Forget-Me-Not: Chapter Five
Mina
Mina sat diligently at her husband’s bedside while he slept.
She couldn’t help but think back upon the very last time that they had spoken. It would haunt her now, possibly forever.
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72 Hours Ago.
“Do you really have to go?” Mina asked him sadly.
She was standing in the doorway, watching him pack his suitcase. Again.
Colter practically lived out of his suitcase these days.
She felt like she had watched her husband pack more than she actually lived with him.
“Yes, honey, I obviously have to go, that’s why I’m going.” He didn’t quite snap at her, but he wasn’t exactly speaking with his tender voice, either.
Mina folded her arms, dropping her face to hide her disappointment. “But it’s almost the holidays...” she trailed off weakly. It was only the beginning of autumn, but she was running out of words to stall him with.
“Exactly. Almost. I’ll be home for Christmas, don’t worry.” He teased, straightening up with his suitcase in hand.
There was no stopping him; she knew that look in his eyes.
Colter was the most stubborn man that Mina had ever met; it was one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him.
Now, unfortunately, it was the thing that was slowly poisoning their marriage.
“Please? I just...I kinda have a bad feeling about this; about this trip.” She told him, following him down their grand, curving marble staircase.
In the foyer, he set down his suitcase by the door for Leonard to take out to the black town car that was idling in the driveway, waiting to take Colter away from her.
She stood in the middle of the marble floor, feeling incredibly small. She kept fiddling with her wedding rings as she watched their butler, Goodweather, help Colter into his coat.
“Sweetie, I can’t just cancel my meeting because you have a bad feeling about it, now can I?” He approached her as Goodweather glided discretely away.
Cole gently grasped Mina by her upper arms, squeezed gently. “It’ll be fine, Mina. I’ll call you when I get in.”
“Cole, please listen to me...” she whispered. “Don’t go. You could just...stay. With me.”
He smiled down at her faintly. He was so tall and intelligent and busy and intimidating.
Mina knew it was strange, and even silly, to be intimidated by one’s own husband, but she was and always had been. In a way, she supposed she even kind of liked that feeling, to an extent. She liked the way Cole made her feel.
He made her feel small.
But sometimes it could be a lonely feeling.
He cupped her cheeks, cradling them in his big hands. “I love you.” He told her firmly, then kissed her forehead.
“Cole...”
“I’ll call you. Be good.”
Those were his last words to her, ‘Be good.’
What was worse, was that she didn’t even tell him she loved him one last time, as he walked out the front door of their home.
Mina would regret that for the rest of her life.
He never did call.
When the call finally came, it was the hospital in Denver calling to tell her that her husband had been in an accident.