The officer that had her by the arm (Officer Roberts) steered her away from Scott and her sister and into a small room with a table and three chairs. He then silently un-cuffed her and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Taylor waited for an hour and a half, during which time she assumed that the others were being questioned. She paced, and waited, and worried—about Scott, about Draco, about what Brooklynn would think when she found where they were and why.
Her thoughts were broken when Officer Roberts returned, this time with Officer Jensen close behind.
“You wanna tell me what happened tonight, Mrs. Mullholand?” Officer Roberts asked casually as he took a seat across from Taylor. Officer Jensen followed his suit.
“What happened to your neck?” Officer Jensen asked quickly, noticing Taylor’s bruises.
“My husband…that’s how this all started. My husband and I got into a fight this morning, he grabbed me, threw me against the wall, then left me there without a backwards glance. Then Scott showed up,”
“That’s the boy we have here?” Officer Roberts interrupted.
“Yes. Scott came over and helped me pack up my and my son’s belongings so that we could leave. He took me to a friend’s house, then went to work. He came by after work, I realized I forgot my son’s medication, so we had to go back to my apartment, Sam was there—my husband—and he was, needless to say, less than pleased to see me. We got into it, starting yelling, Sam came after me, so Scott intervened to protect me, tried to calm Sam down a bit. Sam hit Scott, and Scott only fought back in self defense,” Taylor rambled quickly.
“Who’s the other woman?” Officer Jensen questioned.
“My sister. She’s sleeping with my husband, but I didn’t know that until tonight,” Taylor answered nonchalantly.
“Where is your son, Mrs. Mullholand?” Jensen continued.
“With my friend. I wasn’t going to take him over there, just in case. She offered to take care of him while I went out.”
“Do you know who’s cocaine was on the table?” Roberts inquired. “Any idea?”
“Not mine, if that’s what your insinuating. I would assume it was my husband or sisters. Most likely my husband’s, see he has a history of drug abuse problems…I foolishly thought he was over that.”
“Yes, we know your husband well. We also thought he was over that period of his life, until we picked him up about a month or so ago…he checked out though…wrong place at the wrong time…so we thought…” Jensen explained with a nod.
“Is Scott in trouble?” Taylor asked seriously.
“What is your relationship with Mr. Lowman? Was he a factor in the fight you had with your husband?” Officer Roberts ignored her question.
“We’re just friends…he’s like my brother for god’s sake…and no, he wasn’t a factor in the fight I had with my husband. Now is he in trouble?” Taylor answered impatiently, with a bit more attitude than intended.
“That depends on if your husband presses charges. We can’t do anything right now, it’s all hearsay…however, all three of your stories match up, if he does press charges, he’d have a hard time pursuing it with two eye witnesses.”
There was a knock on the door and an older cop walked in. “Lowman’s bail was paid. So was the Kelso girls’. Is there bail for this one? She was never signed in on any charges.”
Officer Roberts looked at Taylor seriously. “No.”
“Thank you,” she sighed as she stood up.
“Do you want to file a complaint against your husband?” Jensen asked quickly.
“To be honest, I’d rather just forget that he exists,” Taylor answered solemnly, then walked out of the room.
“OHMYGOD…TAYLOR! WHAT’S GOING ON?” Mrs. Kelso swooped on her daughter the minute she saw her.
“Mom? What are you doing here?” Taylor asked in confusion.
“I got a call from your sister, saying you two got arrested…I just…where’s Draco?”
“He’s with Brooklynn, mom, settle down…”
“I’ll settle down when you tell me what happened to land you two in jail!”
“Fine, you wanna know? I left Sam. We’re getting a divorce…we left on bad terms, I move out, I forgot Draco’s ear drops, so Scott offers to take me over, we get there, and what do I find, but alcohol, drugs, and Bella in bed with my husband…a fight between the boys ensued when Sam attempted to hit me, and the cops were called. There it is, in a nutshell…Just think about this for one second—You’re perfect daughter is screwing MY HUSBAND…so don’t you yell at me…now…if you’ll excuse me, I have to get to my son,” Taylor exploded then walked away, ignoring her sister, and going straight to Scott and Brooklynn who were waiting by the entrance.
“What are you doing here?” Taylor sighed when she got to her friend and the three started outside. “Where’s Draco?”
“When you two never came back, I went over to Sam’s, a neighbor filled me in, and I came down here…” Brooklynn answered quietly. “With my mom.”
“You okay?” Scott asked Taylor seriously, lightly taking her hand in his.
“Yeah, fine…what about you? What did they say?” she asked in return.
“I’m not in any trouble unless Sam pursues it,” he explained as they all climbed into Brooklynn’s Camry.
“Taylor, I’ll drop you off at my place, then I have to take Scott to get his car, and I’ll be back okay?” Brooklynn filled her friend in.
“Yep,” Taylor nodded.
Once Taylor had been dropped off, the car was filled with a heavy, awkward silence.
“Thank you…for getting me out…you didn’t have to, I would’ve called my dad or something…” Scott finally spoke after five minutes.
“Your welcome. I couldn’t just leave you in there, you know that,” she answered gently.
And then it was quiet again. The only sounds were that of the motor in the car and the traffic around them.
“I do love you, you know. If I didn’t, you’d still be in that cell,” Brooklynn spoke suddenly, as if unable to contain herself.
“I never said you didn’t…” he replied awkwardly, knowing this conversation would lead to a place he wasn’t ready to go.
“Do you love me?”
“Brooklynn, it’s been a long day, okay. My emotions are running high, I don’t think we should do this right now.”
“No, I think now’s a perfect time. We’re alone, we’re adults…we should just get this out of the way. And as far as emotions being high, that’ll probably only make us more inclined to be honest…that’s what your scared of, isn’t it? You don’t want me to know you’re still in love with me! You’re trying to play it cool and all detached because you know you want me back.”
“Quite the opposite.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means I don’t want to be honest because I don’t want to hurt you,” he sighed as he lit a cigarette.
“You’ve already hurt me, Scott,” she answered dryly.
“And I don’t want to further the damage, okay. I’m not like that and you know it…it’s hard enough knowing your hurting now without having to get into all the gory, ugly details of why.”
“I want to know! Why don’t you just tell me, make this a lot easier on both of us…let’s just fucking be honest for once!”
“FINE! But remember Brook, you asked for this...you can’t turn around and tell me I’m a cold hearted asshole when this is all over…You want to know,” he lost his patience with her.
Already, Brooklynn regretted pushing him so far. She really wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear what he had to say. But all she did was nod.
“I do love you. I always will. But I’m not in love with you. And I haven’t been for a really long time. I knew I wasn’t in love with you a few weeks after we got back together. And truth be told, I don’t know if I was truly in love with you then, or if I was in love with the thought of you—the comfort of us. We’ve been over since I found out about you and Sam, but I just couldn’t let you go. I kept thinking that maybe something would happen, and I’d fall in love with you again and we’d be okay. But that didn’t happen. I stuck around and waited and hell, I even hoped to a certain degree that it would happen…something magical, some sign that I’m supposed to be with you, that I do love you and I was just being an asshole. But nothing. And now, it’s over. And you had better believe that it is for good, this time. If I couldn’t make myself fall in love with you when I so desperately needed to, it isn’t going to happen now that I’ve given up.”
Silent tears spilled down her cheeks as he spoke. Her heart, already broken, felt as though it had shattered into a million small pieces.
They pulled up to the apartment complex, and without a word or a glance at the former ‘love of his life’, Scott got out of the car.