Chapter Forty-Two Max
Arguing with Ethan and Andrew out in the hallway doesn’t make any progress in the slightest.
Eventually, we’re asked to go to the waiting room, while Emma’s parents are allowed back to check on her. I don’t typically get jealous, but I was jealous of them at that moment. All I want to do is make sure that Emma and the baby are okay.
Meanwhile, my own friends of multiple years think that me, Josh, and Ryan manipulated their sister into a situation that she didn’t even want. It makes me want to punch them in the face for even thinking that we would do something so awful to anyone.
“I’m leaving. Mom and Dad have her,” Ethan says as he checks his phone.
“She was discharged already?” I question Andrew as the five of us crowd a corner in the waiting room.
“There’s no reason to hold her here. Her family will take care of her from here on out,” Andrew says, bitterness seeping into his voice as his narrowed eyes sweep over the three of us.
I blink in shock, unable to believe our friends are being so damn cruel to us. I knew that they wouldn’t be happy, but I didn’t expect them to try to keep us away from her and the baby like this. That’s our baby! Our girl!
“You can’t do this,” Ryan grits out before storming after Ethan as he leaves the waiting room.
Josh follows Ryan with a curse under his breath, leaving Andrew and me to glare at each other.
“I know that you think you’re protecting her, but this will just hurt her,” I assure him, trying to talk some sense into that thick head of his. He’s a good guy, but he can have severe tunnel vision when it comes to him getting what he wants. That’s how he got through medical school.
Andrew waves his hand dismissively before turning to put his back to me, an agitated huff leaving him.
He doesn’t even want to look at me. Much less talk to me.
He’ll just have to get over himself.
“Andrew, wait!” I snap as I hurry after him down the hallway. I grab his arm to stop him, only for him to whip around and shove me. My back collides with the wall, knocking the air out of my lungs.
“Stop it, Max!” Andrew barks at me. “You and the other two have pissed me off so much that I can’t even think straight! You could’ve knocked up any woman in the world, and you chose my sister?”
“It’s not like we chose her!” I argue, making him take a threatening step toward me as I remain pressed against the wall.
I lift my hands innocently, hoping to calm him down enough to avoid a broken nose.
“It just happened. Being around each other so much… getting to know each other… our feelings just happened. And one thing led to another. It wasn’t some manipulative plot that we came up with. ”
Andrew shakes his head at me. “I don’t even know you guys anymore. She worked for you. She’s younger than you. You were around when she grew up! You don’t think that’s inappropriate?”
“The age gap isn’t even that big, and she was around to watch us grow up too. We’ve always been in each other’s lives,” I remind him as I tentatively take a step closer to him. “And we’ve always cared about her.”
Andrew tightens his jaw, fire blazing in his eyes.
“But we care about her in a different way now,” I clarify, watching him closely like he’s a bull ready to rush at me. “We all grew up. We started living our own lives. Our paths just happened to cross again.”
“Again, you all knew that she was off limits. How many times did me and Ethan warn all of our friend group not to mess with her?” Andrew questions me, making a frown settle on my face. He did warn us.
It all started when a guy in our high school friend group made a comment about being surprised that Emma didn’t have a boyfriend. After that, Andrew and Ethan were insistent on making it clear that none of us were allowed to look at Emma or think about Emma in that way.
Somehow, even though she’s an adult now, their protectiveness over her has gotten even more extreme.
“Look, I’m sorry about that, but things just happen, Andrew,” I tell him.
Andrew shakes his head at me before starting to turn away. “That’s not a good enough excuse, Max.”
I grab his arm again to stop him from leaving. “Andrew, wait.”
Andrew throws my hand off his arm and whips around to face me again. “I’m done talking to you.”
“No, you’re not,” I grit out, my patience waning. “Whether you like it or not, we’re a big part of your sister’s life. She’s carrying our baby, and we’re going to make sure that she and the baby are well taken care of.”
“You took care of her so well that she ended up in the hospital. Good job,” Andrew replies with a snide voice.
I refrain from rolling my eyes at him. “You’re a doctor. You know more medically. Can you please just tell me some things that’ll help her and the baby? What did we mess up? What can we do better?”
Andrew eyes me, his teeth slowly grinding. He then exhales sharply through his nose and crosses his arms over his chest, his white coat stretching across the back of his shoulders. “Get her stress level down. Keep her off her feet more. She overdid herself, and she’s exhausted.”
I nod as I listen, guilt churning in my stomach. There were so many times when I could’ve encouraged her to sit down or at least slow down. “Anything else?”
“She needs to be on top of her prenatal vitamins. Her nutrition is important for her and the baby,” Andrew replies. “She’s creating a whole other person inside of her. That puts a lot of pressure on her body.”
“Okay, yeah. That makes sense,” I say with a nod. I’ve done a lot of research, but there’s so much conflicting information. There’s so much to absorb. It’s overwhelming.
Andrew breathes in deeply before checking his phone. “I need to go.”
“I’m sorry,” I blurt out as I step closer, making his eyes meet mine. “The last thing we wanted to do was hurt you, Ethan, or Emma. We never wanted that.”
Andrew stares at me, but his stony expression doesn’t waver. He doesn’t say a word to me before turning and walking away.
This time, I don’t try to stop him. What’s the point? He’s made it clear that nothing that I could say will make him feel any better about the situation.
Shaking my head, I leave the hospital and call Josh, hoping that someone has some good news to share since I don’t.
“Hey,” Josh sighs over the phone.
“Any luck talking to Ethan? Did you get to see Emma?” I ask him as I stand outside of the hospital under a gloomy overcast sky.
“Her parents already took her back to their house,” Josh replies, his voice full of defeat. “Ethan just blew up on us. He wouldn’t hear us out.”
“I didn’t have any luck with Andrew either,” I tell him, hearing him sigh again. We’re exhausted. We’re defeated.
On top of it all, it feels like I’ve just lost two brothers. Two friends who I have so many memories with. Who are part of my family.
But they don’t want anything to do with us. We’re villains to them, and it doesn’t matter how much we care about their sister. It doesn’t matter what we do.
Our brotherhood is done.
“What the hell are we going to do, Max? They won’t let us see her,” Josh asks me.
I part my lips to answer because I always have an answer, but no words leave me. Only defeated silence.
We can’t just break down the door to her parents’ house to see her. We have to convince her family that we want the best for her and just hope that they let us even set eyes on her. But there aren’t many rays of hope in sight right now.
Just a tunnel of darkness that goes on and on.