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“Sedric? Sedric?” Evelyn snapped her fingers in front of my face.
“What? Sorry.” Shaking my head clear, I turned to find her smiling at me.
“Just like old times,” she replied. “I swear, you’re always worrying. I think it was after a game when you first found out that you were taking over the family. I couldn’t get you to speak to save your life.”
“I’ve gotten better.” I laughed as I kissed her temple and then signaled to Kain who went off to get the car. “You know I’ve always lived inside of my head.”
“Yeah, yeah, but with all this free time you have, you’d think you can still buy a lady a pretzel!” She nodded to the food stand in the corner, and I frowned at the thought of it. “Hey, princess, don’t knock food carts, there was a time well before all this when we lived off of instant noodles.”
I remembered that time well. My father had cut me off the year before my brother died and I had to take over. Too say it was hard was an understatement. Evelyn had taken care of most of our bills that year.
“Evelyn, I’ve come to expect a certain lifestyle,” I said with as much faux dignity as I could muster.
She laughed outright and Ethan stirred in her arms. “Well, I haven’t, princess. So hurry up before the car comes around.” She pouted. And for a few moments it felt as if we were teenagers again.
I kissed her and walked over to the stands, where I found find a young girl and her father working it together.
“What would you like?” the girl asked with a large smile on her face.
“One pretzel, please.”
“Are you sure you don't want two? They’re really tasty.” She was playing up on her cuteness factor. I looked to her father who I had to give props to. He sure knew what he was doing.
“Two it is then,” I said, as I reached into my pocket for my wallet, but instead my phone rang.
At that same moment, I saw a glint reflecting off a nearby building out of my peripheral. The hairs on the back of my neck and arms stood up as my mind immediately identified it for what it was. I looked over at Evelyn, who was standing in the corner with Monte, oblivious to anything out of the ordinary.
As she kissed Ethan’s head and fixed his hat, time itself slowed down as I dropped everything in my hands and ran towards my family. My throat burned. I must have been yelling, but I couldn’t hear anything. My mind was focused on them, and only them. What felt like a lifetime passed before my hands landed on her, and I pushed her to he ground as hard as I could…
BANG.
LIAM
I was on fire. My skin, my nose, my eyes, everything. It felt as if my heart was pumping lava when Mel and I reached the hospital. The entire place was chaotic as we searched through the crowd, pushing and fighting our way to find our son.
“Boss!” Kain called to us from the corner.
“Thank God!” Mel gasped out, as she rushed up to Ethan who was in my mother’s arms.
She held on to him tightly and refused to let go even though he was crying.
“Mom.” She didn’t respond. “Mom, it’s Liam.” Silence. “Can I hold Ethan?”
She still didn’t respond, but she slowly released Ethan and Mel took him into her arms. I looked him over carefully, and only found a few scrapes on his arm. Forcing myself beside her, I took her hands and softly rubbed them, just like I used to when I was younger. She looked dazed, and she was covered in blood…
“Mom, whose blood is that?” I whispered, staring at her dress before looking back to Ethan.
He was alive. He was fine. So whose blood was that?
“Mom, where’s Dad?” I whispered slowly.
She rocked back and forth over and over again. Her face contorted, and as her lips parted, a wail burst forth. A keen, painful wail that brought tears to my eyes.
“Mother, where is Dad?” I held onto her arms, trying my best to control the painful stirring in my chest, and the urge to shake her.
She shook her head as she continued crying and sobbing, until she fell out of her chair and into my arms. I held her, as I tried my best to push away the reality that was forcing the facts to the forefront of my mind. I started to quiver as the lump that had formed in my throat seemed to expand to encompass my lungs, forcing out all the breath from within my body.
This can’t…I can’t…
“I tried,” she gasped out. “I didn’t see it. He saw it. I didn’t see it. He was just screaming and screaming for me to run, and I didn’t understand, all I felt was the ground when he pushed us. I didn’t see it! And he wouldn’t get up…he refused to get up. I don’t know, I don’t…there was so much blood, all over the ground. I—I…”
No.
Peeling her off of me, I stared into her eyes as I shook my head again. “No. Where is the doctor? Who is the doctor here?” I got up to look around, only to find Mel whispering to Kain.
“What the fuck are you doing? Get me the motherfucking doctor!”
Kain had his head down, but he didn’t move.
“Are you daft? Get. Me. A. Doctor. You. Fool.”
“Liam.” Mel took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. “He has no doctor. He was pronounced dead at the scene.”
She had hurt me a lot in the past, but nothing compared to that moment. She was just trying to hurt me again, I knew it. This was just a game; she’d hurt me, I’d chase her and…and at the end of the day, we’d laugh about it, everything would be fine. I knew it. It had to be.
This was just a stupid game.
Looking down, I saw my crumbled mother on the floor, and the overpowering realization was once again forcing its way forward.
“No,” I snapped, as I reached down to pick up my mother before I placed her back onto the chair, but she only cried harder. “I’m going to find the doctor, okay? Mom. Ma, stop, alright? I’m sure he’s going to be fine.”
“Liam.” Mel reached out to me, but I slapped her hands away.
“NO!” I screamed into her face. “You do not know my father. He does not die. He does not die on the street like a fucking dog. He is a Callahan. He is not fucking dead, so shut the hell up and watch my mother. I’ll find him myself.”
He wasn’t dead.
She took a step back and nodded before I stumbled through the crowd.
He wasn’t dead.
I couldn’t imagine a world where my father wasn’t in it. I couldn’t understand.
He wasn’t dead.
MELODY
He was gone. Just like that. One moment he was here and the next he wasn’t. It wasn’t like Orlando—I’d known that he was dying. I was prepared, and even though it hurt, it was different. But this, I didn’t understand it. My chest hurt and my lungs burned. There hadn’t been many times in my life when I’d felt like this. I could feel my eyes clouding over with tears, but I couldn’t let my emotions overpower me, not with Ethan here.
Neal had just arrived and they moved us to a private waiting room, but this was for Monte. He had taken three bullets protecting Evelyn and Ethan and was now in surgery. I handed Ethan to Neal, who looked up at me. His eyes were red and puffy, and the tears didn’t stop falling, he had no control over them.
He wrapped his arms around Ethan, making sure that he was secure enough when he sat up straighter. Evelyn was curled up beside him asleep. I had given her some sedatives to help her rest.
