He dipped his head with a solemn nod. “I understand. But…just so you know…” Another cough. “I ended things with…her.” He cleared his throat and pulled his collar away from his neck, almost as if he were feeling choked. “Figured I should probably get my head on straight before trying my hand at an actual relationship again. Until I know what I want…hell, what Ineed…I’m not going to be any good to anybody. So yeah.” He coughed again with a frown. “I, uh…I went by her place on the way to my lawyer’s office this morning and ended it.”
“I think that’s a step in the right direction,” she told him honestly.
A stretch of awkward silence blanketed the room. As Cassie worked to come up with a way to ask him to leave that wouldn’t sound bitchy, Russ pushed himself away from the table as if he were preparing to leave.
“It’s late, and I know you’re tired.” His shoulders fell. “If it’s all right with you, I’ll call my attorney on the way home and tell him to meet us at the office first thing in the morning.” Another clearing of his throat. “Figured it makes more sense to use our own notary to make it official, rather than paying someone else to do the same job.”
Yes, that did make more sense.
“I want to keep this here to read back over it between now and then.” She lifted the papers as she stood. “And Ellie will want to look them over carefully before anyone signs anything.”
Ellie was her attorney and friend.
“If she didn’t, I’d suggest you find yourself a new lawyer.”
He had a point, but Cassie didn’t actually need Ellie to read over the changes. She’d know before she ever laid her head on her pillow tonight whether the newest version of their divorce settlement was one she intended to sign.
Being a lawyer, herself, she was well-versed in all the legal jargon other lawyers loved to throw into the mix. And so help her, if Russ or that jackass attorney of his put anything in there in an attempt to slip something past her?—
Her almost-ex rose to his feet, but nearly toppled over in the process.
“Russ!” Cassie rushed around the table to his side, her hands shooting out to help keep his swaying form steady. “Oh my gosh. Are you okay?”
“I don’t…know.” He cleared his throat yet again before releasing several hard, loud coughs in a row. “I jusss got…really…dizzy…allofa…sssudden.” His words began to slur and run together.
What the…
“Russell?”
“Chest…” He slapped a hand to his heaving chest as he started gasping for air. “Can’t…breathe…”
His knees gave out, the man’s six-foot frame too much weight for her to bear alone. Cassie cried out her husband’s name as they both fell to the tiled floor. Russ’s head bounced with a sickening thud, but the way her arms had been wrapped around him, there hadn’t been time to prevent it.
She looked down and realized his eyelids had closed. His previously heaving chest no longer rose or fell in his lungs’ desperate effort to fill themselves with air. In fact, as he lay motionless in her arms, Cassie realized…
He’s not breathing!
“Russell!” she screamed his name that time. With her head on his chest she listened for a sign—any sign—that said something other than what she already knew to be true.
Her stomach fell when she didn’t hear a heartbeat.
Cassie’s hand shot out, her fingertips pressing against the pulse point on his neck. He felt cool and clammy beneath her touch, despite the sheen of sweat covering his skin.
CPR. You need to start CPR!
Remembering the training their entire office had recently gone through, Cassie went through all the steps. The tilting of the head. Two strong, quick breaths blown into his opened mouth.
Thirty compressions against his chest as she sat straddling a man she both loved and hated, praying with everything she had for him to survive.
Cassie repeated the lifesaving steps as she’d been taught and certified to perform. But after several attempts at reviving the unconscious man, she pushed herself to her feet and ran as fast her quivering legs would take her.
“I-I’m calling for help!” she yelled on the off chance he could hear her.
He’s already gone, Cass. He can’t hear anything anymore.
Refusing to believe the voice in her head, she grabbed the cordless landline phone stationed on the counter near the other end of the kitchen and immediately dialed nine-one-one. Running back to where Russ still lay, she dropped to her knees and checked his pulse again.
“Come on, Russ.” Cassie didn’t even realize she was crying. “Don’t you do this to me. Goddamn you, don’t you do this to me!”