Night, Forgotten: Draft 1

Chapter 22: Now

I'm sorry to leave you with Thomas but I can't be in this house.

I hope you understand.

Owen's final words to me, the words he left in a note on top of his wedding ring, won't leave my head. I can almost hear him saying them as I stand in the doorway of the parlor, watching Thomas sleep in his crib across the room. Owen's voice is so distinctly melodic and calming.

I don't think I'll ever hear it again.

Suddenly the space where Owen should be feels overwhelmingly oppressive. "I can't be in this house."

Without really deciding to, I escape back outside into the dark night. My head is ringing and full of pressure, as if I'm too deep underwater. But I can't even begin to tell which direction is up and which is death.

Owen is gone.

I use my forefinger to twist his wedding band, which I'm still wearing around my thumb. The wind's sharp edges scrape across my face but I hardly register the pain.

I am not sure how much time has passed or where I am when I hear a woman screaming. I have never heard anyone scream like that, with rage and humiliation and sorrow braided together so thickly. The sound brings me back to the world, back to the ground.

It is coming from the other side of the glass. Glass?

I take a step forward, toward it.

Yes, I realize, I am approaching a window.

I haven't been aware of anything, not even the numbness of my skin, but now I start to notice my surroundings. My feet have, apparently, taken me right up to Marcus and Carmen's house, and I am standing outside their family room looking in. I can't help peering through the glass, despite the sinking feeling that I'm being a real creep of a neighbor. I mean, I'm literally standing in a shrub at this point.

The screaming comes again; it's Carmen, and this time I can make out her words. She stomps through the wide doorway into the Dolans' family room, her tiny frame taking up a surprising amount of the room as she approaches her husband.

"How could you even suggest..." Carmen stops and shakes her head, her jaw locked open, as if the rest of the sentence is too absurd to even utter.

Marcus sits on the couch with his back to my window. If he turns his neck even slightly, he'll see me in his peripheral vision. Carmen stalks toward us both across the broad family room; if her eyes flick upward for even a moment, they will catch mine, staring back at her from the night beyond the window.

But for the moment, the Dolans are focused only on each other. Even with the barrier of glass, I can feel the resentment that heats the room between them. Marcus's words drip with it as he bellows, "Tell the truth, Carmen!"

Immediately, I know what he's angry about. He must have found out that she has been cheating on him with Donny, and I just happen to be witnessing the moment of confrontation. I am hotly aware of how inappropriate my presence is here; it's the last place I want to be. But now I'm afraid that if I move, Carmen will notice me through the window and I'll be caught.

"You tell the truth!" Her eyes are wild. "Why did you make me go over there to see that baby, Marcus?"

"What are you talking about?" he roars.

Carmen stands rooted to the floor, her hands balled into fists at her sides. "Whose baby is it, Marcus?"

Marcus doesn't answer her right away. The gravity of her implication hits him at the same time as it hits me. I instinctively bring my hands to cover my mouth and on the way up to my face, my thumb collides with the window. Owen's wedding ring, still on my thumb, clanks against the glass loudly.

I stand completely still but it's too late.

"What the hell?" Carmen demands, stalking right up to the couch where Marcus is sitting and pressing her face against the window. When I raise my eyes, she is staring straight at me.