Where the Streets Have No Name
Chapter 41
Carmen didn't respond from inside the bathroom, but Edward could hear the disturbing sound of glass shattering.
He rapped on the door with renewed urgency. "Carmen, open the door. What's going on? Please, sweetheart, just open it," he yelled.
Carmen remained silent though he could detect movement from inside the room.
He was frantic. What was she doing in there?
"Carmen!" He banged on the door again. "You're scaring me here. If you don't open the door I will have to break it down. I will, I swear," he threatened, though he wasn't quite certain his shoulders would be up to the task. He would try regardless.
It took him ten more minutes of pleading, banging on the wall, and threatening to call the hotel security - or worse, her mother - before he heard the click of lock disengaging.
Edward entered the bathroom to encounter a frighteningly chaotic scene. Every movable article of toiletries were on the floor, all that were breakable - including the mirror - were broken and amidst the debris and shards of glass sat Carmen on the floor. She was trembling and looked dazed, still in her wedding dress that was now torn in places and stained with blood in others.
Blood.
He rushed to Carmen's side to look for injuries and inspect the extent of the damage. He found minor cuts on her knuckles and fingers. Nothing too serious caught his eye, but he needed to examine her more thoroughly.
"Oh Carmen, what did you do?" he said, trying to lift her off the floor so he could take her back to the bedroom, then call for an ambulance if need be.
"It's not supposed to be this way..." Carmen said in a small voice, sounding lost and sad. "It's all wrong..." A tear slipped past her left eye. She didn't help much when Edward picked her up, but at least she didn't resist either.
Once he tended to her cuts and bruises and made sure that her physical injuries were superficial, Edward allowed the gravity of the situation to sink in.
His wife had a massive emotional meltdown on their wedding night. And he had caused it.
He felt like an utter failure.
How was he going to raise a child when he couldn't even treat his wife right?
"I'm gonna help you into a change of clothes, okay? I need to take you to a doctor," he softly told her. She seemed better now. The light of awareness was returning to her eyes.
She shook her head. "No, no! I'm fine. I just... lost it there for a minute. I don't need to see a doctor. I'm feeling better now. Really.
"Can we... can we just not tell anyone about this? I'm... I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry I scared you. It won't happen again. Please?" She sounded perfectly rational.
Edward turned his head toward the wreckage of the bathroom. There wasn't any way the damage could be swept under the rug. He supposed he could come to an understanding with the hotel management and call upon their discretion in return of paying reparation for the destruction of hotel property.
What concerned him more was the extent of Carmen's rage. He knew she was temperamental, perhaps even more so now due to the hormones, but he had never seen her lose control like that.
She seemed calm and confident now, and he didn't want to rock the boat by pushing her into an argument. He made a mental note to investigate later if anything like this had happened with her before.
"Ok, if you're sure," he acquiesced hesitantly.
Carmen fell asleep quite unceremoniously after that. Edward stayed up and did the best he could to clean up the mess in the bathroom so the housekeeping staff wouldn't walk into what looked like a crime scene the next day. When he was done, he climbed into the bed. He was exhausted but too keyed up to close his eyes.
His father's words echoed through his mind in a constant loop.
He truly didn't know the stranger sleeping beside him.
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