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ChapterEight
Aryan
Where is Joseph? He has been a moody ass for months, but if he wants a decent meal tonight, he better bring his ass on. I turn the corner to the subdivision that he is in charge of and head to the house he went back to. As soon as I saw it, I knew something was wrong and I pushed the golf cart I’m driving faster. I jump out the cart before it’s stopped, and fear grips me. The exterior has fallen in along with a portion of the second floor of the house that Joseph went in. I grab my phone as I run towards the house.
“Josh! Get over here the house collapsed on Joseph!” I hang up. I find my earbuds, put it in and dial 911. While I am on the phone, I am digging through the rubble to try to find my brother. I reach down to move a piece of framing but it’s too heavy, but I refuse to give up. I try to move it again; I look to my right and I see all my brothers helping me lift it. We are digging and calling Joseph’s name. A few minutes later we hear the sirens coming down the street. It took us another thirty minutes to finally find Joseph buried under all that rubble. He was breathing, but that was about it. He wasn’t conscious and he was bleeding everywhere. It was so much blood I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. His body was bent in an unnatural position. I rode in the ambulance with him, and the brothers followed right behind us. When we got to the hospital, they took him through a different door and straight to surgery. We walked into the emergency room. True and Savvy met us there. Peter and Lennox were walking out as we were walking in.
“Savvy, what’s wrong?” he asks, his concern clear.
“It’s Seph,” she replies on the verge of tears.
Paging Dr. Anderson to O.R. 5 stat! Dr. Anderson to O.R. 5 stat!
“That’s me. They must be calling me for Joseph. Let me go save him,” Lennox says in full doctor mode. She kisses Peter. “I’ll take care of him,” she tells us. She turns and runs to the O.R. so she can operate on our brother. Peter shows us the private waiting room and we fill it up. A few minutes later, Saint, Shepp, and Skai walks in, we settle in for a long wait.
“How the fuck did the whole side of the house fall in? We are extra careful, and we triple check everything! If we lose Joseph...” Josh says, fear evident in his voice.
“We won’t lose him. He’s a tough son of a bitch. We’ve been through worse and come out on the other side just fine. Don’t count him out,” Anson says, obviously scared too.
“At least it’s Lenny performing the surgery. She is an exceptional doctor,” Peter says.
“Yeah, but isn’t she a spinal specialist? If they called her in, that must mean he has a spinal injury,” Jabarri speculates.
“Don’t do that. We don’t know anything yet, so let’s not speculate. He is in the top hospital in Mississippi with one of the best doctors in the nation, on top of being an unstoppable force of nature. So, until we get news stating otherwise, he will be fine!” True speaks up. “All we can do now is wait and pray.”
“I called Mom and Dad; they are on the next flight out,” Joshua says. We all nod and settle to wait for news.
Joyce
As I get ready for my meeting with Peter, my phone rings.
“Am I late?” I say in the phone before he can get a word in edgewise.
“No, I need to cancel our meeting this evening. My son Joseph was hurt on the job, and I am going to be waiting at the hospital until we get word on his condition. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
I can’t get past the fact that Joseph was hurt badly enough for them to be at the hospital awaiting word of his condition. Peter spoke about his adopted family during one of our business lunches. It wasn’t hard to guess that he was talking about my Joseph; I mean, how many families have eight giant brothers? “Which hospital?”
“Southshore General Hospital,” he tells me.
I hang the phone up before he can say more, and I head downstairs to take a rideshare to the hospital.
When I get there, I am directed to the family waiting area. I head that way not knowing how I will be received and frankly not caring, but when I get to the room, I take a pause. My god they are all huge intimidating men, and I lose my nerve for a second. But then I think about if Joseph is worth it, the answer is a quick yes, so I step in the room.
“Joyce, what are you doing here? I would have called you to reschedule,” Peter says confused.
“You!” a voice interrupts and I recognize the owner of the voice. It’s Joseph’s niece. “Why are you here?”
“Who is this? Skai? Peter?” one of the women asks.
“This is the owner of Melanique. I had a meeting with her later,” Peter says
“This is the woman Uncle Seph has been seeing. The one I saw him with,” Skai says.
“Oh! You’re the one!” the other woman says.
“True, baby?” a huge terrifying looking red head says to the woman.
“You hush! You’re the one that has been causing my brother to be a moody bastard. The one who wanted to keep him her dirty little secret.”
