CASSIUS
Though my mother was doing well, I still spent the next week or so in the hospital. Now that I'd reconciled with my parents, I wanted them to know that I was there for them. But also, I knew that once I returned to my real life, I would need to talk to Deira, and I wasn't ready. Not because I wasn't sure what to say-in fact, the opposite. I knew that I wanted Makayla and Deira to be part of my life now, and forever. But we'd had such a rocky path, I was a little scared of how Deira would respond to me.
So, I put it off for days, until my mom finally prodded me to leave the hospital.
"You've been here forever," she said. "Go home, get a shower, and get a good night's sleep. And then, once you're refreshed, maybe talk to your girlfriend about us meeting our granddaughter." She winked at me.
"She's not my girlfriend, Mom," I protested, feeling like a teenager.
"But you like her, right?" my mother asked, and all I could do was grin in response. "See," she continued. "You have to go tell her. And it won't get any easier just because you keep putting it off." She was right. So, I followed her advice, and went home to shower and sleep. The next morning, I texted Deira, but she didn't respond. Impatient, I went into the office and looked in on her department.
"Deira?" her manager said. "She hasn't been to work in days. Took a last-minute vacation, I think."
A vacation? Surely, she wouldn't leave town without telling me. Anxious, I went over to her place. I knocked on the door but got no response. After a few tries, I left the building feeling dejected. There were kids playing in the front yard and I stopped to ask them if they had seen Makayla lately. They all shook their heads, and a small girl who looked about Makayla's age said, "They're staying with her aunt."
Of course! Why hadn't I thought to check Dani's place? That was Deira's refuge. I still had her address from meeting Deira there before, so I rushed over, getting more and more impatient. I told myself to keep my cool, but now that I had realized how important Makayla and Deira were to me, every moment I spent wondering where they were made me feel a little more desperate.
I reached Dani's apartment and tried ringing the doorbell. There was no response here, either. I leaned against the wall, frustrated as all hell. Maybe I could meet Deira when she went to pick up Makayla at school? But I checked the time and realized it was well past time for school to be out. Whether it was here or back at their own apartment, they should have been home by now.
As I was rubbing my temples and trying to think of where else they might be, a teenager came out of the apartment across the hall. I straightened up and waved to get their attention.
"Excuse me, do you know Dani, who lives in this apartment?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure," the teenager replied.
"Have you seen her lately? Or have any idea when she'll be home?"
"Oh, I don't think she'll be back in a while," the teenager said. "They left earlier today, and they had a bunch of luggage with them.
"They?" I asked, a sudden suspicion striking fear into my heart.
"Yeah, her and the other lady and the little girl. They left a few hours ago, and they each had like, three bags. I guess they were going on a trip." The teenager shrugged. "The little girl kept pretending to be an airplane."
"The other woman and the little girl, were they blond?" I asked. The teenager looked at me a little suspiciously, but answered the question.
"Yeah. I think they're friends or something. Anyway, I gotta go now..." she trailed off, starting to back away.
"Wait, just one more question," I said, desperate for information. "When did they leave, exactly?"
The teenager shrugged again, and then pulled out her phone to check the time.
"About an hour ago? I wasn't really paying attention, but it's been a while." Seeing my distress, she paused and said, "Sorry."
"No, it's fine," I muttered as I hurried away down the hall. If they were going to the airport, and they'd only left an hour or so ago, I might still have a chance. But I had to hurry.
As I rushed toward the airport, I felt a spike of anger. I didn't know where Deira was going, but how dare she just run off like that? I knew we'd had a fight, but wasn't it childish to run away? Shouldn't she at least have the guts to tell me she was leaving? I took a deep breath and told myself that I could deal with all of that later. The important thing now was to find Deira and make sure she knew how I felt before she left.
About ten minutes away from the airport, Scott called me. I routed the call through the hands-free system and answered it.
"Scott, I can't really talk now unless it's important," I said.
"Well, you tell me. I investigated Mr. White, like you said," Scott replied. I gripped the steering wheel tightly and sat up straighter. I had almost forgotten about Mr. White.
"Go on," I said.
"It was a mess, Cassius. It turns out two people had already registered minor complaints about him, but they couldn't be proven, and were years apart, so no one had noticed the pattern. But because of that, plus your tip, I started a full-blown investigation. As soon as I started looking into it, multiple women came forward with stories of sexual harassment."
I felt slightly nauseated. So not only had Deira been telling the truth, but she hadn't been the only one? I suddenly remembered asking her if maybe she had "misunderstood" what Mr. White said to her. That had been when she got really angry with me. I thought I was being reasonable, but she had every right to be mad.
"I got human resources involved, and the women were found to be credible. Their stories were corroborated by fellow coworkers. There was also a woman a few years ago who appears to have been fired after she stood up to Mr. White. I can't believe we missed all of this. Whoever gave you that tip, they really did us a favor bringing this to our attention."
"Fire him," I said, feeling rage building deep in my gut. It was bad enough that this man had behaved like this in my company. But the fact that he'd done it to Deira? He was lucky I was on my way to catch her at the airport and Scott was dealing with this. I'm not sure I could have trusted myself to remain professional while dealing with him.
"It's already done," Scott said. "As soon as the investigation concluded, I terminated him."
I felt a grim sense of satisfaction hearing this. It was too little, too late, but at least there was some justice for what he'd done to Deira and those other women. I thanked Scott for taking care of it and hung up. I realized all my anger had dissipated. After all, what right did I have to be mad at Deira for leaving town without telling me, when I'd given her every reason to think I couldn't be trusted?
And now that the anger was gone, there was another emotion. I realized I was afraid. If she could leave town without telling me, what else might she do? How would I find them if Deira didn't want to be found? It suddenly hit me that what was going to keep us together was not my ability to find and control them, but our relationship. I needed to prove to Deira that she could trust me, and the first step was to find her and apologize. I stepped on the gas.
Once I got to the airport, I had no idea where to go, so I started at one end of the departures hall and checked every counter and every security line. I was starting to think I had missed my chance when I caught a glimpse of blonde hair in a security line about 50 feet away from me. I sprinted over, and as I got closer, I recognized Dani, Deira, and Makayla.
"Deira!" I shouted, but the departures hall was busy and there was a lot of noise, so she didn't hear me. The line moved forward and the three of them moved up. They were next to go through security, and I had to catch them before they did. I stopped, doubled over from the effort of running, and then straightened up and took a deep breath.
"Deira!!" I shouted again, putting all my effort into projecting my voice. The shout rang out through the hall, causing everyone nearby to turn to look at me. Thankfully, over in the security line, Deira turned and looked at me. I saw her eyes go wide with shock, and she said something to Dani and Makayla before slipping under the security rope and walking toward me.