Page 94 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Summer 2015, Wichita, KS, USA

I stood in the waiting room with my sister, the doctor, and Katie. Everything he was telling us was not at all what I had hoped for, expected, or was prepared to process. No child, regardless of the relationship they have with their parent, wants to hear that their death is not only certain, but imminent.

There are few certainties in life, death being one of them.

Knowing when the exact moment will be that we are going to draw out last breath is something everyone seems curious about, but no one really wants to know the answer to.

“So, if the ablation isn’t done, it’s your professional opinion that he won’t make through the night?” I asked.

“That is correct. His defibrillator receives a signal from the heart, if you will. That signal is processed, and recorded. If the signal is irregular or becomes irregular, the device shocks the heart, much like the paddles I’m sure you’ve seen in the movies that they rub on someone’s chest to shock them back to life. The shock is intended to correct the heartbeat.”

He paused and gazed down at the floor. As he shifted his eyes upward he continued. “Your father’s heart has a spot on it which is sending false or inaccurate signals to the device. We monitor the device remotely, and it had gone off over a two-dozen times in 24 hours. In short, your father has suffered half a dozen heart attacks in the last day.”

“And the ablation procedure corrects that?” I asked.

“It may,” he said. “In a sense, we burn the heart, causing it to scar, and remove that section of heart from sending false signals. The process is a timely one, and that is my concern.”

“The anesthesia?” I asked.

“Not the anesthesia itself, but the length of time he would be required to be under anesthesia. My guess is six hours or more,” he said.

“And the decision is mine to make?” I asked.

“You’re listed as the next of kin, and there is no wife, so yes,” he said.

I had watched his eyes the entire time he had been speaking, and although it came as no surprise, and it was my opinion that he believed every word he said. I stared down at the toes of my boots and held my gaze there for some time, wishing twenty-four hours had passed, so it would be tomorrow already.

I lifted my head, glanced at my sister, and my eyes were immediately drawn to my mother’s diamond bracelet she was wearing. A gift from my father on their 25th wedding anniversary, he had said buying her the traditional silver wouldn’t serve as any form of justice to commemorate the quality of woman she was. Diamonds worn around the wrist, according to him, would draw attention to the fact that he perceived her as valuable.

She wasn’t valuable.

She was priceless.

After my combat training and before I deployed the first time to Iraq, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Four short weeks later, under the care of the best staff money could buy, she passed peacefully while in her sleep. She was a saint of a woman, always placing others before herself, and never turning her back on someone in need.

Growing up, I admired my father; but I adored my mother.

She died without ever having an opportunity to meet her grandson.

I shifted my eyes from my sister’s wrist to the doctor. “Do the ablation procedure.”

I reached up, gripped Katie’s wrist, and lowered her hand from my shoulder to my side. As Alicia’s eyes followed the path of my hand, I nodded my head toward her wrist.

“We’ll get it started right away, I’ll keep you up to speed as the procedure makes progress the best I can, but don’t expect any progress reports for at least two hours,” he said.

I nodded my head.

“You know that should be kept in a safe deposit box or a safe,” I said as I tilted my head toward my mother’s bracelet.

“I think she’d want me to enjoy it,” she said.

“That was for someone who was priceless,” I said as I gripped Katie’s hand. “You heard the story. Priceless.”

“Alec, please. Don’t…”

I raised my hand between us to silence her.