Escaping to Ireland

Vinessa

I had texted, texted, and texted. It was not an abundance of texts sent to Liam.

I had texted him one text each day; each day he was gone, I received no response from him.

"If you pace any more, you are going to wear a hole into the floor. Just call him," Wanda had said Monday through Thursday, each time she had said this, I ignored her; I was not going to be the needy girlfriend that called him. I had no clue what was urgent that he had to run out on me at the airport with zero explanation. 

Susan had texted me plenty, letting me know a restraining order had been filed and that she was indeed moving back to Idaho with her parents. She would raise the baby with her family there. She had three sisters and two brothers, and they seemed happy to have another baby to add to the seven other kids. The few times we had talked on the phone, her spirit seemed lifted. The last text she had sent was: everything would be okay. She had been talking about herself, but I was really hoping that would be the case for Liam and me. 

And then three Fridays later, I received:

Liam: I'm coming home.

I didn't respond; I was a little too peeved to respond to him. He had been a rock, a solid rock, while everything with Shawn and Susan had transpired. And then he went off the radar. I had no clue how to take it all.

He called late Saturday night.

"I'm home," he said. "Would you like to come over?"

"Right now?" I asked sleep in my voice. I was already getting out of bed, and I would wear slippers over to his house if it meant I could see him. To know what the heck had been going on the last couple of weeks.

"We can wait for breakfast...."

"No. Now is good." I was kind of surprised he had not come to see me. Since we had been dating most nights, he did not have me drive; he would always pick me up, even if he had to go pick me up at Wanda's and drive me back if I didn't spend the night.

"Hi," Liam whispered, opening the front door.

"Is someone here?" I asked.

Liam ran his hand over his face; I was shaking; someone was here.

"Who is she?" I asked, my voice quivering.

He took my hand and led me to the back patio, but then he changed his mind and led me to the living room.

"Please, sit," Liam said, gesturing to the same couch he had pried the simple fact that I had thought about having five children with him.

"I would rather stand...."