The next morning dawned with two issues. The first was her shoulder. She woke with pain in the shoulder and her back. No doubt the attack yesterday had strained both. The other issue manifested in a loud wail from Destiny's room. She had a nightmare about Alex being stabbed. Both of the twins were soon awake and crying. They too were asking for Alex.
Carmen, Felipa and even Jonathan worked for almost two hours before they established something close to a normal atmosphere. Carmen put her arm back in the sling. It helped the shoulder, but it wasn't doing her headache any good. Neither did the two Aspirin. By noon it would have been a close contest to say who was the crankiest person in the house. As if that weren't enough, the guests were supposed to leave tomorrow and wanted to go on a final ride. Leaving the children with Carmen, Felipa joined Sam and the men on the last ride. Rob was still with them, but kept a low profile. There was no point in making an issue of it. Like the others, he had paid through tomorrow. A broken nose was fitting punishment. In any case, how would she enforce it - chase him off at gunpoint? Obviously a pitchfork wasn't sufficient.
After lunch the twins wanted to take a bath. It was best to wait until Felipa returned, but they didn't think so. In no time they were crying for Alex again. That was when Alex finally returned her call. Her cell phone rang at the exact time she was certain that her head would burst. Both twins were crying and destiny was pouting.
"Alex?" Carmen answered.
"Yes. I got your message." His voice sounded tired. "What's the problem?"
The problem was that she hadn't been able to reach him, but she didn't want to start out nagging at him.
"I wondered how you were doing, and when you were coming home."
After a long silence, she sighed.
"Look, I understand why you want to hurt me right now, but how can you do this to your own children?"
"They'll get over it, Carmen. It's not the first time I've been away. Don't be so dramatic. They're being influenced by your reactions."
What did he know about how she was reacting - or what was happening, for that matter? He hadn't even bothered to check on them.
"Me?" she gasped. "What about you?"
No doubt it wasn't what he wanted to hear and there was another uncomfortable silence. Something snapped inside of her and he was no longer Alex - and she was certainly no longer herself. Losing him was no longer a possibility. It was a reality. All the piled up stress and remorse bubbled up and she was suddenly and thoroughly consumed with seething rage.