The Hardest Goodbye

Part Six

                                                                        TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER

"It's time to take your meds, Miss Lexi." A nurse says as she tips a cup full of medicine to Lexi's lips. Her frail body was declining and it wouldn't be too much longer now. 

Lexi swallows hard and opens her mouth for the nurse to check. "Good job girl. I'm proud of you." 

The night after Michael's murder Lexi was found in her bathroom barely clinging to life, by her mother and father. Her mother held her in her arms till the paramedics came, trying to preserve the last bit of life Lexi had left in her. They found Derek's DNA in her and throughout the bathroom. A manhunt began in the little beachfront town, it went state-wide within a couple of weeks till he was found in a motel where he had committed suicide. Lexi was transferred to a hospital where they monitored her as she slept in a coma for the next ten months. On month seven they delivered a beautiful baby girl via C-section. It was a miracle the baby wasn't harmed that night. Although Lexi ended up having two broken ribs and a fractured hip the baby was safe. Lexi's daughter was raised by her grandparents and Godparent Stacey Clarke, Lexi's lifelong best friend. Stacey told Lexi's parents about Michael, how they had been engaged, and how much Lexi loved him, even if the relationship was a bit fucked up by the fact it was an affair. Speaking of that, Deborah moved on just as fast, married less than four months after the final divorce hearing, and was already pregnant with another child from Marlee's dad. She had moved him in and married him, confirming that it was him who she had been having her affair with.

Michael's funeral was one of the biggest the town had ever seen. Even though he was a bit shady and didn't make the right choices he was well-loved by the community. 

Lexi's and Michael's baby girl was given the name Michelle Rose, in honor of both of her parents. At age three, Lexi's parents, Carol and Harry,  gave Stacey their consent for little Michelle to move in with her and her husband Ian, and their two-year-old son. Stacey made sure to keep Lexi's memory alive and when the time was right she took Michelle to meet her mother for the first time. 

When Lexi woke from her coma she recovered slowly, it took a while to relearn the things she once knew, and it weighed on her fragile mind often. Those images of that night burned into her brain. As far as she knew she lost her baby that night as well. No one told her differently, right or wrong that's what they did. Lexi's brain slowly started to crumble, and her sanity was never the same. Five years after that horrible night, unstable Lexi sat at Michael's grave, crying, wishing he was holding her right now, the loss she felt was unbearable. She sat in front of his grave and swallowed a handful of pills. Vowing she would see him soon. When she woke up she was back in a hospital bed her psyche just a thin thread threatening to snap at any moment. Six months later she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, at this point she was gone. She didn't speak. She just stared out the barred window overlooking the courtyard. 

Michelle had just turned ten and asked Stacey if she could see her mother now. Stacey thought it felt right, Michelle was smart, and she understood things most ten-year-olds shouldn't have to. So they went. Lexi never looked away from the window. Never spoke. Never looked at them. Stacey was worried when they left but Michelle never said a word about it. She was brave. 

When Michelle turned eighteen she would go to the hospital more often to see her mother, she was always so astounded at how much she looked just like her. But every visit was the same as the very first. 

Harry died two months after Michelle turned eighteen, a fatal heart attack while he slept. It wasn't too much longer, maybe a year and Carol followed him into eternity. Michelle was heartbroken, the day of Carol's funeral she went and saw Lexi. Breaking down at her mother's side while she slept, she held her hand tight. She just wanted her mom, for her to know she was there, she wished her mom could have watched her grow up, seen her graduate high school, and pick her college. Michelle wanted nothing more than to have a conversation with her mom.