This decision wasn’t about just me. She was old enough for it to change her life. She loved her father, her friends and her life. Bella was the happiest little girl and Ty played a huge role in her life. Taking him out of the equation wasn’t going to be as easy as moving away.
It wasn’t like I was even welcome in Kentucky, in fact, I was pretty sure that most girls my age wished I’d never come back again. How could I raise my kids there knowing that I had such a bad reputation. People in small towns didn’t get over things like that.
“Mommy?”
“Yeah, Sweetie?”
“How come Daddy sounded so sad?”
Please don’t tell me that! Don’t feel sorry for him. He did this to us. This is all his fault. “He’s just sad he couldn’t come with us.”
“Daddy said to tell you that he loves you. He said he wishes we were home with him.”
I needed to be strong and not give my opinion. She didn’t need to know this was happening. This had nothing to do with how much he loved her. I needed to remember that. “I’m sure he does, Sweetie.”
“Have you ever seen Daddy cry, Mommy, cause I think he was crying. He sounded sad too. Can’t we just visit Noah on another day. I think we should go home and hug Daddy instead.”
My throat was burning with sobs I was fighting to keep in. “We’re almost to Uncle Colt and Aunt Van’s house. Daddy will be fine, Bella.”
She started crying. Just what I didn’t want to happen. How could she even know something was wrong. “Did Daddy say he was sad?”
“No. He just said he missed you and sounded sad. I want my Daddy.”
I put both hands on the steering wheel and tried to focus on driving. The tears filled my eyes, faster than I could blink or wipe them away. Part of me wanted to keep driving forward and get to the ranch, but something else inside of me wanted to turn around and go running back to where I left the other half of my heart. I wanted my happy life.
A car started to pass me and they had their high beams on. I flicked mine trying to get them to turn theirs down. In between the bright lights and my watered eyes, I wasn’t able to see the freaking buck jumping in front of my car. I tried to swerve, but suddenly lost control and felt the car diving into the ditch. Unfortunately, we hit a culvert and it forced the car on its side.
My fat belly was stuck in the seat belt, as I frantically reached for my daughter. She was crying, so I knew she was conscious. “Bella, talk to Mommy. Are you hurt, Baby?”
“Mommy, I want to get out of here!” She screamed.
“I know, Baby. Mommy is stuck in her seat belt. Your little brothers made my belly too big.”
I heard voices of the people from the car with the high beams. Thankfully, they had stopped. A young man came to the window and looked in. “Help is coming. We called for an ambulance. Are you hurt?”
It was all happening so suddenly. “Can you get my daughter out? I’m pregnant and I’m stuck in the seatbelt.”
“We’re pretty close to the firehouse. They should be here any second.”
That was good considering, I had no idea where I was. In fact, if these people hadn’t been around, I wouldn’t have even known where to tell the ambulance to come.
“Do we need to call someone for you? A husband or boyfriend?”
Bella was really screaming as the strangers climbed in and freed her of her seatbelt. “It’s okay, Bella. We hit a deer, that’s all. It happens all the time.”
“No it doesn’t, Mommy. I want to go home. I hate surprise visits. I want my Daddy.” As the guys pulled her out, she continued to kick and scream, even after they set her down.
I was shaking so bad that I didn’t even notice the bright lights coming our way. The red lights of the ambulance brightened up the dark road. With Bella out of the car, the paramedics rushed to attend to me.
“Ma’am are you in any pain?”
I shook my head, but honestly, I had no idea if I was in pain. I was freaking out. “Please get me out of here. I’m in my last month of pregnancy and I feel like I can’t breathe. Get me the hell out of here!”
My car was on its side, with probably more damage than it was worth. The paramedics had to wait for a fire truck to come with the necessary tools to cut me out of my seatbelt. As I lay there dangling, I could hear them trying to calm down my freaking out daughter.
“Ma’am do you need us to call your husband? Your daughter keeps crying for her father.”
I opened my mouth to answer, just as the seatbelt was cut free. Two firemen, reached in and caught me from falling. As the seat belt was removed a sharp pain hit me at once. I couldn’t answer about Ty, I could barely breathe. When they got my out of the car and onto a stretcher, all Hell broke loose. Bella was being taken to the ambulance while they were putting me on a stretcher and lifting me up in the back of it.