Chapter Twenty-Three

19 weeks

"You can't be serious." Sarah said full of disbelief, this just couldn't be true.
"I wish it wasn't true honey but it is." Richie said calmly, he didn't need Sarah to get all worked up again.

She was somewhat calm now and he would like to keep it that way. Stress was something Sarah should definitely avoid during her pregnancy but he had to tell her someway and either way would cause stress.

"I'm sorry." Richie said as he sat back down on the bed with Sarah, he didn't know what more to do.
"I don't know what to do with this information." Sarah said confused.

Richie sighed. He had been unsure of how Sarah would react but hoped at least that she would understand what she needed to do here and that she needed to go to court and tell the jury what had happened in her marriage.

Sarah had heard everything Richie had said. Jonathan was being sued for abuse and attempted murder. Had he really tried to kill somebody. She had no clue what happened in his life after she ran away and left him.

She rather didn't think of Jonathan and had spend years of forcing him out of her mind but now everything that she had ever wondered about him crept back in.

Would he have changed his life for the better, sobered up and fallen in love again. Have his own family again and really  be there for him? Obviously that wasn't what had happened.

Had he just continued as he had when they were married? Did he keep drinking, getting drunk and abusive? Was that how he was now facing charges of attempted murder or had it been an accident that he really didn't have control over?

No.

She was glad Richie was sitting with her and let her take her time. She needed to process this before she could talk to him. He just sat quietly next to her, holding her hand.

Sarah continued talking, by the time she left Jonathan he would never have been able to get sober on his own. He never wanted to go to rehab and had been furious when Sarah had. Then she had never though he would get abusive. Then he would just drink and get drunk, when he came home she would just leave him alone but then they had Caleb and Noah and there wasn't peace and quiet when Jonathan came home at night.

The abuse hadn't started until Caleb had arrived and had gotten even worse after Noah had joined.

But when she had left, she took her sons with her, so maybe there was the possibility that Jonathan didn't get aggressive anymore.

Was it possible that he had gotten remarried? Or at least had gotten a new girlfriend. Did he love her more than he had loved Sarah. Would he change for her and try to stay off the alcohol, treat her nice and loving like Richie now did for Sarah.

No. She remembered the charges, if he was being charged for abuse and attempted murder then he hadn't turned his life around for the better at all. He had just gotten worse than he had been than the night that Sarah had left him.

What was she supposed to do now?

She couldn't meet him, she's be terrified to see him. Just to see him, she knew that would be enough to hurt her and break her spirit. She wasn't strong enough to face him, it would be too difficult and too hard to handle.

Sarah was scared, all these years she had feared almost everyone, until she met Richie and made progress. Now she was alright with meeting people, during her job she met loads of people everyday but she hadn't thought she'd ever had to face Jonathan again.

She didn't know what she had to do.

"Honey?" Richie asked carefully, not wanting to interrupt her but he needed to know what she was thinking.
"I don't know what to do Richie." She said, letting him wrap his arms around her and hold her as she started to cry.

For a while she just let him comfort and hold her.

When he felt Sarah relax again, he rubbed his hand over her back.

"You know what to do."
"I can't do it Richie. I can't" Sarah sighed.
"Yes you can, I'll be there with you."
"No, I cant!" She got up from the bed walked out the room, slamming the door.