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What little of it remained, that is.
“Can you keep him?” I asked Fran, lifting my hand to catch Vlad’s with my own.
He settled for the handholding despite wanting more.
He always did.
“Yes,” she whispered.
She sounded pissed, and I grinned. “You Pope women and your anger.” I shook my head.
“Us Pope women don’t leave when the going gets tough,” Fran snapped back.
I felt a piercing sensation in the vicinity of my heart, and I didn’t know whether it was real or imagined because of the blows I kept taking when it came to Mavis Pope.
“Do you honestly feel that I should’ve done this?” I asked honestly. “Because, the more I see her break down, the more I realize that I’m a stupid, selfish son of a bitch.”
Fran snorted. “You are if you want to deprive her of this. Do you honestly think that Mavis has ever chosen the easier road?” She hitched Vlad up higher on her hip, and Vlad’s hand slipped from mine. He reached forward and caught mine up again in response. I studied Vlad’s fingernails as Fran continued giving me a dressing down. “The day that you were kicked out of our property was the day that Mavis started to really hate our grandmother.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“She looked for you,” Fran continued. “But everywhere she looked, she could never find you. She paid private investigators to look for you. I finally convinced her to stop when she was entering school to become a nurse anesthetist. Do you know how many thousands and thousands of dollars that she lost because of that?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Then you come back and treat her like utter shit.” Fran shook her head. “She’s been dealing with people treating her like shit since she was young. Do you know what it’s like to buck the system? Because Mavis does. She spent her entire youth trying to find better ways to spend the money that she was given in her trust fund. She fed homeless. She clothed orphans. She bought out Angel Trees every Christmas. Honest to God, she did everything she could to spend her money wisely. Then, when she actually needed it when she became pregnant with Vlad, my grandmother took it away from her. She wasn’t working at that time. She was going to school full-time. She hated working there because of me, so she’d quit. Then, a few weeks after finding out about Vlad, and my grandmother all but banishing her, she has to go eat crow and beg for her job back.”
The pain in my chest grew.
I rubbed my chest as a feeling of dread started to take root in my heart.
I didn’t think these pains were my imagination.
But I didn’t want this night to end so soon.
I wanted more time with Mavis.
“Then she found you. And even with you treating her like crap, I’ve never seen her so alive.” Fran paused. “The day that you delivered Vlad, she told me that she thought she was going to die on the side of the road. That she thought she was going to have that baby, and then die. And then I’d have to find her body when I finally came looking for her. But you showed up and saved the day,” she continued.
A sound like a wounded animal left my throat.
“Each day since you delivered Vlad, I’ve had a sister I didn’t realize that I was missing,” she pressed. “Don’t take this away from her. Even if you’re leaving her eventually, give her the choice to be whole for just a little while longer while you’re here.”
I cleared my throat, and the pains in my chest finally subsided.
I blew out a breath. “I can’t leave, even if I’d wanted to. I don’t have the strength or the courage to leave this Earth anymore without her by my side. I love her.”
Fran smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Then go get her so we can go eat. And we’ll tell our friends what’s going on, since I assume that’s what you’re doing tonight.”
My lips turned up into a half smile. “That’s what I’m doing.”
Fran nodded once, then caught Vlad’s hand. “You can make it up the stairs?”
I dropped my arm to the bottle of oxygen and nodded. “Not dead quite yet.”
With that parting comment, I headed into the house looking for the woman I didn’t know had become such a big part of my life.
A woman that I knew would be broken when I was gone.
I heard the sniffling before I arrived at the door to the bathroom.
I’d never been in Taos’ house before, but it was a simple design plan.
That, and the quiet crying coming from the woman that was slowly breaking what remained good in my heart helped lead the way.
I found her in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet, with her face in her hands.
