Love Me Enough To Hurt Me

Chapter 1: Dang I Messed Up!

 Nailani sits at home in bed wearing one of her husband's button-down white shirts she likes to sleep in, sipping on a glass of wine. All kinds of thoughts go through her mind as she sits in the middle of her bed, drowning in her thoughts. He was going to be late again and not to wait up. He texted an hour ago. He didn't even call to tell her; he texted, and when she texted back, she got no reply. Her phone sits in front of her; she stares at it before downing the rest of her wine. She gets up from the bed when her phone rings. His picture pops up. Smiling, she sits back down and picks up the phone.

"Hey babe," she says, but instead of a reply, she hears another woman's voice.

"You like that."

"Yea, this is just what I needed," she hears Caiden, her husband's voice

'What about your wife?."

"What about her? We don't have to talk about her. Just keep doing what you're doing." she hears him say breathlessly.

"CAI" Nailani yells into the phone. "Answer me"

She got no reply; instead, the voices on the phone kept doing whatever they were doing.

"Oh hell no," Nailani states as she hangs up and calls Caiden's phone. It rings, but there is no answer; she hangs up and calls again, and again after the fifth time, she throws the phone on the bed in frustration as tears stream down her face.

This could not be happening again; how could he do this to me? Was this my fault?

Nailani thought to herself. She got out of bed, phone in her hand, and walked around the house looking at the pictures of them and their friends and family. They looked so happy in the pictures, but she knew the happiness had died a while ago. She starts flipping the images over. She couldn't bear looking at their memories of happier times. She makes her way to the kitchen, where she notices the half-empty wine bottle; she grabs it and takes a swig right out of the bottle. Nailani sat there in her thoughts, continuing to drink her wine straight out of the bottle. When she was done, she went to the cellar, got another bottle, and opened it. She took a swig and made her way upstairs. She went into the medicine cabinet and grabbed a bottle of pills. Returning to the bedroom, she doesn't make it to the bed. Instead, she sits on the floor next to it. She opened the pills and began swallowing three pills at a time, washing them with the wine. She continues this even when she begins to feel dizzy. She is ready to end it all. She swallows three more pills with tears streaming down her face, drinks the last of the wine, and everything gets blurry. She drops the bottle as she becomes unconscious.

Caiden woke up in a bed that was not his own. Holding his head, he still felt the liquor he had drunk. He looked at the woman next to him, Lola. He and Lola had known each other a long time. She always provided a night of fun whenever he wanted a night of fun, and he needed it tonight. He and Nailani had fought that morning, and he just didn't want to deal with it. He knew he had to go home at some point, and it wasn't fair for him to do this to Nailani. He grabbed his phone to check the time when he saw six missed calls from Nailani. Under the missed calls was another call made from his cellphone to Nailani, and then he realized he had pocket-dialed her. Looking at the time the call lasted, he panicked, wondering what she had heard. Shit, he thought before grabbing his clothes and getting dressed. After throwing on his clothes and grabbing his keys and phone, hearing his movement, Lola woke up.

"Where you going, babe" Lola says

"I've got to go," he says, continuing to get dressed as he makes his way to the door.

She gets out of bed and tries to stop him

"You sure we still got the time? Didn't you tell wifey you'll be late"

"Lola, I can't. I've got to leave," he says, Frustrated that she was trying to stop him.

Making it to the door, he leaves and gets into his car. Sitting in his car, he begins to beat the steering wheel.

How much had she heard, what would she say, and what would she do? What was I going to say? She's not stupid. She's not gonna believe just anything. I just have to come up with a convincing lie.

This was his last thought before starting the car and heading home. He drove above the speed limit, trying to get home, but he was close enough to the speed limit to avoid getting pulled over. Finally reaching the house, he goes inside the living room and sees all the pictures of them turned over. He hears a crunching sound and sees glass from a picture frame. He picks it up. It's the picture from when they discovered they were having a baby. She must have thrown it on the floor. Knowing Nalani's history, he started to panic. Wondering if she'd hurt herself.

"Nai" he shouts but gets no reply.

He races up the stairs to their bedroom, and it looks empty. He goes to the bathroom attached to their room, and she's not there. Coming out of the bathroom, he sees her on the floor, unconscious. He pulls her up, trying to wake her up, repeating her name. He soon realizes she doesn't have a pulse, then he notices the empty bottle of wine and the pill bottle. Grabbing his phone, he dials 911 and begins CPR.

Come on, Nai, I can't lose you too.

After about twenty chest compressions, checking her breathing, and trying to get a pulse. Caiden continues until, finally, he gets a pulse, though she still hasn't come too. Feeling like the ambulance was taking too long, he picked her up, carried her downstairs, and headed towards the car as he reached the front door. The EMTs are there, and so are the cops. They begin asking him questions, but everything is a blur as he watches the EMTs work on his wife. What had I done? He thinks to himself. They take her, and he wants the following, but the police are not done with him yet. And what seemed like hours of questioning, they finally let him go. The EMTs had told him which hospital they were taking her to before leaving. He gets in the car and can't find himself to start it. He blinks away the tears in his eyes. He gets his phone and dials a number.

"Hey," a woman's voice answers the phone

"Can you meet me at Crestwood General?" he says

"Sure, what-" he hung up before she could get her question out...