Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Hayden
Being in this waiting room makes me even more thankful that Cain has a twenty four hour doctor on call.
These places are enough to make anyone feel like shit.
The smell is horrible, and I swear it’s giving me a headache.
It's the smell or the fact that I’m here, the last place anyone would think I want to be.
But Cain’s fucking words kept hitting me hard.
She’s alone. She’s fucking alone, because of the decision she made.
But his words stuck, I know he knows the truth about what happened, and maybe this was his way for me to finally ask her again.
Yet even I know this isn't the place, not after the news she got.
She’s in there with her dad, and it’s the perfect chance for me to leave, I’ve done my part. I was here while she had to wait, there's no reason for me to be here. But here I am, like a fucking lost puppy waiting for her.
Her doctor walks by, and I catch his coat before he can move past.
“She’s not hearing the whole truth, how bad is it?” My voice is low, but hard enough to cut glass. I know the doctor was hiding something, and I want to know what it was.
The doctor looks at me, reads the tension in my stance, the heat behind my eyes, then looks around to make sure Olivia isn’t coming back. “Like I said to her,” he replies cautiously, “I can’t answer that.”
“Be real with me, doc.” I snap at him.
He exhales slowly, something heavy behind it. “If she has any other family, I’d suggest calling them—”
“For who? Mom or Dad?” I ask, because he gave bad news for them both, and losing one parent is bad enough but fucking two, that’s enough to make anyone lose it.
“Right now, both.” The word is quiet from his mouth, and I shake my head, not sure what to say to him.
He starts to walk away, but I stop him again, stepping into his path. “Last question. The person who hit them, how are they?”
His face stiffens, and I can see the anger in his eyes. “Hit and run. Police haven’t found them yet. No plate, no name. Nothing.”
“Fucking coward,” I mutter, jaw tightening. My fists clench so hard I can feel the bones strain under my skin.
It’s my number one job to find out the name, remember the face, and make them suffer.
When Olivia finally comes back out, she’s talking to the doctor.
I can’t hear what they’re saying, but the way she’s shifting, arms wrapped around herself like she’s trying to stay whole, it’s not good.
She’s about to break but somehow is holding herself together with the little strength she has left inside her.
She just stands there after he walks away. Frozen.
The girl I was ready to give the world to, is breaking like a daisy stuck in a thunderstorm.
I walk over to her slowly. “Come on,” I say. “You can’t do anything here. You look exhausted.”
“I can’t leave them.” She fights back, and it brings a smile to my lips because she thinks she has a choice.
“I gave them my number. They have yours. If anything happens, I’ll bring you straight back. Let’s go.” She doesn’t move. I clench my jaw. “Olivia, you’re not staying here, so get moving. Now!”
She doesn’t even look at me, but back to the corridor she came from.
“Get in the fucking car,” I snap, sharper now. “Or I will drag you out of here myself.” Well, that worked because she finally starts walking, shoulders curled in, like the fight in her is barely holding on.
I don’t tell her where we’re going, because I know she won’t like it.
The drive’s quiet, but my head’s not. I’m battling with myself again, which is all I seem to be doing at the moment.
Wondering why the hell I care. Why don't I just let her drown in it? She sure as hell didn’t care when I was locked up.
But the image of her crumbling in that waiting room, I couldn’t walk away from that.
I don’t think anyone could, no matter the history you have with them.
When I pull into the drive, she stiffens. “No,” she says, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be here. No one wants me here.” She’s not wrong, but I can’t leave her alone, and I need to talk to my family and Cain.
“You can sit in the car or come inside,” I say flatly. “But I’m not taking you anywhere else.” Getting out of the car, I walk into the house, she can’t go anywhere because her car is still at the hospital, so she’s here whether she likes it or not.
Everyone’s there, which is good. I don't have to wait for anyone.
“How are they?” my dad asks, as everyone joins me in the kitchen sitting area.
I run through everything the doctor told her, and how he told me to call family to come see them.
“Fuck,” I hear Declan say, and my mom places her hand over her mouth.
“Where is she?” Lileah asks.
“In the car, said she can’t come in here, no one wants her here.
” I stop and shake. “When she was talking to the doctor, she said something which I haven’t stopped thinking about.
I lost everything for her. Do you get that?
I lost fuck…I lost everything for my mom.
My best friend. My future. The man I loved more than I ever thought was humanly possible.
I lost it all for her.” No one says anything, which I didn’t think they would, because even I don’t know what to fucking say to that.
But I glance over at Cain who’s watching me with a raised brow. Digging through my pocket, I throw the envelope on the table.
“What the fuck does he have to do with anything?” I ask.
Mason grabs the envelope, and they all move around him to look at the name, then stare at Cain for an answer.
Before Cain can answer, my dad, who’s been sitting quietly on the arm of the couch, says, “Looks like she went to the place she always loved being.” I look to where my dad is facing, and my heart stutters.
The treehouse.
I haven’t been back since prison. Haven’t climbed those wooden steps because all they did was echo with her laughter.
Cain nods, voice calm and low. “Go get your answers.”
I stare at the door.
And for the first time in years, I want them.
I climb the ladder slowly, the old wood creaking under my boots. When I reach the top, I’m not surprised by the creaks in the wood, I can’t even remember the last time I was up here myself.
“It feels smaller in here than I remember,” I say with a half-smile, hoping it will make her feel a little… I don’t know, safer. She doesn’t turn around right away. Instead, I hear her scoff lightly through her tears.
“That’s because you’re built like a giant now.
” Her voice is broken, raw, and when she finally looks at me, her eyes are red-rimmed, her cheeks damp from the tears escaping her eyes.
I sit down next to her, close enough that our shoulders brush.
It’s crazy that being here with her again, and everything just feels normal, like back when things were good between us.
She wipes another tear away, sniffles softly. “Life was meant to be different for us,” she whispers. “I had so many visions of us together.”
“I never fucked it up for us, Olivia,” I tell her, my voice sharper than I intended it to be. “I had dreams for us too. You’re the one who threw everything we had into the fire.”
I wait for her to say something, anything, but silence. I mean what do you say, how do you take the blame for all of this. The silence isn’t uncomfortable, but it’s heavy.
“Tell me the truth, Olivia. Tell me why—”
“I can’t—” Her voice cracks like glass under pressure.
“Whatever it is, you can tell me. I always thought…” I exhale hard, trying to control the weight building in my chest. “In the hospital, you told the doctor you lost everything to save your mom. How did sending me to jail help her?”
She doesn’t look at me. Instead, she stares out into the garden, with what looks like a haunted smile on her lips. “I used to joke with you about who'd win when the twins fought out there. Seeing them now, I think Miles would lose.” She wipes her tears again and drops her gaze to her hands.
“Don’t let the geek look fool you,” I reply, trying to ease the tension, shifting a little closer. Gently, I move her hair from her face. “Talk to me,” I whisper.
She leans forward, placing her forehead against my chest, and I can feel her heartbeat pounding against my hand as I hold her wrist.
“My mom…” Her voice is barely audible, cracking under the weight of everything.
It’s almost like this is the first time she’s about to say it out loud.
“She wasn’t just sick. She was illegal. She came to America when she was four, but she was never documented, nor did she ever apply for citizenship.
Her cancer was getting worse,” she continues, stuttering on her words.
She takes another deep breath. “Af… after that night at the hospital—” She tries to pull away, but I don’t let her. She needs someone to hold her up now.
“The police were there. I was about to tell them everything, everything those assholes did to me. But I stopped when four men came in. I didn’t know them, but my dad told them to leave.
They wouldn’t, they looked like men with money and power.
” She trembles against me, she shakes her head, before talking again.
“It was Leo’s dad… and the others. My mom’s doctor was with them.
Her oncologist. He… he was friends with them. ”
My jaw clenches, because it’s all fitting together.
“They told me… they said they knew everything about my mom. That she wasn’t legal, and if I told the truth, they’d deport her.
The doctor said her treatments would stop, and he’d make sure she was put at the bottom of the waiting list for any treatment she needed.
” She swallows hard, her next words strangled.
“We didn’t have money for lawyers. We didn’t have time to stop her treatments. ”