AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before I could reply, Dona got restless, tossing and turning between us.
“You and I are going to finish this later. In the meantime, come to Daddy,” I sang, lifting Dona out of her arms and back into mine, bouncing her gently.
“I’m soo
oo jealous right now,” she joked, kissing my shoulder before kissing the top of Dona’s dark hair. “Obviously, she loves you more than me. Both Ethan and Dona are a team, Liam.”
“And Liam only plays on Mommy’s team so it works out.” I winked at her.
She shook her head at me and headed back to our bedroom. “Try not to hold her all night. She’s never going to get used to sleeping on her own.”
“Night, Mommy!” I took Dona’s hand and waved it at Mel.
The look on her face as she walked away from us made me smile as the door closed.
4:11PM
“Mr. Callahan? Mr. Callahan?”
“What? Huh?” I blinked my eyes, automatically refocusing on Mel. The doctors had all left, leaving only two nurses, Dr. Fortmen, and me in the room. “Mel?”
“Her heart is failing…this will happen more and more frequently without a transplant, and each time there may be brain damage—”
“She needs a heart, I’m working on it. Is there anything else?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting back the pain echoing in my body.
“No—”
“Leave us, then,” I murmured, swallowing the bile in the back of my throat.
It was only when they left that I rushed past her bed, into the bathroom, where everything I had eaten in the last twenty fours came right back out. Hunched over the toilet, I couldn’t stop my whole body aching.
“Liam? Fuck, Liam?”
Supporting myself on the edge of the toilet, I saw Cora, dressed in jeans and a black blouse, her brown eyes wide as she watched the most pitiful version of me crumble on the ground.
“You’re supposed to be with the kids.” I groaned, rolling over and reaching for a tissue to wipe my mouth.
“Your mother, Neal, and an army of guards are with them at the safe house.” She frowned, reaching in her bag for mouthwash and a washcloth. She flushed the toilet for me and turned on the sink. I knew I was supposed to get up, but I just didn’t have the energy to.
“When Mel wakes up she’s going to kick your ass for falling apart like this, and she isn’t even dead,” she stated, soaking the washcloth before squeezing the additional water out.
“Then why does it feel like she is?”
“Maybe because you’re feeling guilty. It feels like it did with Sedric and you never wanted to feel that way again,” she replied, crouching down beside me. “You’d rather be the one on the bed, right?”
Apparently all those counseling sessions for her and Declan had rubbed off on her. “Why are you here right now?”
“Because we’re family, and because I know where to get Mel a heart.”
“What?”
She stuck the tiny bottle of mouthwash into my face. Grabbing it, I rose from the ground and threw it back before spitting into the sink.
“You know where to get her a heart?”
She handed me the washcloth.
“Cora—”
