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Just as Angie pulled her car in the parking lot, my phone chimed a text from Martin.
He’s w/me. We’re at the hospital in Braxton. His father was badly burned.
The small sound that burst out of me was half sob, half sigh of relief.
Isaac is OK?
He’s okay, sweetheart.
“He’s okay,” I told Angie, my voice bubbling up with tears. “I’m going to kill him, but right now he’s okay.”
We hurried inside and were directed to the third floor, the burn unit. The waiting area was set far away from the rooms to prevent infection. In a row of chairs, Isaac sat with elbows on knees, head in his hands, flanked by Brenda and Martin Ford on either side of him.
I crossed the waiting room to stand in front of him, my hands clenched to my sides. Wanting to touch him and make sure he was real, while floodgates of emotion I didn’t know I had were pouring out of me.
“Isaac.”
He looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot and shiny. Already he looked as if he hadn’t slept in a week.
I’m so mad at you
I’m so glad you’re safe
I love you so much
The last thought sprang out at me, from somewhere deep in my heart and the tears started to spill over. Out the corner of my blurred eyes, I saw Martin and Brenda stand up and move quietly away with Angie.
I sank down in the chair next to Isaac. “Is he…?”
“He has burns over eighty-two percent of his body,” Isaac said. “They say if he makes it through the night, it’ll be a miracle.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “What happened?”
Isaac shook his head and stared down at his hands. “Yesterday, I dropped some money off like I usually do. I told him not to worry, that I was going to take care of everything. I just needed a little bit of time. Two hours later Martin got a phone call from a friend of his at the fire station. I’ve been here ever since.”
I nodded, fighting the tears and losing. “Isaac, when I heard what had happened, I got scared. Really fucking scared. I didn’t hear from you and I thought…I…I don’t want to tell you what I thought.”
He raised his head miserably. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay…”
“You deserved at least a text,” he said dully.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Just don’t go silent on me, okay?”
He nodded, but didn’t say a word. I tried to comfort him as best as I could but every time a doctor came near the nurses’ station, his head shot up, then sank back down when there was no news.
“Pops was so beat down,” he said, his fingers fidgeting with his lighter. “Every time I saw him, it was worse. I should’ve known something like this would happen. I should’ve been there.”
“You had to leave,” I said. “He was hurting you.”
Isaac’s shoulders rose and fell. “I could take it. But he couldn’t take being alone, I guess. Or it all just crashed down on him and he finally gave up.”
I sat up. “What do you mean?”
He looked at me miserably. “It might not have been an accident.” He sighed and went back to his lighter. “Wexx executives are at the site right now. We were already up to our ass in debt. But now…”
He shook his head.
