G.A.B.O.S. (Original Version)

Chapter XXIII

When Lynise's plane landed three hours later, she was the first person off of it. After getting Tamia's call, she'd dropped everything she was doing and hopped on the first flight to Miami, much to Julian's dismay. Ignoring his complaints about her being a little too concerned about a man that she'd broken up with years earlier, she dropped her kids off at her parents' house and rushed to Tremaine's aid.

Since she hadn't brought anything but the clothes on her back with her, Lynise bypassed baggage claim and went straight to the airport's parking lot, where she'd arranged for Tamia to pick her up. She made her way over to Tremaine's Aston Martin and got into the passenger's seat of it. "Can you tell me what the hell is going on with Tremaine?" she asked. She'd been told that Tremaine's issue couldn't be discussed over the phone, and she couldn't take another minute of not knowing whether he was okay or not.

Tamia started the car and looked over at Lynise. She didn't want to speak to her- not after the statement Tremaine had made hours before- but she knew she'd get her opportunity to be petty later on. "Tremaine's fine. Physically, I mean. He's okay, but Heaven isn't."

Opting not to speak on the obvious attitude that Tamia had, Lynise rolled her eyes. "What's wrong with Heaven?"

"Nothing if you believe in God." Tamia pulled out of the parking lot, leaving Lynise to figure out the hidden meaning behind her words.

When what Tamia said registered in her mind seconds later, Lynise gasped. "What? How... what the hell happened to her?"

"There was a drive-by shooting at her school."

Lynise sank into her seat, her worry fading away and allowing depression to fill her mind. When she flew down there, she'd expected to hear that Tremaine had been critically injured or that he'd fallen ill. She had prepared herself for news of that sort, but there was no way she could have prepared to hear that his daughter had been killed. Lynise had known Heaven since she was two-months-old, and she'd been helping Tremaine raise her since she was one. She loved her as though she were her own, and she was finding it more than a little difficult to accept the fact that she was never going to see her again. She had so many questions that she needed answered, but she didn't think Tamia was the right person to ask them to, so she sat quietly.

Within seconds, her mind drifted to her sons. She didn't know how she was supposed to explain to her two-year-olds that their sister wasn't going to be around anymore. While Raequan reacted carelessly to every situation, Jay-Sean had cried hysterically when he was told that he'd have to go up to Georgia without Heaven for a few weeks, and he'd done the same thing when Lynise told him that she was going down to Miami for a day or two. Obviously, he didn't do well with parting.

Lynise spent the entire ride thinking about how she was going to break the news to them, but they were pushed to the back of her mind when Tamia pulled up to the front of the hospital. At that specific moment, Tremaine needed her, and she needed him to know that he had her full, undivided attention and support.

After getting his exact location from Tamia, Lynise got out of the car went into the hospital. She went to the part of the building reserved specifically for patients that ran the risks of ending their own lives. Lynise couldn't help but think that he was in the wrong place. She knew Tremaine. He wasn't suicidal. Homicidal? Definitely, but he had never shown any interests in cutting his wrists or shooting himself in the temple.

When she reached the room he was being held in, she approached the nurse that was standing outside of it and watching Tremaine through the one-way window. "Excuse me," Lynise said, tapping the woman on the shoulder.

The nurse turned around after scribbling something onto her notepad. "May I help you?"

"Yes. I was wondering if I could speak to Tremaine."