Alec rang the doorbell of the apartment. The name plate read LUCY'S HAVEN.
Amused, he waited for the door to open. He could hear footsteps inside. Standing her pyjamas, Lucy opened the door. She looked tired and weary.  "Be- oh it's you. What do you want?" She snapped at him.

"Umm... I was looking for Beth."

"Oh you are looking for her? You finally realized you are supposed to look for her?"

"Excuse me?" Alec didn't understand what she meant.

"What do you want Alec?" She rolled her eyes. "Why are you here? Beth isn't here, if you are here for her." She tried to close the door but Alec stopped her. "Wait, where is she? I need to talk about something important."

"Why do you need her? She already left you." She was trying get him off her back.

"It's something important. I just need two minutes."

"Look I am busy-"

"I just need to talk her. It's something personal."

"Alec nothing in your life is personal anymore after that Christmas morning. And Beth isn't here. I already told you."

"Then where is she, it's urgent!" Alec was losing his cool now.

"Then tell me what it is, I will let her know. She will be late." She didn't let him enter. Her hand resting on the edge of the door, waiting to close it. 

"Okay.... Then tell her to meet my lawyer."

"Lawyer?" She enquired this time.

"The divorce papers need her signature." Alec said sullenely. He couldn't do it more politely. He just wanted to get it done as fast as he could and he leave.

"You are divorcing her?" Lucy looked visibly shocked. "Are you serious? And I thought you were here to apologize. I never thought you were this pathetic!"

"Excuse me? Is this how you treat people Lucy?"

"No, this is how I treat you! Your wife is missing since yesterday and all you care about is your bloody divorce!"

"Missing? What do you mean missing?" He couldn't mask his shock. "What do you mean Lucy?"

"You don't know? She has been missing since yesterday. Oh how will you, you wouldn't pick up the calls when we all tried to reach you! She had an anxiety attack in OT yesterday and she fainted. Grace gave her a week off. She told me she was returning home and when I got back, nobody was here. And since then no one knows where she is."

Alec gulped learning this news.
"And here you are, caring only about your divorce. You seriously want to divorce her? Beth? Why? Because she was involved in that accident. Because you feel she is responsible for your wife's death? Pathetic Alec! Beth was right, you are a pathetic human!" She accused him again.

"Yes! I feel she is responsible for Mel's death! Everybody I hate myself for knowing that my wife was involved in an accident that killed Melissa. If their car wouldn't have been there, Melissa would have been alive. I-"

"So would Noah and Beth's child! They would have been happy. She would have been happy. She also would have a family!" She sighed. "Look clearly you won't understand all this and right now I am busy looking for Beth, so if you will excuse me, I am busy!" She tried to close the door again but Alec blocked it with his hand.

"Look if I had known about her disappearance I would have helped too. I care about her too! I still want to help. I can find her." Alec offered.

"And do what then, leave her? Because that is what you want, don't you? That woman, whom you have been so careless towards, she loves you. And she cares about you but you.... You only care about yourself. You married her because it was benefiting you! Now you want a divorce but did you ever ask what she wanted? Did you ever think from her point of view? What she goes through every day? Or what she will when she gets to know the only reason you left her was because of that accident?"

"She pulled me into that chapel. She put this ring on my finger." He flashed his ring. "I also didn't want it."

"But you all did push her to take that step!"

"That is why I am rectifying it by giving her the divorce!"

"When she needs you the most?"
They both stood there, glaring at each other, firm on their decisions.

"She doesn't need me."

"Then, you are blind. Because you couldn't see what we all could. You both need each other. More importantly she needs you. But you don't care, do you?"

"NO I DON'T!"

"WELL, YOU SHOULD!" she took in a deep breath. "You told me you loved her and now you are like this? Is this what your love is Alec? She is gone Alec. Somewhere. God only knows where. It's been almost two days now. She is not her apartment, she is not in yours or Grace or even in Georgia. I checked there also. I don't know where to find that woman."

"I will help find h-"

"Really? What are you going to do? You don't even know her? What are you going to do Alec, already you have done so much, destroyed so much, broken her to pieces. What more do you want to do?"

"I didn't-" he tried speak again but she cut him off again.

"Yes, you did. You cut her deep where she hurts the most. You broke her again. The last time she was like this was when Noah died. It took her more than an year to get back in the OT. It took her over two years to finally get on with her life. And you-" she covered her face with her hands. "That accident destroyed her life, her family and almost her career. And now, thanks to you, even her chance at happiness is being destroyed, ALL BECAUSE OF THAT ONE ACCIDENT!" When finally she began getting back on her feet, you thrashed her down."

"I didn't do anything!"

"No, you are right. You didn't do anything and that is the problem. You should have been there for her when she needed you that day, not go against her. You should have seen her before, before the accident." Lucy smiled sadly at old memories. "I know her from college and she had always been the life of every party. She used to laugh and sing and dance. Have ever seen her laughing now, Alec? You wouldn't have because she doesn't anymore. She only smiles.  She used to have the most beautiful laugh you would have ever seen. Her laugh could cheer up even a dying person, it was so beautiful. So charged with positive energy. And now, it's gone."

"And did you know she used to play piano? And when she used to sing, it was so surreal to watch her. She knew how to live her life Alec. She really knew how to enjoy every second but it all changed after she lost Noah in that accident. I still remember how happy she was when she got pregnant, she always wanted to have children and now she cannot. That reality crushed her. Sometimes I think she could have lived knowing that reality if she had Noah with her. He was her biggest supporter. Always with her, on everything. He trusted her, loved her more than anyone man I had seen loving his wife."

"She also lost everything in that accident Alec but you only saw your loss, blamed her for everything, never even asked what she must have gone through."
"And the worst part," Lucy stopped and looked at him, "The worst part is that after all this is I want you to know where she is and I want you to go to her. But I don't know where she is. I just wish you could go to her. Because only you can save her."

"Lucy... I-" Alec didn't know what to say.

"It's true. Only you can save her. Because you have been saving her past all these months. You have been mending her shattered heart while she mend your broken one. This is why Nora wanted you both to get married because she saw what none of us could see. Beth looked happier when she was with you."

"It's not-"

"It is true. She shifted here because Nora and I couldn't trust her anymore after-" Lucy tried to hold back her tears. " After she tried to kill herself."

Alec could feel a shivered running down his as she began explaining him everything. "Back in Georgia, one night she had tried to drowned herself in the bath tub. After that we decided to get her here so I can keep an eye on her in hospital and Nora could at home. And when Nora died, I thought she would spiral back into her depression but somehow she held on and began healing faster than she had ever. That is when I saw it was all because of you!"

"And yet here you are," she punched his chest. "You, the reason she is better, she is the reason why you are better and you want to divorce her!" She tried punching again. Alec caught her hand mid air and pulled her to hug her.

"I am sorry, I didn't know all this." He gulped again. Even he was having trouble holding his tears back.

"Alec?" She wiped her face and asked.

"Yes, Lucy?"

"I am scared she is going to do something stupid again. Please Alec, please save her."

"Don't worry, we will find her." He assured her.

"You better, because she loves you and right now she needs you."

****
(We are reaching the end of this book! Jesus.... *Freaking out internally*)

That was a new view on Beth's life. Depression is a shitty thing but most of us can't see it. Sometimes people aren't just sad, they are breaking from inside and even though everything looks normal, it's really not. Depression is real. Take it from someone who deals with it every day. So once in a while, just talk with people who you think need help. Ask them how they are, just ask the ones you love how they are. It really helps.

Apart from that what do you guys think of this chapter? Put it down in comments.

Vote and share. I love you people.

Take care everyone.

Cheerio.

Love,
Alice.

****