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Kate blinks, and a tear drops down her cheek as Helen frantically checks her body. “Are you bleeding?” she asks, her voice high. She pulls Kate’s t-shirt up, revealing a large and relatively fresh sutures, and I gasp.
“It’s you?” I whisper. “You’re the donor?”
Chapter 63
Emilia
My mind is whirling as Carter carries Kate to Dad’s treatment room. Dad’s nurse, Greta, jumps into action and examines her. Kate looks anguished the entire time, her eyes moving from me to the floor, over and over again. Years may have passed, but her silence still speaks volumes to me. She never intended for me to find out.
“I just need my pain medication,” she tells the nurse, and Helen nods.
Carter looks at his parents, his entire body tense. “You knew about this?”
Helen and William look down, unable to face him. “It was her decision. She’s an adult. It wasn’t my place to tell you.”
Carter grits his teeth and shakes his head as he walks out of the room. I’m tempted to follow him, but instead I sit down next to Kate. She’s trembling and shaking her head, and I turn to the nurse.
“Her dose is four pills, but she’ll only take one. It’s no wonder she’s in pain.”
Kate bursts into tears, but she’s trying so hard to keep from crying that she’s choking on her sobs, hurting her stomach even more.
I lean in and cup her cheeks, wiping at her tears with my thumbs. “Look at me,” I say. Her eyes find mine, and she calms just a little. “You’re fine, Kate. You won’t get addicted to these pills. You do, however, need to take them right now. You’ll hurt yourself more if you won’t. You hear me?”
She nods, but I see the fear in her eyes. I look up at the nurse and sigh. “Do we have an IV we can give her?”
She shakes her head anxiously. “Her medication is very specific. We don’t. I’m sorry, ma’am.”
I sigh and shake my head. “It’s fine,” I say, holding my hand out. “Give them to me.”
Greta hands me the bottle of pills and I take out three. “You’ve had one pill, and you’re going to have three more,” I tell Kate.
Kate shakes her head, panic gripping her. Her breathing is erratic, and I can tell she’s on the cusp of hysteria. I grab her chin, my grip tight, and look into her eyes. “If you’re going to do this, you’re going to do it properly,” I tell her, my tone threatening. “You see it through to the end. That includes you healing well. Did you forget who your brother is? If he wants to cut off your access to these pills he can. You think any pharmacy will sell to you? You think any dealer will dare speak to you?”
Kate’s eyes clear little by little, and I can tell she’s listening to me. “You’re going to take these pills, and you’re going to give yourself a chance to heal properly. If you’re scared of the meds, I’ll be there every step of the way. I’ll keep them, okay? I’ll only give you your doses at the exact times you’re supposed to have them.”
I see a spark of hope in her eyes and I smile at her. “You’d do that?” she asks, and I nod.
“I promise,” I say, handing her three pills.
Kate stares at them before inhaling deeply and taking them. I hand her a glass of water, and she takes it with trembling hands.
I breathe a sigh of relief when she swallows the pills. All these years I was convinced I hated her, yet I still can’t bear to see her in pain.
Someone drops a hand to my shoulder, and I look up to find Carter standing beside me. He looks much calmer now, and I relax under his touch as I turn back to face Kate.
“Why’d you do it?” I ask, my voice soft.
She looks into my eyes, and all I can see is guilt.
“I owed it to you. I… Emilia, I’m so sorry. The things I’ve done, the things I’ve said. If I was the only one that lost you then maybe, just maybe, I could accept that those were just the consequences of my actions. But it wasn’t just me, Emilia. My mother makes your favorite cake every year for your birthday. Your father stares at photos of you growing up for hours. He misses you every second of every day. And Carter? Carter stopped living the second you left. He just exists. My selfish actions ruined so many lives, including my own. I can’t turn back time, Emilia. I can’t undo what I’ve done, and I won’t ever be able to make it right. But this… this was something that might make a small difference. I might not be able to give you back the time you lost, but at least I could give you more years with your Dad. It isn’t enough. It won’t ever be enough. But it’s the least I could do.”
I stare at her, seeing her in a new light for the first time in years. I can tell the guilt she’s living with wrecked her. It eats at her, at who she used to be. When I look at her, all I see is a shell of the girl I used to love like she was my own sister.
“I’m going to try my best to forgive you,” I whisper. “Things won’t ever be the same between us. I doubt we’ll ever even have any relationship to speak of. But I’m done with the hate, the pain, the regrets. I’m done living in the past. I’ll try to forgive you, Kate, but I won’t ever forget what you did.”
She nods and bites down on her lip as a tear runs down her cheeks.
“That includes the past, but it also includes you donating a kidney to my father. It includes the food you left on my porch, the wine in the treehouse. All of it.”
