“Don’t talk to us about our son!” Burke yelled.
“Dad!” Ivy whisper-yelled. “Lower your voice.”
“I don’t want an update from you. I’ll hear it from his doctors. Or from his sister.”
“I was the one that sat beside him all night,” I said patiently.
Burke’s face reddened once more. Disgust whipped through his eyes, and the harshness of it pierced my already bleeding heart. “Get out.”
I blinked.
“I said get out,” he growled again, flinging a finger at the door.
“No.”
A vein in his forehead actually appeared. It looked like it was in danger of exploding. Stalking forward, he grabbed me by the front of my shirt. “What did you just say to me?”
“I said no.”
Across the room, Ivy made a sound of distress, and Braeden stepped forward, a grim look locked in his eyes. “Don’t do this here, Mr. Forrester. Not in front of your son. He’s been through enough.”
“You have the nerve to stand over my son as he lies there half dead? You’re the reason he’s lying there at all, but you want to act like the hero? You want to act like you actually care?”
At my sides, both my hands balled into fists.
I used the beeping of his monitors to anchor me. To hold me in check. I wouldn’t do this here. Now. In front of Drew.
Braeden’s muscled arm went around Burke from behind and easily pulled the man away from me. “I think we should step outside.”
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere. He is!”
The door opened, and a nurse appeared. Shock registered on her face, and then she frowned. “Why are there so many people in here? Only two allowed at a time.”
“I’m sorry, we were just leaving, and then my parents came…” Ivy hurried to say.
Burke jerked away from Braeden and straightened his shirt. “I’m the patient’s father. And his mother,” he said, pointing to Adrienne.
“We still only allow two visitors at a time.”
“And I was just telling everyone to leave,” Burke declared.
“We’ll all go. One of you stay behind with Trent, and then you can switch off.” Ivy reasoned. She turned to the nurse. “Trent is Drew’s guardian. His next of kin.”
The nurse nodded in understanding.
“No!” Burke practically roared, rushing across the room to shove his hand down into the bag Adrienne had around her wrist.
“Burke.” She gasped, nearly stumbling with the force of his tug.
He pulled out a stack of stapled papers and stalked back to the nurse. “I have no idea why any of you think that… man over there is next of kin for my son, but he isn’t.”
“We live together. We’re in a relationship,” I said, impatient. “You know this. The entire country knows this.” After I was done speaking, I glanced at the monitors to check Drew’s vitals, worried that this kind of environment would upset him.
“Two men cannot be in a relationship. You aren’t married. You have no legal rights over my son.”
I blinked, feeling stunned. “What?”
He waved the papers at the nurse. “As Drew’s parents, we are the next of kin. I have the legal documents proving this.”
The bottom fell out of my stomach, and a twisty, jittery feeling took over my middle.
Not married. Legal documents. Next of kin.
“This is a copy of Andrew’s will. We are clearly named as next of kin. No one else should be allowed in this room unless I allow it.”
He turned glittering, hard eyes on me.
“And I don’t allow that man to be here.”
My hand gripped the edge of the mattress, and a low whirring sound filled my head.
“Drew has a will?” Ivy asked, stepping forward to take the papers from the nurse.
I stared at her as she shuffled through them, pinning all my hopes, pinning all my fear on her… praying to God that she would look up and say that man was lying.
“This is from years and years ago…” She glanced up at Braeden. “From long before he ever moved to Maryland.”
“It doesn’t make it any less legal,” Burke intoned. He turned to me. “Get out. You are hereby banned from this room. From seeing my son.”
“Dad!” Ivy begged, grabbing his arm to pull him around to look at her. “Dad, this is insane. Drew would not want this. Drew would want Trent.”
“Your brother has been brainwashed by that… fag.”
Ivy gasped and let go of him as if he’d burned her.
“Whoa,” Braeden intoned, stepping up.
I couldn’t even react. I was too stunned. Too overwhelmed by the implications of this entire conversation. This man… This man who literally disowned his own son had legal rights to keep me away from him? To keep me away from the person I loved most on this planet?
The chair made a thudding sound when I dropped into it. My knees felt weak, and I just needed a moment.
I glanced at Drew, at his face, which was still so beautiful despite the bruises, the ventilator, and bandages.
This man was everything to me. The sun. The moon. The air I breathed. My blood literally flowed through his veins now.
Without him, I was just half.
A chunk of matter without its heart. Without any life.
I knew his father hated me. Hated us. But this?
Tearing me away from the bedside of a man I sincerely loved with every fiber of my being?
It was unimaginable. It was cruel.
At some point during my mental breakdown, I’d reached for Drew’s hand. I’d entwined his fingers with mine.
“Get up,” a cold, unfeeling voice said over me.
I glanced from our linked bodies and up into the unsympathetic face of a man that dared call himself a father.
He slapped the packet of papers into my chest and dropped them, letting them collapse into my lap.
Lifting the papers, I glanced down at the words, but they were nothing but a jumbled, blurred mess. As I slowly lowered them back into my lap, a bead of moisture dropped onto the paper.
At first, I thought it was rain.
Then I realized it was my tear.
“I’m going to have to ask everyone to settle this elsewhere. This is not good for the patient,” the nurse said.
I didn’t even know she was still here.
“Perhaps I should call the police.” Burke threatened. “Let them remove the problem.”
I heard Ivy talking, maybe begging her mother. I didn’t hear. I just stared at Drew, wondering how the fuck things had gotten like this.
Burke reached down, his hand squeezing my wrist above my fingers where I held Drew. “If you truly love my son, you wouldn’t make such a scene and put his health in jeopardy.”
Is that what I was doing?
Suddenly, the man was gone, and a loud thud hit against the wall behind me. I glanced around at Burke, who was staring, shocked, at Braeden.
“I know you’re my father-in-law,” B growled, “but you aren’t even acting human.”
“I’m calling security,” the nurse announced.
“Wait,” I said, drawing everyone’s attention. On wobbly legs, I stood. “Don’t do that. I’ll go.”
It felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the room, and for a moment, I didn’t hate that ventilator, because it was providing air to Drew that wasn’t tainted by… this.
I turned around to Drew, focusing solely on him, clutching his hand, trying to make mine stop trembling. Swallowing thickly, fighting the knot of emotion in my throat, chest, and gut, I leaned over his still form.
“I have to step out for a few,” I told him, swallowing again. “Ivy will be here with you. And I won’t be far. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Let’s go.” I felt Burke step toward me, but I also felt Braeden step in his way.
“I love you,” I told him, not caring who heard. Suddenly wondering why love was so fragile… why love wasn’t created equal.<
br />
I kissed his forehead, and Burke pretty much went nuts.
I heard Braeden hauling him out of the room as I stood and slowly untangled my fingers from my love’s.
“Even if I’m not in this room, I’m here with you,” I told him.
Then I did the hardest thing I’d done in my life to date.
I left him lying there alone.
12
Drew
* * *
A glimpse of awareness pushed back the hazy, shadowy world I was trapped in. Gentle ministrations, a warm rag sliding over my skin… Everything was okay.
He was here.
I sank back into oblivion… until I woke up to a nightmare.
There was chaos, and the terror, so ready to pounce on me, reached out its boney claws. Why couldn’t I move? Why couldn’t I see anything? And the sounds… so many foreign sounds.
I searched through them all for the one I always recognized. All I heard was yelling. Someone was angry…
Perhaps the man who trapped me here.
Panic gripped me, and I knew torment. What if the man who was holding me hostage had also gotten hold of Trent? I couldn’t even help him.
The yelling stopped. Warmth surrounded me and so did a feeling of safety.
“Ivy will be here with you. And I won’t be far. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
What did that mean?
“I love you.”
I love you too. I might not know anything else, but that much I knew.
The warmth I’d grown used to feeling, the comfort that kept the worst of my panic at bay, started to slip away.
“Even if I’m not in this room, I’m here with you.”
Wait! I tried to yell. Where are you going?
No one could hear me. No one could answer.
A sense of hollowness enveloped me, and this cold, ruthless place became scarier than before.
Don’t go! I begged.
But it was no use.
He was already gone.
13
Trent
* * *
As I sagged against the wall outside Drew’s room, the door made a definitive click when the nurse closed it behind me.
So close… but somehow so far away.
I was tired. So fucking tired. So tired my own body seemed like too much to hold up. Giving all my weight to the wall, I bounced the back of my head against the concrete as I stared unseeing up at the ceiling.
I could barely digest what was happening.
And even with the confusion, part of me was roaring. How could you let this happen? How could you just give up like that and walk away?
Not away. Never away.
I did what I did because, above everything else, I had to protect Drew. He couldn’t protect himself right now. I had to do it. And right now, that meant stepping out of the room I so badly wanted to be in.
Listening to his dad spew hate was not good for him. Listening to us fight and go at each other would only set back his healing.
He had a traumatic brain injury, for Christ’s sake! I didn’t know what the fuck his father was thinking barging in there like this, but it wasn’t of his son. That was for sure.
Not married. Legal documents. Next of kin.
I made a mistake. I’d made so many.
“Excuse me.”
Pulling my head away from the wall, I glanced down. A man who was several inches shorter than me stood there. I almost snarled until I saw the kind eyes and set of scrubs he was wearing.
“Are you a doctor?” I asked.
“A nurse.” He corrected. His voice was a little on the high side. Or maybe he was just cheerful. I didn’t remember what it was like to feel cheerful.
When I said nothing else, he cleared his throat.
“We don’t allow visitors to stand in the hallways,” he said gently. “We need to keep the halls clear.”
“Yeah. Right.” I agreed, pushing off the wall completely.
He stepped back a little. “You have some height on you.”
I made a sound and turned. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him reach for the handle of Drew’s door.
“Wait,” I said,
He looked back.
“Are you Drew’s nurse?”
“One of them.”
I held out my hand for him to shake. He complied, and as he did, I made a request. “Please take good care of him. If he needs anything—and I mean anything—please tell me. I’ll make sure he gets it.”
“Wow, that’s a good friend.”
“He’s not my friend. He’s my everything.”
Surprise flickered in the nurse’s eyes, and then it cleared. A wide smile filled out the lower portion of his face. “I understand.”
I scowled. “Is that some kind of dig?” I said. “Because if you’re some kind of… homophobe, I don’t want you stepping into that room at all.”
Pulling back, I started searching out the head nurse. No, fuck that. I was going to find Gamble. I would not have any more toxic people around Drew. His father was bad enough.
“I’m gay!” the man blurted out.
I stopped, turning. Through narrowed eyes, I apprised him. “I’m not in the mood for bullshit.”
His nose wrinkled. “Why would I lie about that?”
“You be surprised the shit people do.”
His shoulders slumped, and a flash of understanding shone through his green eyes. “I have an idea of what you’re talking about.”
I glanced over him from head to toe. My “gaydar,” as some people might like to say, was nonexistent. Probably because I didn’t give a rat’s ass what people preferred. It wasn’t my damn business. So he didn’t “look” gay to me.
“I’m wearing pink scrubs.” The man pointed to himself.
Yeah, I guess he was. I shrugged. “So?”
“So I’m saying I’ll take good care of your boyfriend.”
“Yeah, okay.” I agreed. “My name’s Trent. If he needs anything at all, I’ll be around. Please tell me… not the man who calls himself his father.”
“Patrick.” He pointed to himself.
“Trent,” Braeden called from the other end of the hallway. I turned to see him standing there with Romeo’s dad, who was a lawyer. Exactly who I needed right now.
“Thanks again,” I called and jogged away. It physically hurt the farther away from Drew’s door I got.
In the nearby waiting room, I heard Ivy’s pleading voice and Burke’s much louder, angrier one. Somewhere in the middle was the sound of Drew’s mother.
“Get her away from them,” I told Braeden. “She doesn’t need that.”
“She thinks she can get through to them,” he said miserably.
“There’s a bit of a situation?” Romeo’s father, Anthony, asked, concern in his tone. Behind him, Romeo’s mother stood.
I held out the papers Burke had tossed at me. “Can you please tell me if this is legit?”
He took them, frowning down.
Turning to Rome’s mom, I said, “Do you think you could go sit with Drew for a few? He’s alone right now…”
“Of course!” she replied, already stepping around her husband.
I told her the room, and she started away. It took everything inside me not to run along behind her and slip into his room too.
Braeden had gone back to Ivy’s side, and I stood anxiously waiting for Anthony to thumb through the legal shitstorm.
He sighed and looked up. The expression on his face was like a sucker punch right in my kidney.
I deflated right there like a balloon with a giant hole. “It’s legit.”
“It appears so.”
“But it’s so old,” Ivy insisted, coming up behind us.
“The age of the document doesn’t matter. It’s the legality of it.”
She made a small sound. “But Trent and Drew live together.”
Mr. Anderson looked at me warily.
“Just speak plainly,” I told him.
�
��Legally, your relationship with Drew means nothing.”
The words ripped a hole in me.
“The fact that they let you in that room at all is, frankly, a miracle.” He went on. “You aren’t a blood relative, you aren’t a spouse, and you aren’t next of kin.”
“But he is next of kin!” Ivy argued, clearly upset.
“In the eyes of everyone who knows them, yes. But not in the eyes of the law. And unfortunately, in these types of situations, it’s the law that matters.”
“But my parents disowned him!” Ivy fussed. “And now my father is trying to ban Trent from even seeing my brother!”
“He’s within his legal rights.”
Bracing a hand on a nearby wall, I stared at my feet. “So you’re saying if we were married, he wouldn’t be able to keep me out?”
“Maryland does recognize same-sex marriage. So yes. If you were married, he wouldn’t be able to do this.”
The regret I’d been buried under since yesterday was getting heavier and heavier to bear.
“Did someone say marriage?” Burke interrupted, stepping out of the waiting room, followed by Adrienne.
I really didn’t want to think badly of Drew’s mother, but damn, the way she scurried around behind that hateful man like she was happy with any crumbs he left behind made me physically sick.
“This conversation doesn’t involve you,” Braeden snapped.
“Any conversation about my son most definitely does.”
“Suddenly, he’s your son again?” I snapped, spinning to stare at him.
“He will always be my son. And this is the perfect opportunity to get him the hell away from the likes of you. You can get any lawyer you want to look over those papers, but they’ll hold. And marriage? You can forget about that right now because I will never allow my son to marry someone like you.”
Remember how I said I was too tired for anger?
I lied.
It rushed up from the soles of my feet so fast it consumed me without pause. One moment, I was standing there stunned and defeated by his hateful words, and the next, I was plowing my fist into his yammering mouth with nothing but desire to shut him the hell up.
Adrienne screeched as her husband flew backward into the waiting room, where he fell flat on his back.
#Fate Page 6
