A few people mill around the waiting room, but so far, no one has bothered me. My head throbs, and the lights are too bright for me to take the sunglasses off, so I’ve been sitting here, head against the wall and eyes closed. When the door to the operating wing opens, I turn my head to see if it’s her, or one of her doctors. So far, it’s been everyone but them.
“How’s she doing?”
“Better than expected, honestly. They’re setting her arm. Said it would take a few hours.”
“You know that wasn’t a script I sent over this morning, don’t you?”
I turn my head toward her, lowering the sunglasses and squinting my eyes against the light. The window to the face made me even more light sensitive. Or it’s the concussion. I hand her my cup of coffee and shift so I can pick up the envelope she sent over. I fight with it, swearing under my breath about the damn sling, so she takes the envelope and opens it for me.
“Convenient of you to get shot in the arm you dislocated. Or you’d need me to send a straw with your coffee.” She takes a sip of it and winces. “Fuck, how do you drink this?”
She hands me the stack of legal documents. Some have my name, some have Ren’s.
“I don’t understand.”
“Mills and I have been building the case against Julie for a few months now. Although she used aliases so we had a hell of a time tracking the real her down. At first, it didn’t make sense, but Ren cracked it. The brains, the muscle, and the bank. You should write this shit down, sell the screenplay.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Initially, we thought the role of brains belonged to Lawson, while Julie and Luis played the dutiful henchmen. But Lawson didn’t have brains enough for how complicated this web became. Too much to weave together for a guy paying off a stalker and a gang member using payroll checks.”
“You need to take a vacation, Cyn.”
“On your dime, baby. Anyhow, Julie only wanted you at first, but once she found out about Ren, she realized she needed help. Enter Lawson’s money and Luis’s gang affiliations.”
I nod and let that sink in. “How did she get those pictures of Cassie and I?”
“Well, maybe we can figure that part out later when we talk to Mills. He wanted you to see what they found in Julie’s apartment, but wouldn’t give me details.”
“Fun.”
She takes the papers back from me and sets them on the table beside her before brushing my hair out of my face. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m, uhm…I don’t think it’s hit me yet, Cyn. I mean, I’m already on the verge of losing my shit and I just want to get Ren and go home. Last night when we got here, I had to answer questions for her.” I stop, closing my eyes. “They asked if she could be pregnant and I—I?—”
“Chase?”
“Huh?”
“You’re going to be okay. So will Ren. Did they run the test?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“No. I mean, she’s—we’re not. But she could have been and we—what if…”
For the first time since getting to the hospital, I finally let go. It’s like a train came around a blind corner and crashed into me at full speed. I never had time to brace for it either, the full impact of everything from the last twenty-four hours. The last few months. The last four years. Everything I’d held together with rusty nails and rotted wood finally crashed down on top of me.
“Chase, when you’re both out of the hospital, why don’t you take some time?” Cyn says as the tears stop.
“Time?”
“Yeah, time. You’ve gone non-stop lately. Take some time. Take care of Ren, put a ring on her, show her you can do this. We can cut down your movies back, spread things out. I’ve watched too many of you go full tilt into work while trying to have a family, and it rarely works. You’re busting ass on movie after movie, and next thing you know, you’re at your kid’s graduation and you don’t know a damn thing about them.”
“Time. Yeah. Yeah, I’d, uhm, I think I’d like that.”
“I’m glad, because I rebooked both of you for three months in Europe as soon as Ren can travel again.” She puts the sunglasses back on my face and grins. “Coop, if you two ever have a girl, don’t name her Cynthia.”
