gesture. “I promise you, I didn’t push her over the balcony. She ran and tripped, and somehow she lost her balance and fell over the balcony.”
Pricilla looked at him doubtfully. “Is that what really happened to her, Brandon? Because given your track record of abuse, I don’t believe a word that comes out of your lying mouth.”
Brandon sat down on the couch with a defeated, worried expression on his face. “Pricilla, I’m not lying; she fell over the balcony from the third floor of the hotel. The tree standing in the middle of the lobby broke her fall, but she hit the floor really hard.”
Pricilla stood a few inches in front of him with her fist balled up. “Why was she running in the first place?” she asked him harshly.
“We were about to leave to come to your house. We’d had a heated discussion—”
Mrs. Turner tightened her grip on Pricilla’s arm and urged her, with a stern push, to sit down. Pricilla sat on the chair opposite of Brandon. “Why couldn’t you just leave the girl alone, Brandon? Hadn’t you done enough damage to her?”
“I love her, Pricilla. I flew to Raleigh to try and reconcile with her.”
Pricilla cocked her head to one side as she glared at Brandon. “Are you insane? Why would she want to reconcile with you after you almost beat her half to death?”
Brandon held his head down shamefully. “I regret ever touching her. I’ve sought counseling for my anger. The doctors have diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“I don’t give a flip about your diagnosis, Brandon. You had sense enough to control it on your job, and with other people, so I don’t believe that that’s what you have. You just wanted to control Aquila,” Pricilla said furiously.
Mrs. Turner patted her hand. “Pricilla, you need to lower your voice.”
Pricilla inhaled and expelled a slow, deep breath. “Brandon, you need to be locked up. How did you talk her into going with you anyway?”
Brandon glared back at Pricilla. “I didn’t threaten her, if that’s what you think. I asked her to come with us after the children started crying because she refused to let them out of her sight again. She agreed to come to satisfy the children.”
“I guess she did agree to join you,” Pricilla huffed. “You used the children as a pawn to get her to come with you. As afraid of you as she was, she would have never gotten in the car with you, unless you threatened her with leaving town with her children.”
Brandon looked at Mrs. Turner for support. “Was that the impression that you got, Mrs. Turner? You are my witness that the kids begged me not to leave them.”
Mrs. Turner stared at Brandon unflinchingly. “Yes, they were glad to see you, but they’re children. Obviously, you didn’t allow them to see you whupping up on their momma.” She paused for a moment before she said, “You sure enough had me fooled. I thought you were a man that really missed his family. If I had known that you were a sorry wife-beater, you would have never put your foot across my threshold, and God knows you wouldn’t have left with those children.”
Pricilla jumped in where Mrs. Turner left off. “You said that the two of you were having a heated discussion. Did she take off and start running because you threatened to do something to her?”
Brandon put his hands together in a prayer mold and bumped them against his forehead lightly. “I slapped her before I realized what I was doing.”
Pricilla glared at Brandon; she had an expression of disgust on her face. “So much for PTSD,” she said sarcastically. “Your butt needs to be in prison, where you can meet your match.”
“I apologized to her profusely, but she ran out into the hallway. When I ran after her and called her name, that’s when she looked back and tripped and went over the balcony. By the time I reached the balcony, people were looking up, and accusing me of pushing her over.”
Pricilla nodded her head. “You probably did push her,” she stated harshly.
“No, I didn’t, Pricilla,” Brandon said as calmly as he could. “The police questioned me, handcuffed me, and took me to the police station. But a witness explained to the investigating officer exactly what he saw. So they let me go.”
Pricilla studied his face, trying to decide if he were telling the truth. “They still should have arrested you for assault. You caused her to have the accident.”
Brandon stuffed his hands into his pockets. “They probably will charge me, Pricilla. It depends on the outcome of her injury. They have my personal information, and they warned me not to leave town.”
“Good,” Pricilla clasped her hands together. “I hope they put you away for life.”
Brandon exhaled loudly. “Pricilla, regardless of what you think, I do love Aquila.”
Pricilla smirked. “I’m sure you do. You love her to death.”
Mrs. Turner interrupted them. “Brandon, where are the children?”
Pricilla flung her hands up in the air. “That’s right, where are they, Brandon?”
“A policewoman took care of them while I was being interrogated. Once I got to the hospital, I asked the volunteer at the information desk to watch over them, because they said children under the age of twelve couldn’t come up.” Brandon walked to the nursesstation. “Is my wife still in surgery?” he asked them frantically. “Nobody’s telling me anything,” he complained.
“Sir, you’ll know when we know,” the nurse said solemnly. “The doctor will be up to talk with you when he’s finished.”
Brandon sauntered back over to where Pricilla and Mrs. Turner sat. “I need to go downstairs and check on my children.”
“I’ll do that,” Mrs. Turner volunteered. She stood up, picked up her purse from off of the table, and walked toward the elevator.
“Brandon,” Pricilla looked intently at him while she questioned him, “did the children witness their mother falling over the balcony?”
“No. They were in the bedroom part of the suite looking at a movie. Aquila and I were in the living room. She ran out of the room and outside, after I—”
Pricilla finished his sentence for him. “After you slapped the fire out of her.”
Brandon turned the left side of his face toward Pricilla. “Actually, she attacked me first.”
“If she did, I’m sure it’s because you provoked her,” Pricilla huffed.
Brandon had tried most of the night until about one o’clock in the morning to get Aquila to come back home with him. He shared the information about his diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. He told her that he had been in therapy and was now taking medication to help him cope with his illness.
To his dismay, Aquila didn’t respond the way that he had expected her to. She told him that she understood his behavior better now and that she would pray that God would heal him. She looked at him earnestly and told him that she was sorry, but she couldn’t go back home with him and risk getting beat up again. She left him standing in the living room of the suite as she turned and walked into the bedroom and got in bed with her children.
Brandon slept on the pull-out couch. Late the next morning, Aquila awoke to the children playing with their toys on the floor with Brandon in the living area. Brandon had ordered breakfast for them from room service. Once they had eaten and Aquila supervised their baths, the children watched the DVD, Madagascar II, with Brandon.
While they watched the movie, Aquila took her shower and dressed. Aquila came out dressed in a black sweater with a pair of dressy jeans and high heeled black boots. She had made up her face and had pinned her dark hair up into a French roll. She wore long dangling black and silver earrings and a silver necklace that complemented the black sweater.
Brandon was awed by her appearance when she came into the room. He was so impressed that he jumped up and hugged her tightly. He kissed Aquila on her lips and complimented her with excitement. Aquila was uncomfortable with Brandon touching her, so she pulled away from his embrace.
Brandon interpreted her reaction as rejection. He immediately accused her of having cheated on him since moving to North Carolina. Aquila observed Brandon become more irritated as the moments passed by. She looked at the children and didn’t want them to see their father in this agitated state. She calmly told them to take their toys into the bedroom and play while Brandon and she talked.
After the children went into the room and settled on the bed with their toys, Aquila followed them and inserted another DVD, Kung Fu Panda, into the DVD player. She turned it up louder than she normally would have to drown out Brandon’s and her conversation. She reluctantly joined Brandon in the living area.
She remembered that he said he was on medication, so she asked him softly, if he had taken his meds for the day. He told her no, that he hadn’t taken any since he’d left Nashville because he’d forgotten to pack them. He asked her again sternly who she was seeing. Aquila assured him that she hadn’t been with anyone. Brandon paced around in the room. He told her that he didn’t believe her because she would not have changed her appearance so drastically unless she was involved with someone.
Brandon watched Aquila intently as she frantically fumbled through her purse. He cursed at her and asked her what she was looking for. Aquila nervously told him that she was looking for her cell phone to call Pricilla to pick her up. He accused her of trying to call her man to pick her up.
Aquila had become frustrated with his irrational behavior. She defended herself by reminding him that he had no right to accuse her of being with someone, when he had practically moved a woman into her house. Brandon tried to act surprised and asked her what she was talking about. Aquila told him not to deny it because Ms. Carter had told her about the woman who visited his place on weekends.
At that point, Brandon grabbed Aquila’s left arm tightly. He had a wild look in his eyes when he told her that it was her fault that he brought another woman home. His rational excuse was that if she hadn’t left him, he wouldn’t have needed another woman.
Aquila was in pain, but she didn’t scream, because she didn’t want the children to hear her. So she used her free arm to reach up into his face and scratch him as hard as she could. Brandon immediately let her go and slapped her hard across the face with the back of his hand. Aquila whimpered and ran outside of the room and into the hallway with the intention of asking someone to call the police. When Brandon ran out behind her and called her, she looked back and twisted her ankle running in the high heels. She lost her balance and fell over the balcony.
Pricilla examined his face closer. There were three long red fingernail marks running along the side of his face. “Good for her,” she said sarcastically. Brandon looked away from Pricilla and cleared his throat loudly.
Kendra and Matthew exited the elevator and walked up to Pricilla. “How’s Aquila doing, Pricilla?” Kendra asked her softly.
Pricilla hugged Kendra and then Matthew. “We haven’t heard anything since they took her to the operating room.”
Matthew looked at Brandon. “You must be Brandon.”
Brandon extended his hand to Matthew. “Yes, I am.”
Matthew reluctantly shook his hand, giving him a stern look. Kendra looked at Brandon and shook her head and turned her back to him.
The doctor walked swiftly toward them. Brandon walked up to him. “How’s my wife, Doctor?”
“Oh,” he looked at Pricilla, “I wasn’t aware that her husband was here before I operated.”
“He wasn’t,” Pricilla scoffed. “Anyway, how is she doctor?”
“It was touch and go, but she’s going to make it. She has a strong will to live. We took care of the most serious problem first, which was the brain hemorrhage, and then we worked on her shoulder and the broken leg. She’s got a tough road ahead of her, but she’s going to make it through. Hopefully, she won’t have any complications. We’re monitoring her around the clock to prevent that. She’s still in critical condition, but if she keeps improving, we’ll transfer her out of the intensive care unit, and into a lower level of critical care.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Brandon said. He shook his hand. “Can I see her now?”
“Brandon, I think you are the last one she wants to see,” Pricilla said harshly.
Kendra touched Pricilla on the shoulder. “Pricilla, no; not here.”
“She’s still unconscious and heavily medicated. Mr. Savino, you can go in and see her for five minutes.” The doctor turned to Pricilla. “And since you’re her sister, you can visit with her for five minutes also. I have to attend to another patient, but if you have any questions, I’ll be available later.” He bowed his head at everyone else, and walked away.
Matthew and Kendra sat in chairs across from each other. Mrs. Turner came back up from checking on the children and joined them. Pricilla introduced them to each other, and then she followed Brandon down to the ICU.
Kendra looked at Matthew. “This has been an unforgettable Christmas Day.”
Matthew nodded and eyeballed Kendra harshly. “It’s definitely been a Christmas full of surprises; that’s for sure.”