Chapter Twenty-Two

Cause of Death: Complications due to breast cancer.

That's what her death certificate cited. Nobody dared to speak a word or approach him in the coming days of her memorial service. Nobody protested when he gave them tickets to Maui for the ceremony of spreading her ashes, and she didn't dare utter a word when, in a fit of agony and grief, he squeezed her hand so tightly she seriously thought he could break every bone in it.

For Ed Deline, this was the beginning of the end. No more spending the day in bed with his wife... no more surprising her with small gifts of his love... no more making love well into the night to the early rays of day... no more fighting and arguing about mundane things... this was it. To him, all that there was left to do was die.

Delinda stood in the doorway of the adjoining suites and watched her father. She didn't want to have separate rooms, she needed to be with him. Sighing softly, she walked in, "Daddy, how about we order a pizza or something."

Ed stared into the darkened room, softly, "My wallet's on the television, Delinda. Take the money out of there and you can order one for yourself."

His daughter walked over and kneeled in front of him, her hands on his knees, whispering softly, "Dad, you have to eat. Mom wouldn't want you to just shut down like this. Please, Daddy... have something to eat."

With her father remaining silent, Delinda let out a quiet sigh and stood up. Leaning down to kiss his cheek, she hugged him and walked out of the room and looked at Sam, who had witnessed everything. In desperation, Delinda said, "I can't reach him. Dad won't eat, he won't sleep, he hasn't showered since we've been here... All he does is sit in that chair."

Samantha nodded sympathetically. Hugging her friend, she asked quietly, "You want me to try?"

Delinda nodded, "Maybe you can offer him something I can't."

That said, the blonde haired woman walked out of the hotel room and headed towards the surf, she needed a break.

Sam breathed deeply as she took in the sight of her boss. The once strong as nails, no holds barred Ed Deline had been reduced to a broken man, a pathetic shell of his former self. Walking in carefully, Samantha grabbed a small chair and dragged it over in front of him. With her warm eyes glued to him, she began, "I was married once upon a time ago. His name was Philip. We had known each other since birth, in fact, we were born in the same hospital three days apart and had been together ever since. I loved that man like there was no tomorrow. We were childhood sweethearts... When we reached that age, as all children do, where we wanted to play doctor, we played with each other, though I'll admit it was a ridiculous thing we did." Samantha paused to see if he was listening. The very last thing she wanted to do was expose herself so raw to someone if he wasn't even paying attention. A bright flicker of blue flashed and she knew she had his attention so she continued. "When we got to high school, Phil became captain of the football team and I was a cheerleader. It was so full of cliches, Ed, that you would roll your eyes, but I loved him. He was everything to me. And then, on the night we won the homecoming game against the Panthers, I was out on the field, long after everyone had left... Or so I thought." Sam took a deep breath as she stood up and fought her composure. Without her knowledge, Ed's head slowly followed her, engrossed in the tale his employee was telling. "I was waiting for Phil by the bleachers, only without my knowledge, his teammates had taken him to the local bar to get plastered. As I was heading to my car, another of his teammates approached me, Brian. Brian was very drunk, to this day I had never seen anybody so drunk. He grabbed me and threw me against the bleachers and kissed me hard. After the initial shock wore off, I slapped him and tried to run, but Brian, being the quarterback, was much stronger than I. He threw me behind those bleachers, ripped my skirt off and proceeded to rape me. I was numb with shock, Ed. The bastard just left me there, my body throbbing, broken, battered and bruised for a lifetime. I guess Phil drove by the field or something because the next thing I remember is him taking me in his arms and running to the hospital, which, thank god, was only down the block. Philip stayed with me as I healed in the hospital. He stayed by me as my parents forced me to go to counseling to try and deal with what had happened. Luckily, I didn't get pregnant from that, I wouldn't have been able to deal with what had to be done."

As she spoke, her back was to him, and the tears were falling freely from her eyes. She hadn't spoken about it to anybody, yet she felt safe enough to tell him. During her admission, Ed had rose to his feet and put his hands on her shoulders. She jolted when she heard his gravelly voice, "What happened next?"

Samantha allowed herself to lean back against him as she continued, "Two years later he and I were married on a beautiful piece of land in Simi Valley overlooking the ocean... and nine months to the day I buried him. In an ironic twist of fate, Phil was walking home from work one night--being newlyweds, we couldn't afford two cars and the one we had was in the shop--and he stumbled across an alley that had another woman being raped. Philip wanted to help her, he wanted to stop what was going on. He jumped on the guy from behind, but he turned around and had a knife and plunged it deep into Philip and left. Phil ended up dying right there in that alley. The girl was too scared to do anything. Knowing what rape is like, I don't really think I can blame her." She turned around and faced him, her voice was soft, "I don't know what it is like to be married to somebody for thirty years, Ed. I don't know what it is like to have a child with someone. But I do know what love is like. I know what being so much in love your head spins is like. And I know what it feels like to have to bury a part of your soul. I want to help you through this, Ed. Nobody was around to help me through it, and I want to help you. Please, don't shut down on me. Don't shut down on Delinda."

At the sound of his daughter's name, Ed grabbed Samantha Jane and pulled her close to him, burying his head into her hair and sobbed. Sam closed her eyes as her own tears fell as she held the shaking man. Deep into her mind she knew that with time, he would get through this, and he would do it with her help.

The End.