I slammed into the door leading out into the main foyer, stumbling into the white marble-tiled space. Clean, disinfected air replaced the musty air in my lungs, wrapping around me, cooling the beads of sweat on my forehead, the back of my neck. I staggered to a stop, not really seeing the foyer. My brain, wired on adrenaline and futile rage, demanded I keep running. To not stop.
Instead, I bent over, pressed my palms to my knees and stared at the white marble under my feet. I wasn’t physically drained. I wasn’t even close to physically exhausted. An eight-story stair run is the equivalent of a warm-up for me, especially a descending stair run. But for whatever reason, I couldn’t find my breath properly. It was as if all the crap of the last twenty-four hours had been rammed into my chest, my lungs, and all I could do was stare at the floor between my feet and suffocate.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to go. For the first time in my life, I was crippled. Shut down. There was nothing in front of me except a bleak future I couldn’t grin or joke my way out of. It didn’t matter how many bench presses I did, Tanner still had leukemia. I could perform a hundred burpees, a thousand bicep curls, a million lat pull-downs, and my son would still have cancer, and his grandfather would still try and take him away from us.
Dark swirls of nothingness formed in my vision. My head began to swim. I closed my eyes, digging my fingers into my knees and gritting my teeth. Everything I’d achieved in my life, and I still couldn’t—
“Brendon?” a familiar female voice called. “Is that you?”
I raised my head, and wished to fucking hell I hadn’t. Amanda’s mother was at the reception desk, curiosity on her face as she watched me across the distance.
Dropping my head again, I dug my fingers harder into my knees for a second, drew in the deepest breath I could, and then straightened to find Jacqueline now directly in front of me.
“Jacqui,” I said, fighting to keep my voice calm.
If Jacqueline was here, Charles wouldn’t be far away. Did she know what he was doing? Did he have her blessing? Was she a part of it? The attempt to tear my family apart?
My family – me, Amanda and Tanner. My family.
A wave of fury crashed over me, so thick it was palpable. This woman’s husband was trying to destroy my family. Was trying to—
“Oh Brendon,” she murmured. And then she took that final step between us and wrapped her arms around me. “Brendon, I’m sorry.”
I fought with myself, with the desire to surrender to the hug and the urge to shove her away. Jacqueline had always been a fan of mine. She’d welcomed me into her home the first time I came to the States with Amanda. She’d engaged me in conversation when Charles refused to acknowledge my existence. She’d asked about my degrees, my studies, my future plans, scolding her husband for his passive-aggressive reaction to them.
But that was before Amanda fell pregnant. Before I disappeared from her life. Before Tanner. Before his diagnosis. Who was she now, this woman hugging me? I didn’t know.
And still, despite the war raging inside me, I slid my hands over her back and hugged her in return. It’s funny how screwed up we can get, isn’t it?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered again against my shoulder. “I tried to tell him he’s being . . .”
I didn’t hear what she said next. My brain, my every molecule had shifted focus.
Charles Sinclair had walked through the main doors into the foyer. Was walking toward us. Was staring at me.
Curling my fingers gently around Jacqueline’s upper arms, I straightened from the embrace and moved her aside. I meet his eyes. I didn’t look away.
Charles’s nostrils flared. He wore his go-to English Lit. professor uniform – tweed jacket and chinos – and a smug expression. Condescending. I wanted to smash it off his face.
“Charles,” Jacqueline dragged out his name in a warning.
He sneered, taking in my appearance from head to toe. There was no attempt to hide his contempt for me now. Open hostility etched his face.
“And this is why I’m doing what I’m doing, Jacqui,” he said, holding out a hand toward me, his eyes still locked on mine. “Do I need to reiterate the situation?”
I ground my teeth. Balled my fist. “Good morning to you, too, Charles.”
He flicked a glance at my clenched hand and snorted.
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I’m here to see my grandson. I’m here to save him.”
He went to walk past me but I stopped him, stepping into his path, flattening my palm to his chest. “No.”
He dropped his head to look at it, then lifted his eyes again to glare at my face. “Excuse me. Take your hand off me this second.”
I stood taller. I didn’t remove my hand. “I know what you’re here to do, Chuck. You’re here to prove you’re better than a jock. You’re here to prove you have the power to completely make my place in my son’s life, in your daughter’s life, null and void. Redundant.”
“Redundant?” Disdain flared in his eyes. “That’s a big word for you. I’m impressed.”
“Be impressed by this. I am going to spend the rest of my life with your daughter. I am going to spend the rest of my life making her happy. And I am going to spend the rest of Tanner’s life, my son’s life, doing the same. And it doesn’t matter how many pieces of paper you throw at me, how much money you waste trying to prove me an unfit father, I will prove you wrong. Because I am an incredible father, and I will be an incredible husband.” I curled my lips into a wide smile and drew my head a little closer to his. “And whether you like it or not, I will be an incredible son-in-law.”
I could hear Jacqueline saying his name, trying to placate him maybe? Trying to end this lunacy? I could see her in my peripheral vision, standing beside him, plucking at his sleeve.
“You spent two weeks drunk after Amanda ended your relationship last time,” Charles declared. “You failed two assignments and one exam during that period.”
My pulse thumped into my ears. A vice clamped my chest. He’d dug up information about me. How, I don’t know. Maybe through his university contacts? It didn’t matter though. What mattered was he had ammunition and was obviously prepared to use it against me.
“What impression” he asked, “do you think that kind of behavior will make on a judge? How do you think they’ll react to the fact you were arrested for physical assault? Or that you broke a man’s jaw with one punch?”
I ground my teeth and refused to blink. He was talking about the bodyguard the Delvania royal family had assigned Raphael. He was talking about the fight that had not only made the news in Australia and America, but had become a viral hit on YouTube.
I stared down into his face. My head roared.
“Charles,” Jacqueline snapped. “You’re being stupid.”
“I’m being a father,” he snarled, turning to her. “I’m protecting my daughter. I’m protecting my family.”
“How?” Jacqueline gazed at him, disbelief and disapproval in her eyes. “By belittling the man your daughter loves?”
“Love?” He barked out a dry laugh. “It’s not love. It’s lust. Lust for a muscle-bound –”
I bunched his shirt in my fist. I couldn’t stop myself. “I’d stop if I were you, Chuck. Despite what you think, I’m not a violent guy, but you’re pushing me to a place I suit very very well.”
He turned back to me, triumphant glee burning in his eyes. “You’re a Neanderthal, Osmond. And no Neanderthal will ever marry my daughter. Or raise her son. I’m going to convince her now to let Dr. Waters use Robby’s bone marrow, and when my grandson is cured, when I’ve saved him, she will see you have no worth in her—”
“Dad!” Amanda’s voice shattered the air. “That’s enough.”
I turned, straightening away from Charles. Just in time for Amanda to slap her father across the face. The crack of her palm on his cheek sank into my cold rage.
Jacqueline gasped. “Mandy, no.”
“That�
��s enough,” Amanda repeated, glaring at her father. Her cheeks glistened, wet with tear. Fury boiled in her eyes. “You’re not helping at all. Don’t you see that? Don’t you see you’re only hurting us more?”
“Us?” Charles echoed, rubbing at the red palm print on the side of his face. “I’m trying to save you and Tanner, not hurt you. Robby’s bone marrow is almost a match. You know that. There’s a chance Tanner’s body will accept it. And instead of agreeing to the transplant, you place all your hope – and Tanner’s life – in the man who abandoned you, who left you to go pump iron.”
“That’s not what happened, Dad.” Amanda shook her head. “And you know it.”
Charles sneered at me. “Okay, fine. But he’s not a match. His parents aren’t a match. My God, Mandy, even his friend isn’t a match. He cannot save Tanner. There is nothing he can do for you except take . . . except take you . . .” He stopped, yanking his glasses from his face with one hand and rubbing at his eyes with another.
“Except what?” Amanda asked, studying her father.
From the corner of my eye I saw men hurrying toward us. Big men. Big men wearing dark clothes that could only be security uniforms.
“Except what, Dad?”
“Except take you away,” he ground out. “Except take you back to Australia so we never see you, or Tanner . . .”
“Oh Jesus, Dad.” Amanda shook her head. “Are you serious? My son is dying, your grandson is dying, and you’re worried about geography?”
Anger crossed Charles face. His eyes grew flinty. “I’m worried about what’s best for my grandson. And what’s best for him is to—”
“Excuse me.” The biggest of the security guards had reached us. He ran a composed inspection over all of us, lingering for a moment on me. I knew why – he was weighing up his odds of taking me down. The odds weren’t in his favor. “We’re going to have to ask you to leave now.”
“It’s okay.” Amanda placed her hands on Charles’s chest and shook her head at the guards. “We’re okay.”
“I’m sorry, miss,” the biggest guard said. He flicked a glance at me and shuffled his feet. His Adam’s apple jerked up and down his throat. “But we can’t have this kind of disruption in the foyer. I have to ask you to exit the building.”
“I’m going to see my grandson,” Charles snarled, trying to shove past Amanda.
The guards moved. I moved faster. Hooking my fingers around Charles’s upper arm, I pulled him to a stop.
“Get your hands off me,” he ordered.
“Charles,” I answered, my voice calm. “I get I’m not what wanted for your daughter. I understand that. But I promise you I will never hurt her. I will never betray her. I will never tear her soul apart by being selfish. I will be there for her in the darkest of times, when life is destroying her, I will be there for her. That’s how much I love her. As much, I’m sure, as you do.” I held his gaze, willing him to understand what I was saying. And what I wasn’t saying.
He looked at me, searching my eyes for something. I don’t know what.
“Do you understand?” I said, loosening my grip on his arm. A little.
“Dad.” Amanda stepped between us. The soft touch of her fingers on my chest filled me with an emotion I still can’t explain or describe. “I love him. Can’t you understand that? I never stopped loving him. And I never should have let you bully me into not calling him when Tanner was diagnosed. The last twenty-four hours have been the most horrific and the most wonderful twenty-four hours of my life. If Brendon wasn’t here . . . well, they would only have been the most horrific. Can’t you see that?”
He gazed down at her, studying her face. And then he shook his head. “Can’t you see,” he said, “the very horrific nature of the last twenty-four hours is why you think him being here is so wonderful?”
Amanda’s shoulders slumped. My gut clenched.
“Please go, Dad,” she said. “Please leave. Now. I revoke your permission to visit Tanner or to have any access to him while he is here in New Dawn.”
The security guards tensed.
Jacqueline sobbed. “Oh, Mandy.”
Charles narrowed his eyes on Amanda, staring at her. “You don’t know what you’re doing. Don’t come crying to me when your son is dead.”
He turned on his heel and began to walk away. I grabbed his arm before he could take a step. “Remember those words, Chuck, when your grandson turns twenty-one and you’re not there to celebrate it with us.”
Eyes burning with contempt, he shook me off and hurried from the foyer, through the main doors.
Just as a tall guy with messy blond hair and a short, neatly trimmed beard entered the building. A guy who pulled his sunglasses from his face, grinned at me over the distance, held out his arms wide and announced, “Cousin. I’m here.”
Sixteen
Considering All Possible Outcomes
I blinked. After the insanity I’d just lived through, my brain couldn’t fathom how Caden could be standing in – now walking through – the hospital foyer.
He was in Australia. Not here. He’d driven to Sydney from Melbourne to see Dad, his uncle, for Dad’s birthday. I’d spoken to him on the phone only a short while ago.
A short while ago.
Over half a day. Plenty of time for him to . . .
He stopped directly in front of me, fist up waiting for me to respond with our customary fist bump. “Dude, you need to check your phone. I’ve been ringing and texting you since I landed.”
I stared at him, not moving.
A typical Caden frown – half mischievous grin, half mocking scowl – crossed his face. He glanced at the people around me – Amanda, Jacqueline, the security guards . . . “Did I interrupt something?”
My breath left me on a gushing grunt. I raked my hands through my hair. I shook. I actually shook.
“What are you doing here, Cade?” I asked.
Movement at my side made me turn to look. The guards were retreating. Their eyes still trained on me, they were walking away. Slowly. Cautiously. But away. I heard Jacqueline say something to them. Whatever it was, the biggest one smiled and nodded.
“My cousin needs me.”
At Caden’s exclamation – part chuckle, part reproach – I turned back to him.
He wriggled his hand, still in a fist, still waiting for me to bump it. “Where else am I going to be?”
That was Caden. That’s why I loved him like a brother.
Feeling like I was wrapped in wool, my head fuzzy, my heart still racing, I curled my fist, so recently itching to slam into Charles Sinclair’s jaw, and tapped my knuckles against Caden’s. His smile stretched wider. It didn’t however, make it to his eyes. His eyes were worried. Caden may come across as a dumbass joker on first impression, but he was far from it.
“Now that’s out of the way,” he said, hitching the overnight bag he carried farther up his shoulder, “where do I get tested?”
“Where do you what?” My brain wasn’t catching up.
“Tested.” Caden frowned. “Blood. To see if I’m a match for your son.”
I shook my head. “You flew all this way to get tested? You could have got tested back in Australia like Mum and Dad.”
Caden snorted. “You expect me to just stay there when I hear my tough-as-shit, eternal-optimist cousin, the guy who never lets life get him down, ever, is being beaten up by it? The second I got off the phone with you I bought a ticket on the next flight here. By the way, I’m going to need you to explain to my Companion Animal Medicine lecturer why I’m going to be late handing in my assignment, okay?”
He grinned at me.
I stared back at him. “Mum and Dad aren’t a match,” I said. My brain had seriously detached at some point.
He raised an eyebrow. “I know that, man. Unlike a certain someone, I know how to check my text messages. Theirs was waiting for me when I got off the plane.” He rubbed his hands together. “So? When do we get started?”
At the feel of Am
anda’s arm sliding through mine, I jerked my head around. Amanda stood by my side, looking up at me. All the hurt in her heart swam in her eyes. And yet, in among all that pain, I saw hope. Sliding my arm around her waist, I pulled her close, lowered my head to hers and pressed our foreheads together. I know Caden was standing right there, had obviously flown halfway around the world to help me, but at that very moment, I needed Amanda more.
The hope in her eyes? I loved seeing it there, but it scared the shit out of me as well. After what she’d just done . . . what her father had just put her through . . . I didn’t want her to be destroyed again. And yet, perhaps the hope would heal the poison of her father’s behavior? I could only . . . well, I could only hope. Even as I hoped with every fiber in my soul Caden could do what I couldn’t.
“I love you, Mandy,” I whispered, holding her close. It was a lame thing to say, given what had just happened. Nowhere near . . . substantial enough.
She was so strong. So much stronger than her father believed. And yet, so fragile. Made strong by her love for me, and weak by her love for our son.
“I love you,” I repeated, not knowing what else to say.
She cupped my jaw and brushed my lips with her thumb. “The feeling,” she murmured back, “is entirely mutual.”
We stayed that way for a heartbeat. Maybe two. Maybe more. I held her, drawing strength from her, giving her strength back.
And then, finally, I raised my head and turned to my cousin. “Cade,” I said, wrapping Amanda in my arms and pulling her completely against my body, “do you remember Amanda? You two met once at Bondi.”
Caden smiled at her. “You’re the American girl who thrashed Brendon at air hockey, yes?”
Amanda laughed, a soft, shaky sound still cut with pain. “That’s me.”
Caden’s smile grew wider. “I think I love you. Will you marry me?”
It was Jacqueline who laughed this time. Like her daughter’s, it was melancholy and fragile. “Hi Caden, I’m Amanda’s mom.”
Unforgettable (Always Book 2) Page 23
