Fearless Sinner (Empire of Sinners #3)

Chapter 11

Chloe

Chapter Eleven

Roxanne stares back at me in utter disbelief. Her skin is pale and her eyes wide.

I just got back from the bar and found her in the kitchen. I didn’t wait another minute before I launched into a full rundown of what happened to me tonight.

Poor Roxanne. She was expecting me to come back and bitch about the job interview. Instead, I came home and shocked her even more than I did that summer when I confessed to shoveling cow shit in our aunt’s car when we stayed with her.

The news that we’re now debt free is the kind that requires celebration, but she’s like me–wondering what owing the head of the Irish mafia eighteen and a half minutes will come to mean.

“Wow, I knew Cillian liked you, but damn.” Finally, she speaks.

I lower to sit on the high stool opposite her and rest my arms on the countertop. “You would have done the same thing, right?”

“Of-fucking-course.” She gives me a stare as if to question whether I’ve lost my mind and my choice was the only logical choice. “Girl, I know you know this, but we’re in a really bad situation. And you just more than halved the problem. If you weren’t around…” Her voice trails off. “If you weren’t here we’d be screwed. I’d have to figure out everything and I’d fail. Please tell me you see that.”

“Roxanne—”

“No. It’s true. Just accept it. Thank you for agreeing to whatever madness Cillian has up his sleeve for you.”

I nod slowly. “He kissed me…”

“You like him.” She speaks with reflection in her tone. I know her comment is more of an observation than a question.

“I don’t know if that matters. He’s dangerous.”

“Of course, but that’s not what I said. If you like him then whatever he has planned for the eighteen and a half minutes you owe him might not be so hard. And he can’t be all bad if he freed you from a debt of a quarter million dollars just for picking a coin.” She flicks her palms over and smirks.

“I thought about that.”

“Just be careful.”

“You know I will.”

“Okay, so now we just have to focus on your mom. I applied for that loan I told you about but I don't think I’ll get it. Our hopes still lie with you getting that loan.”

“I think I’ll hear from the bank on Monday.”

“Then we’ll know where we stand.”

“Yes.”

“I looked up how long a person with heart failure can go on when they need a new heart.” She sits and suddenly looks weak.

“What did you find?” I purposely avoid looking up anything because I don’t want to freak out.

“It’s not good. People always tell you not to look shit up on the Internet, but I couldn’t help myself. And everything I found was nothing but bad for people who have end-stage heart failure. It was silly of me to think I’d find hope. It’s called end stage for a reason.”

I get up and walk over to her when tears tip over her lids. “We have to be strong.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry to cry again. I’m just burned out. I feel like shit for not having the courage to tell your mom that Harlan was an asshole. If not for him we’d have all the money we need. We could have paid it already.” She shakes her head at herself. “I saw him cheating on her before the wedding.” She cries harder.

“Oh, Roxanne, what? You saw him?”

“I know. I’m such a fool. I saw him paying a prostitute for sex, then she got in his car and they drove off.”

“My God.” Everything I hear about this guy makes me sick, and I haven’t even met him.

“I couldn’t break Aunt Rosaline’s heart with such news. She was so in love with Harlan that I don’t even know if she would have believed me. Nevertheless I should have told her. But she was so happy with him, I didn’t want to be the one to take that away from her. She was devastated when your father died.”

I nod, agreeing. “She was. I never thought she’d get married again. She shut down for years.”

“Harlan seemed to bring the spark back to her life, but he wasn’t who he claimed to be. I hoped she’d see him for what he was and end it, but this is what happened instead. We all got screwed.”

“Let’s just pray I get the loan.”

“I haven’t stopped praying.”

“Me neither.”

She sighs and dries the rest of her tears. “How about we eat some ice cream and watch an old movie before we head to bed?”

“That sounds great.”

She fixes us a bowl of ice cream each and we head to the living room to watch Casablanca.

As we sit there watching the movie and eating, all I think about is Cillian. I keep seeing his face, keep hearing his words, keep feeling his lips on mine.

I thought I blinked, but I fell asleep. I wake to Roxanne shaking me.

Her face breaks into a radiant smile. “Your mom’s awake, Chloe. She’s awake.”

At first I think I’m dreaming but as my awareness returns, I’m thrilled for once that I’m not.

My mother is awake.

She’ll be able to see me now.

When Roxanne and I get to the hospital Mom has a host of doctors and nurses around her. Seeing so many medical professionals with her is scary. But on seeing Dr. Chase smiling at me, I realize there’s nothing to worry about. They’re just checking her.

The moment there’s a clear spot at Mom’s bedside I rush over.

She’s still lying on her back and is still attached to tubes, but when she sees me and her eyes light up with life, nothing can describe how I feel.

“Chloe,” Mom mutters my name weakly. Her voice is so faint it sounds like it’s gliding on the edge of the wind.

“It’s me, Mom.”

A tear runs down her cheek and she lifts her hand toward me. “My Chloe. You came back to me.”

Just those simple words heal my heart and I feel terrible that I thought my mother could ever hate me.

Her eyes hold so much sentiment that I’m crying, too, and squeezing her hand.

Roxanne joins me and Mom smiles. “Roxy. You’re here, too.”

“Yes, Auntie, we’re both here.”

“This is a good step in the right direction,” Dr. Chase cuts into the moment. “I understand the excitement and relief but please, please take it easy.”

“Don’t worry, we will.” Roxanne nods.

I’m nodding, too, but I’m so overwhelmed by the elation of seeing my mother awake that I can just about focus.

“Let’s keep the visits to twenty minutes at a time with a break for about two hours. Patients who come out of comas get overwhelmed quickly.”

“Okay. We promise we will do anything you say,” I reply. “Thank you so much for bringing my mother back to us.”

“My pleasure.”

He leaves us and I look back at Mom, who is smiling at me. Just seeing her looking at me like that makes everything better. I feel so much lighter knowing that she doesn’t have to worry about the house or the restaurant. And I’ll make sure she never will.

Now I just have to save her health.

I understood why Dr. Chase suggested we stay with Mom twenty minutes at a time the moment our first twenty minutes were up.

Mom got tired and struggled to stay awake. I feared we’d worn her out, but the nurse who came by assured us that was normal.

We left, and two hours later when we came back Mom woke up and seemed more like herself.

We continued that schedule until nightfall when visiting hours ended. Then Roxanne went off to meet her boyfriend and I headed home.

I know we’re not out of the woods yet but I feel hopeful now that Mom’s awake.

She asked me about Nate. When I told her I wasn’t with him anymore she looked like her youth had returned to her.

I wasn’t going to tell her the gory details about him anyway, but on seeing how relieved she looked, I kept my information to the bare minimum. I could see she suspected there was more to tell, though.

When she got onto the subject of Harlan, Mom teared up so badly it looked like it physically hurt her to talk about him.

She was able to confirm that the bastard was with her when she had the heart attack. They were arguing about the loan and how much he stole when she experienced chest pains and collapsed on the floor crying. Then the bastard left her to die.

I’ve never felt more like killing someone than when I heard that. That’s saying something given all I’ve been through with Nate.

Roxanne and I both tried to comfort her but what can you really tell someone to make something like that okay?

At least it made her happy to know I took care of the debt. Of course, she wanted to know how, and I told her we’d talk about that another time.

Dr. Chase said to keep everything positive as much as possible.

Being released from the debt was the most positive news I had to share. It was a significant weight off Mom’s shoulders.

Now I’m on my way home.

It’s funny. I feel like I’ve reset time back to days ago when I first got back to New York and trimmed down some of the worries.

I’m just praying next week is even better and then I can get back on track to where I want to be.

I owe April a phone call. I’ve had so much happen to me just this week I could be another case study.

My taxi pulls up outside the house, and I pay and exit the car. Tiredness weighs down on me the moment I’m inside the house. I’m going straight to bed. I’m not even going to eat. The most I may have is some water.

I plan to spend all day at the hospital again tomorrow. I want to spend every second I can with my mom to make up for the time we lost.

I head upstairs and notice that my bedroom door is open. I swear I left it closed this morning. I’ve been leaving it closed in case Harlan comes by when I’m out. Roxanne changed the locks on the front door but a man like him can always find a way in.

I was probably so excited this morning about Mom being awake that I forgot to close it.

I step inside the room and instantly see that I’m wrong.

I did leave my door closed, but the mafia boss sitting in my window bay opened it.

The shock of seeing him closes my throat and I freeze at the door.

I try to make myself move but icy tendrils of trepidation have me frozen to the spot like a statue.

In the sliver of moonlight, Cillian looks like an avenging angel and blends in with the shadows.

He faces me and his menacing smirk sends a bad mixture of fear and desire rippling through my body. “Hey, lass, I’ve come to collect my eighteen and a half minutes.”