I stand in the driveway of my family home for the next several minutes. This area of Hopeton is rougher than the neighborhood my uncle lives in, but it has an appreciation for family pride. The lawns are maintained, and several children’s toys are set up in the driveways for the neighborhood kids to use. It has a sense of community—a perception that is lost when a familiar-looking SUV pulls to the curb in the front of my family home.
When the back-passenger door pops open, and a suit-covered leg curls out, I twist to face the house, preparing to tell my mother to seek cover since my father isn’t here to protect her from my uncle.
My warning falls short when I spot her kneeling in the doorway of my childhood home. The dowdy nightie she was picking lint balls off in the kitchen only minutes ago has been replaced with a silky negligee, and her once-unbrushed hair is flowing down her chest like a golden waterfall, unknotted and silky.
It dawns on me why I’m recalling this memory when my uncle’s stalk up the cracked footpath of my family home is quickly followed by my father’s truck pulling into the driveway. We forgot my suitcase full of my belongings, so we had to turn around to get it.
I watch the scene unfold as if it’s the first time I’m witnessing it—the shouts of my father, the wailing screams of my mother, then the sheer terror on my father’s face when he bolts out of the front door bloodied and banged up to tell my younger self to run.
“Run, Demi! Run!” he screams at the top of his lungs, sending my heart into a frenzy. “I’ll find you. I promise. Just run.”
As my younger self flings off her seat belt, two goons in the front of my uncle’s car do the same. Instead of charging for my father, who looks like he’s been in a scuffle, they race toward my younger self frozen partway out of my father’s car.
“Run!” I scream to myself, truly unsure in my muddled state if she makes it out of the carnage alive.
You can live without a soul.
My mother is living proof of this.
With my heart in my throat and my head on lockdown, I watch the dark-haired girl run and run and run, my attention only diverting when my name is shouted in the direction opposite to where she’s running.
It didn’t come from my father, who is holding back my uncle like he won’t feel the sting of his wrath almost instantaneously, nor from the neighbors watching the charade unfold with concern slashed across their features. It came from a bright white light at the end of the driveway.
It isn’t a voice I recognize, but they’re adamant they’re not giving up. “Go again. We’re not giving up. She’s been on this table for hours, but she can beat this.”
Forever curious, I step closer to the light. I make it almost halfway there when a brutal surge rocketing through my body folds my knees out beneath me. It’s so painful, I’m tempted to stay here in the shelter of my memories. My dad is here, and he’ll protect me no matter what, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, I crawl toward the light instead, certain the people calling my name need me more than the ghost of my dad.
The closer I get to the gaping hole, the more my memories shift from ones of my past to ones of my present—the teeny tiny little freckles dotted across Maddox’s nose, his insanely sexy grin when he’s thinking immorally wicked thoughts, and the way he says, “I love you back,” instead of “I love you too,” lowers the pain surging through me until it’s barely a blip on the radar. I feel at peace like Maddox is the only person on the earth capable of making the pains of my past worthwhile.
Just before I’m swallowed by rays brighter than the sun, I crank my neck back to my dad. He’s no longer wrestling with my uncle. He’s alone, standing in the doorway of my family home with a touch of a smile curving his lips. He mouths that he loves me before he nudges his head to the light, encouraging me to fall into a comfort as warm as his hugs once were.
3
Maddox
My knee bobs up and down as I drop my eyes to my watch for the third time over the past twenty minutes. Demi has been in surgery for hours, and I’ve not had a single update about her condition. My patience is wearing thin. I would have charged into the OR and demanded an update hours ago if Saint didn’t know me as well as he does. He’s been glued to my right for the past six hours. Caidyn has taken up the left for almost as long.
Dr. Falgar suggested for Dr. Avery to call Demi’s family. My family is as far as her calls went. Saint was with Sloane, so that made up for Demi’s friends, and considering her family sees her as more of a commodity than an asset, I didn’t bother updating them.
Col wouldn’t shed a tear about the death of his niece. From what I heard, he smirked at his own brother’s funeral. He doesn’t deserve to be updated. He can rot in hell for all I care, and his son isn’t too far behind him. If I hadn’t been running drugs for Dimitri, I would have been with Demi, and she wouldn’t have bled out on the bathroom floor of the cabin, unable and incapable of reaching out for help.
I fucked up, and karma is gnawing my ass for it.
My eyes pop up from my bloody hands when Caidyn squeezes my shoulder, announcing the arrival of Dr. Falgar. He isn’t alone. A second doctor has joined him, making the total number of doctors in the OR waiting room at Mercer Private three. Dr. Avery is here too. She isn’t here as a shrink this time around. She’s here as a friend.
When my endeavor to read the expression on Dr. Falgar’s face fails, I stand to my feet. He heads my way, but his eyes float over everyone in the room. The only person missing from my immediate family is Justine. Since we’re unsure which way the chips will fall, my brothers and I decided that keeping her out of the Ravenshoe slash Hopeton area is best for all involved, especially since her ‘dates’ with Dimitri are still being investigated.
“Where is Demi’s family?”
“Weareher family,” Sloane interrupts Dr. Falgar, her tone unforgiving.
Even aware that isn’t true, the Petretti name is highly recognizable around these parts, Dr. Falgar jerks up his chin before gesturing for us to move to the side of the room for privacy.
I follow through with his request, as does the rest of my family. “Demi bled so profusely during her miscarriage because she had a blood condition known as Von Willebrand disease. It is usually a hereditary disease that causes issues with blood clotting. However, I believe Demi acquired it from another medical condition.” He licks his lips before speaking a bunch of mumbo jumbo I don’t understand. “Demi had a heart condition known as AV fistulas.”
“Which is?” Caidyn asks at the same time my mother fists my father’s shirt in a determined hold.
Dr. Falgar directs his eyes to Caidyn. “It is where arteries from her heart connect directly with the veins in her uterus and cervix. The pregnancy wasextremelydangerous for her. It caused high-output heart failure due to renal arteriovenous fistula. Her heart couldn’t take it. The damage was too significant.”
