𝖕𝖗𝖎𝖒𝖊𝖉 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖘𝖎𝖓 • 𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝖗𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖓𝖘

96.

Chloe
I stood there and watched as Joe held our daughter closer to him. I could tell that he was missing all of us and it broke me. Every night has felt empty, cold, and desolate.

While I stayed for another two hours to spend time with my husband, it was starting to get late outside and I always feared being out late at night alone; in which Joe understood. Given that I'm a woman and there's a lot of crimes that happen late at night, it made me anxious.

"Hey babe, I need to get back home. You know I hate being out alone in the dark."

"I understand baby. I'll miss you." He says, "Make sure to call or message me when you and Alani made it back home."

"You know I will."

I picked up Alani and brought her back into the baby carrier and she started to fall asleep after resting in my husband's arms. I pressed my lips against his and before I was about to leave the room, I happened to notice that Joe was laying in the bed with that warm smile on his face.

"Drive safely, okay?"

"I will!"

I hated leaving Joe all alone inside of the hospital room. I was praying for a miracle to happen and that he could have a speedy recovery after taking several bullet wounds to the chest.

Before I stepped into my car after getting Alani adjusted and buckled-in her seatbelt, I received a text from Josh.

"Hey, we wanted to spend some time with you for awhile before we had to head back on the road."

I replied, "Sure. I'd love to hang out with you three for awhile. I'm about to head back home anyways after I get some gas in the car."

"Bet." He says, "When will you be back home?"

"Roughly in a half hour. I went to see Joe for awhile in the hospital and he looks like he's recovering fast. I'll explain more once we see each other."

I put my phone in my pocket and made my way over to the gas station and paid an unnecessary amount of money just to put some gas into the car. After filling up the gas a few minutes later, I drove back home to my Toronto home and waited for Joe's cousins to arrive. In the meantime, I turned on the television and played some Bluey for Alani while I cleaned around the house and sent Joe a message that we arrived home safely to ease his worries.

Although the home was always damn near spotless, I still proceeded to dust off small areas of the house and did some laundry. It wasn't long until I heard my doorbell ringing and it was Jonathan, Josh, and Joseph standing over at the front door.

I welcomed them with open arms and I was greeted with hugs in return from all three men.

"Hey Chloe. I know you said that our cousin was making improvements, but what's happening with him?" Josh asked.

"Nothing much. He said one of the nurses has helped him get up and stand for awhile, along with walking. He hates being far away from home and he's trying his hardest to get discharged from the hospital."

"That's good progress if he's starting to revert back his old, normal-goofy self like before!" Jonathan flashed a smile.

"It's been awhile since we seen Joe, man. Hopefully he comes out soon." Joseph added.

While I was having Joe's cousins over again for the night, I happened to notice that Josh was sitting around the piano while the other two were babysitting my daughter a couple of hours after their arrival.