Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

Meredith realized as she was about to leave that she didn’t have her purse with her or her phone so she couldn’t call a cab or an Uber. They let her call Charles from the nursing desk. He called a cab for her, and told her he would pay for it when she got home.

He was waiting in the courtyard when she got there, paid the cab, and she told him the extent of Tyla’s injuries. They both looked sick about it, as he followed her into the house. The children were asleep in her bed, in front of the TV. She left them in her bed, and she and Charles went to her study and spoke in whispers, and then he went home and Meredith slept on the couch in her study to be near them.

She told them a modified version of their mother’s injuries when they woke up in the morning, and promised them she’d be okay.

“Can we see her?” Will asked. Meredith could see he had one of his stomachaches. He was doubled over in pain.

“Will my daddy go to jail?” Daphne wanted to know. Meredith didn’t tell her that he was already there and she hoped he’d stay there forever.

“I’m not sure we can see her today. They said she’s going to be very sleepy. Maybe tomorrow.”

She took them both downstairs and fed them cereal and toast, and Charles arrived. Before they reached the kitchen, he told Meredith that as soon as the police cleared the crime scene, he would arrange for a special service that would clean the blood off every surface where it was smeared. That afternoon, he called and got the rundown on Andrew’s situation. He was to be arraigned the next day, and they were going to charge him to the maximum extent of the law in view of Tyla’s condition. He was being charged with battery under two sections of the California penal code, for “inflicting serious bodily injury” and for “willful conduct leading to corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition” and making criminal threats. If convicted, he could serve up to four years in prison. A judge would set bail at the arraignment, and later there would be a trial, unless he pled guilty. Charles added that he would probably lose his medical license. He would be forbidden to come anywhere near Tyla, and possibly his children too. There would be a restraining order to prevent him. “I want Tyla and the kids to stay here,” Meredith told him.

They took the kids to the park for an hour after they dressed, and they spent a quiet day. Meredith cooked them dinner. Charles stayed with them when she left to see Tyla briefly at the end of the day, but she was sleeping. She was still unrecognizable under her bandages. Her condition was serious but stable, and her vital signs were normal.

The following day, Charles got the cleaning service in, as he had promised, and afterward Meredith and the children were able to go to the house and gather up some things. She settled them into a room together, with two double beds and a big TV. She took them both to school and picked them up. And at the end of the day, Charles had the results of Andrew’s arraignment. He had pleaded not guilty, was represented by a reputable criminal attorney, and the judge had released him on his own recognizance, since he was a respected physician and it was his first arrest. His lawyer had pleaded well. Pending further hearings there was a restraining order to keep him away from Tyla, the children, and their home. The next hearing was set in a month. Meredith felt sick as she listened, but she thanked God that Daphne had come to get her. If she hadn’t, Meredith was certain her mother would be dead.

The children settled rapidly into a routine, and it was Wednesday before Tyla was coherent enough to recognize Meredith and talk to her, which was difficult, since her jaw was wired shut.

“You’re staying with me,” Meredith told her, and Tyla tried to smile and didn’t argue with her.

“Kids okay?” she asked.

“Yes,” Meredith said. The rest of what she wanted to say would have to wait until Tyla was feeling better.

Meredith told Ava, Arthur, and Peter what had happened and they were horrified, and deeply sympathetic to Tyla. “I hope he goes to prison,” Ava said with feeling. And that weekend, they all went to visit her. She came home to Meredith’s house the following week. She had to take it easy until the concussion was better. And she had to drink her meals through a straw, until her jaw healed. Meredith tended to her as though she was her mother, and little by little Tyla got better, and Will and Daphne calmed down.

Meredith had encouraged Tyla to seek legal counsel herself, although the state was pressing charges. The lawyer she consulted presented a request in family court, attaching one of Andrew’s bank accounts for temporary support for Tyla and the children until the disposal of the case. The judge in family court granted it immediately. And the lawyer Meredith had found for her suggested starting a civil suit for permanent support if Andrew was convicted and he suggested suing him for the house. He assumed that Tyla would divorce him, whatever happened next.

—

“Christ,” Debbie said to Jack on the day Tyla came home from the hospital, “now we’re running a nursing home. First an earthquake shelter for the neighborhood, now this. She can only drink liquids and they have to be nourishing. And the two brats from hell are back.”

“Don’t let Meredith hear you,” he warned her. “This is a chance to show her how much you care for her and her friends.”

“Do I have to?” Debbie looked at him pleadingly. She had never liked children.

“Yes, you do, unless we want to go to jail with Andrew.” They’d been skimming money off the top of all her house accounts and stealing objects of value and as much cash as they could get away with for fifteen years. Debbie might choose to forget it, but Jack never did. And he had no intention of going back to prison, ever again. Debbie was playing with fire with her attitude, and he knew it. They were going to have to win her confidence again, remind her how much they cared about her, and hope she got bored with her new friends soon, so he and Debbie could get back to business as usual.

Chapter 10

Tyla’s convalescence from Andrew’s last attack on her took longer than she had expected. The concussion gave her a headache if she read or watched TV, tried to read emails or looked at a computer screen. She wanted to play with her children, but they exhausted her. The broken arm was an inconvenience, and she hated having her jaw wired shut. The only plus in the whole experience was that she whispered to Meredith when they took off the bandages and she looked in the mirror, “Wow, I love my new nose!”

“I’m happy to hear it,” Meredith said, rolling her eyes. “Next time you want a nose job, let’s just call a plastic surgeon and schedule it, shall we?” There was no question in anyone’s mind that she had escaped within an inch of her life, and if there was a next time, Tyla might not be as lucky, if you could call it that.

She told Meredith several times that it had happened because he drank too much that night. He wasn’t normally as violent.

“ ‘As violent’? What does that mean? A little less violent is acceptable? Tyla, you have to be done with him. He’s too dangerous. You need to file for divorce. You can’t play games with him anymore. What if he hurts one of the children?”

“He won’t. He’s a wonderful father.” But a terrible man.

“He’s dangerous!” Meredith didn’t know how else to say it. Andrew was calling Tyla several times a day, and begging her to give him another chance. He wanted her to drop the charges. If convicted, he would lose his medical license. But charges had been filed by the state, not by Tyla. He wanted her to convince the police to drop theirs.