AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wires are unhooked, and various tests are performed – I’m entirelynotpaying attention, because my eyes never once stray from the women before me.
My cell vibrates God knows how many times. Innumerable calls and texts, and at one point, I can hear Ford lowly conversing with someone—possibly Vaughn—in the corridor beyond, yet still, I stand silent, watching over these two amazing women.
The bay outside the window is beginning to streak with the rising sun when Mari stirs.
The beeping monitors from before have been muted, disconnected, or switched off entirely, and the room is utterly silent.
Penelope is sleeping in the high-backed chair by the door, and Rey is still fitfully dozing at her abuela’s side when a calmness as I’ve never experienced before descends upon the room.
Mari’s eyes focus clearly on me, and she smiles with her whole face before her hand gently smooths across the back of Reyna’s head.
Rey stirs instantly, her eyes fluttering open as she slowly sits up to look down on her serene-faced Abuela.
Mari’s eyes drift from my face to Reyna’s, and something tangible passes silently between the two of them. Their eyes hold for a long while as the room fills with the dawn's early light until Mari’s attention shifts slightly, her eyes moving to something behind her grandchild.
She inhales suddenly, and a smile overtakes her face, her eyes shining with uncompromising delight.
“I’m on my way, Thiago.”
Her eyelids slowly close with a small smile tipping the edges of her mouth. The light fades from her face, and her breath leaves her body in a low, contented sigh as her grip on my hand slackens.
The sound of Rey’s quiet sobs calls me to her side, and I pull her into my embrace as grief washes through the room with the devastation of a hurricane.
And all that I can do is hope that I can be strong enough to help my sunshine to find the rainbow waiting on the other side.
CHAPTER20
REYNA
I’d beenin complete and utter denial after we’d gotten Lita’s diagnosis in my final year of high school. I think webothhad.
In accepting the scholarship to Pearson, I knownowthat I’d believed I could have it all.
Even when my father had lost the house and taken all of Lita’s money, I had truly believed that everything would be okay.
Denial.
I’d lived and breathed it for over a damn year, eventually giving way to a slow-burning annoyance when I had to start working a million and one odd jobs just to make ends meet.
Never once did I associate the fact that I’d had to pause my time at Pearson with my underlying exasperation and a deep-seated sense of unfairness. I was too busy trying to get by and ensuring Lita was being cared for that I didn’t notice the near-constant tension in my body.
It was only in hindsight that I saw that two-year period for what it was.
Anger.
And it only ebbed—never leaving entirely—when I eventually left Pearson altogether, telling myself that one day I’d go back if I did my job well. If I attempted to live a life outside of my passion. If I was a good, dutiful employee, neighbor, granddaughter, friend…
If, if, if.
Bargaining.
Not that I realized it all those years. It became ingrained in my everyday life. Be good, be kind, be courteous, and maybe, justmaybe, I’d wake up back home in Connecticut to find that everything had just been a bad dream.
That my future at Pearson and on the stage was still bright and waiting for me in the city that never sleeps.
And so, I really shouldn’t have been surprised when I sank into a chasm of hopelessness in the days following Lita’s memorial service. Innumerable days and nights ran into one another as the gravity of loss permeated my bones, making the effort of even getting out of bed too much for my weary body.
I was present, yet wholly distant, and even as the worry in Alex’s whiskey eyes grew with each passing hour, I could feel myself sink deeper.
