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“Liam . . .” was all I could say before I drifted back into the darkness.
LIAM
“Mr. Callahan, don’t worry. We have the best doctors operating on your wife. If there is anything—and I mean anything—” Grabbing her by the neck, I slammed her body against the wall.
“Are you flirting with me, Dr. Lewis?” Her eyes widened in fear, as she tried her best to pull my hand away from her very narrow throat. I only squeezed tighter. “Are you flirting with me while some idiot is sewing my wife back together? Tell me you aren’t so I don’t have to rip your head from your shoulders, you classless, low-life, idiotic bitch!”
“Please,” she cried, kicking her feet wildly.
“Liam, we are in public,” my mother whispered behind me.
“So? Who are you going to call?” I turned to the rest of the hospital staff. “I own this motherfucking hospital, and I own this fucking city. If you didn’t know it before, you know it now!”
Turning to the bitch as she turned blue, I glared into her eyes. “Never come near me again or I swear on the head of your mother and father, I will kill you.”
Dropping her on the ground, I took my seat again, pulling out a cigarette as my father handed me a lighter while mother frowned. It was the only thing that could calm me down now. Neal held on to Olivia for dear life. Declan kept staring at Coraline as if she could disappear at any moment. I knew they were still fighting or whatever the fuck they were doing, but they would be fine. Despite the fact that she wasn’t looking at him, she did allow him to hold her hand. The only ones who truly seemed calm were my parents, but I knew it was simply due to the fact that they had done this before. It wasn’t the first time we had lost a child because of the Valero, but it would be the last. I would make sure of it. I did my best not to think about it. But it left a burn in my chest and made my blood boil.
The moment the surgeon came out, we were all on our feet.
“Don’t waste words. How is she?”
“Mr. Callahan, your wife is fine and is now in her room. We did everything we could for the child, but . . .”
Turning away from him, I nodded at Declan and Neal who already knew no one but family and her doctors were to enter that room.
“Thank you, doctor.”
“Blake, sir, Dr. Nickolas Blake,” he said quickly, shaking my hand. I tried to leave but my mother held on to me.
“Everyone go. We need a moment.” She said it in such a way that none of us could even bring ourselves to argue. I had never heard so much anger roll off her tongue. She and my father shared a quick glance before she pulled me off to the side.
“Mother, whatever it—”
“Right now, this very moment, will define you and your marriage forever,” she said. In her eyes, all I saw was pain. “The wife you once knew is not going to be the same woman you see when you walk into the room. Imagine that Melody ‘the Boss’ is simply asleep and how you react will define how long she remains so. She needs to mourn.”
She doesn’t know my wife. She didn’t even shed a tear after her father died.
“Mel isn’t the crying type.”
My mother slapped the back of my head, something only she could do. “You’re not listening to me. Your wife was attacked. Her child was stolen from her. She isn’t the same ‘type’ you remember. At least not now. You have two choices—pull away or hold on to her even when her words and actions hurt you. Because they will, believe me they will. Do not make the same mistakes your father and I made.”
“You came through it,” I whispered. Here they were, so many years later, as in love as ever.
She smiled, but it didn’t make her eyes shine like usual. “I asked for a divorce. I had the papers drawn up and even called my cousin in Canada. Your father agreed. Had you not gone to the hospital, we wouldn’t have made it. He couldn’t handle my mood swings or all the names I called him. I couldn’t stop myself from blaming him. We made it. But we made it through the hard way. So this, son, is your defining hour, and how you react now will either break or make your future. Whatever pain and anger you are holding on to let it go before you see her or you may just lose her.”
She kissed me on the cheek before leaving me standing there, unable to even speak. I couldn’t even breathe. Walking into a nearby supply room, I let the tears fall for the child I would never get to meet—who I would never get to know—and I tried to not let myself grow angry with her. What was fucked up was the fact that my anger at Mel overshadowed my anger at Saige. I told her not go. I told her to get in the fucking safe room, but she didn’t listen. She never listened.
Slapping my cheeks, I took a deep breath before walking back out again. No one made eye contact with me until I stood right outside her door. Neal and Declan were smart enough to look away.
It felt like hours before I found the will to walk in, and to my surprise, Mel was sitting up. She looked so dazed, like she had gone to war and come back, but nothing was the same as it once was. Evelyn kissed her forehead, while Coraline gave her a small hug. Olivia stayed back. She stood next to Sedric with her head hung low as if she were some servant, and the sight of it pissed me off.
“Out,” was all I had to say before they left, and it was in that same moment that I knew my mother was right. Never in all our months together had I ever see Mel jump at my voice.
Taking a seat beside her, she shook her head at me as she fought the tears building in her eyes.
“Say it,” she whispered.
“Say what?” Anything she wanted me to say I would say.
“Say it was my fault. Say I killed our child. Say it was for the greater good, because I would have been a horrible mother anyway.”
Anything but that. Taking off my jacket, I laid next her, pulling her into my arms.
“This was not your fault, and you did not kill our child. You would, and will, be a great mother,” I whispered, kissing for forehead.
“Then why do I feel this way?” She held on to my shirt as she fought back her sobs.
I couldn’t answer, mostly because I couldn’t think of what to say. I felt so guilty for thinking that this was her fault just moments ago. This was Saige. This was the Valero, and they would pay dearly.
After Mel had gone to sleep, I let go of her and stepped out into the hallway.
Neal, Declan, Monte, Fedel, and my father all stood waiting. I didn’t trust any of them. That’s what Patrick had done. He had broken the band of trust that we kept in our innermost circles.
“How did this happen?”
“Patrick was the one who found the lead on Cross, the man Melody was interrogating.” Declan stated. “He had a CS-5 jammer implanted inside of him. With that, it blocked half of our defense codes and sensors. From there, Patrick opened the gate from the inside. He’s been working for them for mouths. We have no idea why he betrayed us. All they needed was a person willing to die, and Cross was that person. With the botched surgery he had to get the jammer inside of him he did not have long anyway. It was simple.”
“Getting into our home should never be simple,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I want him found and I want to know how no one else knew. Then I want you to call every Irish or Italian man in the damn country able to build our house. We aren’t moving.”
