Fragile
Authors: Veronica Short
Fragile
By Veronica Short
Published by Silver Rose Publishing
Copyright 2014 Veronica Short
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
I would like to thank Silver Rose Publishing as well as Valerie Gooden-Schoettmer and Ellena Jennings. For without these ladies and company, I would not know what I now know about editing and the publishing process and Fragile would not be the novel it is today.
People are pretty forgiving when it comes to other people's families. The only family that ever horrifies you is your own.
- Douglas Coupland
They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Whoever said that mustn’t have had a family. It should be; keep your friends close and your family closer. After all, it’s family who can hurt you the most.
Table of Contents
One month earlier
RAY
“Anything?”
“No, it rang out again.” I told Mather as I put the phone down on the couch. “I’m really worried. It’s been close to a month, and I haven’t heard anything. This isn’t like her.”
“She was upset when she left...”
“What if I never hear from her again? I need to make sure she’s ok. I’m going to head up there and see her.”
“We don’t know where she is. It’ll be hard to find her. The city is huge.” Mather held my hand and I gripped it tightly.
“She’s my little girl and she was wronged in the worst possible way. I have to find her. I have to go and try to make things right.”
Mather picked up the phone again, “I’m going to call Derrick and see if he’ll help. He might know someone that knows how to find people. Let me try before you go up there and get lost.”
“He doesn’t want to speak to you, Mather. Do you think he’ll even pick up the phone, yet alone help? I can’t leave my daughter in the hands of a disgruntled step-son.”
“I have to try. Hopefully he’ll help. He can’t hold what I did against you or Lucy. He speaks to Tray and Ireland every now and then. I’m sure that one of them has brought Lucy up in conversation, or at least told Mark, and he may have told Derrick what his little brother and sister are up to.”
I stared at her hopefully as she found Derrick’s number and pressed call, lifting it up to her ear, “Yes, hello. Is Derrick Harvey there please? It’s his mother and it’s very urgent.”
RICK
A stiff breeze was hitting the side of the building. If I stood really still, I swear that I could feel the building sway slightly with each gust. I would love to be outside, to feel the wind hit my face instead of being stuck in this office. My intercom rang and with a sigh I turned away from the window and went over to my desk.
“Yeah,” I sat down behind the desk and shook the mouse to wake the computer up.
“Mr. Harvey, sorry to disturb you but your Mum is on line one. I told her that you didn’t want to be disturbed but she insisted on speaking to you.” Tam, my assistant, sounded nervous. I’d been ignoring my mother’s calls since she started calling last week but clearly she still hadn’t taken the hint that I didn’t want to talk to her. I haven’t spoken to her since she walked out on my Dad and married another man who had a child of his own. She took my little brother and sister with her and left the state, leaving my Dad with a broken heart. Dad and I had always been close so I opted to stay with him. I was the eldest and was in high school at the time so I couldn’t have left even if I wanted to.
“It’s alright Tam.” I disconnected from her and pressed the blinking button where my mother was waiting, “Mother.”
“Derrick, how are you?”
“What can I help you with today?” I went straight to the point.
“I need a favour.” I stopped typing out of shock if nothing else. If my mother thought she could just call me up out of the blue and ask for a favour that just wasn’t going to happen.
“Its Ray’s daughter. She’s just moved to the city and hasn’t spoken to us since she left. I know that she’s busy with work and unpacking, but do you mind giving her a call, checking up on her for us, and then giving me a call back?”
“If she’s just moved here, then yeah, she’s busy. Give her time to call when she’s settled in.” I wanted this conversation over and to go back to my life where Mather didn’t exist anymore.
She went silent for a moment and I was just about to ask if she was still there when she spoke again, “It’s been a month, and we’re not exactly in her good books right now.”
“What happened for you guys to piss her off so badly?” She didn’t answer me. Instead she gave me a phone number and a name, Lucy. With my promise to call, she hung up leaving me baffled as I stared at the phone.
To say that Lucy wasn’t pleased to hear from me didn’t surprise me; I didn’t want to call her in the first place. We both had more important things to do then to satisfy the requests of our parents who had done something to piss us both off. I tried to shake the feeling of uneasiness that stayed with me after I hung up from Lucy but I couldn’t shake the final words she spoke.
Let’s not and say we did
. The words played around in my head all night. I knew I’d offended Lucy. My life was too busy to babysit someone. Just because she moved to the city and her parents were worried it didn’t make it my job to make sure that she hadn’t gotten herself into trouble.
Sick of my day so far I snapped at Tam when my intercom rang, “What?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Harvey, but it’s your mother again. I told her that you were...”
“It’s fine.” Now I felt like shit for snapping, calming down before I spoke to her again, “Sorry Tam, long day.”
“It’s alright sir, I understand.” I disconnected and connected with my mother.
“Yes Mather?” I rubbed my forehead feeling a headache coming on.
“Derrick, did you speak to Lucy?”
“Yes, and she’s fine. She’s busy just like I told you she would be.”
“So she’s fine, alive and breathing then?”
“Yes, she’s all those things. She also told me that she will call when she gets a chance.”
Mather sighed. “So in other words, she doesn’t want to speak to us. Do you mind checking up on her? I don’t know which hospital she works at, but could you just take her out for a meal? Make sure that she isn’t too stressed and has all of her arms and legs?”
“I don’t have the time to take some girl out to dinner. I have work of my own to do.” I was getting frustrated more and more with this whole situation. I knew nothing of this girl other than she’s the daughter of the man who my mother left my Dad for. Why the hell would I want to spend any time with her especially just to make Mather happy?
“Look I know you’re busy and that you don’t want to do anything for me. I get that, but Lucy works harder than you, she works longer than you, and she is going through something right now. Just make sure that she hasn’t lost weight and doesn’t have any missing body parts.”
She was persistent, which fuelled my anger even more. The only way I was going to get her to stop calling me was to just do it. I’d find her, maybe say hello in passing. That way if Mather asked, I could say I’d spoken to her and I’d never have to hear from her again. “Fine, I’ll do it, but only this once. I’m not a messenger between you two.” We ended our call and I dialled Lucy’s number. She didn’t answer.
“Tam,” I spoke into the intercom more calmly then I had answered it before.
“Yes, Mr. Harvey?”
“I need the number for Jace Matthews.” He was the man to call when you needed to find someone. Some people are good at finding things. He was good at finding people.
“Right away Sir.”
Not five minutes later, I was on the phone with Jace. Within half an hour, I had the hospital Lucy worked at. I called her again, and decided to give her over night to see if she called back.
The following day at the office I kept checking my phone to see if I had missed any calls. I had tried to go about my day without thinking of my mother’s favour but failed, so I called Lucy repeatedly still getting no answer. It was late afternoon when I realised that she probably recognised my number by now and was intentionally ignoring me or pegged me as a stalker. That thought alone caused me to drop the phone and leave well enough alone.
LUCY
Stepping outside, the wind hit me with a jolt. It was fresh, energizing, and it made me feel alive. That was what I was looking for...life. I found a new job, and although I hadn’t yet found a new home I felt like a new Lucy. A fresh start felt just like that invigorating wind that hit me with exhilaration. It made me take a step back and look around at my new environment. Putting my coffee cup to my lips, I took a sip and sighed in contentment. I could finally breathe again.
From the corner of my eye I saw someone walk up next to me and stop. When I didn’t acknowledge her, she cleared her throat,
“What is it Brooks?” I didn’t turn to look at her. My eyes were glued to the building we stood outside of as the wind hit us at full force. A storm was coming.
“Mr. Williams’ scans have come back.” She held them out to me and I looked down, taking the large envelope from her outstretched hand. She was shorter than me with blonde hair and thick black glasses. She came off as totally weird but it was more a cover up for her lack of confidence.
“What do you see?” She looked up at me in surprise before looking back at the CT scan.
“I see a bleed here and here.” She traced her finger along the dark line that ran along the image.
“What’s your recommendation?” I drained the last of my coffee, while I waited for Brooks to answer.
“Definitely surgery to stop the bleeding. We’ll need to go in here...” She pointed to the left side of the brain, “Get this one first since it looks to be the worst of them before we move on to this one. That should stop the bleeding.”
“Excellent plan Dr. Brooks.”
“Thank you Dr. Jackson,” she beamed proudly.