“No, no, no,” I choke out as my vision blurs and panic zings through me while realization sets in.
Easton can divorce me right now with the swipe of his finger.
Frantically, I try to dial him back, and it continually goes to his full voicemail box. My heart hammers in my chest and vision blurs while my calls continue to go unanswered. Hysterical, I dial Joel, who doesn’t answer me either, deducing he’s probably attempting to get to Easton himself. I leave a message for Joel, begging him to call me back before frantically searching my contacts and dialing again.
“Natalie, what the fuck?” Benji answers without greeting, his voice filled with clear animosity.
“Benji,” I croak, “please tell me you’re with Easton.”
“What the fuck are you doing, Natalie?”
“Benji, please, are you with him?” I ask, shooting off a text to Easton, begging him to call me back.
“No,” he snaps, “I’m in North Carolina, but he called me after he took off from sound check due to a picture of his bride smiling at another man like he was up next. Joel lost him. Reid’s searching for him now.”
“I think Reid found him. Someone did. Benji, please get ahold of someone. I have to know if he’s okay.”
He lets out a long exhale. “I’ll call you back.”
“Don’t hang up, please!” I screech, pulling a few eyes in my direction before I turn and rush down the stairs into the sidewalk-lined courtyard. “Please don’t hang up!”
“Fine. Let me send out some texts.”
“Thank you.” I pace the length of the courtyard in seconds, spotting some blooming miniature pink roses as images of my honeymoon flash through my mind. Easton’s hair whipping around him in the convertible while flashing me a serene smile. The look in his eyes as he slipped on my ring. His profile as he gazed up at the blanket of stars on the roof of the villa.
“I love you, my beautiful wife.”
“Benji? Anything?”
“Still texting.”
“Okay.” More memories begin to blur in—Easton singing for me at the piano of my hotel. His reflection in the glass at the Needle. The way he looked leaning against his truck, waiting for me.
“Benji, please talk to me,” I plead with him, “just talk to me, tell me something. Anything.”
A long exhale releases over the line, and I imagine him pacing and smoking wherever he is in North Carolina. Another few seconds of agonizing silence stretch out before he finally speaks up. “All right, when East was ten or eleven, he brought a kid home from school and let him live in his closet for three days.”
“Why?”
“Apparently, the kid told East his father hit him, and East couldn’t handle it, so he stowed him away in his closet. He fed him, let him wear his clothes, the whole nine yards. There was an Amber alert. The boy’s disappearance was covered by local news and quickly went national. They did a community-wide search and rescue. East finally went to Reid on the third day after stashing the kid elsewhere and told him he would only tell him where the kid was if Reid agreed to be his new dad. When Reid explained that wasn’t how the world worked and that he had to go back to his parents’ house, Easton broke the fuck down and refused to tell Reid where he was. Reid called the kid’s parents over, and only the mother came along with the police. Reid threatened him with everything under the sun, and even with as much trouble as he was in, Easton refused to give him up. Because that’s East. He’s always called bullshit on everyone, even on intimidating grownups or any authority figure he felt was in the wrong, no matter how much trouble he got himself into. He never backed down from a fight. And because he wouldn’t then, Reid offered the kid’s mother a huge sum of money to help her leave her husband and start a new life.”
“Did she do it?” I ask, a tear sliding down my cheek.
“Yeah, she did. East changed that kid’s life by standing his ground, and he was only in grade school. The way Reid tells it, East still wasn’t satisfied and read the mother the riot act as the kid was ushered out of the house. His entire life, he’s been that way. That’s the man you married.”
“I know,” I sniff.
“No, you don’t, because the only time he’s ever backed out of a fight is for you. He’s kept himself from flying to Austin every day to confront your father because he knows how detrimental it will be for you. He is altering himself for you, Natalie, and it’s fucking him up. I’ve never seen him so wrung out.”