“I'm really sorry to find out about her affair. I always wondered, but I had hoped that I was wrong about her that way."
Roman sighed. "I wish I hadn't walked in on them. I may never get that moment out of my head. I know that Janine feels the same way you do about Cami. I guess since I've been out of it here at the hospital, they've become good friends. You know, Janine can't stand Denise.
“But right now, Cami and I have decided to just be friends and be there for each other and raise Emma together. I feel like I have to at least give my marriage one more chance; like a last shot before I give up on anything."
Allen's voice sounded like he didn't think Roman should do any such thing, but he didn't say it. "Well Roman, do what's right for you, no matter what anyone else says. That's the best you can hope to do.
“In the meantime, I'm going to keep working on the Senator and try to convince him that Denise isn't part of the yacht package."
"Thank you, Allen. It’s a huge relief to me to know that you're there, and that if anything should happen, you will be well able to handle it. I'll be back as soon as I can be. Thanks again." Roman smiled a little and hung up the phone.
His mind had been so full of tangled worries; his work, his wife, Cami and little Emma, and needing some peace to consider all of them had led to his being in the boat wreck. Now he was sitting in a hospital bed, still wrestling with his worries and problems
Roman gave himself the best thing he could give himself, and that was time. There was no rush to work through anything just then, and no need to hurry any decisions. He decided that as long as he was in the hospital to rest, he would take full advantage of it and think about everything else when he got home.
The only thought that crossed his mind was whether or not he should call Denise, but when he mentioned it to Janine, she said she had let 'The Wife' know that he had woken up and that was all there was. She knew he was awake and she still had not come back to the hospital. He saw Cami and Janine, he got to watch them with Emma, and the day that the doctors said he would be leaving to go home, he got to meet Cicely.
Cami walked through the door with a big smile and their daughter, and she was followed by a well-dressed woman; thick bodied but not overweight, heavy chested, with black hair down to her shoulders. She had wide brown eyes and full lips, and an air about her that commanded respect and radiated strength and love.
Cami stood at the foot of his bed while Emma squealed at him and cooed, and Cicely walked to his bedside and took his hand in hers.
"I'm Cicely, it's nice to meet you. Roman. I wish it was under better circumstances." She smiled down at him and put her warm hands over his. It made him think suddenly of his own mother who had passed away years before. Her gentle touch was comforting to him, and he could see in a minute that she was a woman who loved and defended fiercely.
"Hello Cicely, it's so good to meet you. Thank you for coming in here!" He smiled at her. "It's easy to see where Cami gets her beauty and her strong character."
Cicely laughed quietly and said, "So, they tell us that they are letting you go today. How do you feel?"
Roman shrugged. "I feel better than I did when I woke up, and I feel alive, so that's the most important thing. They've taken good care of me in here, and I can't ask for much more than that."
"How long will your recovery period be?" She looked at him with kind eyes.
He tilted his head. "Well, it's supposed to take six weeks, and we're already coming to the end of the first week, so we've got a way to go. But it will happen. I come back for checkups a few times, so those benchmarks will tell us how I'm really doing. I have high hopes."
The corners of his mouth turned up a bit. "I've had good company here in the hospital, and a great staff. I think it's been the key to my recovery." He smiled at Cami, and thought again for the umpteenth time how beautiful she really was.
Cicely patted his hand and let it go. "I hope you heal soon. If there is anything that I can do for you, please let me know."
He knew that she meant it and he was grateful for her thoughtfulness. The doctors and nurses came bustling in around him, unhooking him from everything and getting him ready to be released. An hour later, he had been signed out of the hospital and was being driven home by Janine. He'd said goodbye to Cami, Emma, and Cicely at the hospital and it hurt his heart to know that he wasn't going to be seeing them more than once a day, now that he was going back to the house with Denise.
He wondered what he would find when he went home, and deep down, he wasn't looking forward to it.
When he went through the doors of the huge house, it was quiet. No one was there to greet him. Janine looked around and scowled.
"I told her you'd be coming home, and I expected her to be here to help you." She gave one sweeping dirty look to the empty space where his wife should have been and then turned and smiled at him. "No matter. We'll get you set up in the guest room downstairs here. I don't want you trying to go up and down the stairs to your bedroom while you're still on crutches," she said and then walked toward the guest bedroom beside the library.
Roman followed her. He knew she was right; it would be much easier to navigate the downstairs rooms than it would be to try to get up to the second or third floor with crutches. For all the richness and convenience of his massive home, he had not put in an elevator, so he hobbled into the guest room and took a look around.
He hadn't been in it for a while, and it wasn't as big as his room, of course, but it was quite clean and it looked really comfortable. Janine got him all set up and then looked at him as she was leaving.
"You let me know if you need anything, and you’d better tell me if Denise gives you any grief. I know you can take care of yourself, but if she isn't an absolute angel to you while you're healing, she is going to catch hell from me." Then she smiled at him, hugged him, and walked out, leaving him to rest.
He laid back in his bed, worn out from the trip home and the excitement of the day, and before he knew it, he was sleeping.
It was hours before he woke, and when he did, the house still seemed quiet. He got out of bed and hobbled into the kitchen for a meal and some water to take his medication, and he was surprised to see Denise and her mother sitting at the table, talking in low tones.
They both looked up at him and Agnes narrowed her eyes at him and glared. "Well, look who it is. The wandering philanderer back from the grave."
He looked at her for a moment, wondering if she knew her daughter had been having an affair, and took a deep breath. "Hello, Agnes."
He turned and headed toward the sink. He was stunned when Denise hopped up and rushed over to help him. She pulled a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water, and then handed it to him.
He stared at her for a second. "Thank you," he said quietly, and that was all he said because he didn't know what else to say to her. She wasn't really a deeply compassionate person, or terribly thoughtful.
She seemed somewhat agitated, and she twisted her fingers round and about each other as she looked at him, almost in desperation.
"We need to talk," she said thinly. He looked at her face and saw worry in her eyes, and something like panic, but not quite as dramatic. He nodded.
"Alright. Can we go somewhere private or does your mother need to be in on this conversation?" He wasn't sure what she needed to talk to him about, but he knew better than to suppose that it would be just the two of them without checking.
She looked over her shoulder at her mother, who was still shooting daggers at Roman, and then she turned her eyes back to him. "It'll just be the two of us. Let's go." she walked beside him as they made it back to his room downstairs and he climbed into bed with a sigh.
He got comfortable and looked up at her. "What is it?" he asked in a tired voice.
Denise shifted uncomfortably and then sat on his bed beside him and laid her hand on his leg. "I found out about your kid," she said quietly.
Roman nodded. "I know. I heard about it when I woke up at the hospital."
She leaned forward, moving closer to him. "I'm sorry I didn't come see you, but I just couldn't stand that place, or stand being around that woman you were with. It was just too hard for me, and I knew that if anything bad happened, then they'd call me and of course, I would have come to you, but I knew that as long as I didn't hear anything, then you were okay, and I didn't have to worry about you.
“I knew you were being taken care of and that was all that mattered to me. I just wanted to know you were alright without having to get into any weird fights or arguments with that woman."
Roman could understand her point, but he still felt like he had been deserted. He felt like she should have been there, no matter what.
Denise inched even closer to him, sliding her hand up his leg a bit further. "I had some time to think about it while I was waiting for you to come home, and I wanted you to know that I've accepted what you did, and we've both made mistakes, and I still want us to work on things together. I still want to try to fix our marriage. I'm going to be a step-mom to that kid, and I will do my best to try to be a nice one."