Chapter 39- 'I am sorry, Reagan'

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Reagan POV

“Louis? Oh m-. What are you doing here?”

I could feel the room spinning. My vision was going blurry. The thoughts in my head were bouncing between strangling Louis and screaming at the top of my lungs for someone to come in here just to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things.

He was actually here.

He was breathing right in front of me.

After almost a month and a half of him missing, he was sitting right here in the flesh.

“I’m…um…visiting Trinity.”

The way he said it so nonchalant, as if he and I had seen each other earlier this morning and I should have known why he was here, piqued me to no end.

“Visitin-. How did you even know she was here? How did you even know where to come?”

“Well”, he shrugged while standing up, “this family of ours ends up in the hospital a lot. We always come to this hospital. I may only have a GED, Reagan, but it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.”

While I fought the urge to lunge at him, I actually had a chance to analyze his appearance. He looked…bad. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, his clothes were dirty, and he needed a good shower and a shave.

But, even with all of that, he didn’t look like a person that had been missing for a month and a half. He looked the same way he looked during a usual weekend when all he did was sit in the chair and watch football by himself. He didn’t look like he had been abused or mistreated in the least bit. So, my question was where had he been?

“Louis, where have you been? Do you honestly think that you can show up after being gone for so long without explaining anything to me?”

“All jokes aside, Reagan, you weren’t supposed to be here. Visiting hours ended 20 minutes ago. So, no. I don’t really have an explanation prepared.”

“Well, I suggest you start thinking now. Cause you’re not leaving this room without telling me something.”

He rolled his eyes and turned his head to a stirring Trinity. After waiting until she was still again, he turned to face me with an annoyed look on his face.

“Fine”, he snarled, “I’ll explain what I can. But, in the meantime, you can’t tell anyone that I’m here. No one can know, and I mean that.”

“Why not? What can-.”

“Alright, Mrs. Styles, it’s time for you to wake up so you can eat. That baby of yours needs some nutrients.”

Before the door opened that revealed the nurse that was speaking, Louis rushed into the closet. Without telling me anything, he put his fingers to his lips and quickly closed the door right before the aging Asian lady that was Trinity’s nurse walked in.

I barely had time to register what happened before she flashed a smile at me and walked over to Trinity. I just sat in the chair and tried to focus on anything but the grown man hiding in the closet less than 6 feet away from me.

“I don’t want to eat right now”, Trinity mumbled, slowly opening her eyes.

“Dear, that’s why I didn’t phrase it as a question”, the nurse said, “I wouldn’t want to mislead you into thinking that you had a choice.”

Trinity rolled her eyes as I stifled a laugh. I loved this woman.

“Fine. I’ll eat, but only for my daughter.”

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