Louis POV
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I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath so dedicatedly until I was forced to exhale it all in a relief that nearly had me choking.
I bent over, waving the dust from my face and holding my knees until I slid down the wall to sit down.
Confused and frustrated with angry debris still floating in the air, I pushed myself up and moved over to the tub, turning the shower off.
Then the relief went completely absent.
Within seconds, something clicked into place.
I blinked and walked out of the bathroom, Sammy's crying the only thing keeping me grounded.
I opened her drawer.
At the sight of the emptiness, I quickly shut it. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I opened another. And closed it. And opened another. And closed it. And opened the next one, and slammed it. Then finally bent down to open the last one. And stood up and kicked it back in, covering my face briefly as it all sunk in.
She left.
This goddamn woman left.
And for the first time in my life, I actually nearly wished death upon my wife of 19 years.
Heat was streaming directly to my face, causing me to sit down to resist doing something I'd regret. Sammy was proving the only thing keeping me from going on a rampage and opening my mouth, resulting in an immediate teaching lesson of every explicit in the book.
Seeing the pillow fall down from its upright position, I find it in me to scoop my son into my arms. Taking the bottle I offer him, he quiets immediately.
Under normal circumstances, if I had a say in the matter, I wouldn't even come near my kids if I was this angry. But in this very moment, it became clear I needed Sam in my arms like I needed air in my lungs.
I sit down on the bed, my mind becoming so muddled I'm not even sure my feet are touching the ground.
My knee bounces agitatedly, and in approximately 5 minutes, the adrenaline coursing through me fades until I'm sat staring at a wall in exhaustion.
She was coming back.
But she left.
Josie left her kids. She left her home. She left her husband. Without so much as a goodbye.
And that pissed me the hell off beyond repair.
Sammy started coughing against his bottle and I instinctively zoned back into him, situating him upright, and patting him on his back until he calmed down.
I picked up the house phone off the nightstand, hovering my finger over the numbers long enough to notice it shaking. Then I tossed it down against the bed.
She wouldn't answer.
She wouldn't even answer if I called, and that would only piss me off further if I called and she proved me right.
