Chapter Twenty-Two

19 weeks

Richie couldn't put the phone conversation out of his mind, he hadn't told Sarah about it the night before and still wasn't sure what to do the next day. How was Sarah going to react to this? She had gotten over her past but meeting the guy in court. He didn't think she would ever be up to that. But the charges, abuse and attempted murder lingered through his mind, if the charges were this bad, Sarah should testify about the abuse she had to live with, to make sure this man would go to jail. Often he had felt he wanted to be able to beat Jonathan up for what he had done to his wife while they were married all those years ago. He knew he wouldn't be able to do such a thing, but knowing the person would be in jail, would be a relief too. Possibly, it would help Sarah mentally too, to really let it all go and be free of him. Richie just didn't know what to do and if he decided, he didn't know how he was going to tell Sarah.

Sarah was still sleeping in bed next to him, he hadn't been able to sleep well but it wasn't that early either. He just had a big decision to make which was turning into a dilemma, he needed to talk to someone about it, someone that would be able to help him on this part. But who?

Carefully he got out of bed, not wanting to wake Sarah up yet so he wouldn't have to tell her anything. The night before she had been a little suspicious about what was distracting him all evening. He wasn't sure if she would continue to believe him if he said there wasn't anything wrong.

Downstairs he hoped Sarah would sleep in, she had been tired the day before and maybe she would sleep a little longer than usual so he had some more time to think about what he was going to do with this knowledge.

A few hours later he had his mind made up, on what should happen at least, he still didn't know how he would ever be able to tell Sarah that she should see her ex-husband in a court room. Sarah had to testify, she had to so they could help putting Jonathan behind bars. If his abuse really had gotten out of hand, he deserved to be in jail. Wait if the abuse had gotten so bad while Sarah was still married to him and what if she hadn't been able to escape him?

Richie couldn't think of it, he couldn't imagine his life without Sarah anymore, he needed her and he was sure she needed him too. If only he could figure out how he was going to solve this.

He knew Sarah was getting angry with him, she was doing laundry and avoiding him. He hated it but he didn't know what to do either.

His phoning ringing was a very welcome break through the stress of the day. When he read the called ID, he was a little surprised to see who it was.

"Abbey? Is everything alright?" He asked concerned.
"I'm fine, how are you and Sarah? I had a phone call from a lawyer yesterday that was looking for Sarah." Abbey sounded just as worried as Richie.
"Yeah he phoned here. Did he tell you what it was about?"
"He did, have you told Sarah?"
"No, I don't know how she'll handle it." Richie said worried. "I don't want to stress her out right now, with Sammy and everything. I don't know what to do."
"You do know what to do." Abbey urged.
"She needs to do it, she has to, if she can help get this guy behind bars, she has to do it."
"How are you going to tell Sarah about this?" Abbey asked concerned.
"That's what I don't know. I'm supposed to protect her. I've tried to make her forget him and now I just have to let her be in the same room with him? I can't do that to her. It'll hurt her."
"I know Richie, but she needs to do this and it might still benefit her in moving on."

Richie sighed, he knew Abbey was trying to help him to make a decision, the right one, he knew what the right decision was. He just didn't know how to do it.

"You'll find a way." Abbey tried to be encouraging. "At least you know what you need to do."
"Yeah. I just gotta figure out how to tell Sarah this without stressing her out, she doesn't need that."

Sarah was still avoiding him after he had ended his conversation with Sarah's mother. He didn't like his wife ignoring him but it gave him some time to think things over.

Finally he decided on how he was going to tell her, what he was going to say and how he hoped Sarah would react to everything.

He went to find Sarah and took her to their bedroom, they needed to have this conversation privately but once there, he was again unsure of how to go on.

"Richie, if you wanna know Sammy's sex that badly, just phone the doctor and schedule a new appointment." Sarah said annoyed when he once again denied anything was wrong. She knew well enough something was bothering him and the fact that he didn't just tell her, bother her even more.
"What?" Richie asked confused.
"Something's bothering you and stop telling me there's not. Just phone the doctor and we'll go back." Her voice didn't lower and stayed agitated.
"There's nothing about Sammy."
"Then will you just tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Honey, calm down, you're not supposed to get stressed." Richie urged her to stay calm, he didn't want anything to happen to the baby because Sarah was stressing.
"Then what is it?" Sarah didn't calm down at all.
"Okay, honey, come here." Richie took her hands and walked her over to the bed, urging her to sit down as he sat down too. "But you have to promise you'll stay calm."
"I can't promise that if you keep avoiding the matter."