“Tria, please just calm down!” he yelled. “Liam’s fine...”
He looked at me, and I felt my guts drop to my shoes.
“He’s right here with me now.”
“Let me talk to her,” I said as I moved quickly across the room. I wanted it to sound like a demand, but it was nothing more than a plea. I could still hear the voice that was now painfully familiar as I approached my uncle.
“Maybe it would be better for him to explain,” Michael was saying. “He’d like to speak with you.”
I grabbed the phone from his hand.
“Tria?”
“Liam! Liam!” The sweetest damn voice in the world was right there in my ear, and the inability to actually see her face or touch her skin made my insides want to explode.
“I’m here,” I whispered.
“Oh God,” she sobbed and continued to speak, but her words were all garbled by crying and I couldn’t understand anything she said.
“Slow down!” I cried into the phone. “Jesus! Are you all right? God, please—Tria—tell me you’re all right!”
The seven seconds it took for her to catch her breath enough to make sense were the longest moments of my life.
“I’m fine,” she sniffed.
I breathed out a slight sigh, but it wasn’t enough.
“And…and are you…I mean, are you still…” I choked on my own words. “Is everything okay with you? With…um…the…”
“I’m still pregnant, yes.”
My body relaxed and I let out a much more audible sigh.
“I was so worried,” she said. “When they gave me the subpoena, the officer asked if I knew where to find you. They had looked everywhere.”
“Subpoena?”
“We have to go to court to testify against Keith,” she told me. “It’s for the sentencing since he pled guilty to aggravated assault or something like that. The police said they had tried to serve you at home and work but couldn’t locate you.”
“Yeah, things have been a little…crazy.” I flinched at my admission.
“I went to the apartment, but no one answered when I knocked. I was worried, so I tried to open the door with my key, but it didn’t work. Then this lady came up the stairs and started yelling at me to get away from her apartment.”
Tria started to cry again.
“Tria—where are you?”
“I’m at Feet First,” she said. “I just punched Yolanda.”
“You what?” I yelled into the phone.
“I need to see you, Liam.”
I looked up at Michael.
“Can I borrow Damon and a car?”
“Of course.”