CHAPTER TEN
Calista
The bag of personal effects dug into my chest as I fumbled in my pockets to find my keys and unlock the door. Gina reached around me and twisted the knob. It lazily swung open. I dropped my chin and sighed. I didn’t lock the damn door. After the cops showed up and informed us of the home invasion, we took off for the hospital like bats out of hell, swooping in to find our parents. We only found one.
Patty was hysterical, but alive, with a broken shoulder, bruised ribs, and a concussion. They had to sedate her to keep from scaring the hell out of everyone around her. All she kept saying was, “Giant. So big. I tried.”
Once the sedation kicked in, more details emerged before she passed out. They walked in from dinner to hear a ruckus upstairs in my old bedroom. Dad went to see what it was instead ofleaving and calling the police. A giant man, nearly ten-feet tall, picked him up like he weighed nothing and threw him down the hall. He hit the banister of the stairwell and flipped over it, falling to the main floor. Patty ran to help him, but the man appeared out of nowhere, demanding to know where the draiocht was. When she didn’t answer him, he tossed her to the side, breaking her shoulder in the process. She lifted herself up to see a bright blue light emanating from my bedroom door before it vanished.
“Is that a new street drug?” she mumbled as the muscles in her face slackened.
We sat with Patty while my father was in exploratory surgery to find his internal bleeding. Once they opened him up, they saw the devastation. Nearly every organ was damaged, and they were certain his spine was broken. There were too many hemorrhages to even begin mending them before he died. Upon hearing that news, they had to sedate me, too.
Exhausted and woozy from the meds, Gina guided me to the couch, and I dropped onto it. Pills clinked against the plastic bottle in my hand. After my episode, the doctor sent a script to the pharmacy. I set them on the table and stared at them. The springs in the couch squeaked in protest when Kaiden landed next to me.
“I’m gonna give you two some time alone. I’ll be back shortly. If you need me, I’m right across the hall.”
Our heads bobbed as we stared at the sliding glass door to my balcony. The hot, early morning sun poured into the silent room. After all the beeping at the hospital, it was welcomed.
My grip on the packet relaxed, and it fell onto my lap. It wasn’t heavy, but it anchored me as Dad always did. Only this wasn’t a comforting hug. It held me hostage with guilt and grief that restricted every agonizing, burning breath.
I pinched the corners of the bag and poured the contents onto my lap. Dad’s wallet, cracked phone, a few coins in a tiny zip lock bag, and chapstick piled in the seam between my legs. This is it, I thought. All those years of life, and this was what was left of him when all was said and done. My hands shook as I touched them, imagining him holding each item and tucking them inside his pants pockets. His worn leather wallet sat partially open in the crevice of my legs. Part of his driver’s license was visible, showing his handsome face. Kaiden looked a lot like him. Tears seared new paths down my face as I opened it and stared at the picture. His kind eyes stared back at me, full of life—a piece of him trapped in a one-by-one inch square. The image on mine looked like a mugshot. Sticking out enough to capture my attention was a piece of paper. I opened his wallet to see what it was. Wedged inside the bill slot rested a check from the Trust of Calista Thomas.
I snapped the wallet shut and gulped.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, a new wave of tears filling my sore eyes again.
“For what?”
It took every ounce of courage I had to look at Kaiden. And I really looked at him. Gone was the little boy I’d always seen. He had grown into a man somewhere along the line, and I had refused to see it. I saw him now in all his fucked-up glory. Could the man forgive as easily as the child once did?
“For everything.”
Kaiden scrubbed his hands over his head and down his face. “There’s no need to apologize.”
I swiped my raw cheeks with the sleeve of my sweater. It felt like skin was coming off with them.
“It’s my fault, Kaiden,” I repeated the same words playing on loop in my mind. “Dad… dying. Your mom’s injuries. It’s all my fault.”
“No.” He shook his head and walked to the sliding door, crossing his arms tightly over his chest like doing so would prevent him from breaking. “You’re not going down this rabbit hole. Stop it.”
“But it is.” I pulled the check from the wallet and refused to look at it again. “Look.”
He peered over his shoulder before coming to stand in front of me. I held it out, and he took it. “So what? You refused to take a handout. He was trying to help.” His brows shot up. “A lot.”
“That’s what I wished for, Kaiden.” That got his attention.
Kaiden read the check over and over again. “Even if this was your wish coming true, this isn’t your fault.”
I needed the reassurance from him, it eased the ache in my heart, but the guilt refused to let go so easily.
“It’s the exact amount I wished for. How can this not be my fault?”
Kaiden sat back down and rubbed his forehead. If only I were a fly on the wall of his mind, I’d know what he was truly thinking and feeling. “You didn’t know what the outcome would be.” Taking one last look at the check, he gave it back to me. I tucked it out of sight.
“He visited me. Here. In the flesh.”
Kaiden’s eyes widened.
