-1Chapter Two
"Mom's been arrested," Kevin announced frantically as he entered the apartment. "I knew this would happen, I knew it! We never should have helped her, we should have..."
"Kevin!" Michael grabbed him by the arm before he made it into the living room. "Keep your voice down before Lauren,"
"Before I what, Michael?" Both men immediately stopped talking and turned to face Lauren. She was standing in the middle of the room, one hand on her hip and the other still holding the phone. Given the roundness of her entire upper body, her posturing would have seemed comical if it wasn't for the rage and sadness in her eyes.
"Lauren, I..."
"Save it, Michael! Don't you want to know who was on the phone?" Michael had a feeling this was a rhetorical question, though even if she expected him to answer, he doubted he would have been able to. The lump that had formed in his throat felt like it was slowly suffocating him, and he knew he deserved it.
"It was Gloria. She needs you to go bail her out of jail, apparently she's been charged with manslaughter in the death of Emma Gibson." Lauren sounded eerily calm. Michael still couldn't bring himself to speak and Kevin looked as though he were about to cry or wet himself, or both.
"Oh, come on you guys. Aren't you even gonna pretend to act surprised?" Lauren felt a few angry tears run down her cheeks, and she frantically wiped them away. "God, I'm such an idiot!"
"Lauren, please. You need to calm down." Michael quietly pleaded as he moved closer to her, wanting so badly to hold her in his arms, to make the pain go away. The look she gave him stopped him in his tracks.
"Calm down? How the hell am I supposed to calm down when I've just learned that my husband," she looked over his shoulder at Kevin, "that my entire family has been lying to me for months?!"
"I was trying to protect you." Michael explained, though it sounded pathetic even to his own ears.
"No, Michael. You weren't protecting me, you were protecting yourself. You knew I would never approve of you and Kevin getting mixed up in this, so you lied to me after you swore you never would. And I believed you." She knew she was crying again, but at this point she was too numb to care. Michael didn't know what to say, didn't know what to do in order to fix this. He couldn't bare to look at her. The pain in her eyes made his heart hurt.
"Maybe I should go." Kevin mumbled nervously when the silence finally became unbearable.
"No, Kevin." Lauren said, her voice rough from unshed tears. "You stay. I'm the one who should leave. I'm the one who should have left a long time ago." She grabbed her purse off the coffee table and headed towards the door.
"Lauren, please." Michael pleaded. He didn't say more, he didn't have the right to. Lauren paused with her hand on the doorknob, but she didn't turn around to face him.
"Don't." Was all she said before walking out the door and closing it firmly behind her.