Chapter 55
KAI
When you’re a hockey player, you’re no stranger to hospitals.
With all the muscles we tear and bones we break, the boys always joke that it’s basically our second home away from the ice. But this time, the hospital feels like a hellscape of beeping machines and suffocating dread that you just want to claw at your skin and scream.
I punch my order into the vending machine. My phone suddenly lights up in my hand.
UNCLE MANU
Almost there. Heading towards the parkade now.
I slump against the vending machine in relief.
Every reading week, Uncle Manu always drives up to visit from Surrey. I love when he visits. But I’m even more grateful for it now because I need a hug from him after the fucked up day I’ve had.
The vending machine churns. I snatch the sandwich from the pick-up box and head back to Wallace’s room.
In the dim light, the zigzagging lines on his heart monitor beeps steadily.
Rowan and Luke sit around his bed. Luke fidgets in the stiff, worn-down chairs the nurses gave us.
Rowan slouches back in his, as he updates Shelby through text.
Wallace sleeps quietly through it all.
My heart aches hard under my chest. I try to breathe through it no matter how much it hurts.
The doctor said Wallace is going to be fine. He only has a few broken ribs that will need some time to heal. It’s just not fucking fair. Wallace has nothing to do with any of our bad blood on the ice. He shouldn’t have to bleed for a fight he was never a part of.
Something pops beneath me. I look down and see a dent in the plastic sandwich box squeezed between my hands.
“Merde.”
My thumb smooths over the dent, trying to even it out before I fucking give up. I drop down into the seat beside Luke. I nudge him with the box. He doesn’t answer. His attention stays on Wallace like it has been for the last several hours.
“Luke, come on,” I coax. “You need to eat something.”
“I’m fine,” Luke snaps. That shining, carefree light in his eyes dies under the distant, exhausted stare that brews with so much repressed anger.
I sigh and glance at the time. It’s been hours since we last checked in and Luke hasn’t eaten anything except the taro roots I baked for breakfast.
I pop open the box and lift the sandwich to Luke’s mouth.
“You don’t need to look away, buddy. Just open your mouth.”
Luke’s jaw twitches. He briefly glances at the sandwich. Then, he opens his mouth and takes one bite. He looks back at Wallace.
“This shit tastes horrible.” Luke scowls. But he snatches the rest of the sandwich and scarfs it down.
Rowan stares down at his phone. The dimmed screen faintly illuminates the sunken look on his face. “I’d ask Shelby to bring you something better if she wasn’t organizing Wallace’s work.”
Shelby spent the day emailing everyone at DHUSA and Wallace’s professors about what happened.
She’s been negotiating extensions and organizing his class notes.
It’s moments like this where I really want what Wallace and Shelby have.
It’s comforting to know that when you’re bruised up, there’s someone who loves you enough to make things easier for you when you come out on the other side.
I reach into my pocket and take out Diana’s hair clip. I bring it to my nose, breathing in the smell of her faded rose shampoo.
I want to tell her what happened, but with everything she’s going through tonight, I don’t want her to worry about it.
Still, I miss her so fucking much.
“New emerging evidence reveals Gregory and Jonathan Huang, heirs to the HMG, are responsible for leaking the details of singer Sasha Vellair’s private relationship.”
My head snaps up at the TV hanging in the corner. Sasha Vellair, Gregory, Jonathan, and Diana’s faces flash onto the screen as the news anchor and the whistleblower reveal the truth.
“Edward Huang, current CEO of the HMG, reveals he was unaware of the plot orchestrated by his sons,” the news anchor continues, “Huang says the board of directors will convene to address how the heirs will move forward with the succession plan.”
She did it. Diana cleared her name.
But the relief I feel comes with a dread I can’t ignore.
I’ve always known this was coming. Diana was always going to expose the truth sooner or later.
I just didn’t realize how fast everything could change and shift.
Now that she has a better chance of becoming CEO of the HMG, she’s going to be busier with whatever shit her dad wants to wring her through.
That secret little bubble we’ve been hiding under is inevitably going to shatter under the weight of reality sinking in.
I look up at the screen. I’ve seen this photo of Diana so many times. She’s in that fitted black dress, her dark hair falling sleek and straight down her back. Her full lips are set in a neutral expression, uncaring and aloof, as her dark eyes stare ahead.
That photo never mattered to me. Now all I want to do is reach into it and hold Diana’s face. I want to see her eyes shine up at me, see those lips smile, slow and wicked at me, I want to hear her say my name in that soft whisper that makes me give into her every time.
I just want to see the girl I’ve been idiotically falling for.
“Kainoa!”
I turn around. Uncle Manu stands at the doorway in his work clothes, panting softly. Stray strands from his bun flail against his gap-toothed smile. I scramble out of my seat.
“Tonton.”
Uncle Manu drops the bags in his hands before he crushes me to his chest. The smell of leaves and cold evening air falls over me. I hold him so tight, the Maiau and Marks Landscaping logo on his jacket presses into my cheek.
“It’s been one hell of a day, huh?”
I close my eyes, clinging onto his strong grip and his steady voice, the way I have since I was kid. “The concussion I had at sixteen is starting not to look too bad.”
Uncle Manu laughs and pats my head. “Hey, at least you got to have jello that day.”
A weak chuckle breaks out of me. I pull away to nod at the bags by his feet. “You brought food?”
“I just got some takeout from a place down the street.” He sets everything on the table nearby. “I thought it might be better than catching listeria here.”
He walks over to the boys. Rowan stands up to hug him. Quiet ‘how are you doing’s exchange back and forth between them. Uncle Manu pulls away from Rowan and pats Luke’s shoulder. Surprisingly, Luke reaches up to hold it.
Uncle Manu’s smile wanes when he sees Wallace in his hospital bed. “How long have you boys been here?”
“We got here the moment practice ended.” I glance down at the time on my phone.
“So…just before lunch.”
“And it’s almost 9 p.m. now.” Uncle Manu shakes his head. “I think you boys need to take a break and go home for the night. I’m sure they’ll take good care of him here.” He rolls his eyes. “At least I hope so. Especially with how much it costs to breathe in this damn city.”
“No.” Luke shakes his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Luke, you’ve been here for hours,” I protest. “You can’t help anyone if you’re drained. You need to get some rest.”
“I am staying.” His eyes tear away from Wallace to glare at me.
“When my mom died and you and Rowan left to go to DHU in first year, Wallace was there for me. He didn’t even know me, but he kept the rink open late every night when I was tired of crying about losing my mom.
He’s the reason why I left Surrey and went back to university.
He’s the reason why I didn’t quit everything altogether. You guys—”
Luke’s voice breaks off. His lips tremble, his nostrils flare as he tries to hold himself together.
“You guys helped me keep going, but it was Wallace who helped me get up in the first place. So, no.” Fury flashes on Luke’s face. “I’m not going anywhere, and you can’t make me.”
I look to Rowan, quietly pleading with him, urging him to try and change Luke’s mind. But he only shuts his eyes in surrender.
“I’ll stay here with Luke. We can take turns checking up on Wallace.” He nods at me. “You should be the one going home. I know this isn’t the only problem you’re dealing with.”
I huff. “But—”
“I’m not talking to you as your friend. I’m talking to you as your captain,” Rowan commands. “We need you at your best for the game this week. Go home and rest, Kai.”