50 Shades Deeper

The Truth

When I come home, I still feel giddy on the inside. I need to talk to Kate.

In college this is how it was; if she went on a date, even if I was asleep, she would wake me up as soon as she got home so we could talk about it. I didn't really do that because I never had dates. Even well into marriage, we do the same thing.

"Kate?" I call out, slipping my shoes off and placing my bag on the table. I walk into the living room, expecting them to be in there, but they aren't.

Seated along the L shaped couch is Teddy and Sophie, Alexander and Phoebe, the other two not in sight.

"They aren't here." Teddy speaks up. He is sitting on the arm of the couch, Sophie resting against him. She looks better.

"Where's your brother and sister?" I ask inching closer to the ottoman.

"They went out with Kate, Elliot and Ava." Phoebe answers. "We wanted to talk to you."

"Is this an intervention?" I don't know why there is a need for one, but when the kids call the meetings it tends to be pretty important.

"You could call it that." From the look on my daughter's face and the tone in her voice, this was her brother's idea that she got dragged into. I glance between Alexander and Sophie, neither of them saying a word.

"Mom, it's been a month." This is what it's about. "We haven't seen our dad, or talked to him, in a month. Every time we bring it up you shove it away with the same answer. Every time Kenneth asks about him, you say the same thing, and he may not tell you, but he knows something is wrong and he wants a real answer too."

"Ted-"

"No, mom." Phoebe interjects. I rub my hand over my chest, feeling it tighten. I didn't want to tell them. Especially not now. "For weeks after the accident, I heard you in your room. One night you drank too much, I had to help you back to bed, and I stayed with you. I stayed up right next to you and watch you start crying in your sleep." Her voice cracks and tears form in my eyes. "Mom, it hurt me to see you like that, I had never seen that side of you. The worst part was I didn't even know what had happened. I didn't ask you after that either, thinking you'd tell us on your own."

"After Sophie recovered, the nights that we stayed over here, Phoebe, Kenneth and even Juliet would all pile up in my room, and we would talk and cry, thinking of the different possibilities." Teddy stands from the arm rest and takes a seat directly across from me on the couch. "It's been a month; we miss our parents. Mom, what's wrong with dad?"

I sniff and wipe away any stray tears on my face. Looking at all my kids, Sophie and Alexander included. I open my mouth to speak, and my hands become shaky. Would it have been any easier to tell them earlier?

"You know your dad woke up two weeks after the accident." I can't bear to even look at them right now, but somehow I manage to stare into the faces of heartbreak and still give them what they want. "I was in the room when he woke up. I went to go get a nurse, went back to talk to him...and he didn't remember." The tears are unstoppable now. "He didn't remember me."

Phoebe is proving to be just as emotional as I am at the moment. Teddy seems to be thinking about what I just said, then the reality of that hits him.

"He didn't remember anything that happened after he met me."

"Mom-"

"That means-" Teddy and Phoebe speak at the same time.