When Angels Cry (24 page)

She paused, waiting for Bastian to say something, but he was as silent as a stone
,
so she touched his hand, tracing the line of the scar with her forefinger.  “How about his scar
?
  Do you remember this one?”  He looked at his hand.  “No
?
W
ell, let me tell you about it.  Right after you pulled out the glass, you purposely cut your hand and rubbed it against mine.  You said, ‘Now you’re not only my sister, but you’re in my blood and I’m in yours.  You don’t have to be afraid.’” The words tumbled out in a breathless tone
,
as though she couldn’t stop.

“That was a lifetime ago, Angie,” he finally managed.  “We're different.” 
Bastian stared at his scar.  His hand began to shake so he balled it into a fist
.

Angie grabbed his hand.  “It doesn’t matter how much time passes.  What is between us doesn’t diminish with time or distance.  For years after you left, I thought of you telling me not to be afraid, and I wasn’t.  Because of you.  I believed that no matter where you went you could never stop loving me.  Now you tell me I’m wrong.  You say you never invited me in.  Which is it?”

Bastian pulled away. 
“I can’t do this.  Not now.”

“Do what?” she asked
.
  “Accept the fact that I made up my mind about you long before you and Daddy began fighting?  That I loved you regardless of anything he might have said? 
H
e can’t change how I feel
,
and neither can you.”  She got up and walked around to face him.  “I’ve got news for you.  Kaylee loves you, too.  Even if you don’t give a damn about you, we do.”

“It doesn’t matter how she feels about me.  There’s someone else who reminds her of all the things I will never be.”
  Bastian looked up at his sister, at the stubborn set of her jaw that hadn’t changed with time. 

“Where is she?” An abrasively familiar voice snapped.  “I want to see my daughter.”

Bastian stiffened and muttered under his breath, “The Wicked Witch of the West has arrived.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” 
Bastian shook his head.  He peered down the hallway to see Dr. Smith followed closely by Denna Renard.  Her heels tapped furiously against the linoleum.  She stalked in front of the doctor, cutting off his path.

“I want to know what is going
on
with my daughter.  I expect you people to do your job.”  She folded her arms across her chest, “Or I’ll have my lawyers revoke your medical license.”

Smith glowered at her.  “Oh
,
really.
Well, at the moment,
you’re the one preventing me from
doing my job.  Get out of my way.
” 
Nonplussed,
he
brushed past.

“I demand an explanation.”

“Then maybe you should ask Kaylee
.
  I have an emergency
in
the ER.” 
Smith
stop
p
ed and
pointed to Bastian.  “Perhaps Mr. Connelly might be so kind as to show you to your daughter’s room.”

“What are you doing here?  This a family matter, and I don’t know why anyone would bother asking you to come.”
  Denna drew her purse more tightly to her body.

Bastian’s cheeks turned bright red, and he balled his fingers into fists to keep from grabbing her and shaking some sense into
her
. Dr. Smith’s mouth flew open in shock.

“You are joking, right?” he asked, stepping back toward Bastian.  “If this man hadn’t told us to contact you, you wouldn’t even be here.”  He snapped the clipboard he carried against his palm.

“Fine.  So now you’ve done the proper thing.  You can leave just like you should have a long time ago.”
  Denna clasped her hands together and held them at the abdomen. 

“According to whom, Mrs. Renard?  Kaylee asked for him more than once, and perhaps that might tell you more about the definition of family.  I mean
,
he was here before you, and he must have thought you important enough to call
—not
that you would have stooped to do such an act of kindness for him.
”  He looked at her for the first time, at her expensive clothes and finely coiffed hair. 

“Did I request your opinion?” Denna snapped, tapping her foot impatiently.  “No, I didn’t.  I
asked
you to take me to my daughter.

Smith laughed loudly.  “Right.  Actually
,
you didn’t ask anything and expected everything.
The rooms are clearly marked so someone of your education and breeding should be able to find
them
.  Should you need further assistance, perhaps a polite request to Mr. Connelly might do wonders.  Excuse me.  I
’m late in the ER
.”

Without waiting for an answer, the doctor strode away, leaving the three of them eyeing each other.  Denna glared at Bastian and then at Angie before stalking away, muttering, “Goddamn doctor.  Thinks he’s God.”

Bastian followed, despite the fact that his sister whispered, “Are you nuts?  You don’t go chasing a rabid dog.”

That’s for sure, he thought, keeping pace.  “Yeah, well, with all your money, Mrs. Renard, I wish you could make him God.”

She stopped and whirled.  “Stop talking nonsense and take me to my daughter’s room.

Bastian tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. 
“Gladly
.  But first I’d like a moment of your
precious time.  Just a moment.”
 

“What do you want?” 
Denna shifted her purse from one shoulder to the other.  Bastian stared at the crow’s feet almost hidden beneath a rich layer of make
-
up
, surrounding
the angry flash of her green eyes.  He
took in
the Gucci purse and Armani silk blouse.

“I want to know if all the time you spent earning your money has made you happy.  Was it worth it
,
considering how much time you’ve lost with Kaylee?”

Denna inhaled sharply and touched her hair, checking for out-of-place strands. 
“My relationship with my daughter isn’t your concern.”
 

  “You keep saying ‘my daughter.
’
  Can’t you call her Kaylee just once?”

“You are an insufferable fool. I named her.”
  She took a threatening step toward him and leaned close to his face.

As she tried to step around him, Bastian mimicked her movements and blocked her path.  “Perhaps I am a fool, but Shakespeare thought fools wiser than most.”  She stepped to the other side, hoping to get around him, but he met her
there
, too.  “They knew things other people didn’t, just like I know something you don’t.  I want to hear you say her name just once
,
and then I’ll tell you that little secret.”

“Get out of my way,” she snapped, brushing past him.  “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“Kaylee was right.  You don’t know her.”  He shook his head disbelievingly.  “God, you really don’t.” 
Bastian’s hands fell to his side
s
and a pallor filled his cheeks as he finally stared at the floor
.

“I’ll find her room without your help.”  She clomped down the hall.

“And what will you say when you get there?  That Bastian is no good?  That she looks ill?  When was the last time you told her you loved her?”
  Bastian followed.

Denna whirled around and her skirt billowed in the sharp breeze. 
“Shut up
.
  My affairs with my daughter are none of your concern.”
 

Bastian grabbed her arm.  “That’s what I’m about to do, lady.  The less I have to say to you, the better.  You see
,
all this time I’ve been worrying about Kaylee’s head when I should have been worrying about her heart.  I thought one wound was so much greater than the other.  Now I see.
 
Goddamn it, be human enough to tell her you love her.  Just once.”  He looked at Denna’s face as she stared at his fingertips
;
he loosened his grip. 

“Who do you think you are to tell me what to say to my daughter?”
  She glared at his hand.

Bastian stepped backward, bumping into a nurse as she made her way down the hall.  “I’m a nobody,” he replied.  “But I became the happiest man alive the day Kaylee walked into my life.  Maybe you can’t tell her you love her, but I don’t have that problem.  I’m not even afraid to tell you I love her.”

Denna opened her mouth, but Bastian waved her to silence
.
“Not for the reasons you think, that she’s rich. I don’t
care
what assets the two of you hold.  It’s what you don’t have–your daughter.
 
You can fly to Paris all you want.  She’s worth more than all of France, and there’s no one else like her.
  More’s the pity you don’t even know what you’re losing.
”  He clenched his jaw and shook his head. 

He raked his fingers through his hair and walked down the hall to Kaylee’s room, leaving Angie staring at Denna with eyes narrowed to slits. 

“What are you looking at?”
  Denna returned the heated gaze.

“You,” Angie spat.  Her chest rose and fell quickly as her breathing sped to an angry pace.

Denna waved toward the exit. 
“This isn’t a tourist trap. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
 

“Not at present, unfortunately for you.
  W
here do you get off treating my brother like that?”
  She stepped toward Denna and tapped her foot impatiently.

“Your brother?
  I should have figured as much by your lack of manners.
”  Denna arched her perfectly plucked eyebrows. 

“
You’re one to talk,” she snapped, folding her arms across her chest.  “He didn’t have to call you at all, and this is how you tell him thank you?  What gives you the right to treat him like dirt?”

“If the shoe fits....”  Denna spotted a stray hair clinging to her coat and plucked it away. 

“God, Kaylee is nothing like you,” Angie seethed.  “She’s actually a decent human being who survived having you for a mother.”

“Why don’t you take your brother elsewhere to dig for money
?
  It might work better
. 
After all, there is nothing to be had here.  I’ll make certain of that.”
  One of the fluorescent bulbs blinked over their heads, catching Denna’s attention.  

Angie twisted her lips into a smirk. 
“I don’t want or need your damn
ed
money
,
and neither does Bastian.  Our family owns Connelly Oil, a company I’m sure someone of your
…
breeding
…
must be familiar with
—or
are you not as prominent as you appear?” 

“I don’t have time for this,” Denna snapped, stalking down the hall until she
’d
finally found Kaylee’s room.  Although the door was open only halfway, she could see Bastian sitting in the chair beside the bed, his head cradled in both hands.

Nudging the door open, she stepped into the room.  As Bastian heard the tapping of her heels, he looked up and quickly rose.  “Perhaps I should leave the two of you alone,” he muttered and quickly
strode
out, leaving Denna to look at her sleeping daughter and all the lines connected to her body.  An IV dripped fluid into her body via a tube connected to her hand, and a cardiac monitor displayed the journey of her heart, a reassuringly regular pattern of peaks and valleys.  Despite that pattern, Denna frowned, wondering what had happened.

Once Bastian
had
slipped out the door, Denna took his place in the chair.  Despite the heater warming the room, Denna felt a cold chill creep down her spine.  She clasped one of Kaylee’s hands in her own.

“Kaylee?  Wake up,
d
arling.”

At the sound of her name, Kaylee’s eyelids fluttered open.  She peered around the room, her eyes narrowing in confusion.  Then her gaze turned into complete surprise as she focused on her mother.

“How did you know I was here?” she whispered
,
raising one hand to pat her hair, checking to see just how much of a mess it was.

“One of the nurses called me just a few minutes ago.”
  Denna squeezed her other hand.

Kaylee looked past her mother to the window where fine frost settled on the glass.  “I didn’t give them your number.  How did they...”

Denna shifted uncomfortably. 
“Your
…
friend
…
Bastian gave it to them.”