3) The shoe drops...

POV: Carissa

Carissa was pulled from her thoughts to the detective speaking. "Hmm, sorry? What was that?" "Ms. Jones, I'm detective Sam Smith. Can we talk about your husband Aaron?" Nodding my head, I listened for him to go on. "So, your husband's friend Lee called to report an accidental overdose of himself and your husband. When EMS arrived - they gave Lee multiple doses of Narcan but was unable to get a pulse for your husband. He has been pronounced dead and Lee has been rushed to the hospital in critical condition." detective Smith began. He continued talking about the details of what had transpired, but I slowly zoned out. Unable to completely focus on what the detective was saying, as everything still seemed so unreal, my thoughts turned to the last time I saw him. I could still see him sitting across from me at the restaurant table.

I arrived at the restaurant and the hostess easily pointed out Aaron. Aaron was sitting at a table when I arrived at the restaurant, wringing his hands. I sat down across from him and picked up the menu. I still was unsure why I was there to begin with, but certainly wasn't going to make this any easier on him. As annoyed at him as I was for everything he had and was putting me thru - he was still the most handsome guy I had ever been with.

"Are you going to speak to me?" Aaron started. Still looking at the menu, I replied, "Yes, I'm just trying to decide what I want for lunch. I only have an hour to eat, remember?" Sighing in exasperation, Aaron grumped, "Look, I need you to come home. I'm tired of you and Jason being gone, and I'm not interested in getting divorced. What do you need from me to come home?" This just annoyed me, as he already knew why I had left. "Aaron, you know why I left. You have done nothing but treat me like I'm expendable since we got together." "I have not." Aaron argued, "I need you and I'm willing to work on whatever the problem is." Rolling my eyes, "I am uninterested in taking care of you and our home while you cheating on me and then lie to me when I ask you about it. That clearly says I'm expendable." I huffed. "But.." I point directly at him, "you know that I left because you started doing drugs in our home! You want to be stupid and do drugs..." Aaron started to interrupt and I cut him off with my hand, "I know you have been for a while, so don't deny it and lie to me about it again. I don't care if you want to be stupid - I am just unwilling to chance Jason's life because you want to do drugs in our home!" Crossing my arms, I sat back in my chair and watched as Aaron debated how to respond back to me. I knew I was lying about not caring if he did drugs - I didn't want him to be doing drugs, or chancing death. I wasn't going to let him know that I cared right now, as the last thing I needed was to give him any leverage, especially as I could tell he was thinking really hard about his response and was clearly feeling out of control.

"Okay, you are right. I was cheating but it was just random girls and only when I was high. They didn't mean anything." Aaron started, "but I never did any drugs!" I rolled my eyes and just waited for him to continue. "I didn't, Carissa." He argued. "Aaron, you are seriously going to keep lying? I found it on Jason's changing table! It could have killed him. You have a problem and I'm not going to let you take Jason and me down with you." I started to stand up and leave, but Aaron grabbed my arm and instantly started begging me to stay. "Please, Carissa, don't leave. I don't know how they ended up there - but I'm sorry! I just want you and Jason back. I'll do anything. We can move away, I will go into treatment. I'll get rid of my social media, or even my phone. Please, I just need you back. I love you!"

Looking into his eyes, I just wanted to believe he was serious. I loved him completely - even with all the shit going on. "Okay Aaron, I'll stay if we talk about you getting things fixed! Otherwise, I'm done with this conversation." I firmly stated, sitting back down in the chair. Aaron nodded his head and suddenly the conversation started becoming civil, then like it had been in the beginning.

All of a sudden, the detective's voice broke through my thoughts. "Ms. Jones... Ms. Jones, are you okay?"