Jamie's POV
He had it coming, ever since the day he sided with Conner, he had it coming. I saw the tears in his eyes when I placed the ring in his hand, but he didn't let them fall. I heard his side of the conversation with his daughters and heard the frustration in his voice, but I tried to block it out. Then he came in to my room, he needed the bathroom, and we got into an argument. Right as he left he turned back,
"I love you," his words burnt my heart and I angrily wiped away my tears,
"It hurts doesn't it," he said noticing me wipe my eyes, "you just ripped my heart to shreds but I still love you," I noticed his voice break, he was trying to be smug, but he was in as much pain as what I was.
What had I done?
I made the right decision, I was sure of it. He had lied to us; he told Eli that we didn't love him. He hadn't protected us; he didn't hear my silent pleas. What kind of man was he? He was meant to be my knight in shining armor and he wasn't. If he loved us he would have stopped Conner taking Eli, he would have know the threat without me ever telling him. I silently cried myself to sleep; I couldn't let him know that he had power over me, or that I was upset, he might think I was starting to change my mind.
The next morning we drove back to Denver in complete silence, only speaking when we stopped by the police station to check if they had any information. They were as hopeless as the detectives back in Minnesota, they said that they didn't find anything we didn't already know, but they'd keep a look out for the suspect. They also said they'd faxed a report through to the detectives in Minnesota.
At the airport I let him check us in, after all he bought the tickets, and while he did I wondered why we were giving up the search for my son. I know Conner had left that note, but he only knew we'd been searching because of Jim. Without Jim in the picture how could Conner possibly know? Yet, here we were already leaving; we'd only arrived the day before. Who was to say that Conner wasn't still nearby? If he had banked on us being scared and running away with our tails between our legs, he would have seen no need to skip town. He could have even been next door when we searched his house; we could have been so close and not even know it. And instead of looking harder we're simply running away, tails tucked between our legs, letting Conner win yet another battle.
He tried to talk to me during the flight, the balls of him to get a seat right next to mine. Surely he hated my guts, I'd ended our relationship, told him to leave that I wanted nothing to do with him yet here he was sitting right beside me trying to strike up a conversation. I tried to listen to music, but he just wouldn't give up. In the end I asked the stewardess if there was a spare seat I could be moved to, unfortunately there wasn't but, he got the message and didn't say a word the rest of the flight.
"Don't say a word," I hissed at my parents as we stormed into the house. All his stuff was in my room so I went to my son's still clutching his elephant, the only time I'd let go of it was when we went through airport security. I figured that if I could hug the elephant hard enough maybe I'd be able to reach my son, if I hugged the elephant hard enough hopefully my little boy would feel his mother's arms around him.
"So… Who do I need to kill?" Alex asked wrapping her arms around me, I hadn't heard her come in the room but I wasn't surprised that my parents had called her. Ever since I got involved with Conner they would call Alex instead of being there for me. I guess the stuff with Conner was what really distanced me from my mother in the first place. They figured if I wouldn't talk to them at least I'd talk to Alex,
"Him!" I said pointing to the room next to my son's,
"What about Conner?"
"Him too. But HE is the reason Eli's gone," I hissed attempting to glare a hole through the wall.
"I thought that was Conner's fault too,"
"Whose side are you on? I thought you were meant to be my friend!"
"Sorry, sorry," Alex cried raising her hands in defense.
"Where's Jimmy?" I asked knowing that Alex tried to avoid bringing her son around these days. I also knew it wasn't one of Brian's days to have him, when he actually came through.
"John's looking after him,"
"John?" I asked raising an eyebrow; I was still pissed off but, needed to know who this John person was. Besides, anything to avoid talking about how big of jerks both of my ex's are.
"Cena,"
"What the hell is Cena doing here?"
"He came around yesterday, wanted to help search for Eli. Your mom said that there wasn't much he could do, but I told him he could stay at my place. Besides, Jimmy just loves him,"
"Your kid needs better taste!" I replied rolling my eyes, "and you're trusting Jimmy with CENA? He's a big kid himself,"
"So why is 'he' at fault?" Alex asked indicating to my bedroom and avoiding my insults,
"Because he didn't stop Conner,"
"I'm on your side but, he didn't know that there was any risk,"
"Well he should have! And he wouldn't let me go in when we got to the house," I growled trying to stay angry instead of letting the tears fall.
"What house?" Alex asked,
"We found where Conner had been staying," I realized that I could say the name of the man who had taken my son but not the man who I'd broken up with less than 24 hours earlier.
"Then why are you here? Why aren't you still looking?"
"That's what I want to know," I couldn't hold it any longer and let the tears fall,
"Come on Jai, you know Conner he would have been banking on you running with your tail between your legs," Alex said using nearly the exact same words as I had.
"He was probably next door the entire time," I sobbed, "I was outnumbered. The detectives told us to go home and HE agreed," I felt completely and utterly useless. Me, Jamison Alister, head photographer for WWE, me who took no crap from no one was outnumbered by a couple of men with badges?
"There was a note," I finally muttered hoping to give myself some excuse, some reason for giving up so easily,
"A note?"
"Saying if we ever want to see Eli alive again, we'll stop looking,"
"So, you stopped," Alex muttered, she had a child herself, she would have done the same thing.
"So, we stopped".
There wasn't much else to say, we'd said it all. For the first time in our friendship there was nothing that could be said or done to fix the problem. The tears fell and I let them, I thought I'd cried myself dry yet they kept coming, I couldn't escape them. At one point Alex disappeared, I told myself she would be back but it was hard to believe. However, after a few minutes she returned with two steaming cups of coffee.
The day past with not another word being shared between the two of us, I didn't move, I barely breathed and only ate when Alex forced me to. I don't even remember what I ate, it tasted like Styrofoam, but I choked it down at my friend's insistence. I didn't see my ex-fiancé that day, or any of my family for that matter, I guess Alex had kept them away. It was weird, I felt completely separate from them, in a distant world consisting of only my son's bedroom.
For about a week I consisted in the universe of Eli's room, the only time I left was when I needed the bathroom. Alex couldn't stay with me the whole time, but HE was there, bringing me meals and making sure I was still alive, I guess. I saw John once or twice; he'd bring in my meals trying to help out. However, he would always leave dejected, the man who was once able to always make me laugh was faced with a completely empty body, and my mind and soul were elsewhere.
At one point some shrink showed up, apparently my mother was deeply concerned over my state of mind and figured that I needed help. Well it backfired on her when the shrink sympathized with me, saying that if he was in my situation he'd be in the same state of mind, and that he thought was I dealing with everything as well as could be expected.
Eventually I decided to meander downstairs, I'd finally come to the realization that sitting in Eli's room crying wasn't going to get him back. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, Conner had threatened to kill my son if I kept looking and that petrified me.
Slowly making my way down the stairs I saw something that stopped me in my tracks. My father, bags in hand, was talking to HIM,
"Tell her I love her and I hope she finds Elijah,"
"His name is Eli. Are you really leaving?"
"Of course I am! There's nothing I can do here, I have a family and job I have to get back to,"
"You have a family right here!"
"You don't know anything! These people haven't been my family since I made the wise decision to walk out when that brat was 16!" The aggression I witnessed next I'd only ever seen displayed in the ring. The difference being that the in-ring aggression was only a show, what I saw next was completely raw and quite frightening.
The man I had dumped grabbed my father quite easily lifting him off his feet,
"That woman is no brat neither is her son, they are my family! My future wife and my future son and if I EVER hear you refer to either of them in a negative connotation again I will show you why they call me The Animal!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing, the man I'd left high and dry was defending me just days after I'd apparently broken my heart. He appeared to be in denial though, I'd ended things, there was no way I was going to marry that man!
"Get your filthy hands off me! I have a plane to catch,"
"Fine! Leave, but know this… If you walk out of Jamie's life now don't you EVER think you're going to walk back in again!" HE replied dropping the man,
"Who the heck are you to tell me what to do? She doesn't want you! We're not stupid; we know she dumped your sorry ass in Colorado! We heard the fighting, you've got nothing anymore buddy!" I saw my father smirk and HIS face dropped,
"Well if you're going to leave then get the hell out!" HE hissed opening the door.
A couple of tears began to slip down my face as I watched my father walk out of my life yet again. It didn't matter how old I was every time the man left it broke my heart, I felt like I was 10 again, the first time he left. He came back 3 months later but it wasn't the same after that, for the next 6 years he was coming and going from our lives then my mother rekindled an old relationship and saw that my father left for good. But he was still there, birthdays were cards and a couple of recycled gifts, Christmas wasn't much better. He walked out in the middle of my graduation and couldn't pull himself away from his 'new' family long enough to be there when my baby boy was born and then a couple of months later, Christened.
My mother had seen the exchange in the doorway and rushed to give my ex a hug, it was unfair that he was getting her affection when my heart was in a million pieces, his seemed to be quite fine, I left the landing and went to the bathroom with a sudden urge to brush my teeth remembering that I'd hadn't brushed them all week.
After a shower I began to feel little more human and finished my long journey downstairs, Alex was there with John, but Jimmy was no where to be seen, my mother was making food while the man of the hour was mysteriously absent.
"Where is he?" I asked Alex, knowing she'd realize that I wasn't talking about my father,
"Packing," A deep voice responded, I turned around and there he was bag in hand.
"You were right, it's over, I'm going home to my family," he said trying to hide the tears in his eyes, "Oh yeah, your father said to say he loves you, but urgent business called him back home. He's sorry he couldn't stay but it was a matter of life or death," the man lied, clearly unaware that I'd seen the earlier exchange.
"Is everything alright with the girls?" I asked trying to hide my shock and my disappointed. I was surprised, I wasn't meant to be disappointed I should be happy. I was the one who'd broken off the engagement, I was the one who'd wanted him out of the house and now that he was leaving I desperately didn't want him to go, but there was no way I was going to let on.
"Everything is fine, but I do believe I'm not wanted here. I would hate to be a nuisance!" He sighed before saying goodbye and asking John to give him a lift to the airport.
And with that it was over… Or so I thought.
