Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 120

Theo POV

Being woken up with that news shook me a little; I had to be there for my girl instantly while my head was still foggy. I can honestly say I was awake when I heard those words over the phone and pulled Bethany to me. She was shaking, and though her voice was clear, her heart was beating faster, and she was fighting tears. Once she hung up the phone, she cried for a little while. I asked why the tears, and she said because, in her heart, she had lost a mother and sister; even if they were terrible and caused much pain and sorrow, deep down, they were still her family.

We headed to the kitchen for breakfast. All ideas of relaxing at home were gone. She will want to go to work and keep her mind busy. We had intended to have a late start; I had no surgery, and her work in the lab was still cooking.

I did my rounds at the hospital and released more patients before heading to Bethany's lab. She was checking on the monkey and Mr Green's stats. I loved that she could do that without seeing the patient; her program is fantastic. 'How's Mr Green doing?' I asked; from what I understood, the reports were good.

'He is swimming now and more active. His new heart shows no signs of problems or rejection, though I would have been surprised if it did.' She was busy typing something, and the monkey reports showed.

"Wow, you would not even know the monkey had that operation. Look how active he is; this is good." I was amazed at the quick recovery when the body was not fighting rejection. 'Will you come with me when we do the funeral?'

'Of course, I am here for you.' I rubbed her back. I had not realized she was still not confident about our relationship, and I wondered if she still had holes in her memory, causing doubts. 'Thank you. I know you never met her, but I would not have wanted to introduce you to her anyway!

Do you have any news on Cynthia? Or from Brett? Has he been informed?'

'Oh, I never thought of Brett. I still am not sure I understand their relationship; I still have many gaps in my memory. I will ask Dad the next time I hear from him. With the look of confusion on her face, I could tell I had misspoken. I had no idea how much her memory had returned; we had been so busy with other stuff that I almost forgot about her memory loss and how much had returned. I will have to speak with Dad and let him know she still has gaps and if I should be worried. We left the lab and headed to find Robson. He needed the fresh information, and I think Bethany had another heart ready for use. I am not sure if she is prepared for the long hours in surgery, but I doubt she would let anyone else do it.

'This is fantastic results. Do you think we can put one in a child? It would do better than what we have now.' He was very excited; Bethany had made a break for those little ones; they must have done many operations already, which might reduce how many they needed.

'Yes, I can spend all those hours in the theater. Theo has done a great job loosening up my muscles, and I have been hitting the weight to strengthen them.

'We can have Theo assist. That way, if you need to stop and rest, he can take over for a little while. This was not a standard practice, but we worked well together.

'I can live with that; who had you in mind?'

'Rachael Gibbons. Thirteen and will only see fourteen if we do something soon!'

'Get her in and start her on the pre-operation medication; she should be ready to operate in three days.

'Sounds like a plan. I have a heart ready. We chatted a bit longer before we headed out, stopping at a cafe for late lunch and early dinner. We were seated after placing our order when Bob walked in.

'Hey, sweetheart, saw you as I walked by; how are things?' Tears streamed down Bethany's face at the sight of her Dad, and it made me choke up, too. He was by her side instantly and held onto her, rubbing her back.

'Would you like to join us, Bob?' I asked while he held his girl; he nodded and mouthed, 'Steak. I ordered him a steak burger, chips, and coffee. I understood her bursting into tears once she saw her Dad; my sisters used to do the same when they saw Mum.

We had idol chatter during our meal. Once Bethany was over her tears and managed to eat a good portion of her meal, which I was grateful for, her appetite slowly returned.

'Bethany, news on Cynthia is not good; the doctors do not expect her to survive the night; the damage is too extensive! 'Bob, has anyone told Brett?'

'I have no clue and did not even think about him.' Bob conceded.

'Why would you, Dad? What is Brett to Cynthia? I have too many gaps in my memory!

'How much do you remember?'

"They were girlfriend/boyfriend at school. Did their relationship go further than that?'

'We have talked about this wedding fraud stuff. Do you understand some of that?'

'Mum and Cynthia was in it deep!'

'Yes, and somehow Brett is involved too.

'I will leave telling Brett about Cynthia to you. I do not remember him much, and something tells me to stay away from him.' Dad's phone rang at that moment before Dad could say anything in return. 'Yes, thank you for letting me know. Could you let me know if you told Brett?'

Dad hummed and grumbled something unintelligible and nodded.

'Yes.'

I looked at Theo to see if he had any idea, and he shrugged.

'Okay.' Dad hung up the phone and took an intense breath.

'Cynthia had died.' I was a little shocked, but it was not unexpected. I waited, watching Bethany to see how she reacted. At first, she stared at Bob as if she did not understand what he said.

'Can we do both Cynthia and Mum's funeral simultaneously? I do not want to go through it twice. Plus, I have an operation booked for a few days; we need to avoid clashing with that.' Bethany showed almost no remorse or hurt; it was as if she was now immune to it all, and that worried me. Bob looked at me with the same surprised look, but we needed to figure out how to proceed.

'I will call the hospital and see when I can collect her body and notify the funeral service of the added change. 'Want to come home for coffee?' Bethany asked Bob.

'No, I need to head home, shower, and change. I have a busy day tomorrow. Bob hugged Bethany and shook my hand; I got to pay the bill this time. Bethany was too far gone in her thoughts to even think of the bill; score one for me.

The following two days were a blur. Dad said that Bethany might have selective amnesia, not wanting to have that pain again, but now that the funeral was today, things might trigger her to remember. Robson postponed the operation. The young girl is in the hospital taking the medication, but we have to wait and see how Bethany goes with today, and then maybe tomorrow we can do the operation; I thought another day at least, but Dad agreed with Robson to try and keep things moving along as best we cant. Bob came over, and we all went in one car: Bethany, Bob, and myself. Thomas would meet us there, and that was it. Bob allowed no one else. Once we had the urn of ashes, we could have more people involved with the scattering of the ashes. The place where the service was being held was not a church but a building made for this occasion. It even had its crematorium so that the body would be burnt here on site. I was unsure what to expect, having never been to one of these. I have only been to a church service where a whole lot of people said nice things about a person they most likely did not like, but at a time like this, most try to tell the story of the person in a good light, well that will not be the case today. There was no eulogy for either life. It was a matter of viewing the bodies to confirm it was them and then stating who they were. The coffin was lowered out of sight, and the preacher or whoever he was told that Bob could pick up the ashes in a couple of days. That was it: no considerable fanfare, great platitudes of love and devotion, no songs that tugged at the heartstrings, just who they were and goodbye.

'Dad, I am headed back to my son. Bethany, you need to come over more and spend time with your nephew, and Judy would love to spend more time with you. You too, Theo, both of you come; how about Sunday?'

'You had better think of another day there, son. Have you happened to forget what we do on a Sunday?'

'Nope, I would have the game on ready for you. He said with a chuckle.

'Then you better make space for another person, Hank; Theo's Dad likes sports too, and we meet at each other's home to watch it; you should see his den; it is a masterpiece! Bob pulled out his phone and started to flick through pictures he had taken of the den; the reason why we had met up today was gone as we talked out in the car part, and Bob boasted about the den and Hank, and then a picture of Pam popped up, standing in her team's shirt shouting at the screen.

'Who is that?' Thomas asked as he got closer to look at the woman.

'Dad's new love?' Bethany smiled back, and Thomas patted Bob on the back.

'Good to know you still have it in you! Thomas said with a smirk.

I might get long in the tooth, but I am not dead yet! I looked at him in shock and then relaxed as the comment was taken in the jest it was meant.

With everything planned, Thomas returned home, his two bodyguards following close behind. The bodyguards will be around for a while now. Even though those two are dead, the threat is still alive.