43. Chapter 43
Chapter 43
DECLAN
W hen I get back to the hospital, my father has been moved to an ICU room, and I meet my brothers in the waiting room of the unit.
“Any updates?” I ask, and then a woman in scrubs, who I recognize as the doctor I spoke with in the ER, comes in.
“Good timing,” she says to me. “Your father did well,” she starts, and my brothers and I breathe out a collective sigh of relief. “He had an occlusion in his left main coronary artery, and I was able to open that up. But that coupled with his other medical problems and the stress you say he has been under have left his heart pretty sick. He is on a lot of drips to help his perfusion, but I am hopeful that we can wean those off tonight, and the plan is to get him off the breathing machine tomorrow.”
“Can we see him?” I ask.
“Yes, the staff needs some time though to get him settled, so it could be a bit. They know you are here to see him, so just sit tight.”
“Thank you,” I say, and the doctor leaves us.
“What other medical problems?” Slade says once the doctor has left the room.
I turn back and decide it’s time my brothers were filled in. My father had his chance to tell them, and now I am in charge. So I tell them about his MS and let them ask me questions, and let them be mad that I didn’t tell them. They take it pretty well, their anger completely understandable, but they know our father.
Once I get all the medical stuff I know about out in the open, I decide it’s time they hear about all of it. So I tell them about Lexington and our dad’s war with him.
“We have to eliminate him,” Axel says as soon as I am done. “He’s coming after our family; he’s made Dad sick. The fucker deserves—”
“We need to really think about this. This guy has the spotlight. We can’t just take him out,” I remind my brother. “But he also isn’t going anywhere. Dad already showed his hand with that notarized document he has. He’s probably going to keep coming until that is gone.”
“Yeah, but until then—”
A nurse comes into the room and interrupts us to say we can see Dad. “We’ll talk about this later,” I tell Axel and Slade, putting the discussion to rest for tonight. Dad is the most important person right now, and getting him better is the priority.