The Un-Suspecting Husband To-Be

Charles walked out of his emotionally strangulating, intensely uncomfortable bedroom. Leaving Diana to lay unaccompanied in his bed. It took all his restraints for him to walk away leaving her sobbing behind him. He knew she needed to be comforted but he hadn’t the will to be her comforter. He was experiencing a hundred distinct emotions: fear, frustration, disappointment and most confusion and unavoidable love. All these emotions influenced and clouded his thoughts, causing him to react opposite to what he was feeling. His entire essence was prompting him to rush back into bed and hold her and comfort her. But the fear of losing her to her sickness, the frustration at her reluctance to confide in him, and the disappointment at her mistrust, all kept him away from her. He loved her so much that he felt as though small parts of his insides were slowly dying. He was not surprised by the sound of his own voice crying. Minutes later Charles was jolted back from his trance by a loud thud on the door. He had been intently staring at his hand as if they were about to transform into something remarkable. He arouse from the small Italian sofa he had occupied for the past twenty minutes, then walked hurriedly toward the door. He was a few feet away from the door when he realized that the sound of sobbing no longer echo from the bedroom. Diana had stop crying. He wiped the still fresh tears away from his eyes and face then opened to door. “Oooh-Charles-where-is-she?!” His mom asked, her voice breaking on almost every syllable. “She’s in the bedroom.” He watched in jealousy as his mom rushed to Dianna’s rescue. He wanted so dearly to be the one to save the woman he loved. “Hello son,” Mr. Landson greeted his only child wrapping his arms around him, “is she doing any better?” He asked. Charles eyes locked with his dad whose face bared an understanding look on it. So you know too, he thought, everyone knew what was going on with Diana expect for me. “I don’t know,” he answered breaking their gaze, he felt deplorable for not knowing. Charles understood his mother’s quietness. She had always been extremely close to Diana he knew that they would take each other’s secrets to their grave. But he had not expected his own father to keep something of such magnitude clandestine. He had always been able to talk to his dad about anything, things his mother would become emotional or irrational about. Damn it what the hell was going on, he shouted inside his head. Tim sensed his son’s uneasiness ventured to offer some relief. “I think she’ll be fine son, try not to worry.” He said tapping his son on the back. Before Charles could reply both him and his father were frightened by a loud cry from the bedroom; a cry he recognize was his mother’s. He rushed toward the bedroom, his dad directly behind him. “Mom what’s wrong!” “Diana isn’t responding, how long has she been unconscious?!” Mrs. Landson screamed aloud through loud anguished sobs. “I don’t know.” Charles answered, and once again felt unbearably sad for not knowing. “Honey lift her up I’ll, give me your keys I’ll drive.” Jennifer instructed her husband. Mr. Landson wrapped Diana warmly into a blanket and scooped her into his arms. He loved her almost as much as he wife did. She was the daughter he and Jennifer had never had. He loved her as a person and knew that all of his son’s happiness was depending on her being OK. “I’ll get my coat.” Charles said walking briskly behind his father, who protectively carried the woman who owned his son’s heart. He reached for his coat but was abruptly stopped by his mom. “Charles I think it’s best for you to stay here.” “Stay here,” he repeated his mother’s words and continued to put on his coat, “mom don’t be ridiculous!” Charles looked into the fretful face of his mother and saw that she meant to stand by her suggestion. He placed both hands on his waist, then looked in the opposite direction of her in an effort to calm himself from becoming unseat with his mom. “Mom how can you ask me to wait here when Diana’s life could be in danger?!” “Son it’s for the best — ” “No mom!” He interjected startling his mom, who covered her mouth in surprise. “It’s not for the best! I know she isn’t telling me something! And as much as it hurts me that she cannot confide in me, I’m not going to wait here for you to call back and tell me that something horrible has happened!” He captured his mom’s hands in his and begged her to empathize with him. “Mom please, you know you would never leave daddy alone if he were sick! Please mom — try to understand how I’m feeling. If you leave here tonight with her and I never see her alive again, never here her voice, kiss her hands, or hold her in my arms again. I’ll never forgive myself for not being with her during last hours.” Mrs. Landson hugged her baby boy tightly in her arms. She could see how much he was hurting. She could also empathize with him, her heart would he falling out her chest, just as his was, if it was her husband in Diana’s place. Yet so much was at risk, so much was depending on him not coming, she knew that numerous hearts would be broken if Charles discovered that Diana was pregnant. Not now, not like this. “Charles honey, you know I would never do anything to harm you or cause you to be sad. But it’s imperative for you to do as I say and stay here. You’ll be helping her more by staying here than by coming.” “Helping her more, how, how will I be helping her?” “Charles please, we’ve wasted too much time already. Time is of the essence we must leave now, please obey!” His mother shouted, in a tone Charles knew meant that the subject was no longer open for debate. “You’ll just have to trust your father and I to do the right thing.” Reluctantly Charles watched as his parents left, his father cradling Diana like a baby in his arms. He knew that she was in good hands, he only wished she was in his arms instead of his dad’s. Hours later, Mr. and Mrs. Landsons sat anxiously waiting in the hospital’s waiting room. Four hours had passed and they had not received any response, good or bad, from the doctors. Tim encircled his arm around his wife’s shoulder he could see how deeply troubled she was for Diana. “Honey.” Jennifer addressed her husband. “Yes dear.” “Do you think it was wrong of me to hinder Charles from coming?” “I think that under the circumstances you did what was best. He should be here, he has a right to, it is his child after-all. But if he found out what you two have been up to this way, I don’t know how he would react to it.” “What we’ve been up to. Don’t forget that you played your part too dear.” Mrs. Landson said as she smiled at her husband, slapping him playfully on his chest. “After all it is your money that is financing our son’s wedding. Tim smiled into the loving face of his wife. In all the years they had shared together she had not changed. Inside she was stilled filled with the fire and wittiness she had since the first moment he had laid his eyes on her. She was also equally beautiful her long dark hair and hazel brown eyes were features that accented her more each day. He smiled for he knew that only his wife could have concocted such a plan and she had gotten poor Diana involved in the whole mess. “Yes dear it is my — our money — hopefully in the end our actions will bring our son happiness.” “I hope so too Tim. I hope so too.”