Several times, she tried to work out in her mind what happened that night. All she could remember was Jason with a gun. He had shot them both. Her awful husband had killed her and the one and only man who ever loved her. She wished she could turn into a ghost and track him down and kill him.
Delia had to find a way to make things more clear in her mind. Sleeping and dreaming was getting old. Then she felt something. She felt someone holding her hand.
Someone with a strong grip.
It was a man. He whispered in her ear. She couldn’t quite make out what he said, but it sounded like, “I’ll be back for you. I have to go away for a while, but I promise I’ll come back for you.”
She had no concept of time, but at some point she commanded her eyes to open and she felt them flutter. She commanded them again a little more forcefully and she felt her eyelids slowly part. She saw bright lights. Lights so bright she wanted to close her eyes again, but then she saw her family.
“She’s awake! Call the doctor she’s awake.” She recognized Donna Lee’s voice. She looked around as much as her head would allow her and realized that she was in a hospital room. She wasn’t dead.
“Oh my baby,” Delia’s mother Jolie said as she threw herself on the bed and wrapped her arms around her. Delia tried to reach out and hug her, but she realized she couldn’t move. She told her arms what to do but they wouldn’t listen. Oh God, was she paralyzed?
Seconds later, a doctor was flashing a light in her eyes while a nurse escorted all of her family out of the room.
“Can you talk, Delia?”
She tried to say yes but couldn’t. All she could manage was “Uh huh.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
She had to concentrate so hard she closed her eyes. Somehow she managed to say, “Two.”
“Good. Looks like you didn’t sustain much brain damage if any at all.”
Brain damage?
“You are very lucky Mrs. James.”
Ms. Clark
“You were shot twice.”
Twice?
“Once in the chest and once in the head.
Remarkably, your breast implants slowed the bullet to the chest sufficiently so that it didn’t cause major harm. And the bullet to your head first traveled through Mr. Donovan before it hit you.”
Delia used all her remaining strength to say, “Chase.”
The doctor pretended he didn’t hear her and continued to describe the injuries she sustained and her long time recovery plans. She was left wondering what happened to Chase.
Two days later, Delia watched as Donna Lee watered all the flowers in her room. She had gained enough strength to pull herself up to sitting position and she was gaining more control over her voice and able to speak easier. She had asked several times what happened to Chase. She even asked what happened to Jason, but each question was met with grief filled stares and empty, non-existent answers. No one would give her a straight forward response. No one would even tell her how long she’d been in the hospital. They wouldn’t even let her have a newspaper. She couldn’t take it anymore.
When Donna Lee got close enough, she grabbed her hand and said, “Please, talk to me. How long have I been here?”
She sighed. “You were in a coma for two weeks.”
Two weeks? Delia gasped at the thought. Her family and friends were probably beside themselves with grief wondering if she would live or not.
“What happened that night? What happened to Chase?
To Jason?”
Donna Lee sat on the bed next to her sister and tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder.
“Jason shot you. Chase came and fought him. I guess he thought he had him beat or knocked him out or something because he left him passed out on the floor then went to care for you.”
All of this sounded familiar to Delia. She remembered being shot in the chest and staring up into Chase’s eyes, but after that everything was a blur.
“Apparently, Jason came to, retrieved the gun and shot Chase. The bullet traveled through him and into you.”
“What happened to Chase?”
“I think when Jason came to his senses and realized what he had
done,
he must have been overwhelmed with guilt because he turned the gun on himself.”
“God damn it, Donna Lee! What happened to Chase?”
“I’m sorry, Dee. He’s dead.”
Knowing she had caused Chase’s death slowed her recovery somewhat. She really didn’t want to live anymore, not without him. She’d finally let herself love him and now he was gone. She didn’t know how she would carry on.
The confrontation with Jason had left her in a pitiful state. She couldn’t walk without a walker and she still had trouble pronouncing certain words. The bullet to her chest had pierced only one breast and the surgeons hadn’t found it necessary to remove the other while she was in the emergency operating room. Her lopsided bosoms had wilted away any self confidence in her body she may have had. The surgery to remove the bullet in her brain left her with a half shaved head. The first time she looked in a mirror she cried inconsolable tears. She cried partly because she thought she looked like a monster but mostly because she missed Chase.
Donna Lee and her mother did their best to lift her spirits while she was in the hospital. They cut and styled her hair and when that didn’t help, they bought her wigs. They fixed her makeup and even bought her new outfits but nothing helped. She had lost the will to live.
A few days after she moved into the rehabilitation center, she got a visit from an odd little man with a purple felt smoking jacket and a cane. He reminded Delia of the
Riddler
from Batman for some reason.
He stood in the doorway and stared at her for a moment without speaking, making Delia feel even more self conscious. She was just about to ask him to leave when he said, “I’m Edwin James.”
Edwin James, her mysterious father-in-law. She had never met him once in the four years she was married to Jason. Now, as she thought about it, she didn’t really know why they had never met. Was it because Edwin didn’t want to meet her or because Jason didn’t want her to meet his father?
She had no idea what possessed him to make an appearance at this point.
“I wanted to apologize to you in person for what my no good son did to you.” He had a slight British accent which Delia couldn’t tell was real or affected. “I tried for 28 years to straighten that boy out, but nothing worked. I should have warned you before he married you, but I didn’t see it coming. You two eloped without my knowledge.”
He entered Delia’s room and sat in the visitor’s chair. She was so shocked by his presence she couldn’t think of anything to say. “After I found out about the marriage, I did some research on you. I knew you were too good for him and that you deserved better. That’s why I added the clause to his inheritance that he couldn’t get divorced. I didn’t want him to just use you. I had no idea it would turn out like this. Please accept my deepest sympathies and apologies.”
Delia nodded as she self-consciously touched her wig. He was a perfectly pleasant man and had said only nice things, but he still made her uncomfortable. Even though they were completely different, his presence still somehow represented Jason.
After a few moments he said, “I’ve already taken the liberty of depositing the money into your account.”
“What money?”
“Jason’s inheritance.”
“But why?”
“You are still legally his wife. Upon his death, you are the rightful beneficiary. You’re a millionaire. And once I die, you will receive another fifty million in property and stock.”
“I appreciate what you are trying to do Mr. James, but I don’t want the money. It will just remind me of your son and, no offense, I hope to never have to think of him again.”
Edwin James gave his daughter-in-law a perplexed stare. “Are you really trying to reject 16.5 million dollars?”
“I don’t want it,” she said firmly.
He
pinched
his chin with his thumb and forefinger pensively. “I appreciate your noble refusal. It speaks to your character. My son really didn’t deserve you. But let me assure you, you have no choice in the matter. I always get my way. The money is already in your account. Do with it what you will. Give it charity or make a bonfire. I don’t care. I want to give it to you and I have.”
“But I
— ”
“
Shh
. No ‘
but’s
.’ I know money can’t compensate for what you have been through. But please let me try to make up for the horrible job I did with my son.”
Delia didn’t fight him further. There was no point. He was a very determined old man and as he said, he always got what he wanted.
The first thing Delia did with the money was to have her other breast implant removed. She found it ironic that those confounded things that she never liked had actually saved her life.
After her plastic surgery, she went to Europe. It was something she’d never done before and it gave her time to heal. A year later, the physical and emotional scars were beginning to fade. Her hair had grown past her shoulders and covered the wounds from the life-saving surgery that removed the bullet. She found it easier to laugh, although she still felt guilty with too much happiness since she couldn’t share it with Chase.
Delia then used the money to travel the world and develop a new side to
herself
.
A free, independent side that didn’t need the approval of anyone, especially a man.
She had to learn to love herself and develop the self esteem she so lacked. She swore off men and didn’t want a relationship. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t propositioned all the time.
Her newfound confidence proved to be a magnet for men. They were drawn to her. But she always ended up putting every man into one of two categories: Either they were like her former
husband
Jason, in which case they were definitely unsuitable. Or, they were too much like Chase, in which case, they would be too painful to date. She didn’t want to be disappointed when she dated them and found out they were actually nothing like him, but she also didn’t want to date them, find out they were too much like him and then be reminded of her one true love day after day.
She saw Chase’s sincere dark blue eyes in everything.
In the warm sky of the setting sun.
In the happy gleam of a small child.
She couldn’t listen to Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole without breaking down in tears.
Six months later, she found the courage to take the Golden Swan Cruise again. She didn’t know why, but she thought it was a necessary part in her recovery. It was a chance for her to finally say goodbye to Chase forever.
A part of her feared seeing his grandmother, Felicia, again but she figured it was
a another
part of the healing process.