Chapter 27
JADE
We arrive at the hospital, and as soon as the car stops, I jump out, running inside.
“I’m looking for my son.” I huff, my palms flat on the counter of the front desk, a woman no older than me sitting there, peering up.
“What’s his na—”
“Jo—Jade.” I turn sharply toward Enzo’s voice.
“Enzo?” My heart drops from relief as I see him on my left, standing up from one of the chairs. I rush toward him. Our bodies connect hard as his arms hold me with everlasting strength. I sob quietly against him, a hand gliding up my back, soothing me as he always does.
“Have you heard anything?” I ask, just as Elliot makes it inside.
“Not yet, baby. But listen, his name is John Parker here. I didn’t want the Bianchis finding out we have him. Don’t worry about anything. The staff here will not ask questions. We’re good friends with two people on the board.”
“Okay.” My fingertips jump to my forehead. “I need to sit.” Elliot takes the empty chair beside me while Enzo takes the other.
Minutes tick by and we wait in silence until Enzo breaks it.
“I gotta ask…” He leans his elbows on his thighs, his attention on Elliot. “How the hell do you know my girl’s real name?”
He’s trying to remain calm, but I could tell the beast is roused awake.
Elliot snickers. “She’s my sister, man.”
He jolts in his chair, sitting straighter. “What?” He runs a hand past his face, his eyes darting between us. “Is he telling the truth?” he asks me.
“Yeah.” I smile weakly at my brother. “He kinda is.”
“Okay, back up. Someone’s gotta explain all this to me.”
Elliot’s brown eyes grow sad as he momentarily looks to the floor before he speaks.
“Since the moment our mother and I knew she was gone, when the police failed to find her, I was determined to do what they couldn’t.
But I was just a kid.” He shrugs. “Only sixteen. So with help from some friends, I found this guy online who could go into the dark web. He tried to help me track Jade that way, but it was impossible. It's like all traces of you vanished,” he says to me. “I decided to join the army at eighteen, wanting to become stronger so I could find and kill the ones who took you. But as the years passed, I regretted it because all that time, I could’ve been looking for you.”
“Oh, Elliot.” Tears spring into my eyes with a renewed sense of anguish. “Don’t blame yourself.” Taking his hand, I hold it in mine. “None of this is on you. You wouldn’t have found me anyway.”
“I’m your brother, Jade, and I failed you.” He’s so broken. I can see it on his face, and the pain, it bleeds into mine.
“No.” I shake my head, my vision blurry. “The path you took, it led me to you. If you hadn’t done everything you did, we probably would’ve never found each other.”
He lets out a sharp exhale. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I was always right.” My mouth cracks with a small laugh.
“Yeah, you never let me forget it.” He chuckles.
“So, how did you end up working for Enzo?”
“Well, technically, he’s assigned to Dante,” Enzo clarifies. “Though the guys work for all of us.”
“I got shot last year,” my brother adds.
“What?” I gasp. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” His face sparks with a grin, registering the shock on my face.
“That’s how I ended up working for them.
” His head tilts toward Enzo. “I had to leave the army because of it, then a buddy of mine, who I met at basic training, was already working for them, so he put in a good word for me. They tested me hard.” He lifts a chin to Enzo. “But I’m here.” He grins at him.
“Damn, man,” Enzo chimes in with a smirk. “I almost didn’t vote for you. You were too fucking pretty. I was kinda worried you were gonna take all the ladies away from me.”
“Hey!” I giggle.
He raises his hands up. “That was way before I fell madly in love with your crazy—” I glare playfully at him. “Let a man finish. Damn. Crazy, yet absolutely beautiful ass.”
“I don’t want to hear about you loving my sister’s ass.” Elliot gags.
As we all laugh together, I remember that even in the darkest of days, the light shines just enough to remind us it’s there after all.
An hour later, a doctor finally walks out. Her long, white coat hits past her ankles, her black-trimmed glasses perched on her slim nose.
“Mr. Cavaleri,” she greets him with a serious expression, her dark brown hair wrapped neatly into a bun. “Are you the mother?” Her attention reverts to me.
“Yes.” My pulse slams with a heavy pounding.
“Your son is stable right now. He had developed RSV, a respiratory virus, that then resulted in what’s called bronchiolitis. That can sometimes happen and is what caused the low oxygen. He’s sleeping at the moment, and once he’s awake, you may go see him.”
“Will he pull through this?” I ask, my tone etched with worry.
“With the medication we’ve given him, you’ll be able to bring your son home very soon.”
My knees buckle, and I hold on to Enzo for relief as the doctor leaves us with a tight smile.
“She must think I’m the worst mother.” My tears soak through his shirt as I hide in it.
“Nah, baby. She doesn’t.” He tips my chin up with the back of his hand. “She knows he was taken from you. She won’t be calling the authorities. I took care of everything.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” I wince. “I could only imagine what they put him through.”
He leads me back to the chair, and as we’re all seated, I turn to Elliot. “Oh God, we have to call Mom! Did you tell her I’m alive yet?”
Instead of appearing ecstatic, his face falls, or more like shatters. He can’t even look at me anymore.
“What is it, Elliot?” My heart pounds. “Tell me.”
His throat bobs. “I-I’m sorry, Jade.” Twined between each syllable is unexplained grief. I slap a hand over my racing heart, sharp stabbing hitting the middle of my chest.
“No,” I cry, tears welling. “Don’t. Please.” Teardrops pour down my cheeks. “Don’t you say it.”
But he does. “I-I’m so sorry, but Mom died two years ago from a brain aneurysm. She didn’t suffer. I swear.”
I slap a shuddering hand over my mouth, my vision swimming with too much sorrow to see anything beyond the need to scream, to cry with the worst kind of pain.
“She never gave up that you were alive. Not once.” He’s off the chair, kneeling in front of me, his hand on my knee as I hide the tears behind my palms. “She always thought you were somewhere she couldn’t reach.
Always talked about you. Drove the cops crazy every damn day. She loved you, Jade. I love you.”
She’s gone. She’s never going to know I made it out. That I’m alive. She’s never going to meet her grandson.
Enzo’s touch strokes up my arm, as my sobs get louder, the storm of my anguish raging with deep turmoil, wrecking me until I can no longer contain it.
For the first time in the past nine years, I let it out.
I cry, really cry. I cry for all the losses I’ve had, for all the bottled-up agony—sobbing, it all pours out.
Heavy. Loud. Unafraid.
I cry for my mother.
For myself.
For all of us.
It’s freeing and painful and raw. With every drop, I am letting go of the woman I was forced to become, welcoming the girl I used to be, the woman I am now.
I found her. I can finally hear her. Feel her. I’m not going to let her go. My mother wouldn’t want me to.
I will remember you with every kiss, every hug I give to Robby. You will never be forgotten, Mom. You will live on forever.
I push the door open a little at a time, worried I’ll scare him. His face turns toward the sound as I enter, and when he sees me, his little blue eyes instantly brighten.
The oxygen mask is no longer on his face, taken off as soon as his stats normalized when he woke up an hour ago. Once the doctors were done with their tests, I was cleared to go to him. They told me he demanded to see me as soon as he saw them, and I couldn’t wait another moment.
“Mommy!” He coughs, and it breaks my heart to hear how ill he is, how neglectful they’ve been with my baby, not that I expected any different.
“Hi, my sweet boy.” My tone is low as I tread lightly, sneakers softly crashing over the marble floor.
Enzo had arranged for him to get the best room in the hospital. The size of it is more like a penthouse.
I take a seat on the side of the bed, my knuckles reaching down, brushing past the hollow of his cheek. “I love you so much, baby. Mommy will never let anyone hurt you again. No one will separate us anymore.”
“You promise?” he asks with a quiver in his chin. “The bad men are gone?”
I don’t want to lie, but I owe him some semblance of safety. “They will be, and they’ll never get anywhere near you again.”
“And you, Mommy? Will they get you?”
The back of my nose burns with a sting of emotion clouding over the words that are difficult to say.
“Mommy?” he questions once more, coughing roughly, those piercing eyes needing answers, needing his mother to be okay.
“They won’t get me either. My friend, Enzo, the one who brought you here, he’ll make sure we’re both safe. Always.”
“That’s good.” He smiles weakly. “Can I live with you now?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course!” I scoot closer, lying beside him, my arm draped over his belly, my lips on the top of his head, kissing the soft waves of his blond hair. “I’m never letting you go. You’re stuck with me forever.”
He laughs feebly. “I love you so much, Mommy.”
“I love you too, Robby.”
“I’m tired.” He yawns. “Could you hug me while I sleep?”
“Today and every day.” I stroke away the hair lining his forehead, hoping that’s true, that I can spend all my days with him from now on. “Close your eyes, sweet baby. The monsters are gone now.”
But that’s not true, is it? They’re still out there. Waiting. Haunting us. Until we settle this, until I come face-to-face with that man, this will never end.
I’ll be coming for him with an army of my own. I need to do this for Robby. For me. For my friends still out there.
He has to die and I have to be the one to do it.