“Good evening, Mr. Molinari. Can we come in? There have been a few developments in your wife’s case,” one of them says with a sympathetic smile.
“Uh, sure.” I swallow, moving aside so they can come in. Having police officers in my house is an entirely new concept for me. This will be interesting.
“We wanted to let you know that we have a suspect, and will be making an arrest. It seems the Doctor who treated her at the hospital made a mistake with her medication. We are arresting Greg Bauer for negligent homicide.”
It feels like all the air has been sucked out of my lungs. They’re actually arresting him. He’s going to pay for what he did, and Talia will see some kind of justice. It isn’t the justice I would’ve provided, but maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s time to finally put all of this to rest and move on with the rest of my life. Just as soon as I find Maddie.
“Thank you so much. That’s great news.” I smile with relief. Who knew that the police could actually be good for something? “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find out?”
“A woman came to us this evening with the proof that we needed, but we can’t give you much more information than that. As soon as we locate Dr. Bauer, he’ll be taken into custody,” he says politely. “Have a good evening, sir.”
Maddie. She must’ve gone to the police station when she left. That means she’s still here, and I have to find her.
Chapter Forty
“Hamburgersagain?”Tyglaresat me as if I just put a plate of yesterday’s trash in front of him. He shoves it away, sending his tater tots toppling over the edge and onto the table.
I let out a heavy sigh, not having the strength to fight him on this tonight. It’s been like this all week, every single thing turning into a fight or battle. When he gets up for school, what he wears, why he can’t have candy for breakfast, how quickly he needs to move so we aren’t late, who buckles his seat belt, where I drop him off for the day. This is all before nine o’clock in the morning, and it just continues all day until we both collapse into bed at night.
“Bud, please just eat it. I promise tomorrow we’ll get pizza or something, but for tonight...” I’m so desperate for him to eat something of value that I bribe him. We can’t live like this any longer.
“Maddie says pizza isn’t healthy and you should only eat it for special occasions.”
“Well, Maddie isn’t here, so eat your damn burger.” The second it’s out of my mouth, I regret it, my frustrations getting the best of me. I rub my forehead. “Ty, I’m sorry, I—”
“I wish you had gone away and not her,” he growls, knocking his glass of milk over and tearing out of the room.
“Fuck,” I hiss, tossing my plate into the sink and slumping into the chair. I expected it to be rough without Maddie, but this is an absolute disaster. We’re way worse off than we were before, and I don’t have a lot of fight left in me.
It’s been a week since Maddie left. Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours. I guess technically she didn’t leave—I kicked her out in what could go down as the most asshole-ish move of my life. Even if I can somehow find her and convince her to talk to me, I’ll regret the way I treated her for the rest of my life. I’ve spent every one of those ten thousand four hundred and sixteen seconds trying to track her down, and so far I have nothing. I have less than nothing.
Maddie turned off her cell phone, closed every account in Nevada she had, and if she’s still in the city, she isn’t using her real name to stay at any hotels. She evaporated into thin air and it’s really starting to piss me off.
And apparently Ty feels the same.
I told him that she took the job in LA, but he’s a smart kid. He knows something happened between us and he blames me. He should, of course, but it’s still hard to stomach. My son hates me, the girl I’m in love with is gone, and the one mission that has defined me the last few months is over. I’m about to throw myself the world’s biggest pity party when I hear Ty shrieking from his bedroom.
Bolting from my seat, I rush to him and find him curled up on his bed in the fetal position. He’s clutching his stomach, rocking back and forth, moaning in pain.
“What is it? What’s wrong, Ty?” I kneel on the floor next to him.
“My stomach hurts.” He sobs.
When I reach for him, he recoils away. “Can you show me where, buddy?”
Ty points to his stomach in no specific area, just writhing around on the bed.
A thousand possibilities run through me. An appendicitis? Complication from his wounds? All the junk food I’ve bribed him with the last few days? It could be many things. Fuck, I wish Maddie was here. I don’t want to overreact, but he’s in so much pain that I can’t ignore it. It’s after hours at his pediatrician, so now I’m left with only one option—St. Luke’s.
“Okay, come on, bud.” I scoop him up into my arms and carry him to the truck. He groans, still holding his stomach the entire way there, and even as we go inside.
There is a check-in desk at the front of the Emergency Room and I start there.
“Good evening, sir. How can I help you?” the bright-eyed receptionist asks.
“My son is having severe stomach pain, and he needs to be checked out,” I say. Ty lays his head on my shoulder, a little calmer, but still whimpering softly.
“Absolutely,” she says. “I just need you to fill out a bit of paperwork and we’ll get someone to see him right away.”
