May 2025 #2
As usual, Sam was a rock under pressure. I was better than I used to be. Hannah was great; she got that from Sam. Kola fretted, just like me.
Sitting there, all I could think was, please let Finn be all right. My son can’t lose him when he just found him.
Having been in many hospitals in my life, as a patient and as the people waiting to hear, I can honestly say, I’d rather be the patient.
All the times I’d kept vigil waiting to hear if Sam would live or die were horrific.
Watching my son pace and worry, lean against my husband, who had his arm around him, was something I wished he’d never have to live through.
Finn’s parents showed up an hour after us, and when Dr. Wong—a tall woman with short black hair streaked with silver and lovely dark brown eyes—came out to talk to Kola, flanked by two other doctors, they interrupted.
“I’m his mother,” Anne informed Dr. Wong. “This is his father, and we’re the ones you should talk to as only we can say what can and can’t be done.”
“Let me look,” Dr. Wong said and then looked down at the tablet that one of the other doctors beside her was holding.
“Actually, it looks like Mr. Kage is the one who I will be talking to as your son has a durable health power of attorney in place, with Kola Kage listed as the one making decisions for him.”
Finn’s parents both stared at Kola.
“He told me that you would both be sentimental,” Kola explained. “I don’t know if you know, but he also has a DNR in place, and the reason he chose me was because he was certain that neither of you would be able to take him off life support if ever the time came.”
“And you would?” Anne snapped at him.
“I would do what I knew he wanted,” Kola informed them. His voice was shaking just a bit, his eyes were haunted, and just seeing how scared he was, all of it, was breaking my heart. “He doesn’t want you to have to make any of those choices.”
“Because he doesn’t trust us anymore? Is that it?”
Kola cleared his throat. “He doesn’t want whoever has to make a hard decision to hate the other. That’s the truth.”
Anne jolted, and Eammon looked at my son.
“So it’s okay with Finn if we hate you?”
“Yes,” Kola replied honestly. “He knows I’m very logical and that I would know that it was the situation you hated, not really me. He had hopes that you would come around down the road.” He took a breath. “I would hope you would, but his wishes—always—are what I would honor. Period.”
“And because you’re going to be a doctor, you’ll be very thorough.”
“Yes, Mrs. Murray,” he assured her. “I would.”
“And is Finn your person?” Eammon asked, sounding broken.
“No, sir,” he told him. “Your son told me straight up that he could never turn anything off as long as there was a sliver of a chance that I would wake up. He’s sentimental too.”
Anne nodded.
“My father,” he told her, “is the person who would decide.”
Anne looked at Sam. “I can see why you would choose your father if sentiment would be what you want to circumvent.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Kola replied, taking a breath. “My father would know everything before he made a decision. That’s how he makes his decisions.”
“And what if your father is gone by the time the choice needs to be made?”
That was it. In the face of the uncertainness about Finn, she had suggested that Kola could also be without his father.
He turned, took two steps, and pressed his face into his father’s shoulder.
Sam wrapped him up as Kola dissolved. After a couple of seconds, Sam lifted his eyes to Anne.
She had the same reaction most did when faced with his displeasure, she took an involuntary step back.
I understood. The self-preservation instinct kicked in and the flight response was triggered.
She had scared the man’s son, and he was not pleased.
To her credit, Anne immediately took a step forward, wanting, I was fairly certain, to correct what she’d said. Eammon was quicker, though, and took hold of her arm.
I turned to the doctor. “We got off on a tangent there, Dr. Wong. Forgive us. How is Finn doing now?”
“We have him on IV fluids, and after I received the call from Mr. Hunt identifying the substance as GHB, and was told how much Finn ingested, I believe he’ll be just fine."
Kola leaned out of his father’s arms, brushed his tears away, and faced her. “Mr. Hunt contacted you directly?”
“He did, yes. The issue is, just as everyone has a different reaction to prescription medications, something like GHB is very hard to gauge.”
“People can die from it.”
“You’re correct,” she agreed. “Though in Finn’s case, that’s not a concern.”
Kola exhaled deeply. “So you’re basically flushing it out of his system.”
“Yes. This is very standard protocol.”
“But you expect him to make a full recovery,” I stated.
“I do. I don’t anticipate any surprises, as we know precisely what was given to him, when, and how much.
We’ve made changes accordingly, and all his vitals are stable.
I suspect he’ll wake up here shortly, at which time we’ll see if he has a headache, if he’s nauseous, and go from there.
Finn is young, in excellent health, so really, I wouldn’t worry from a medical standpoint. ”
“Thank you,” Kola said, taking a shaky breath.
“You did the right thing bringing him to the hospital,” Dr. Wong commended Kola.
“He’s in his first year of medical school,” Sam told her.
“Then you know, we always err on the side of caution, do we not?”
“We do,” he replied, sniffling.
“Very good,” she said, reaching out and patting Kola’s shoulder. “As soon as he’s awake, I’ll have someone come out and alert you.” She left then, the other doctors on either side walking away with her.
Kola walked back over to the chairs we’d been sitting in for the last two hours, Sam following, taking a seat beside him and putting his arm around his son.
“I didn’t mean to hurt Kola’s feelings,” Anne told me. “I was just surprised.”
“He understood all that,” I promised her. “But his father works a fairly scary job. The issue is you even alluding to the idea of Sam not being around. Therein lies the fear.”
Her hand went immediately to her mouth.
I would have said something, but I was interrupted by my daughter slipping around in front of me to give me a hug.
Of course Hannah was there; the question had only been when.
She would always show up for her brother.
I squeezed her tight, and then she spun around and hugged Anne first and then Eammon. They both looked a bit gobsmacked.
“Here you go,” Jake said, passing Eammon a cardboard tray with two large to-go cups of what I could only assume was coffee. “Me and B didn’t know how you take it, so I got you sugar, creamer, and the mixing sticks there.”
“Thank you,” Anne whispered, very touched, from the sound of her voice.
His smile was kind before he turned to me. “Your chai is over there with Kola, and Mr. Kage got his Earl Grey.”
“That was very thoughtful,” I assured him.
“That’s me, very thoughtful.”
I chuckled, and he put his arm around me as the elevator opened and Harper and Wick walked over carrying a Tupperware container full of blueberry muffins.
“Oh, Harper, you didn’t have to bake,” I told him.
He nodded. “I did. I was climbing the walls.”
When he turned to look over at Kola, I glanced at Wick, who mouthed the words, climbing the walls.
Harper had napkins, because he was organized like that, and gave Eammon and Anne both a muffin before he and Wick left us, joining Sam and everyone else near Kola.
“It’s very sweet that Hannah is here,” Anne commented. “And Kola’s friends as well.”
“You’ll notice that neither of Finn’s brothers are here,” Eammon said gruffly, clearly not pleased with his offspring.
“It might be difficult for them,” I said, trying to be kind.
“You’re a sweet man,” Anne assured me, and I smiled at her.
“Good evening, Mr. Harcourt-Kage.”
When I turned, there was George Hunt in a gorgeous navy suit that fit him like a glove, showing off the breadth of his shoulders and the bulge of his biceps.
“George,” I greeted him with a sigh. I had told him a while back that he didn’t need to hyphenate my name, but he did anyway and that was thoughtful. “I didn’t notice you getting off the elevator.”
“That’s because I was down on ten getting Livingston Strood’s signature on an NDA before he got all loopy from whatever they’re going to give him.”
“I was going to ask a question about you not carrying anything, but I assume that’s all done on your phone now.”
He grinned at me. “We have all the bells and whistles at Sutter.”
“Of course you do,” I said with a groan. “May I introduce you to Finn’s parents?”
His brows furrowed. “We met briefly when I stopped by to give Finn his new laptop.”
“Oh,” I said, not wanting to bring up what George had done that day. In taking care of Kola, he’d rendered a couple of their relatives unconscious. George was not the kind of man who ever hesitated to act.
“Would you come talk to Kola, please?”
“Absolutely,” he agreed, walking with me over to my son. Eammon and Anne followed us.
“George,” Sam said when we reached him, rising to shake the younger man’s hand.
Hannah, who was still standing, sort of lunged at him, startling Anne. George caught her easily, glaring the whole time he hugged her.
“Could you tell me what happened to Finn?” Kola asked, his voice nasally.
George cleared his throat. “Apparently one of the donors at Casino Night, which was a fundraiser for something wetlands—I wasn’t really listening—asked Finn to go into a back area where they were having an actual money game.
He told Finn that he didn’t feel comfortable without someone being there, as there was, like, a hundred grand in the pot. ”
“Ohmygod,” Anne gasped.
George glanced at her, and then back to Kola.