Chapter Eighteen

 

 

When Everything Happens For a Reason

She blocked me.

I gave her the break she asked for, and she responded by blocking my number. Were my constant phone calls too much? Was she unable to think critically when I was whispering in her ear how much I missed her and the things I would do to her if I was beside her? Well, that was the fucking point. She didn’t need time to think about leaving me. She needed to be reminded of how well I fit into her life and how good we were as a wedded couple. She was supposed to miss me as much as I missed her and call me home. She was supposed to say she’d thought it out and that she was ready to move forward with me.

But she didn’t do that. Instead, she blocked my number so that my calls kept going to voicemail. My text messages were being returned as undeliverable. Even my emails started bouncing back. I wanted to scream with rage every time the mail demon popped up in my inbox. After twelve hours of unsuccessfully reaching out, I realized the only way to fix the situation was to be in her face and force her to talk to me. I booked a flight to Houston and was sitting in Mexico City, waiting for my connecting flight when my mother called in a panic. She rocked my world when she told me that Lisa had left J and that my big brother was falling apart and needed to get out of Pine Bluff before he lost his mind.

My flight wasn’t due to leave for two more hours, but I already knew that I wouldn’t be on it. My wife had severed communication with me, and my brother was drowning in depression. Despite the urgency I felt to get back to Houston, this was the universe telling me that rushing back to Tonya wasn’t what I needed to do at the moment, so I exchanged my ticket to Houston for a return flight back to Cabo, the same flight that J was booked on, and told my mother I’d wait in Mexico City for my brother’s arrival. After she assured me that she would have him on a plane before the sun sets in Arkansas, we hung up and I quickly dialed up my next call.

“Hello?”

“Natasha.”

“Oh, hey, Jereth.”

Her bright voice that always sounded like she was smiling brought me a small comfort. If she didn’t sound like she hated me then things couldn’t be too bad on the home front. She was the only one I could call who not only would hear me out but also had Tonya’s ear.

“Hey. Listen, I’ve been trying to reach your sister since yesterday, but my calls keep going to voicemail. I’m pretty sure she blocked me, and I was on the way back to find out what’s going on—I’m actually at the airport now—but something had just come up with my brother, and my mother asked me to help him out.”

“Okay…”

“I know this is a tall order but can you just…keep an eye on her for me? I mean, just until I can get back?”

She sighed softly but I still heard it. “Jereth.” She’d managed to infuse a large helping of scolding into the six letters of my name, and any hope I had fell into my feet. “I’m not going to do damage control for you. The two of you are adults; you can work this out without my interference.”

“I’m not asking you to do damage control; I’m asking you to—to…” Shit. I was at a loss for words because what I wanted from her was damage control. I wanted her to watch her sister and make sure she didn’t do what she’d all but threatened to do.

“Jereth. I know you are a big believer in fate, so I’ll leave you with this: if you and my sister are meant to be then you will be, no matter what conspires here or wherever you are. Good luck with your brother; I truly hope everything is okay with him.”

Natasha was the only person I knew capable of slicing into you with the gentlest, kindest of words. Even the click of her phone as she ended the call was gentle. Pulling my phone away from my ear, I thought about what she’d said. I knew in my heart of hearts that Tonya and I were destined to be together, but I still felt like not going back to Houston right now was a mistake, and I couldn’t shake that feeling. Maybe I should have gone back sooner. Maybe when she continued to take my calls, it was a sign. Maybe I didn’t need to wait for her to ask me to come back. Maybe…

Now, none of it mattered because the only thing I could do was wait for my brother’s arrival and hope that it was only a matter of days before I was able to board a plane and go see about my wife. Hiking the strap of my duffel bag over my shoulder, I headed out of the terminal and silently petitioned the cosmos that Tonya didn’t get any crazy ideas now that she’d blocked me from altogether communicating with her.