CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.
Ever since Jamal heard the news of Adele’s miscarriage, he has not been able to stop tears from flowing down his cheeks. He had gone into the toilet several times to bawl out his eyes. He had been in the hospital all night, but he had not set his eyes on Adele because he was scared of how she was going to react when she set her eyes on him. He was the reason why she had lost their child and he knew she must hate him very much, coupled with the fact that he had not been the most caring husband for the past months.
Guilt.
Regret.
Pity.
Angst and many other negative emotions were all mixed in his heart and he didn’t even know how to feel.
He hated his father for putting him in a mess which had to make him work like a slave and not look after his pregnant wife.
He hated Danielle for having the solution to his problem, but refused to give him because of her selfish love for him.
And above all, he hated himself for not being able to protect his home.
“His cell phone rang in his pocket and when he took it out and saw his father’s name on his caller ID, he quickly killed the ringer and put the phone on flight mode. He wasn’t in the mood to speak to his father who was the root of all his problems.
“Sean.” He called one of the guards standing nearby and the man immediately rushed over to him.
“You called.”
“Yeah…” he agreed as he sniffled tears and cleaned his nostrils with the handkerchief in his hand. His eyes were bulging red and he had sleeping bags under his eyes. He still had on the bloody clothes from the previous night. He looked awful and his guard felt pity for him. “I need you to go over to the office and tell my secretary I won’t be coming to work today. Ask her to adjourn all my meetings except my father opts to fill in for me. Go tell her that.” He instructed and the man nodded his head and turned to leave, but half way, he stopped and turned to Jamal.
“Mr. Dominick, should I arrange for a room here so you can rest? You look exhausted and need a change of clothes as well.” The man suggested in a calm tone. Jamal looked up at him and as shook his head in denial, hot tears streamed down his cheeks.
“No Sean…” he denied with a shaky voice. “I don’t deserve rest or a change of clothes. Not after what I have done.” He cried and Sean just nodded his head and left.
Jamal wanted to see Adele. He wanted to apologize for all the way he treated her, he wanted to ask forgiveness for hurting her and making her lose their baby, but his guilt wouldn’t let him do that, so all he had to do was sit and cry.
As he sat on the chair before Adele’s ward, he saw nurses and doctors rushing towards him and he immediately rose to his feet.
“What… what’s going on?” He asked, frightened.
“We have been signalled that there’s an emergency.” Replied the doctor as he walked into the room with the nurses following close. Jamal, without thinking twice, walked into the room as well and the moment he set his eyes on Adele, he froze on his tracks. She was screaming with tears flying down her eyes and her hair totally disheveled.
“Adele.” He called and Adele stopped screaming and turned to look at him.
“Jamal, what are you doing here?” Adele asked in a calm tone, but Jamal could feel the bitterness in her words.
“Leave us.” He ordered and immediately, the doctors and his grandmother left the ward so they could talk. Jamal walked over to the hospital bed to meet Adele who was staring arrows at him. If looks could kill, he would be dead and buried already.
Without saying a word, he sat on the chair his grandma previously occupied which was beside Adele’s bed and an attempt to hold her hand earned him a very hot smack on the hand from her. He withdrew his hand and sighed heavily.
Adele looked at the man seated before her and she could hardly believe it was Jamal because of how haggard he looked. She had never seen him in such a state. That made her understand that he felt guilty for making her lose their child, but did not stop her from hating him.
She hated him from the depth of his heart and if she was given the chance, she would kill him, just like he had killed their unborn child.
“Adele.” He called calmly as he looked at her. They were both shedding tears at that instant.
“What do you want from me Jamal? You already killed my baby, what else do you want?”
“Our baby. It was my baby too, Adele and I didn’t mean to ki… I didn’t mean to push you to the ground.” Jamal cried hard.
“Jamal it had been clear from the onset of this marriage that you didn’t want me or anything to do with me. You didn’t treat me like I meant something to you. Even when you found out that I was pregnant, that didn’t even trigger you to treat me better. Even the fact that I had a complicated pregnancy did not make you have pity on me. You kept distancing yourself from me. You let me attend all my hospital appointments alone. Jamal… Jamal, do you know that you never heard the heartbeat of your baby? You never saw your baby on the black and white screen because you were too busy to accompany me for those ultrasounds. You wanted nothing to do with this pregnancy that’s why you planned to kill it.”
“I did not plan to kill our baby. Jesus Adele I love you and I loved our baby just as much.”
“Liar!” Adele screamed in agony. “You are a blatant liar. You don’t love me and you didn’t love my baby either…”
“Our baby!” Jamal corrected.
“There’s no need to be all possessive right now, you killed him already. You killed our son!” Adele scolded and Jamal looked at her in shock. He had no idea it was a boy.
“Son?” He asked almost in a whisper. He had never known the sex of the baby.
“Yes, son. I got too curious to know the gender of the baby, so I asked the sonographer to reveal it to me. I was going to tell you last night but I couldn’t because you were about to go out and before leaving, you pushed me to the ground and made me lose it. God Jamal you are a monster and I hate you so much. I despise you so much that seeing and talking to you right now makes me sick. I wish you could just disappear and never show up in front of me again.”
“Adele… I’m sorry.” Jamal wept as he got on his knees by her bedside, giving her a very sorrowful look. “I swear I didn’t mean to push you…”
“Jamal I know you didn’t mean to push me. You are not a violent man and I know you will never hit me. What hurts me is the fact that you didn’t even turn to look at me despite the fact that I screamed. You walked on like you heard nothing and left me there on the floor and you did that because you don’t care about me. Because you don’t love me!”
“I did not hear you scream.” He pointed out.
“Liar!” Adele shouted. She was breathing so hard that her chest hurt. She felt like she was going to faint the next minute. “Jamal you are a cold blooded murderer and you need to pay for what you just did to my son. I would report you to the police and file a lawsuit against you, but you are Jamal King Dominick. You control every sector in this country, I will be fighting a lost battle!” She spat out like a dragon releasing fire from its mouth and her words burned Jamal to the ground.
“Adele… please. We can make this right.”
“I don’t want to make things right with you, Jamal. I’m in pain both physically and psychologically because of you. What I want is for you to walk out of that door and never show your face to me again. I hate you Jamal, from the crown of my head to the soul of my feet I loathe you. From the innermost depth of my heart I despise you and I never want to see your face ever again! Please get the hell out of my room, my blood pressure is rising. I might have a heart attack if I keep seeing your face.”
“Call me if you need anything.” Was all he said as he rose on his feet and exited Adele’s ward so she wouldn’t have a heart attack. His presence was getting her upset and he didn’t like it.
His marriage was ruined and he knew it was going to take a miracle to get it back on track.
He was going to do all he could to perform that miracle, because he loved Adele and letting her go was not an option.
He was going to find a way to redeem his marriage.