Finding Ever After (38 page)

           
She dropped me off at the emergency entrance and went to park the car. I hated
this hospital. Once again someone I loved was somewhere lying in a room here,
dying. I didn’t know where to go, but somehow, I managed to ask a nurse. I
don’t know how she understood what I was asking, but I probably wasn’t the first
hysterical person she had ever dealt with. She pointed me in the right
direction and I took off down the hallway.

           
Lucy was sitting in the waiting room with a frightened Izzy on her lap. My
heart broke for
her,
she was too young to be going through
this. Neither one of them should be here. Lucy looked up and saw me, her face
streaked with tears. I collapsed into the seat next to her and took her hand in
mine.

           
We sat there waiting for news. Lucy didn’t know anything other than he had been
shot in the chest and was in surgery.
Vi
eventually
came in and sat beside me. Bas showed up not long after. He didn’t say
anything, which was good. I would have started crying again, and I had only
just stopped.

           
I loved Bas and Vi, more than anything, and I was glad they were with me, but
there was only one person who could make me feel alright in the middle of this
chaos, and when he rushed into the waiting room I launched myself into his
arms. I buried my head in his chest and cried some more. He held me tightly and
whispered that it would be okay. I wanted so badly to believe him. I tried hard
to believe it, but I was so scared.

           
When the doctor walked into the waiting room after almost two hours, and made
his way toward us, I swear my heart stopped. His face was unreadable, he gave
nothing away. I was in
Ky’s
lap and he squeezed my hand.

           
“Mrs. Malloy.” He addressed Lucy. “He made it through surgery and he’s
stabilized for now, but we still don’t know if he’s going to pull through.” I
tuned out at that point. Some part of me was still listening to the doctor
explain
how one tiny piece of metal caused so much damage,
but I couldn’t focus. All I could see was my father’s smug expression and the
evil look in Connor’s eyes. They did this. They were going to take my brother
away from me. Away from me and his wife and that sweet little girl who needed
her daddy.

           
Lucy and I were let in to see him for a few minutes. The doctors weren’t sure
when he would wake up, or even that he would. Lucy didn’t want Izzy to see her
dad like that yet, so we left her with the others. She climbed up in Kyden’s
lap and curled herself into him the same way I had earlier.

           
When we walked into Shane’s room my heart broke a little bit more. Lucy sucked
in a sharp breath and grabbed my hand. He was pale and one side of his face was
covered in bruises. He was hooked up to a breathing tube and had needles
sticking in his arms. The rest of his body was covered by a blanket. The slow
beep on the heart monitor was the only sound besides Lucy’s soft cries. He
didn’t even look like my brother. As long as I had known him he’d always been
so strong and capable, and now he looked . . . weak and broken.

           
We weren’t allowed to stay long. Lucy held his hand and told him how much she
and Izzy loved him and wanted him to come back to them. I told him how thankful
I was to have him in my life and for everything he had done for me. I told him
he couldn’t leave me. I hoped he heard how much he meant to us. How much we all
needed him to wake up.

           
The doctor said it would be at least twenty four hours before he could wake up
but he promised to keep us informed. Lucy wanted to get back to Izzy and I just
wanted
Ky
to wrap his arms
around me again and make me feel safe, like my world wasn’t falling apart.
Again.

           
Izzy was sound asleep on his lap, and even given the circumstances it was a
precious sight. The rest of the guys had shown up by that time and everyone’s
mood was pretty somber. Jake was holding
Vi
tightly,
and Lissa was leaning her head on Bas’ shoulder. Ace and Spade both jumped up
when they spotted me. They squeezed me in their arms and the waterworks came
again. It was the first time I had ever felt like part of a big family. They
were my family now, and it meant everything that they were here.

           
God please let him pull through. Please. We can’t lose him.

           
I hadn’t
prayed
as hard as I did in the following
hours, since it was my mom’s life I was begging for. I didn’t know what else to
do.

           
Eventually I sent everyone
home,
they didn’t need to
be stuck there all day, when there probably wouldn’t be any changes for a
while. I had to threaten to have Bas forcibly removed before he finally agreed
to go home with Lissa. Kyden refused to leave my side though, and I didn’t want
him to.

           
When four o’clock came around Lucy,
Ky
and I were still sitting in the waiting room watching some talk show on the
tv
while Izzy looked through a picture book she got from a
nurse. None of us had eaten anything in hours and my stomach grumbled. Kyden
heard it, but before we could head down to the cafeteria the doctor came back
to say that Shane was a little more stable and could have visitors again. He
wasn’t awake but they were more optimistic that he would wake up.

           
Izzy was incredibly anxious to see her daddy and Lucy wanted to be back at his
side. I needed the reassurance that he was still there. Kyden offered to go get
food for us and bring it to the room.

           
When we walked in for the second time, it wasn’t the sight of Shane that struck
me, but the man standing at his bedside with his back to us. I didn’t need to
see his face to know who it
was,
after all I had
already been in the same room as him once today. There was only one man I knew
who could look so commanding and impressive even from behind.

           
He heard us enter the room and turned. I was caught off guard by the fury
radiating from him. I’d never seen him look so threatening, but that didn’t
deter me from unleashing all of the rage and grief that had been festering
since I got the call in his office.

           
“Get. Out.
NOW.”
I demanded. “Or I will call security
and have you removed. You don’t belong here.”

           
“How dare you. He’s my son and I have every right-”

           
“You have no right.”
I
yelleded
,
preventing him from speaking another word.
“You did this. Are you really
so sick that you needed to come see it, or are you just pissed that Connor
didn’t finish it?”

           
Lucy stayed behind me, unmoving and completely silent. I didn’t blame her. If I
hadn’t lived with the man all of my teenage years, I would have been petrified
of him. I was also too infuriated to cower at his menacing glare. I was
confident my look rivaled his
own,
I wasn’t going to
tolerate him being there for one more second.

           
“You know, daughter, I’m getting awfully tired of your accusations.” He
sneered. “I really don’t have enough time in my day to be responsible for every
evil deed you want to attribute to me, neither does Connor. But you can be sure
I will find out who is responsible for this, and make them pay.” I scoffed.

           
“I already told you who’s responsible. You can drop the bereaved father act. I
know you had a part in it, just like you did when he attacked me.”

           
“Are we really back on this ridiculous story?” I lost it. I absolutely lost it,
right there in the hospital room.

           
“Does this look like a story to you?” I yanked up my shirt, exposing the jagged
pink line that ran up my stomach. I watched all of the color drain out if his
face but I kept going. “Is my being cut open and almost bleeding out ridiculous
to you?” I fumed. I was so tired of him refusing to acknowledge what I had been
through. It was time for him to admit what Connor had done to me, what he had
allowed to happen. I dropped my shirt back down, and it seemed to trigger a
response in my father.

           
“Leave us now.” He thundered, and Lucy didn’t hesitate to obey. I heard the
door shut behind them, but I didn’t take my eyes off Jack. If I thought he
looked menacing before, now he was downright murderous. “Connor did that to
you?” His voice was cold and scary calm.

           
“Like you didn’t already know.”
I retorted, confused
by his reaction.

           
“You think I knew about that?” He was genuinely stunned, or at least appeared
so.

           
“Of course you knew, you set it up.”
I was less sure
of myself now. “I came to you afterward. I told you he hurt me, and you told me
to learn my place, to quit being so dramatic and obstinate. You wouldn’t even
give me two minutes to explain.”

           
“I didn’t know he did that. You were always voicing your hatred for him, never
gave him a chance. I thought you were being difficult and over exaggerating to
get rid of him.” His voice was much
softer,
it didn’t
have the same authority. I almost thought I heard remorse, but that couldn’t be
right. He was lying. He had to be lying.

           
“Of course I hated him. He’s psychotic, and did that look like an over
exaggeration to you, or would you like to see the rest of the scars?” Once
again, he was visibly shaken by my response.

           
“
There’s
more of them?” I heard something in my
father’s voice that I never thought I would. It was
fear
;
barely
discernable
, but I heard it.

           
“Yeah, there are. It wouldn’t exactly be appropriate for me to start stripping
right here, but I’m sure you can use your imagination when I tell you they’re a
little bit lower.” He blanched, and I thought for a second he might be sick. I
was forced to consider that maybe he was telling the truth. Could he really not
know what Connor had planned that night, what he had tried and almost succeeded
in doing? Could he actually care?

           
“Did he . . .?” He was unable to get the question out any better than Kyden
had, but I still knew what he was asking.

           
“No. Bas stopped him, and his dad stitched me up and taped my broken ribs.
That’s why I didn’t come home for two weeks even when you threatened to take my
car and ground me for a month.” It wasn’t until he threatened to call the cops
and have Bas’ dad arrested for harboring a runaway minor that I finally went
back.

           
 I didn’t know how to react to the man in front of me. He wasn’t the
domineering tyrant I was used
to,
he actually looked
like he was in pain. As much as I should have relished it, I couldn’t. He
looked over at Shane and then back at me

           
“He knew? That’s why he left?”

           
“He found out, but he also left for Lucy and Isabelle.”

           
“Isabelle. That was her in here a moment ago?” I nodded, and he took a deep
breath and collected himself. “Connor did this as well?” His eyes were back on
Shane’s unconscious form.

           
“Yes. He’s been harassing me since I came back. He’s the one who had the fire
set. He even called me to take credit for it. Shane was going after him to put
a stop to it,” I paused. “Because I wouldn’t listen to him and go to you for
help.” It was even harder to ignore my part in what had happened to him, now
that I was starting to believe that maybe my father really would have done
something about it.

           
“I didn’t give you any reason to believe that I would help you though, did I?
You thought that I was behind Connor.” I wasn’t going to argue with him. It was
true.

           
This was the first time in my entire life that he had ever shown an inkling of
consideration for me. I was having a hard time processing it all. Then all of
the sudden my father took another deep breath and it was like a mask fell over
him.

           
Gone was the vulnerable man I’d gotten a glimpse of. He was Jack Malloy again,
former mobster and current billionaire businessman.
Always in
control.
Only I knew that he could be shaken now. I had seen it, caused
it even.

           
“Connor won’t be a problem again.” That was the final acknowledgement I got
before he moved toward the door and made to leave.
For some
reason that ticked me off almost as much as it had to see him here in the first
place.
I reached out and grabbed his arm as he tried to slip past me.

           
“That’s it? That’s all I get? You show up here, try to convince me you didn’t
know anything about what Connor was doing. Now you tell me not to worry about
him and just leave?” I didn’t release my hold.

           
“You made it perfectly clear I wasn’t welcome here. I’m simply obliging you.
What else could you possibly want from me?” He was using that condescending
tone with me again, treating me like a petulant child.

           
“I
want
to know why?” I pleaded. “What did I ever do to deserve your
scorn and the complete and utter disregard you’ve shown me all my life? I want
to know how it is that you couldn’t see what Connor was really up
to?
Explain to me why he always mattered more to you than
your own flesh and blood. Why you always took his word over mine. I want to
know why I wasn’t as important to you as Ryan, or Cathryn or Shane. That’s what
I want.” I cried out, finishing my hysterics in time for Kyden to burst through
the door, looking ready to throw
himself
in between me
and any threat. He took in my tear streaked face and my father, whose arm I was
still gripping and I don’t think he knew what to do. My father just sighed, but
he didn’t try to walk away again so I let go.

           
“Are you okay?” Kyden asked me, his eyes dark and narrowed at Jack. In that
moment there was no doubt that I loved him completely and irrevocably. He
didn’t care who my father was, one word from me and he would stand against him
to protect me from anything. There was no fear or hesitation, only concern and
a determination that was absolute.

           
“She’s fine Mr. McCabe.” I shouldn’t be surprised that he knew who Kyden
was,
he seemed very up to date on my life. “Contrary to what
either of you may believe, I would never actually harm her. Now if you’ll
excuse us, we were just finishing up a private discussion.” My father wasn’t
used to being disobeyed, except of course by me, so he wasn’t expecting Kyden
to refuse him.

           
“I don’t think so. I’ll be staying.” Kyden moved to my side and fixed my father
with that smug grin I was so used to receiving. I would have laughed if I
wasn’t so worried about how my dad would react. Surprisingly he didn’t though,
at least not in a way I expected.

           
“Listen son, I think it’s admirable that you want to look after Jaxyn, but this
is between me and her.”

           
“I don’t really give a shit what you think and I’m not leaving her alone.
You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t have much faith in your ability to look
after her well-being.” As much as I was enjoying seeing someone else stand up
to my dad, I knew he wasn’t a patient man and I really didn’t want Kyden to end
up paying for it.