The Fortuity Duet

by Rochelle Paige

  I waited until Faith had the chance to take a few sips of her hot chocolate before answering. “No, Mom. It’s about what you left out of the story.”

  “You know?” she gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as her eyes dropped down to my chest.

  “That my twin’s heart beats in my chest? Yeah, I know.” Faith set her mug down on the table and reached over to take hold of my hand. “But what I don’t know is how you could apologize to me for lying about when he died and still be keeping something as important as this from me.”

  “How did you find out?” my dad asked.

  “How did I find out?” I echoed, shaking my head. “That’s what you’ve got to say?”

  Faith squeezed my hand and answered his question, “I had a little bit of a health scare yesterday, and my doctor had me admitted to the hospital overnight. It was more for observation than anything else,” she hurried to add when my mom cried out. “But while we were there, Dillon had mentioned to my doctor that he was interested in being screened as a donor in case I ever needed another transplant. Part of that process is a medical history review, and the heart transplant was in his records at the hospital.”

  “I see,” my dad murmured as he nodded his head.

  “I’m glad you do because I sure as shit don’t understand any of this, Dad!” I held on to Faith like she was my lifeline—because that’s exactly what she was.

  My mom leaned forward and put her hand on my dad’s arm. “It’s time. We need to tell him all of it.”

  “Please,” I added.

  “You’re right.” My dad nodded and sighed. “It’s not an easy story, but you deserve the truth.”

  “When we got the call about the accident, it was the most scared I’d ever been. The police said you and Declan were being taken by ambulance to Southeast Memorial. Both of you were seriously injured, and we should get there as quickly as we could,” my mom began.

  “The ten minutes it took for us to get to the emergency room felt like the longest in our lives,” my dad continued the story. “And then it took forever to get an update because you arrived only minutes before us. The nurse only had limited information when she came out to tell us what she could, which was basically that it didn’t look good. We found out how bad it was when the doctor who’d been working on Declan came out maybe an hour later to tell us he’d suffered a devastating neurologic injury. He was on a ventilator and was suffering from a loss of brain function.”

  “He didn’t have a status update for you,” my mom added. “But he promised to get one for us. When he came back out, I knew it was going to be bad. And it was. They suspected you had a cardiac contusion caused by blunt trauma to your chest wall during the crash.”

  “A cardiac contusion?” I knew contusion meant bruise because I’d gotten more than my fair share of them when I played football, and I recalled my parents saying something about bruising to my heart when I woke up from my coma. “I needed a heart transplant because of a bruise?”

  “If only it were that simple,” my dad sighed. “It led to an aortic rupture, and you had profuse bleeding coming from the aorta where it connects to your heart. They did emergency surgery to try to repair it, and at first, we thought you were in the clear and we only needed to worry about Declan. But in the end, the damage to your heart was too severe, and after a couple of weeks the doctors said the long-term prognosis wasn’t good.”

  “We were in an impossible situation,” my mom cried. “Both of our sons in comas, with no idea if either of you would survive. Your brother had a complete loss of brain function, and eventually one of the doctors suggested a possible solution.”

  “Give me Declan’s heart,” I whispered.

  “Yes,” my dad confirmed. “They told us it was the only way to save you.”

  Whoa. I’d already figured it had to be something like that, but it still hurt to hear it out loud. “I get that you were put into a situation where you had to make a decision that nobody should ever have to face, but what I don’t understand is why you kept lying to me about it.”

  “Because we were worried that the complete truth would destroy you.”

  Faith’s hand tightened at my mom’s whispered confession, dragging my attention away from my parents. “Are you sure you’re ready to hear the rest? Because I feel like there’s more.”

  “The rest?” I echoed, glancing up at my parents. “Is she right? Is there more?”

  My mom’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded, and my dad looked older than his age as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “We haven’t told you the hardest part yet.”

  “Shit.” My head dropped low, and I stared at my lap for a couple of minutes while I tried to wrap my head around the idea of there being something worse than I’d already learned. But in the end, it didn’t matter how bad it was. If it was about Declan and me, I wanted to know. I looked back up and demanded, “Tell me.”

  Faith let go of my hand and scooted closer to my side. Her arm around my back was the only thing that kept me from sliding off the couch as my dad finished the story.

  “Declan’s brain damage was beyond repair. They said he had no hope of ever recovering. That the machines were keeping his body alive, but he was already gone. We couldn’t save him. Not really. But we could save you...if we turned off the machines that were keeping your brother alive.”

  14

  Dillon

  Holy fuck.

  A part of me wanted to rewind the clock to the start of this conversation and tell them I didn’t need to know anything else. That they’d earned my trust throughout my entire life, and that was good enough for me. I hadn’t stopped to consider they might’ve been right about me not being able to handle the complete truth. But damn, they might’ve been fucking right. I finally got why they kept this from me.

  “Oh my God.” Faith held me even tighter as I started to shake.

  “It was an impossible decision, and we weren’t handling it well at all. It’s something that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.” My mom was crying into my dad’s chest while he talked. “It took them a little while to convince us that our choice was to either lose both of you or save one. That there was no outcome that would result in both of you living. Declan was already gone. And then they brought in a transplant doctor to talk to us about what would happen if we said yes.”

  “We finally said yes,” my mom sniffled, lifting her head and smiling softly at Faith. “Part of the reason why we were able to make that impossible decision was the young patient he’d told us about. The one who had no options. Ours was horrible, but at least we had one. They had nothing. Not even a family to mourn them when they were gone. But then we realized we might be able to save them too if they were a match with Declan, and it helped make the situation the tiniest bit less unbearable. So we made a direct donation of one of his kidneys to them.”

  “To me,” Faith whispered.

  “We didn’t know it at the time, but yes. Without him telling us about you, I’m not sure we would’ve had the strength to make the decision, even though the heart transplant is the only reason our baby boy is still alive today.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. To any of it really. I’d thought I was stunned before, knowing they’d lied to me about when Declan had died. But if they hadn’t lied, I would’ve asked questions that had answers which would’ve devastated me back then. I wasn’t certain they weren’t going to destroy me now. But I had Faith by my side, and she’d lived through hell. The least I could do was the same. Somehow.

  “With how complicated the situation was, the hospital sent down a psychiatrist for a consult. He agreed with our concerns about how you’d handle knowing about the transplant and the circumstances leading up to it. He suggested we consider withholding the truth from you for therapeutic reasons. He made a convincing enough case that the doctors agreed to go along with it. After you were home and physically recovered from the surgery, we started to have doubts. We talked about telling y
ou the truth, but then you started to spiral out of control. So we put off telling you, and after that, the timing never seemed right.” My dad heaved a deep sigh. He looked how I felt; like sharing the story had put him through the wringer. “Now you know everything.”

  “Can you ever forgive us for lying to you for so long?” my mom asked.

  I was still too stunned to speak. Faith elbowed me in the side, and she was jerking her head in my parents’ direction when I looked down at her. I thought about what she’d said to me yesterday. About forgiving me even though she wasn’t past the pain I’d caused her because she loved me.

  I loved my parents, and they loved me. Of that, I had no doubts. At the moment, everything else was up in the air between us except that. “Yes, I’ll be able to forgive you.”

  Eventually.

  “Oh, thank God,” she sobbed.

  “It’s not going to be easy,” I warned.

  “Your mom and I understand that this is going to be difficult for you. We’ve had five years to come to terms with the decision we were forced to make, but for you, it’s like it just happened. We understand that. We’ll try to keep that in mind and give you whatever you need to find a way to make peace with this. We understand that nothing worth having comes easy.” My breath caught at my dad’s favorite saying since it had an all new meaning for me.

  “I think that’s a lesson we’ve all learned the hard way,” Faith murmured.

  “One we wish we could’ve protected you from.”

  I tried to smile at my mom, but I just couldn’t get my lips to cooperate. They twitched slightly, but it must’ve been enough for her because she smiled softly back at me.

  “What do you need from us now?” my dad asked.

  I shook my head because I didn’t know. I had no idea how I was going to move past all this. How I was going to come to terms with the fact that my parents had removed Declan’s life support so they could save me. “Time.” It was the only answer I could think to give.

  “Okay, we’ll do our best to give you some space,” my dad agreed.

  “Just please let us know that you’re okay from time to time? So I don’t drive myself crazy worrying about you and take your father with me.”

  “I’ll take good care of him,” Faith promised. “And I’ll let you know how he’s doing, as long as that’s okay with him.”

  I nodded jerkily, relieved that she’d take care of that for me. I didn’t want my parents to suffer, but I wasn’t sure how long it’d be before things got even close to back to normal for us.

  “Thank you.”

  I rose to my feet, grateful when my dad pulled my mom back down after she stood to give me a hug and kiss. I was barely holding on by a thread, and I was pretty sure that would’ve made me lose it. It was bad enough that I handed my key fob over to Faith as we walked outside, and she went to the driver’s side without asking any questions even though I knew she hated driving my SUV. We rode in silence back to our place, my hand clenching her thigh the whole time. And when we walked inside, I led her to the bedroom, crawled onto the mattress, and wrapped myself around her. Then I held on tight and took slow, deep breaths in an attempt to calm myself down.

  It must have worked, or my physical and emotional exhaustion just finally caught up with me, because I fell asleep. When I woke up, hours had passed and the sun had already set. I tried to hold as still as I could because Faith was still asleep beside me, but she must have sensed I was awake because she turned in my hold and blinked up at me.

  “Did our nap help at all? Because it definitely did for me. I’m feeling at least a thousand times better than I was this morning.”

  I shrugged my shoulders and pulled her closer. “I’m not as tired, but that’s about it.”

  “What can I do to make this easier for you?”

  “Just keep on being you. That’s all I need.”

  “It doesn’t feel like enough. I’d give you anything.” She kissed along my chin. “And I’d do anything to make this even a little bit better for you.”

  I was filled with conflicting emotions. Anger. Guilt. Gratitude. And I wanted to take Faith up on the offer and bury them all inside her. But that wasn’t fair to her. “No, baby. I can’t. You just got discharged from the hospital this morning, and I don’t know if I have it in me to be gentle with you.”

  “They wouldn’t have let me leave if I wasn’t okay, and they didn’t put me on any restrictions when it comes to sex. My discharge papers didn’t say a peep about it. Just meds and diet.”

  “Fuck, baby,” I groaned. How was I supposed to have the willpower to hold firm when she didn’t want to take no for an answer? When I wanted more than anything to feel closer to her because she was the only thing that made any sense in my life at the moment?

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say.” She winked at me, and I was a goner. I smashed my mouth against hers, tugging on her bottom lip with my teeth. When she gasped, I slid my tongue inside to tangle with hers. Clenching her hair in my hands, I held her in place to devour her mouth until we were both gasping for air. Cupping her ass, I pulled her flush against my body.

  “You sure about this?”

  “Beyond sure. This is as much for me as it is you because after everything that happened in the last week, I need to feel close to you.” She punctuated her declaration by grinding her hips against me, and I felt her wetness through her shorts. “Are you going to make me beg?”

  “Never,” I groaned as I unzipped the front of my pants to open them. I grabbed a condom out of my wallet before I shoved them down, along with my boxers, and my cock sprang free—fully erect and throbbing in need. Faith did the same with her shorts, leaving her pussy covered in only a pair of pink lace panties with a damp spot right over her core.

  I couldn’t resist bending low to get a taste of my favorite thing in the world, her pussy. Running my tongue over the damp material, I breathed deep before I ripped the panties off her body and drove my tongue inside. Any doubts I might have had about her needing this as much as I did were wiped away by how wet she was. Flicking my tongue over her clit, I pumped two fingers inside her until she came. Quick, just like I needed her to because I was desperate at the moment.

  “Dillon,” she moaned as her pussy clenched around my fingers while she trembled in my arms.

  I didn’t wait for her orgasm to end before I wrapped my cock up and slid into her wet pussy. I buried myself deep in one stroke, and her walls clenched tight around me.

  “Fuck, baby,” I moaned. “I’m not gonna last long.”

  “It’s not like I can judge you if it’s quick since I just went off like a rocket,” she panted. “And I’m not going to complain since I already got mine.”

  She rotated her hips, and I groaned before pulling out and gliding back in. Over and over again, we moved together. Her body was wrapped around mine, knees at my hips and arms around my shoulders. Our lips were glued together as we kissed in rhythm with my thrusts. I felt a tingle at my spine and didn’t want to go alone—not even if she said it was okay—so I slid my hand between our bodies to rub her clit with my thumb. The added stimulation was just what she needed to come for me again. With her pussy strangling my cock, I stared into her eyes as I stroked in and out of her a few more times before I emptied into the condom.

  “Love you, baby,” I whispered as I captured her lips with mine. After all the shit we’d gone through this past week, I was relieved to be home with her where we both belonged. I’d barely slept in all the time I was gone, and our night at the hospital was no different. Even with the long nap we’d just taken, I was still drained. With my brain replaying my conversation with my parents over and over again, I drifted off to sleep.

  15

  Dillon

  We both must’ve been exhausted because we slept for almost another twelve hours straight. When I woke up the next morning, I had a couple of minutes of peace before the memories of my conversation with my parents hit me.

  “
Shit,” I groaned.

  Faith rolled over and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, honey.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “Or yours.”

  “But it feels like it is. I already felt like shit because I wasn’t the one behind the wheel when we got into the accident. How am I going to move past the guilt of knowing that Declan died in order for me to live?”

  “I don’t have all the answers. Or any of ‘em really,” she sighed. “But I think I know someone who can help.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah. Hold on a second.” She rolled out of bed, padded across the floor to where her purse was on top of the dresser and dug through it. When she climbed back onto the mattress, she handed me a cream-colored business card.

  “What’s this?” I asked, flipping it over. “A therapist?”

  “Yeah, she’s the best one Sarah had me talk to. I’ve seen a few others over the years, but I never really opened up to any of them. This one was different though. Or maybe it was just me who was different since it was after the transplant. Either way, she helped me move past some of the shit from my childhood, and I thought maybe she could help you too.”

  “My parents wanted me to talk to someone after the accident. I went in a few times, but the guy didn’t exactly inspire confidence. He seemed like a pompous douche to me.” I went over what my parents had told me about their decision to withhold the truth from me back then. “I guess he might’ve been the one to suggest to them that I wasn’t able to handle what’d really happened to Declan. So my instincts might’ve been right when it came to him.”

  “Will you give her a chance? For me? I can promise she’s not a douche.”

  “I already figured that out since you’d never open up to someone who didn’t earn your trust.” I glanced down at the card again. “I guess if there was ever going to be a time when I’d need therapy, this would be it.”