“Hey Alexandra!” he said giddy. “What are you doing here so late?”

I was confused… who’s Alexandra?

“Dear? Are you well?” I asked.

    “Marge, I’m fine!”

Marge? I tried laughing it off, but it made him angry. Very angry, very quickly.

    “Wendy!” he yelled, “I’m just trying to have a good conversation with the very sweet woman watching my kids!”

“Antonio! Stop!” I busted… “My name is not Alexandra, Marge, or Wendy! It’s Ruby!”

    “Ruby?” he said curiously. “But the woman I asked to go out with me is named Ruby… wait, you are Ruby! That was Wendy I asked on a date! Silly me.” He said so nonchalantly. My eyes twitched at his admittance of asking out another woman. My heart sunk, tears filled my eyes, and I went ballistic.

“What are you talking about?” I started yelling, “You’re going to dinner with another woman? What about me! What about our children! Do we mean nothing!” I was about to punch him we he said he’d bring us something back, until he said this…

    “Man Ruby, you remind me of my ex-wife.  Man, she’d been through it, I met her at a Chinese restaurant I used to work at.”

What was I hearing…

“Antonio… I am your wife; I’m that girl you met at the Chinese restaurant.” I said, choking on my tears.

Antonio looked at me like Wile E. Coyote sat on a stick of dynamite.

    “Ruby, its you? I thought you left a year ago, a little girl would come down yelling ‘mommy’, but the mother wouldn’t show.” I was absolutely dumbfounded by this. “was the girl real?” he asked me. I told him it was his daughter, and he broke down in tears. I couldn’t handle it anymore; I took him to a specialist only for him to tell me that Antonio was losing it mentally. Antonio told me there was a history of mental issues, but failed to say it was schizophrenia, and with how he was it, it seemed worse. The doctor later told me it was dissociative Amnesia with Schizophrenic-like symptoms.

When I and Antonio talked, he told me he was sorry, I seen the guilt in his eyes, yet I still seen the love. I knew he was slipping away from me day by day and it killed me not being able to do anything about it. One night though, it got nasty. I saw the weapon in Antonios hand, and I knew what he wanted to do. Max rushed to call the police, and I thought “this is it; I’m going to lose my love for good”.

As the cops approached us, Antonio dropped the weapon and got down. I pulled the cop to the side and had to explain it was my fault, I tried to save

Antonios life, which I did. The day after this happened, we were sitting in my car, he took my hand and said he loved me.

    “Ruby, I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t turn into the monster I did,”

“you didn’t turn into a monster. You’re a human being who just lost some pieces to a genetic puzzle. I still love you.”

    “I almost got you killed.” He said holding back tears and squeezing my hand tighter.

“No, you didn’t.” I said calmly.

“Ruby?”

“Yes?”

“I love you. Can you do me a favor?” he asked me. I started crying.

“I love you too Antonio. What is it?” I asked him.

“Tell my babies I love them. And I don’t want to forget them anymore than I have. And take me to the hospital, I want to be okay, I don’t want to hurt anyone again.” At this point we were both crying. I knew where he wanted to go.

“Anything love, I hope to bring the kids to see you again one day.”

As we pulled in, they put him in a maximum-security room, with sound equipment and all to make sure he’d be okay.

He was there in his head enough to at least say goodbye to me and hoped to see me and the kids soon. I cried the whole way getting into my car. I couldn’t handle it anymore, I couldn't live  my life without Antonio.  I ran back into the building wailing. They walked me to his room.

“Antonio, I love you!” I screamed as I had touched the glass separating us.

“I love you too Ruby!”  he yelled back at me sobbing.