Breaking Away (12 page)

“But you’re too ill to go home.”

“That doesn’t really matter, does it?” Sam asked. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting there with your forms, and I wouldn’t be standing here calling for someone to pick me up.”

Mrs. Gabbard’s eyes looked dazed and a little anxious as she left the room.

Sam dialed her grandmother’s number. “Gran, I’m being released a little early. Can you come and pick me up?”

“Certainly. Joy’s almost finished with breakfast. I’ll get her dressed, and we can be there within the hour.”

“Please bring me something to wear. I don’t have any clothes here. They cut them off when they brought me in.”

“I went to the house yesterday and picked up some of Joy’s things and yours.”

Dear God, what had she seen? Had the police been there to gather evidence? She pushed the thought away. “Bring me something loose. I can’t really bear anything against my skin.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll need some sanitary napkins.” Tears glazed her vision but she fought them back. She’d grieve later, when she had time. Right now she needed to put one foot in front of the other and do what needed to be done.

“All right. I’ll get them. Why are they releasing you so quickly?” Concern came through in Ellen’s tone. “You’ve only been in the hospital a day and a half.”

“They can’t really do anything for me, Gran. I just need to heal, and I can do that at home with you and Joy, just as well as I can here.”

“I suppose so.”

“I’ll have to rest a lot at first. I’ll need to stay close to the hospital for another twenty-four hours, just in case. Maybe we can go home tomorrow.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go back to the house, Sam.”

“No. I’m talking about your house, Gran. I know it’s an imposition, but as soon as I’m better, I’m going to get a job, and Joy and I can get our own place.”

“Only if you want to, Samantha. My home is your home for as long as you want it. You’re still my girl.”

Tears blurred her vision again and she leaned against the bed for more support. “I know I am, Gran. But I don’t want to bring trouble to your door.”

“Honey. Do you really believe I could ever go home and leave you and Joy here like this?”

“No.” Every shortened telephone conversation, every tension-filled visit they’d had in the last three and a half years came back to torment her. Now that everything was out in the open… “I love you, Gran. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to. I tried to get away from him, and every time—I was too afraid.”

“Sam. I know. Do you think I’m blind? I knew you had trouble. I tried several times to talk to you but you shut me down.”

“I was ashamed. Ashamed that I’d gotten myself into something I couldn’t get out of. Ashamed to tell you that someone I loved was treating me like…”
A punching bag
. “And afraid for you and Joy. He told me he could drive to your house any time and snap your neck, and no one would ever know it was him. I believed him, Gran. I still do. You have to be careful.” The panic inside her raced out with the words.

Ellen’s voice grew soft. “We’re going to be okay, Sam. I promise. He’s never going to lay a hand on any of us ever again.”

The resolve she heard in her grandmother’s voice eased her fear and boosted her confidence. “No, he’s not.” No matter what she had to do to protect them. There were weapons at Gran’s house. And she’d use them, if she had to. They’d be fine.

“I’ll be there to pick you up in an hour,” Ellen said, breaking into her thoughts.

She hung up the phone and, gripping the mattress, then the foot of the bed, she moved around to sit in the chair Ms. Gabbard had vacated. She had to push on.

As long as she sat very still, the pain wasn’t too bad. She braced the heel of her hand on the seat of the chair and tried to shift slightly until she could breathe a little easier.

“What’s this I hear about you asking to be discharged?” Dr. Simons said from the door.

Her strength was fading fast. “I’m sure Ms. Gabbard told you about the situation.”

“Your health is worth more than the money, Mrs. Cross,” he said, his tone stern.

“That’s easy for you to say, but I’m living the reality of it all. As long as I’m married to Will Cross, my income is tied to his. This hospital is going to look at his income as mine, though I’ve never had more than grocery money to spend. I won’t qualify for any kind of financial help. So when we split, and we will be doing that, he’ll refuse to pay the bill and I’ll be left with it. And I can’t afford to be saddled with a crippling debt when I have a child to care for, Dr. Simon. Not when I’ll be trying to break away from Will, and from his family’s control.”
She’d need whatever money she could earn to pay lawyer fees and for Joy.
“So, I need you to release me. My grandmother is coming to pick me up.”

Dr. Simon’s jaw grew taut and frustration flickered across his features. “You’ll need to stay close to the hospital for at least another twenty-four hours, in case you start to hemorrhage again. If you have any kind of issue at all, nausea, fever, headache, more pronounced bleeding, you’ll need to get back in here immediately, bill or no bill.”

Sam nodded “I understand.”

He turned away.

“Thank you, Dr. Simons.”

He paused at the door. “I’m sorry you’ve gone through this. But I’m glad you’re getting away from…the situation. I’m sorry I didn’t take your warnings about your husband more seriously.”

So she had gotten an apology after all, but she no longer needed it. “You don’t know how devious or determined someone can be unless you’ve lived with them, lived with…all they can do. How could you have known?”

“I’ll listen more carefully next time,” he answered and continued out the door.

Sam forced herself to her feet and pushed the call button. She requested a towel and washcloth so she could take a shower. A few minutes later, the nurse walked her down the hall to the shower and helped her inside. “Should you feel faint or ill, push this button.” She pointed out the emergency call button. “I’ll be watching for it. Okay?”

“Thank you.” The nurse left and Sam took her time getting the water the right temperature and setting out her hospital gown. Her strength drained after only a five-minute shower. She rushed to finish, then sat on a bench inside the room to dry off, put on the fresh gown and fit the belt and pad on.

She’d be strong again. She just had to cut off her grief so it wouldn’t cripple her. And let her anger feed her determination. She would be free of Will Cross and his family.

She owed it to Joy. She owed it to the child she’d lost. And she owed it to herself. She bundled her dirty gown in the wet towel and wrapped her fresh one around her so the open back wouldn’t flash everyone out in the hall. The nurse appeared again and kept a hand on her arm as she helped her back to her room. Lying on the bed again, Sam eyed the phone and asked the nurse to hand her the receiver. Once it was in her hand, she dialed her attorney’s number. She gave his secretary her grandmother’s cell phone number and told the secretary to tell him about the first volley lobbed at her by Will and his parents.

Less than an hour had passed when Ellen arrived with Joy and a plastic bag. Ellen approached the bed, and taking Sam into her arms, held her carefully. For a moment, Sam was as overwhelmed as her grandmother and they clung to one another.

When Ellen drew back, she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her cotton shirt and turned to check on Joy.

The fear Sam read in Joy’s face as Gran drew her close to the bed gave her heart a squeeze. And when she hid behind Ellen’s leg, Sam couldn’t catch her breath.

“Momma’s okay, baby. I know I look awful, but I just have some bruises, and this is the last time this will happen. We’re going to Grandma El’s house, and we’re going to be just fine.”

“I wide on the tractor, old Betsy.” Joy eased out from behind Ellen and took a tentative step toward Sam.

“Yes, you will. You and Freddy. And me, too.”

Joy approached the bed and Sam raised her gaze to Ellen. She rushed forward to lift Joy onto the bed. Though it hurt to even be touched, Sam gathered her close and held her. “Mama has missed you, so much.”

“Daddy’s mean.”

“Yes, he is sometimes.” She smoothed Joy’s fine blonde hair, so much like her own. “You’re my girl and Grandma El’s. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Joy raised her hand and her favorite little person was stuck on her index finger. “Fweddy missed you, too.”

Sam smiled. “Thank you, Freddy, for missing me.”

Joy grinned.

The nurse came in with Sam’s release papers. She went over the cautions Dr. Simons had already covered with her, then said, “I’ll give you a few minutes to change, and I’ll be back with a wheelchair to take you to the front exit.”

“Momma has to get dressed, baby.” Sam said to Joy.

Ellen grasped Joy’s hands and helped her slip down off the bed. Sam eased off the edge and leaned against the bed while her Grandmother got her clothes out of the bag. Suppressing any flinch of pain, she took the sweatpants and t-shirt into the bathroom and got dressed.

It was both comforting and strange to wear her own clothing. The scent of the fabric softener she used hadn’t changed in the last eighteen hours. The way her tennis shoes felt on her feet hadn’t altered, either. But
she
had changed somehow. With that last punch to her face, Will had broken his hold on her. Or had it been the time she’d spent to describe every moment of this last explosion of violence? Or had it been because she had defended herself? She was still afraid, but she wasn’t going to take Will’s abuse any more. She would protect herself, Joy, and Gran in any way she could.

She opened the door and walked back into the hospital room where they waited for her with the nurse.

Sam was grateful for the wheelchair ride downstairs. She’d have never made it to the main lobby without it. She kept her head down and used her hair to shield her injured face from the other people in the elevator.

“Joy and I will go bring the car around to the entrance,” Ellen said, and taking Joy’s hand, walked out the side entrance. They disappeared behind a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk.

“Wonder what’s going on out there.” the nurse said.

Sam shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe someone’s family is here to pick them up.” Through the crowd she caught a glimpse of her grandmother’s car. “That’s her car.”

The nurse pushed her forward, and as she triggered the door mechanism, Sam bent her head so her hair covered the side of her face. The early morning sun proved to be too bright for her injured eye, and Sam threw up a hand to block it as they emerged from the building.

“That’s her,” a voice shouted from close by.

The sound of someone running brought her head up and she looked directly into a camera thrust into her face. The click of the picture being taken seemed to reverberate all around her. Surely she couldn’t hear that above all the clamoring questions being fired at her, one on top of another.

“Is it true your husband has been arrested for abuse, Mrs. Cross?”

“Is he the one who beat you?”

“How do you know Judge Henry Mooreland?”

“Why are you leaving the hospital so soon after being admitted?”

Sam covered her face with her hands. “Please, stop.”

“Stop it.” the nurse stepped forward in an attempt to protect her.

“Why is she being discharged?” One man asked.

Who had called the press? And why would they even care about an abused woman?

She gripped the arm of one the men standing next her. “Why are you here?” she asked.

“Judge Henry Mooreland is being investigated by the state attorney’s office for misconduct and obstruction. It’s come to light that your first case of domestic abuse was mishandled and that Judge Mooreland had a hand in that. Do you have any comment on that?”

Sam drew in a slow, painful breath as her mind raced with possibilities. If she answered that question, she’d be thrown into a firestorm. Chaney Cross and Henry Mooreland had been friends for years.

Then she remembered how long she’d stood outside of Mooreland’s office and waited for him to come out so she could beg for his help. He’d threatened to have her arrested if she didn’t leave. He’d even had a court officer escort her from the building.

“Yes, I have a comment.”

CHAPTER 10