by Nikki Ash
“We feel everything went good. He has three broken ribs, which caused internal bleeding. We were able to stop the bleeding without any further complications. Unfortunately, broken ribs can’t be fixed, they will have to heal over time, but he’s wrapped up. The gunshot wounds to his shoulder and chest were clean, so we just had to stitch him up. His leg was broken in two places, so he’s in a cast. He suffered a head injury as well, but other than having a concussion there is no swelling in the brain, which is a good sign. He’s in recovery now and we’ll continue to monitor him. Once they get him settled, you can go back two at a time. Do you have any questions?”
“Will he get back full use of his shoulder and leg?” I know in hindsight it’s not important, but Caleb’s world revolves around fighting. I know he’s going to want to know.
“The specialist will be in to speak with Caleb once he wakes up. He’ll be able to answer that question better.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Just as the doctor is leaving, the DCF worker returns, smiling softly.
“Okay, good news. You both are active on the fostering list, so I was able to approve both of you to take them home. We will have to do home visits in the next few days so I’ll be in touch.”
Marco wakes up and looks around to find Chloe, then turns to the worker. “Does that mean Chloe and I can stay together?”
“How would you feel if you stayed with me and Chloe stayed with Bentley and Kayla? You know how they have Faith, right? So they have all the baby stuff already for Chloe.”
“Can I still see her?”
“Of course you can, sweetie!” Kayla chimes in. “You can see her whenever you want. Let’s just take this one day at a time until we figure out what’s going to happen.”
“Would you rather go with Kayla and stay with Chloe?” I ask him.
“No, I know they’re good with Faith. I would rather go with you. Can we stay and wait for Caleb?”
“Absolutely,” I tell him, and his body visibly relaxes.
“Thank you,” I tell the worker. She lets me know she will be in touch and leaves.
“Family of Caleb Michaels,” a nurse announces.
“I want to go see Caleb, please!” Marco begs the nurse. He’s so worried about Caleb.
“I’m sure we can make that happen,” I tell him.
“I’m sorry but only family right now,” the nurse says sympathetically.
“She’s his fiancée,” Bentley says before I can even think of a lie to get us inside.
The nurse doesn’t look convinced but doesn’t argue.
“Is he your son?” she asks, pointing to Marco. Without hesitation, I tell her yes.
“Okay, he can come with you guys since he’s a minor and in your care.”
“Thank you.”
“C’mon.” Bentley puts his arm around me and walks us toward the nurse. “I’ll go with you, future Mrs. Michaels.”
Chapter Ten
Caleb
Holy shit! My head feels like it’s about to explode. I hear a faint beeping sound and try to remember where I am and why I feel so hung over. The overwhelming smell of antiseptics hits my nose causing me to almost choke. Then the memories all come crashing back.
Marco… His mom being raped... Getting the shit beat out of me… Getting shot… Everything going black… FUCK!
“Well, good morning, Mr. Michaels. Welcome back. Your fiancée and son were just here. They stepped out to get a drink of water but should be back any second. How are you doing?”
Fiancée? Son? What. The. Fuck.
I rack my brain trying to think if I could have possibly missed getting engaged. I sure as fuck know I don’t have a son. I look around and see Bentley sitting in a chair shaking with silent laughter. Then, when Hayley and Marco walk in, he smiles wide and laughs out loud.
“Well, how are you?”
“Umm… I think I’m okay…” I wiggle my fingers and they work. Then I start touching various parts of my body to see if I am in fact okay. When I move my arm too far over, I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and chest. It’s kind of hard to breathe now that I’m thinking about it.
“Oh fuck!” I scream louder than I realize when I attempt to move my hand to my shoulder.
“Be careful. You were shot, Mr. Michaels. The doctor will be in momentarily to explain your injuries and what he did during surgery.” The first thing that comes to mind is fighting. If I’m in this much pain there is no way I’ll be fighting anytime soon.
After checking my vitals, the nurse gives me more pain meds before she leaves the room.
“Fiancée and son?”
Bentley cracks up laughing, again. “Don’t look so scared, bro. I had to say Hayley was your fiancée to get them in here, so Marco could see you. The kid was worried.”
Am I crazy that for a second I almost thought it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing to be engaged to Hayley? Yeah, I must have been hit in the head. It’s the only way to explain these absurd feelings.
The doctor comes in and explains I suffered a concussion, have three broken ribs, and a broken leg that they put a cast on and will have to remain on for about six weeks before getting it checked. My shoulder is in a sling so it can heal from the gunshot wound, and I was shot in the chest. Jesus, it’s a fucking miracle I’m alive.
“Do you have any questions?”
“Will I get full rotation of my shoulder back? Will my leg be healed one hundred percent? I’m a fighter.”
“It’s definitely going to take some time. If you were working a desk job I would say you’ll be fine, but as an athlete, you will most likely need to attend physical therapy for your shoulder and leg. Unfortunately only time will tell.”
“Okay, thank you.”
After the doctor leaves, I let out a slew of curse words. Fighting is my fucking life. Without it, who am I?
“I’m sorry,” Marco says. And that’s when I remember him and Hayley have been in the room the whole time.
“Come here, Marco.”
He comes forward nervously. My cursing having him scared.
“Don’t ever apologize for what happened last night. Do you understand me? I would have done it all over again if it meant protecting you.”
Marco’s eyes well up with tears and he throws himself at me for a hug. My chest burns and my ribs ache, but I don’t outwardly react. Marco needs a hug and I don’t want him to see the pain I’m in.
“Hey, buddy. It’s okay,” I say, trying to calm him.
Then I ask Bentley, “Have you guys been here this whole time?”
He looks at me incredulously. “Of course we have. Coop, Liz, Kaden, Ashley, and Kayla are out there as well.”
I choke up at the realization that all these people have been here waiting to see if I’m okay. I’ve felt so alone for so long, but the fact is these people have been here for me for years.
“As you can see, I’m okay. Take Kayla home and tell Cooper and everyone else I’m good. Get some sleep and call me later.”
“Wait! Does that mean Chloe is leaving? I have to kiss her goodbye!” Marco says, frantically turning to Bentley and Hayley. Why would Chloe be here? And why would she be leaving without Marco?
Hayley crouches down a little to soothe Marco. “Hey, it’s okay. We can go say bye to them. I’m sure Chloe is tired and wants to sleep in a comfortable bed. We can go visit them later, I promise.” Why the hell does Kayla have Chloe?
Marco calms down and says okay. Bentley and Hayley share a look before she says she’s going to take Marco to say bye to his sister.
Marco gives me one more hug. “I’m glad you’re okay, Caleb.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
Bentley waits for the door to close before he speaks. “Marco’s mom overdosed. Marco found her dead in her room after the cops showed up.”
“Holy shit.” I don’t even know what else to say. I know how Marco feels to an extent. When my mom died, it hurt, but we knew it was coming.
“There’s mo
re…” I wait for him to continue. “Apparently there are no living relatives so Kayla and I are fostering Chloe and Hayley is fostering Marco so they aren’t sent away and completely separated. Marco was given the option to come with us but wanted to stay with Hayley.”
Wow, the fact that Hayley would do that for a kid she barely knows speaks volumes about the kind of person she is. I know Kayla and Bentley have talked about adoption, but Hayley is single with no kids or significant other. That’s a huge commitment on her part.
“That’s really awesome of you guys. Marco is a great kid, but you know that. I’m glad he won’t be alone and his sister will be taken care of.”
“So what are you going to do for the next six weeks?”
“What do you mean?”
He looks down at my leg. “Once you get out of here… You can’t walk up the three flights of stairs to the apartment. You know you can stay with us or Cooper and Liz, or even Kaden. We can set up the couch for you…”
Shit! I didn’t even think about that. All my friends have two-story houses and none of their guest rooms are on the first floor. There’s no way I’m staying on one of their couches for the next six damn weeks.
“He can stay with us,” Marco says. I look over at Hayley and Marco standing back in the doorway.
Hayley looks nervous. “Umm… Yeah… You can stay with Marco and me if you want.” Then she turns to Bentley. “Marco said goodbye and we’re going to come by later so he can see where Chloe is staying. Kayla is getting Chloe situated in the car and will meet you outside.”
“Okay, cool. Caleb, if you need a place to stay you can stay with any of us. I’ll give you a call in a little bit.”
We bump fists and he leaves.
“Do you want to stay with us?” Marco asks again sounding hopeful.
Hayley still looks nervous. “My house is a single story and I have two guest rooms that aren’t being used. You can stay in one and Marco can stay in the other.” I’m about to argue, but she must know it’s coming, because she speaks before I do. “Please don’t argue, Caleb.”
I want to say no. I want to argue. I want to run the fuck away from this woman who is slowly making me feel shit I shouldn’t be feeling. Maybe six weeks in the same house with Hayley can be a good thing. I’m starting to catch feelings for her, feelings I don’t know what to do with. I can’t find a single thing wrong with her, so maybe living under the same roof with her will reveal her faults and flaws and then I can drop these feelings bullshit like a bad habit. My brain goes back to a time when I trusted Gloria—reminding me where that got me.
Fifteen years old
“Is it okay if I spend the night at David’s house?” I ask my dad.
“I think it would be best if you wait until I get home. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow. I don’t want to make Gloria stay at the house alone.”
When my parents were married my dad never went out of town for business, but since my mom passed away a lot has changed. My dad recently married Gloria, who is young enough to be his daughter. He goes out of town for business several times a month, and she never goes with him. Shortly after they met, they married and he bankrolled her new business, a strip club.
Opening a strip club makes sense, since I’m pretty sure that’s where he met her. He hasn’t actually said that, but between the way she dresses, the friends she has over, and the conversations I’ve heard, I’m almost positive she was a stripper until she got ahold of my dad’s money.
I have my bedroom door closed but can still hear Gloria and her friends downstairs drinking and listening to music. Recently, the more drunk she gets, the more hands-on she gets, and the last woman I want touching me is my dad’s wife, even if she is closer in age to me than her husband.
When he first started going away she would let my friends come over and we would all hang out. She was actually really cool. She would convince my dad to buy me the latest video games and electronics. She would let me and my friends drink some alcohol with her and her friends. We would order food in and watch movies together. It was like having a friend. While she didn’t feel like a stand-in mom, she did kind of feel like a sister in a way. After losing my sister and mom, it was nice hanging out with someone, especially with my dad gone all the time.
Then one night everything changed. She and her friends were completely wasted and came on to me after my friends went home. They asked me if I was a virgin and when I said I was they offered to help me change that. I laughed it off to their drunkenness and went to my room, but since then she’s acted differently around me. When my dad isn’t looking, she’ll rub her ass against me or touch me as she walks by. When we watch a movie she’ll get closer, putting her feet into my lap. It’s just weird.
When my dad said he was going out of town this morning she made a comment about not wanting my friends over this weekend when she usually encourages me to invite them over. I don’t understand why she even cares. While I’ve been in my room all night, I can hear her friends and her getting drunk once again. I was hoping to get out of here, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Putting my ear buds in my ears, I press play on my playlist, attempting to get some sleep.
I feel the bed sink and turn over taking my ear buds out. The music has stopped and when I glance at the clock, it reads two in the morning. I’ve been asleep for about three hours. A hand glides down my stomach inching its way toward my dick. Before it lands on it, I grab the hand, bringing it to a stop.
Squinting my eyes to adjust to the darkness I see Gloria lying in my bed.
“What are you doing?” I hope I’m misunderstanding her being in my bed, trying to feel up on my junk.
“I want you, Caleb.” I should have seen this coming…
“You’re married to my dad.”
She scoots toward me and continues where she left off, grabbing my dick and squeezing it.
I jump up off the bed and switch the light on.
“Don’t do this shit. You got it made with my dad. If I tell him what you’re doing he’ll throw you out on your ass.”
She deviously smirks, shaking her head. “You aren’t going to tell him… because if you do, I’ll tell the Feds what I know, and your dad will end up spending twenty years in prison.”
I know exactly what she’s talking about. I have heard her and my dad talking about a shitty choice he made that made him millions but was illegal, something to do with insider trading. If she rats him out I’ll either end up as an orphan or be stuck with her, and my dad will spend the majority of his life in prison. He’s been through enough between losing my sister and my mom. I can’t let her do this to him.
“What do you want?”
She smiles smugly knowing she’s won.
“You.”
And once again another woman has been added to the list of women I can’t trust.
“Caleb… are you okay?” Hayley asks, concern laced in every word.
I scrub my hands over my face shaking off the memory of the day I learned how vindictive and untrustworthy a woman could be.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. What were we talking about?”
“I said my house is a single story. You and Marco can both stay with me. Don’t argue with me, please.”
I hate that it feels like she’s telling me what to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if once I am moved in, she finds a way to manipulate me. Unfortunately, I’m not really sure what other choice I have at this point. It goes against everything in me to trust this woman, but instead of saying no, I say okay and hope she shows her true colors sooner rather than later.
Or maybe she’ll prove my theory wrong… And for some reason, deep down, I really hope she proves me wrong.
Chapter Eleven
Hayley
It’s been two weeks since I brought Caleb home from the hospital. Well, not his home, my home. I have a four-bedroom house, so Caleb and Marco are each sleeping in one of the guest rooms. I enrolled Marco in school and hired a tutor to help him in case he ne
eds to get caught up on anything. I also set it up for him to see a therapist on a weekly basis. He needs somebody to talk to after everything he has been through. I had to go through DCF to find an approved therapist and I really like the one they assigned. Marco seems to like her as well.
Cooper insisted I take a few weeks off, paid of course, to be here for Caleb. According to him it’s still working since Caleb is a fighter at the gym and I’m the doctor on staff. Caleb was in a lot of pain when we first arrived home. He spent the first week pretty much sleeping, eating, and reluctantly having me help him use the bathroom. He was on some strong meds, but the last couple days he’s been starting to come around. He’s sitting up more, watching ESPN, refusing the pain meds, and playing games from his bed with Marco and me like Scrabble, Monopoly, and Yahtzee. It’s become part of our routine, playing a game together before Marco goes to bed.
The door swings open and Marco comes barreling into the house with a big smile on his face. Is it weird that the feeling of this pseudo-family makes my heart melt?
“Hey, sweetie. How was your day?”
He pulls a piece of paper out of his new backpack I purchased for him for school. We went by his house to see what he could bring from his mom’s place before they cleaned it all out, but there was nothing but a few photos that were worth taking. I took him shopping and bought him all new clothes that fit him.
“I got an A on my math test,” he whisper-yells, trying to stay quiet in case Caleb is asleep, even though I’ve told him repeatedly this is his home and he can talk at whatever level he wants.
Tears prick my eyes at how happy he is. I didn’t know Marco well before all this happened, but anybody who knew him at all saw the sadness that resided in his eyes. Looking at him right now, it’s like looking at a completely different kid. I pull him into a hug and tell him congratulations. It would be so easy for him to rebel. Nobody would blame him after everything he has been through. But instead he’s focusing on the positive and shining bright.
