Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
North comes around the BMW to open the passenger door for me, reaching out a hand to help me out of the car.
“Thank you,” I tell him as he closes the door behind me.
We drove home together with Nash, but North wanted me to sit up front. He had his hand on my knee the whole drive, his fingers brushing over me, but we didn’t say a word.
Nash chatted away about his day, but I didn’t really listen. My head was racing with what had happened and how gentle North was toward me.
I liked it.
Way too much.
As we all get inside, Hunter is in the kitchen, looking devastated. He has his phone to his ear, seemingly on hold.
“What’s wrong?” North asks, and his relaxed demeanor from just seconds ago is gone, his whole posture rigid.
“Lio had a bad episode, or whatever you want to call it. He wouldn’t stop coughing even with the inhaler, and it was so exhausting for him that he’s sleeping now.
I’m trying to get a hold of Dr. Nandes to check if we could raise the dosage if it happens again when he wakes up or if it would be too much. ”
“The dosage is already at the max for his weight,” North mutters, turning to walk down the hallway to Lio’s room.
Hunter gives me a sad smile before I turn and follow North. I know I’m intruding, but I have to see Lio, see that he’s okay.
Or as okay as he can be.
The door is ajar, and I come to a stop beside North, who is standing next to Lio’s bed, stroking his forehead. “Dad’s here, Lio. You’re gonna be fine,” he mutters, leaning down to kiss his forehead.
I have never seen him act like this with Lio while he was awake, and my thoughts are spiraling just as a chill runs down my neck.
Jessica stands on the other side of Lio’s bed, looking down at him.
I struggle not to react and keep a neutral expression because before me stands the beautiful, healthy woman I saw in the picture, and nothing reminds me of the horror movie actor anymore.
“Mom’s here too, Lio,” Jessica whispers, and my eyes start to water.
Is she finally ready to find the light?
I reach out to grab Lio’s small hand, holding it, and North notices, turning his head to me, giving me the smallest of smiles.
“I’m going to see if Hunter got through,” he announces before stepping out of the room.
I turn quickly back to Jessica, but she moves to stand before me, only a breath away, and I nearly scream from being startled. “He doesn’t have asthma,” she tells me, her eyes intense on mine, urging me to listen.
“But that’s what the doctors—” I start to whisper, but she cuts me off.
“The doctors don’t know better. I do. He will die if they keep not treating it right. Soon.”
Fear rushes through me, and I grip Lio’s hand tighter unwillingly. “What are you saying? How would you know that?”
“Because his grandfather, my father, had the same. It’s a hereditary disorder, a rare disease called cystic fibrosis. He can live with the right medication if it’s discovered and treated early enough. But if it’s not, he will worsen even more,” she states, looking back at Lio, worry in her eyes.
“Why don’t North and Hunter know about that?” I whisper, frowning at her. Hunter was her best friend, and North was her husband, for fuck’s sake.
“Because I never told them. The relationship I had with my father was… let’s say, strained. I walked out of his house the minute I turned eighteen and never looked back. When I met North a few years later, I told him both my parents were dead. Because that’s what my father was to me.”
Fuck, I can already sense that this is going to get messed up.
“I need you to tell him. Tell him that they are treating Lio wrong. Tell them that they need to treat him for cystic fibrosis,” she says the medical term slowly as if I were too dumb to remember it.
Maybe because I’m looking at her dumbfounded.
“And how would I know that? What should I tell them? That I just gained medical knowledge in the last ten minutes and found the cure?”
“You tell North that Jessie told you this. You tell him that our son is in critical condition and that he has to get his shit together for once!” Jessica is furious, her eyes spitting fire at me, and I have to take a step back from her intensity.
Panic rises up my spine, and I feel a lump forming in my throat.
“I can’t do that. G-give me some time. I will figure out how I can arrange that without telling him this.
I could tell him tomorrow that I googled and found an article or something.
” I’m desperate, whispering quickly, trying to make her see reason.
He will never believe me.
“Time? Does he look to you like he has time?” Jessica points her finger at Lio, and my eyes follow it.
“North will dismiss it if you tell him a lie. He has to know that it comes from me, that I know my father had this disease. North needs facts. He would never let them torment Lio with tests and needles again on a hunch.”
Lio is pale, although his cheeks are red, sweating heavily. A pearl of sweat runs down his temple. His hair is wet, and a wheezing sound escapes him with each breath.
He has no time.
“I can’t do this, Jessica. I can’t. There has to be another way. Any other way. I can’t have them thinking I’m crazy.” I start to tremble, and I feel my pulse in my throat. My hands are sweating nearly as much as Lio.
“You can. You just don’t want to because you’re a coward,” Jessica yells at me, looking like a protective mother bear.
She huffs before turning and going to Lio’s other side again.
“My son is dying, and you don’t want to help because you’re scared that your new boyfriends won’t like you anymore?
Let’s see how you’ll feel when my son is dead, the son of one of them, and you know you could have prevented it easily if you hadn’t put yourself before everyone else. ”
Am I doing that?
“Yes, you are. Playing with all of them because you can’t choose?
Can’t decide? You’re selfish. And I wouldn’t care if you were selfish with them, but you can’t be selfish with him.
” She looks down at Lio, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I failed him, and it will haunt me forever. His father is failing him because of me, and I will never be able to right this again. Don’t fail him too.
” Her eyes meet mine, the desperation evident.
“Don’t let him atone for the mistakes everyone around him did and does. He doesn’t deserve it.”
She’s right. He doesn’t.
I think about my Nan and what she would do.
But I don’t even have to ask myself that.
I know.
I nod, letting go of Lio and forming my trembling hands into fists, breathing deeply. Jessica’s face lights up with hope when she sees me nod just as the door gets opened again more fully, and North steps back in.