Dolly

Twenty-Two

N I A L L

            After hours of just lying in the bedroom with Mary, talking about the many possibilities of what could happen to our family if I was taken in, the room was silent for the last two hours. The only sound around was the faint sound of our friends in the living room with our daughter and Tony. But eventually those noises faded away and we were left in complete silence after everyone went to bed.

“I have an idea,” I spoke up, “we can get away for a while.”

“Won’t that make you look bad, Niall?” her red puffy eyes were shot in my direction. They weren’t a calming icy blue anymore. Her eyes were the color of the ocean after a storm had washed through.

“I don’t think so. Today the officer said that I wasn’t officially a suspect under investigation yet. Which is why they were confused that I was even in defending myself already. They are still determining the cause of death? Which right now looks like a murder.” I shrugged, picking at the fabric of my jeans.

“I’m sick of running. All the time. When things get bad we run. I’m fucking sick of it.” She sighed and wiped away the remaining tears on her cheeks.

I let out a frustrated groan and instantly ran a hand through my hair. “Come on, Mary. It’s necessary. We aren’t leaving officially. Just small vacation. Me and you,” I explained, “I will talk to our friends. I’m sure they would care of Tony and Arabella while we go away. Just a weekend. One weekend is all I’m asking.”

“Niall, Arabella will forget who we are.” She softly laughed, pushing her hair over to one side of her head.

“She would not.” I huffed out a breath and rolled my eyes. “Please, Mary. It’s not like we don’t have the money to go away for the weekend.”

“What if my dad shows up while we are gone?”

“I’ll get Diana to get them to scout out the place every few hours. After all it was her brother who died so maybe she could say she feels threatened and wants police to watch the house while she’s here.” I quickly thought up. I was surprised at how fast I had thought that. She looked up at me between her lashes and shrugged.

“Where would we go?”

“Disney Land. Think of it as a test run. To see if it’s a safe place for Tony and Arabella.” I grinned, hoping that she would go for the idea. As soon as a smile made a home on her face, I knew that it was good chance. I had been thinking about taking a vacation with Mary for a while. But then we had Arabella and that idea was  interrupted.

“Tony is going to be so mad.”

I shrugged, pulling her legs down towards the end of the bed so she was laying on her back instead of sitting against the headboard. I crawled towards her and rested my head on her stomach, hoping that she would play with my hair the way that I loved so much.

“You of all people deserve this, Mary. I put you through so much bullshit since we met. I want to make it up to you.”

She let out a frustrated breath and removed her hands from my hair. “I thought we were over this.”

“You might be. But I’m not, Mary. I have this constant nagging voice in my mind. All I feel is guilt about everything I’ve done. I let you run back to town and be abused again. I let you love me with all your heart and then I left you on the most important day of your life. I drank my guilt away and almost hurt you probably more times than I remember? I let my mother get killed…” I whispered. I could feel tears brimming my tear ducts but I refused to let them fall. Both Mary and I had done enough crying in the past five hours to last us a life time.