22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Stephen
Ileave the charity event, speeding home while Vanessa’s text updates pop up on the screen of the car.
Abandoning Ava at her parents’ party, knowing how fired up Raul was, isn’t something I’d normally do.
Half my brain is still on the terrace, hand around Raul’s throat, wishing he’d give me one more reason.
My old instincts aren’t buried nearly as deep as I’d like to believe.
The reality is that Ava isn’t mine to look after—not through my job and not through any connection we once had. Leaving was the right choice, the only choice.
Given how much of my parents’ care I missed because of my career and then my injuries, I can’t leave my sister hanging when she sends an SOS for help. Being there for her and for my parents is my priority.
When I pull in the driveway, all the lights are on in my parents’ unit, and as I draw open the door, I hear my mother’s moans of pain.
If that’s any indication, my sister definitely should have called an ambulance despite the potential cost. Instead of waiting to assess, I type in the emergency number as I head into the interior of the apartment, but I don’t hit call yet.
Maybe between us, we can get her to my car safely.
In the living room, my mother is laid out on the floor, my father is in his chair, and Vanessa is crouched beside our mother, peering over her.
“Fill me in,” I say.
“I heard a crack,” my mother says. “I broke something.”
“A hip? A leg? I can’t tell.” Vanessa runs her hands along our mother.
“How did she look when she fell? What area seemed to give out?” I ask.
“You really can’t tell where the pain is coming from?” Vanessa asks our mom, ignoring my question.
“Everywhere,” my mother says. “It’s one of those days.”
“An ambulance it is. We can’t chance moving you.
” I get down on the floor beside Vanessa and press the phone to my ear as it rings.
“I thought we had a nurse booked for tonight.” I scan my mom for any obvious protruding bones.
While I could carry her, it’s impossible to know if I’d be doing more harm than good.
“Their nurse called in sick. So I had to cancel what I was doing. It wasn’t work, you know, with the strike.” She doesn’t meet my gaze.
“Right, of course.” I didn’t exactly forget so much as I haven’t been paying close attention.
Then her phrasing hits me. “Don’t tell me you were supposed to be part of that stupidity at the Tucker mansion?
” I can’t help the noise of frustration that escapes.
Truly, I thought she was smarter than those antics.
Before she can reply, the emergency services operator is on the phone, asking for the house details for the ambulance, saving my sister from admitting anything.
When I get off the phone, Vanessa wrings her hands. “Did they tell you how much? We don’t really get any money with the strike. The union’s so new…”
“I’ll take care of the cost if they declare the ride a nonemergency,” I say. “I’ll figure it out.” Even though I’m not completely sure how. If I have to ask Owen for a loan, I will. “I said I’d meet them at the front door.”
Really, I just need to take some deep breaths.
As soon as I step outside, the tight ball inside me starts to unwind.
The night has gotten away from me. Between seeing Ava hurt, losing my temper with Raul, my mother’s fall, and now discovering my sister is still making dangerous and idiotic choices, I’m functioning on a series of adrenaline spikes.
I just get one thing unfucked for another thing to fuck up.
Sirens wail in the distance, and as the ambulance pulls into my parents’ driveway, I direct the paramedics to my mother. They load her on the stretcher, and Vanessa climbs into the back of the ambulance with Mom.
“I’ll go,” she says.
I stand at the rear of the ambulance, and I consider protesting. Something’s still off with my sister, and I don’t know what it is. A weird energy that doesn’t feel related to our mom’s fall.
When the ambulance leaves and I wander back into the house, I’m still mulling over what’s itching at my brain when my dad says, “She was late, you know.”
“Vanessa?”
“Not sure when the nursing cancelled, but Nessy wasn’t here when the other nurse had to leave.”
“But she’s not working. Groceries?”
“Didn’t come home with anything. We were here on our own when your mom fell.”
“What?” Would Vanessa have admitted later on that our parents had been left alone?
“Don’t know what she was doing, but she wasn’t here. Didn’t have a phone near me, so we just had to wait. I was worried I’d fall too if I tried to figure out how to get help.”
“How long was Mom lying there?”
“An hour, maybe?”
“An hour?” I sputter. What if Mom’s injury had been worse? What if Dad really had fallen trying to get to a phone? Rage floods my chest. “Vanessa didn’t tell you what she’d been doing?”
“No,” my dad says carefully. “But she’s been spending time with people who’ve got some radical views. Heard her on the phone a few times. Scares me. Nessy isn’t… She never used to be… Vindictive. Angry. But they’re making her that way.”
I sink into the couch and rub my face. “I had a detail on her. Maybe I can find out what she’s been up to.” Her safety was my main concern if Raul Santos found out she was one of the organizers for the union. I just hope she’s not still pulling strings behind the scenes.
“Something’s not right.” My father grimaces. “Her and a few other people—grand plans.”
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
“You work long hours, and until tonight… Well, Nessy’s never let us down. But all this union organization and strike action is changing her. I’m not as sure she’ll make good choices as I once was.”
Vanessa has never said anything to me, but I can’t imagine quitting university and returning to Bellerive to care for our aging parents while working a minimum-wage job is the future she hoped for.
There’s not much room for acting, singing, or theater—things that once gave her tremendous joy.
In fact, I can’t remember the last time she mentioned any of those things.
But that doesn’t mean she can slide into illegal shit, which is what I’m suddenly worried about. She’s clinging to the notion she can fix The Nile, as though that’ll be some magic potion to save everything else.
“I’ll talk to her,” I say. “Or talk to the detail I had on her. See if they know anything.”
“Rachael, our next-door neighbor, will come over and sit with me if you want to get to the hospital. She’s a night owl.
Won’t mind a late-night call. Nessy’s asked her a few times in the past when she had to go out and you weren’t home.
Think it might be good for you and your sister to be at the hospital together in case any big decisions need to be made. ”
“Mom broke something, but she’s going to be fine,” I say.
“Son,” my father says with a sigh, “neither you nor your sister have much of a life right now. Your mother and I don’t think the current arrangement is working.”
“What does that mean?”
“There’s a care facility in Rockdown. Government subsidized, so it might even be the same as the nursing costs.”
“Dad…” I stare at him for a beat, but it seems incomprehensible to put him and my mother into a government care facility. “No.”
“You and Nessy should talk about it.”
“I’ll figure out how to get more in-home care.”
“We don’t have much of a life here either, son.
Even with more care, that wouldn’t change.
At least there, we’d have some other people around.
Play some bingo. Sit in a garden. Maybe take an accessible bus out for the day.
Talk to someone other than you, Nessy, each other, and whatever nurse is on rotation. ”
“Being in this house is that terrible?” I stand up and pace the cramped living room. My parents had seemed happy enough, hadn’t they? But have I asked?
“I know you’ve been trying. You and Nessy have tried really hard.
But I think it might be time to be realistic.
You two will be able to have more of a life.
Your mother and I will have more care, more socialization.
If this security deal you’ve got with Owen works out, maybe we’ll even be able to go to one of those fancy care places later on.
You’re not giving up on us, and it’s not a dead end. ”
“Honestly,” I say with a deep sigh. “I can’t process this right now.
But if you’re still serious about this tomorrow, I’ll make some calls, see what’s possible.
I’m sorry.” I run a hand through my hair and let out a frustrated sigh.
“I should have been checking in with you and Mom. A real check-in.”
“Not your fault,” my father says. “Your mom and I didn’t want to put more pressure on you and your sister. And we wanted to give this a fair shot. But you’ve been home quite a while now, and it still seems to me that we’re all living half a life.”
“Dad.” I breathe out his name at how hard that claim hits.
“Give it some serious thought. Now, get me into bed and then call Rachael,” my dad says, gesturing to the phone on the coffee table. “She always says any time of the day or night, so we’ll put that to the test. Then go see your mother. I’d be there with her if I could.”
I’ve just left Rachael on the couch and Dad in his bed at the house when my phone rings through the car’s speakers. Owen’s name appears on the dash, and I let out a sigh. Clearly Raul’s contacted him in the middle of the night to—rightfully—accuse me of assault.
“I know what you’re going to say,” I say as I answer, “and I don’t know if you want me to deny it or admit it.”
“What?” Owen says, and I can hear the tightness in his voice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Shit’s gone very sideways. Brutal car accident with the Santos family.
Hernandez is dead. Ava, Landon, and Raul have been transported to Tucker’s Town hospital.
They might airlift one of them off the island—not sure which. Datu saw the whole thing.”
My stomach drops and then seems to zoom back up to lodge in my throat. “Ava? Landon?”
“Alive. They’re all alive as of right now.
But Datu tells me it’s not a good scene.
Can you get to the hospital? We need to manage this.
Datu’s sure the accident was on purpose.
No driver in the second car. The vehicle was controlled via remote.
Police are on scene. Datu stayed there to see what he could find out, and I’m headed there now. ”
A cold sweat breaks out, and I’m not sure what to say.
After my conversation with my dad, I’m worried my sister did this.
Or at least had a part in it. And if that’s true—if Landon or Ava die—there’s no way I’ll ever be able to forgive her.
Her choices will tear our whole family apart. Nothing will ever be the same.
“You still there?” Owen asks.
“Yeah,” I manage to push out.
“Do you need me at the hospital instead?”
“No,” I say. “I can handle it.”
But I don’t know if I can.