by Piper Page
Cheryl hugged me and welcomed me back to the floor. “We’ve missed you, hun. Being short the extra pair of hands has been hell. I am happy you are back.”
I gave her a weak smile.
She looked at me fully for the first time. “Wow, you look like death. Are you alright?”
I waved her off and went to review the patient files. “I think I may have eaten some bad turkey.” My stomach churned again, but I managed to keep the crackers down.
“Maybe go take a few hits off the oxygen, get some Pedialyte. That usually helps me with a hangover.
She was fishing. “It’s not a hangover, Cheryl.” I snapped.
Her hands went up defensively. “Okay, okay, geesh. Maybe you’re pregnant.”
“Cheryl, don’t even.” This was not how I wanted to get back into my normal life. I swung my feet around, stood up, and took a chart to my first patient of the day. Her words kept swirling in my head. As I took Mr. Kane’s blood pressure, I was counting days in my head.
* * *
I’m late.
* * *
Alright, this wasn’t uncommon. I’d been under a lot of stress. Stress could make you miss your regular cycle. Stress was a force that can play havoc on all the systems of your body. It was probably why I’d been sleeping so much, and why I’d been so irritable and nauseated.
* * *
Pregnancy does that too.
* * *
I finished my rounds, all the while trying to rationalize what was happening to me. By late afternoon, I had made up my mind. I would stop at the drug store, buy a test, and go home. My nerves were hyper-agitated, and all my focus was lost. An hour before my shift was scheduled to end, Cheryl approached me. I really didn’t want to hear her theories anymore.
“Hey Sunny, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Why don’t you go ahead and call it a day? I’ll cover your last hour here.”
I couldn’t stay mad at her. She was being kind. “Thank you.” I gave her a hug.
“By the way,” she said as she handed me a folded pink message slip. “Cole called while you were in with Mrs. Devone.”
My fingers trembled when I took the paper. I calmly put it in my pocket. I knew Cheryl was waiting for me to look at it, but I couldn’t. “I’ll read it later, thanks.”
She pouted.
The last thing I wanted was for my personal business to get spread all over town. I played it cool. No one needed to know that I wasn’t seeing Cole anymore, or that he was a drug lord, or that I had turned him into the police. The very thought of all that gossip running around here rampant with that information made me cringe. No, everything needed to stay normal.
* * *
Normal. Well, that idea has long been shot to heck.
* * *
The white stick with the digital readout window rested on the edge of the bathroom basin. My cell phone that I was holding onto for dear life, pinged in my hand. It was silly, really. I purposely bought the test with the Bluetooth app so that when it confirmed I wasn’t pregnant, I could hold my phone up and stop the rumor mill at work in its tracks.
So take that girls, the proof is in the pudding.
* * *
I tapped the screen and read the results. I looked at the readout on the stick, and I tapped the screen again, brow furrowing. “What the fuck?” My hand went over my mouth.
Sunny Banks, good girl, straight laced, church going, daughter to a cop was knocked up.
What was I going to tell my father? “Umm, daddy, yeah umm, your unmarried daughter who was a virgin up until last month is giving you a grandchild. Oh, and by the way, the father, he runs a drug ring, the biggest in the South. You remember him, the man I ratted on, Cole von Larsen.”
I watched my expression in the bathroom mirror go from sarcasm to feared reality.
* * *
Cole.
* * *
I was going to have Cole’s child, and I had vowed never to see him again.
20
Cole
It felt good to be back in Texas. I let out air that was caught in my lungs as I pressed the doorbell, my cheeks puffing out as I exhaled. With it went my anxiety and frustration at being away and tied-up for two full weeks. Sunny had refused my calls, ignored my messages, and turned away my gifts. I hated being away from her. Hated that she thought I was a lowlife criminal, and hated that I hadn’t been able to explain. Maybe the time had softened her anger, and I could at least tell her my story, and then she could think things through without the distractions of whoever had tipped her off about my work.
I caught the flash of red of the Audi as my security man drove away. He was entitled to some time off. Even with the security cameras around the perimeter of the property, I kept my men physically present around the clock as well. That wasn’t the original plan. My plan was to have Sunny move in with me after we got back from our trip. That way, I could be with her every day and keep her safe in the high security of my own place. I had also made arrangements for her to transfer to the Houston hospital near my office, if she wanted to keep working.
I rang the bell again. I knew she was home. The cameras showed she hadn’t left the house yet this morning, and her car was still in the driveway. The sound of the lock unlatching made the tension in my body slip away. When I saw her form appear in the doorframe, a new wave a tension surfaced. She looked exhausted. I reached for her, but she shrank away. She wasn’t fighting me, but she wasn’t accepting me either.
“Can I come in?”
“Are you some sort of vampire, do I need to actually say the words?” She was snarky. I wondered if it was because she was still pissed at me or if it was something more.
I stepped inside. The house was dark, window blinds still dawn, even though it was late morning. “Are you okay?”
She glared at me.
“I suppose that was a dumb question. I mean, apart from me, are you okay?”
She didn’t say anything. Her bare feet took her back to the couch, where she curled up beneath a blanket. A plate of crackers and a glass of some type of bubbly soda, smelling like ginger ale in the air, sat on the coffee table.
“Are you ill?” My worry was instant.
She shook her head. “No.”
* * *
Just get to it, Cole.
* * *
“Sunny, look, I’m sorry.”
She stared up at me. “Sorry for what, Cole? Sorry for stringing me along? Sorry for lying to me? Sorry for running the biggest drug ring in the lower half of America?”
I pushed my hands through my hair. “Yes, all of it.” I sat down next to her covered feet.
She recoiled into a tighter blanket ball.
* * *
Goddamn it, just let me hold you.
* * *
“I want to tell you something.”
“Other than that you’re a liar.” Her tongue was sharp, but she wasn’t throwing me out.
“Let me explain, and if you still don’t want to see me, then I’ll go, no questions asked, no more flowers or calls. I’ll leave.”
Her muscles relaxed, and she situated herself with her drink in hand. Her eyes stayed on me, waiting.
“I know what you must be thinking,”
“Do you?”
“Sunny, please.”
She bit back on her lip. “Fine.”
“I want you to know that I don’t kill people, and I don’t do drugs…”
“No, you sell them to people who get killed by them.”
I gave an exasperated sigh.
“I’m sorry, go on.”
“I know what drugs can do. But I went into this business knowing how being a part of that world has saved me and my family.”
She looked confused, but she didn’t interrupt again.
“When I was eighteen, my father was killed in a drunk driving accident.”
She gasped.
“Don’t feel too bad. He was the drunk driver.” The pain and remorse
I felt regarding my father had long since dissipated. “He worked hard in his law firm to make the best for his family, my mom and us three boys. He moved us to River Oaks, to a house that was nice, but in no way as nice as the mansions that surrounded us. Nevertheless, our mortgage was high, and the cost of tuition for the private schools we attended added to that debt. My father was sure he could make the money, and he started making risky investments. The more he lost, the more risk he took. He accumulated huge debt, and in the process, an even bigger drinking problem, just so he could keep up with the Joneses. When he died, he not only left his family behind, but he left us in a world of debt, too. My mother worked three jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. Her family helped as best they could, and us three boys worked minimum wage jobs for spending money and clothing.
“It was obvious to those around us that we were struggling, that we were no longer part of the upper echelon my father had surrounded us with. Bank notes were due, creditors kept calling, and my mother was a mess. She’d had no idea just how much money my father had borrowed and squandered away.”
I stood up and caught my breath. The beginning, the easy part of my story, was said. What came next was more difficult. I started to pace slowly. “When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, she still worked every goddamned day. Two of her jobs fired her when she took too many sick days for doctor’s appointments and treatments. It got to a point where we were now in over our heads in medical bills, and we still needed to maintain our mortgage and our monthly bills. My brothers and I needed to make a decision. We needed to get money we could use to keep our mother in treatment. We were already getting notices from the insurance companies and the hospitals that we were so far behind they were going to start taking legal actions.”
I took another breath. “Willie—William, my youngest brother—was still in high school. He wasn’t really old enough to get a full-time job and go to school at the same time, but he always seemed to have money. It use to drive Jake and I crazy. Here we were, busting hump, and he was buying frivolous things like a new iPod or leather jackets. We cornered him one night, when my mom had been admitted to the hospital for the fifth time. We were ready to rip him a new one when he told us he was involved in a drug ring, dealing cocaine. We spent the entire night there on the hospital waiting room floor, listening to the ins and outs of what he knew about the business. As much as Willie was a loose cannon and a screw-up when it came to money—something that he had inherited from our father—I had inherited my father’s drive. That night, with the wealth of information that Willie gave us, we had enough for me to devise my first business plan. By the end of that first summer, I had managed to become the go-to guy, as high as I could get in the River Oaks area. I was making enough bank to keep up with the bills, and Jake wasn’t far behind. Unfortunately, Jake had a temper and preferred to use his fists instead of his brain, but eventually, we channeled that to our advantage as well. My mom came home and was getting the treatments she needed, and things were good, for a while.”
Sunny was sitting up now. I sat down beside her, the weight of the words that came next were too much for me to stay on my feet.
“Cancer doesn’t care how much money you make, though, or how you make it. We saved our home and we saved our credit, but we couldn’t save our mother.” My voice cracked, and I had to stop and recompose myself. The touch of Sunny’s hand on my shoulder caught me off-guard, and I shivered. The warmth of her touch radiated through me to my heart. If she decided I wasn’t for her, that was fine. Yes, it would hurt like hell, but in that moment that her fingers touched my body, I knew she understood, and I couldn’t ask for more than that.
Sunny sniffled beside me. “I’m sorry.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
* * *
Thank you for hearing me.
* * *
“Cole?”
“Yes?”
“Why do you keep it all up? I mean, when your mom passed, why did you stay involved?”
I turned to her and took her hand. “Can you come with me—will you come with me? I want to show you something.”
I could see she was leery.
“Please? I promise I’ll bring you right back here and you can still kick my ass to the curb if you want to.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
My car sailed around the curved driveway at the front entrance of the AMH. “Why are we here?”
I parked the car in front of the modernly designed entryway of the hospital and helped her walk across the imported pink marble, through the revolving door, and into the lobby. “Welcome to the Anna von Larsen Memorial Hospital and Cancer Research Center, more readily known as AMH. I had this hospital built to help people like my mother. People who can’t afford treatments, people who need a place to stay to receive treatment, and people who want to research and help solve the mysteries of cancer.”
Her fingers were threaded through mine, and I felt them squeeze hard between my knuckles. We walked further into the lobby until we came to a comfortable seating area. “That woman right there, that’s my mother.”
Her eyes drifted from me up to the portrait above the mantle. A gold plaque was secured below that boasted my mother’s name. I could feel the emotions in my chest as I looked at her, and then back at Sunny. “She would have liked you, a lot.”
Sunny wiped a tear from her cheek. “Thank you for sharing this with me, Cole.”
“When the hospital was done. My brothers and I decided we couldn’t stop there. What we were doing may be not so legal, but we were personally involved in using it for the betterment of the places we loved. We donate to churches, to charities, to schools…a lot of places and people here in Houston and Galveston benefit from the von Larsen Empire.” I turned her toward me. “I know what we deal in is bad, but the good that we do out weights that by a million-fold. Sunny, if we weren’t controlling it then there are men out there,”
* * *
Like Lenny Filippo.
* * *
“…bad men out there that would use it for control and destruction. The type of destruction that would devastate this area and many more. My brothers and I are never going to let that happen.”
Her eyes twinkled with tears and understanding. “Can I get a picture of you with your mom?”
My features looked puzzled. Why would she want that? It didn’t matter, it was obvious to me that Sunny was coming back to me. It might be a small distance, but she was on her way back, and I would stay with her until she was fully at my side once again.
“Oh, I left my phone in the car. I’ll go get it.”
“No, wait here, sit. You look tired. I can get it. I’ll be right back.”
With my heart up and my spirits higher than they had been in two weeks, I sprinted to the car to retrieve her cell phone. My Sunny doll was back. I couldn’t be happier than I was in that moment.
With her phone in my hand a few minutes later, I dashed back towards the front doors. An alarm pinged and the device vibrated in my fingers. Out of habit, I lifted it up to shut off the bothersome noise, and as I did, time seemed to slow around me, and I felt dizzy. What I saw on the screen had my head spinning.
“Sunny?”
She turned towards me with a beautiful, glowing smile. “What took you so long?”
I handed her the phone and stood by the fireplace so she could snap a photo. I was speechless.
“Cole, are you alright? You look funny. Did something happen?”
“Let’s head back. You should probably get some rest.”
Sunny gave me a sideways glance when I helped her into the car and fastened her seatbelt for her.
“Not too tight, is it?”
She cocked her head to the side. “Cole, it’s fine. What is with you? I’m not hurt or anything.”
I climbed in the driver’s seat and cautiously pulled away from the curb. I maintained a speed of five miles below the given limit all the way back to her bungalow. Holding her elbow
, I brought her back into the house and set her back on the couch. The saltines and ginger ale all made sense now.
“Are you working?”
“What?”
“Are you still at the hospital?”
“Yes. I mean, I took the last couple of days off, but of course I’m still there. Still got the same old bills.”
* * *
Not anymore.
* * *
“Why do you ask?”
I sat down and pulled her feet into my lap. She didn’t resist. “It’s been quite the day so far. I’m so happy you listened and that you got to see my mother, especially today.”
“Cole, seriously, what’s going on? You’re acting strange all of the sudden.”
“Sunny, I saw your phone.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, I know, you got it from the car.”
“No, I mean, I saw what was on the screen.”
I watched as Sunny thumbed through her phone screens, then watched the color drain from her face as realization hit her as she viewed the pregnancy app. Her hand went to her mouth, and she started to cry.
“No no no, doll, don’t cry. Shh.” I moved to hold her. ‘So, it’s true? You’re pregnant?”
I felt her head bob in affirmation against my shoulder. I stroked her hair. “Are you mad?” Her voice was muffled.
“Mad? Are you kidding me? Sunny I am so fucking happy.”
She sat up and stared at me through streaks of tears. “You are?”
“Sunny, I couldn’t be happier. A baby, we are having a baby!” I dared to kiss her. “You’re making me a father, making us a family. Sunny I’ve never been happier.”
