Breaking

Chapter 18.

Tobias

Three months later...
I was in a coma for a week. The doctors said I shouldn't have woken up, my head injury was too bad, and I wish I hadn't. It's been three months since I heard anything from Arabella, since that damn night of the accident. When I woke up and realized Arabella wasn't there, she wasn't with Manuel or Rosalee, I tried calling Christina. She told me Arabella didn't want to see me. That's when I wish I hadn't woken up.

"Are you ready?" Manuel asks me after stepping into my hospital room.

I pull my shirt over my head and pull it down my torso. "Do you have the papers?" He nods. "Then yeah, let's go." I grab my jacket and we leave the room.

I wasn't exactly given the green light to leave the hospital, I still have a little over a week of recovery that I think is unnecessary, but I just want to get out and stop having so much time on my hands to think about that night.

Manuel can't bring himself to look me in the eyes. It's not out of anger, he just feels sorry for me. After everything and almost dying, he knows the worse part about that night was losing Arabella. I wanted Patrick to pick me up but three months is still pretty early for his new marriage. He already spent too much time with me in the hospital, I couldn't take him away from Grace anymore. And Rosalee...well, she's pregnant. Three months...

Manuel parks in my parking space then turns off the car. I don't move. I know my apartment is filled with Arabella's things. She took her clothes but her iPad and her teddy bear Sully and her paintings and all the little things she wanted to decorate the place with are still in there. It's still there but she's not.

"Take all the time you need," Manuel tells me.

"I'm not staying." I shove the car door open and jump out. Manuel rushes after me but doesn't say anything. We hurry upstairs and I painfully try not to notice her things.

I go to the kitchen, grab the hammer, then walk to the living room.

"Tobias, wait!" Manuel shouts and I hammer a hole into the wall. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

Ignoring him, I rip out pieces of the wall until I can reach inside. I grab the bag of money and pull it out.

"You're insane!"

"Give me your keys."

"You can't drive, Tobias! What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

"Do you honestly think Arabella would just leave? Chris had to take her. Arabella's father was giving her money to keep Arabella. After the accident, he must've paid Chris to keep her away from me."

"The papers you made me print out...the money, what are you going to do?"

"Get my kid back."

Manuel doesn't have much to say after that. We drive to Arabella's apartment and he stays in the car as I run upstairs. It's late in the afternoon, Arabella and Chris should be home. It's too late for Arabella to be in school and too early for Chris to be out.

I knock urgently on the door until I hear Chris yell from inside. "Alright! I'm coming!" The door opens and I pull my fist away. She gasps when she sees it's me in front of her, a sense of hope in her eyes, then she's suddenly scowling at me. "What the hell are you doing here?" She snarls, crossing her arms over her chest.

Although I've been with Chris multiple times, the rare times we've talked, I noticed the little things but it's the first time I see where Arabella gets her sass from.

"Ten thousand dollars for you to sign these papers." I hold out the papers in front of us and she hesitates before taking them.

She peers down at them. "What is this?"