Never Giving Up (Never #3)(78)
Babe, calm down. Everything is fine. Mattie had her echocardiogram, which was very cool, and the doctor said that everything looks fine. She thinks the murmur she heard in the emergency room might have just been something cause by stress of the infection.
I exhaled, but kind of wanted to slap Porter through the phone for causing me to lose years off my life from the sheer panic I had endured in his radio silence.
Well, that’s good news.
Just as I’d hit send, Mr. Donaldson walked up to us with a smile on his face.
“The jury is done deliberating.” His smile grew even wider as he said the words. “Court will resume in thirty minutes.”
“Done already? It’s been less than an hour.”
“I’m not surprised, Mrs. Masters.”
“Well, all right then.” Just then my phone pinged again.
So, since she’s got the PICC line, and her heart looks good, Dr. Edwards said there’s no reason to keep her here any longer and she’s discharged Mattie. We’re just waiting to sign the paperwork and then we’re free to go.
For the umpteenth time that day, I felt like a ping pong ball being tossed back and forth. Porter’s words caused me to halt my steps, Kalli and Megan nearly ramming into me because of it. I was all over the emotional map. I was nervous about hearing the verdict of the jury, worried that such a short deliberation meant, surely, they’d found him innocent of the charges and I’d have to go back to living my life in fear of him again. Only now, since I’d so boldly taken a stand and publicly accused him of attempted aggravated murder, he had no reason to not hunt me down and finish the task he’d started last spring. On the other hand, I was gutted that my baby was being released from the hospital and I wasn’t there to see she got home all right.
“What’s up?” Megan asked, pulling me from the doorway as not to block anyone else entry into the courtroom.
“They’re releasing Mattie.”
“Oh my gosh, really? That’s wonderful! That means she’s healthy and ok?” Megan gave me a sideways hug as I still stared at the screen. Kalli smiled at me, waiting for me to say something.
“Yeah,” I said, looking around, for what I wasn’t sure. I suddenly felt very out of place. “Listen guys, I’m gonna go.”
“Go?” Kalli asked. “Go where?”
“Home. To be with my husband and baby. I don’t need to be here anymore.”
“Don’t you want to find out what happens?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” And it didn’t. I’d done what I came here to do and said my piece. I’d done everything I could to put Jason Ramie behind bars, but now I refused to let him hijack anymore of my life. If my baby was going home, so was I.
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Don’t you want to see him convicted? Don’t you want to watch them cuff him and haul him away?” Megan’s voice was full of fury and she sounded like she was having a hard time believing I didn’t want to stay and watch the circus she was describing.
“No. I don’t need to see that. But if you want to stay, you could text me and tell me what happens, ok?”
“You want me to text you whether the man who tried to kill you gets convicted or not?”
“Um . . . Yes.”
“Ella, it’s almost time. It will only be a few minutes.” Now Kalli was trying to reason with me.
“Look, guys, I appreciate your concern, really, but enough of my life has been disrupted by this *. There’s nowhere else in the world I am supposed to be this evening than at home with my baby and husband. So,” I said as I tossed my hands up in the air, daring either of them to argue with me. “Either stay and get the scoop for me, or go home. Either way, I’ll find out about it somehow.”
“We’ll stay,” Megan said as Kalli nodded.
“Great. Thank you. Text me,” I said, kissing both of their cheeks before I broke into an all-out run, trying to make my way out of the courthouse with one thought at the front of my mind: I needed to get to my family.
The last couple of hours at the hospital was somewhat of a whirlwind. The PICC line, the echo-cardiogram, the discharge—the hospital had been great to us, but in the end it was like they couldn’t get us out of there fast enough. I smiled at the memory. Melody, the nurse Ella had mentioned many times and who I thought was, by far, the best nurse we’d had, fawning over Mattie, telling her to be good for her mommy who needed some good rest and relaxation. Melody smiled up at me, and looked as though she was contemplating something.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“Well, I don’t want to overstep my bounds here, and I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, but . . .”
“Melody,” I laughed, “Spit it out.”
“I just really liked getting to know Ella and I felt like we were becoming friends and I’m a little sad she isn’t here for me to tell her goodbye. I guess I was hoping you could tell her goodbye for me? Just tell her I said good luck?”
I smiled at Melody and of course agreed, but also asked if I could give Ella her phone number. Of all the people on the planet, I understood how Ella could instantly put people at ease, make them feel important, and genuinely build relationships with people even in the worst of situations. I was not at all surprised that Ella had managed to befriend our nurse—she was so easily loved.