Page 102 of Forbid It

“Okay,” the nurse tells me with a comforting smile. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours to check on you. Try to rest for now.”

“Thanks.” The door closes behind her, and I stare at it until my eyes burn and sleep takes me once more.

When I open my eyes this time, the headache has significantly eased. The nurse came by multiple times overnight to rudely disturb me from my sleep, but I guess it’s necessary or whatever so I don’t lose my brain function blah blah blah.

I turn, expecting Cassie to be beside me. Instead, it’s my mother and Iwan.

“Mum?”

She reaches forward and brushes my hair out of my eyes, taking in the bump on my head like she did when I was a child and ran head first into the goal post.

“What are you doing here?”

Mum glances at Iwan as she settles back down. “My son gets knocked unconscious for three minutes in the middle of a game and you think I shouldn't be here?”

“No it’s just…”

“I got a flight.”

“To North Carolina?”

Mum and Iwan exchange a loaded glance over my bed. “What is it?”

Mum huffs and rests both hands on the arms of her chair, clasping the wood firmly. Her lips are pressed together tightly. “Cassie lent us her jet.”

My eyebrows scrunch. Cassie hates the jet. She would rather walk to New York than charter a plane, but she sends it to Wales and back to pick up my mother? “She what?”

Mum folds her arms. “And you told her to fuck off.”

“I didn’t⁠—”

“You might as well have, mate.” Iwan mutters from beside me. “Fucking brutal.”

“Hey,” I snap. “She⁠—”

“She what, Robbie?” Mum snaps. “She stayed with you the whole way from the pitch, sat by your bedside whilst you were unconscious and no one knew if you were going to be okay. And then you finally come round and you say ‘I don’t want you here, fuck off and leave me alone’.”

My teeth clench, and I would roll my eyes at her creative embellishment if it didn’t make my brain hurt so much. Instead, I let them fall closed. “I didn’t say that.”

“What kind of man does that?” Mum crosses her arms and leans back in her chair. “Not my son, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Oh my god.” I lift my hand to my forehead and nearly poke my eye out with the heart rate monitor on my finger.

“Even after,” Mum continues, “she’s flown your entire family out, sparing no expense.”

“I didn’t ask her to do any of that.”

“You don’t even say thank you.”

“Mum,” I snap finally. “Enough!”

She holds her hands up as she leans back in her seat.

“She—” I break off. “She broke up with me.”

Mum waves her hand. “She didn’t mean it.”

I laugh, but it comes out kind of like a sob. “I’m pretty sure she did.”