Chapter 80

"Have you heard of a spray tan and hair dye? I mean… this girl’s name was DORA?" Emily asked and he glared at her but she just glared back at him.
"But she would remember me, wouldn't she? She would know I like her?"
Emily snorted. "Pandora is very smart, but she's quite obtuse when it comes to certain things. There were at least six guys who made it painfully obvious they liked her back in high school, and she never picked up on it. They gave her flowers, candy, and cards, but she never got the hint."
He chuckled as he looked at Emily. "Then why did she think they were giving the things to her?"
"To say thank you because she was always helping everyone."
"She still helps everyone." He smiled, shaking his head at Emily.
"Just tell her your story about being married and she will then, in turn, tell you her story. Who knows; it may just match up?"
He patted Emily's arm as she stood up. "Don't give my mind any false hope."
He walked out of the room and headed back down to look after the boys. "How are they?" he asked the nurse on duty.
"Doing well; Mom and her friend just left."
Benjamin nodded and walked over to the boys. "Hi," he whispered, placing his hand on each of their beds. "This was a big scare, boys," he whispered, shaking his head at them. "You two need to listen to me. You are going to fight because your mama needs you. She needs you both and she already loves you." He stopped and sniffed.
"I love you both, too. I am going to be here for you, every step of the way. I am going to suck it up, be a man and tell your mama that I love her. But know that I don't love you because of her; I love you because you feel like a part of me. My love for your mom only strengthens the love I have for you, and will always have. I want you to know that I am so proud of both of you."
He kissed each of the plastic covers before he walked out. He made it down the hall a little when he saw a somewhat familiar man talking to Ron.
"He's nice, he seemed okay," the guy said and shrugged.
"Okay, he got my friend pregnant; he better be better than okay," Ron gritted back angrily and stepped toward him.
The guy stood there and held his hands up. "Look, I never met him until that night; same as Alphabet chick."
"Her name is Pandora."
"Yeah, Pandora, that's her name, but he was calling her Dora."
Benjamin stopped and felt as if someone had sucked all the air from his body.
"He seemed okay and wasn't bothered that she was calling him Nemo. Besides, I know Milton and Alexis and they're okay people."
"Milton?" Ron asked, and it was then Benjamin who remembered the guy's name. Ron was talking to Royce from the bar Milton and Alexis always went to in Vegas.
"Yeah, Milton is the guy's brother-in-law."
"His brother is Milton, the cop?"
"Yeah, that's him."
"But that means..." Ron's eyes landed on Benjamin, and he snapped out of whatever daze he was in.
"She... Pandora is the woman I left the bar with that night, the woman I married?" he said out loud.
"Married?" Ron questioned and he held up his hand, showing Ron the wedding ring.
"I went to his bar and met a girl that was calling me Nemo. We had sex, got married, had more sex, and then she left– just disappeared.”
Ron narrowed his eyes. "Prove it."
He swallowed and took his ring off to show the inscription. “Is this okay?”
“Fuck,” Ron hissed before bursting out laughing.
"Royce, is Pandora my girl?" he whispered, "Is she Dora?" Royce nodded at him, but that was not enough; he needed more information. "Swear that's who she is!" he demanded.
"Yes, Jesus, Pandora is the girl you got into the cab with."
Benjamin slapped Royce's back and started to run toward her room. "She's my wife! She's my wife," his mind sang as his heart filled up with all the hope he had been trying to keep at bay.
"Please don't let this be a dream."
"Wait for us," he heard Ron call out, laughing.
He opened her door, and Royce came in with him. As his eyes landed on Pandora, he saw it. He saw her, he saw Dora.
"Hey, congratulations," Royce said, smiling at her.
- - - - -
"What's going on," he asked upon seeing Pandora's other friends, and her angry tears.
"Derrik illegally sold Pandora's house. A family is living there right now," Ron told him. "I had to insist to get in, which wasn't a nice thing to do as at that time there was just a woman with two small children at home. I got what I could. But when I was leaving, some jackass was there trying to get the woman out by force saying the house was his."
Ron smiled and Benjamin just looked at him. "He commented that he was there earlier, but at that time there was a fat woman illegally in his home which meant he was the one who scared the shit out of Pandora, so I hit him and broke his nose."
"You're lucky you didn't get charged with assault. Be grateful the woman is saying that he was scaring her, and what you did was in self-defense," Milton hissed out as he ended the call he was on. "There's another family that has turned up, and the video from my car is being looked over to see if it was Derrik that messed with it."
Benjamin looked at Milton. "What?" he managed to ask.
"Don't ask, Benjamin, just know that as soon as we can get evidence, Derrik's going down for a long time. Pandora's car was tampered with, too. It sounds as if he did something to it, but proving it so is turning out harder than I thought it would be. However, the lab sent the contents of the gas tank to the station and found human urine, so we are getting a court order for a DNA test."
Benjamin pulled at his hair looking at Keira, Ron, and Milton. "Give me the low down on what all he has done to her."
Ron was quick and didn't mess around as he laid it all out for him. Turning to Milton, he glared. "Add attempted murder. He could have made her miscarry," he gritted out, hating that Pandora was going through all of that.
"If I can, believe me, I will," Milton claimed and he could see it on the other’s face. He was also over the line with Pandora.
"Who's going to tell Prosecutor Leonard?" Sia questioned when she joined the group.
"I think we should let his son-in-law tell him everything," Ron commented, handing him a cell phone. Benjamin clicked on the call button. "Put it on speaker," Ron cheered and Benjamin rolled her eyes but did what he said.
"Ron... how is everything?" the voice answered the call saying.
"Sir, this is Benjamin," he swallowed.
"Pandora's doctor Benjamin?" he asked.
Benjamin pulled his hair saying a faint "Yes," as Ron yelled, "and her husband."
"What?" Walter interjected as Ben glared at Ron. The other had Keira's hand covering his mouth. "Am I on speaker?"
"Yes, Sir… Look… to cut a long story short, I met Pandora in Vegas, we got drunk, got married, and... made the babies," he stuttered out as the others laughed. Benjamin rolled his eyes at their enjoyment of his discomfort.
"Anyway, we didn't recognize each other, but we do now." He stopped and cleared his throat. "Sir, you need to know that Derrik has sold Pandora's house to multiple families."
"He's done what?"
"I know there's a lot more to it, but we are working on it. When you get to the hospital, Milton will fill you in and after meeting the boys you can stay at my house."
"Son—"
Benjamin shook his head and cut him off. "Sir, if you don't mind, I would like to get back to my wife and sons. I'll see you when you get here."
"Okay. Ron, stop laughing at my son-in-law and go back to planning my ex-son-in-law's death. Keep me informed; I'll see you soon."
"Yes, Sir," Ron, Keira, and Sia said in unison.
Benjamin let out a long breath before handing Ron his cell phone. "I'm on board. Any drugs you need, let me know."
Ron hissed a "yes" as Benjamin walked away, heading back in to be with his wife and sons.