Erica felt as if she'd just had all the wind knocked out of her. Sam was married! How on earth had he kept that fact hidden from her? Whose apartment had he taken her to that night? Surely he couldn't afford the upkeep of the home his wife lived in plus that bachelor pad...
She watched as a nurse led the sobbing woman away. Tempted as she was to follow, she knew that right now would be a most inappropriate time to cause a scene, which would surely be the result of Sam's wife learning of her existence. She decided to simply sit in the waiting room and wait for the woman to reappear.
After awhile she got tired of waiting and decided to approach the receptionist herself. "I'm his sister," she lied when the receptionist asked if she was a relative.
"One moment," the receptionist told her, disappearing behind a door. A couple of minutes later a nurse appeared.
"Miss Nobles?" she asked.
"Yes," said Erica.
"I'm so sorry, but your brother passed away a few minutes ago," the nurse told her.
Erica's jaw dropped. "Sam's dead?"
"I'm very sorry, Miss Nobles," the nurse repeated.
"But why? What happened to him?"
"He had enough cocaine in his system to kill a horse," the nurse said grimly.
Sam? Cocaine? Erica drove back home in a state of shock. As soon as she reached her destination, she cried until there were no more tears left. The next day at the bank, all anyone could talk about was what had happened to Sam.
"You liked him, didn't you?" asked Jessica, a co-worker.
Erica shrugged. "We were friends."
"It's just so weird," Jessica went on. "You think you know someone, and then it turns out that you don't really know them at all."
"Did you know he was married?" asked Erica.
"With two children," interjected Tracy, another co-worker. "His son's about four and his daughter's about two. Cute little kids."
"Strange that he never talked about his family at work," Jessica commented. Erica just felt sick.
The next day Sam's obituary was in the newspaper. It stated that he had died at a local hospital of a 'sudden illness.' Erica snorted.
'He is survived by his loving wife Diana, his son Ethan, and his daughter Brittany,' the obituary continued. Erica wondered whether Diana had any idea what kind of person her husband had really been.
Life soon returned to relative normality for Erica. She fell back into the routine of working at the bank all day, picking Toni and Sonya up from childcare, and coming home to spend a lonely afternoon of making dinner for three, keeping her daughters entertained until bedtime, and then watching television until it was time to go to bed. The routine rarely varied.
One day at lunchtime it hit her. Today is Yuri's birthday. She wondered, if he was still alive, who he was spending it with. Was there anyone there to make him a cake, to bring him presents? How I wish it could be me and the girls, Erica thought.
"Are we ever gonna see Daddy again?" Toni asked her that evening.
"I don't know, sweetheart," Erica told her. "I hope we will."
"I miss Daddy." The little girl climbed up into her mother's lap and buried her face in Erica's shirt.
"I miss him too," said Erica. "Maybe we'll see him again soon, but always remember, whether we do or not, he loves you very much, and if he could be here, he would be."
"I know, Mommy," said Toni.