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“I know, but we will figure this out. You just sleep. I won’t leave your side. I promise you.” His deep voice always soothes me. Closing my eyes again, the blackness returns, and the noise drifts into the background until I can’t hear anything.
GHOST
Standing in the viewing room watching Cassie being slid into the MRI machine is horrendous. There is a wall between us, and I promised I wouldn’t leave her. The technician wanted me outside in the corridor, but there was no way that was happening. Tate convinced him there was a valid reason for me to be there and not to question the doctor.
I can’t help but worry the loud noise in the machine will trigger another seizure, but Tate tells me that she is fine and in a sleeping state, so with the earphones on, hopefully she will sleep right through it. I have never watched my wife’s feet so intently in all my life, waiting for any movement or the slightest twitch. Not that I can do anything from here, but I just want her to get through this scan so we have some answers.
Tate is standing behind the technician as it slowly takes the images for them to look at. To me it just looks like a brain that I have seen on some of the images when I’ve been researching. This is past anything I can work out. I want to ask them to tell me as soon as they see something, but that would be stupid. I need to step back and let Tate handle this. There is a reason he’s the best, and I have to trust him.
After what feels like the longest twenty minutes of my life, Cassie is free of the machine and still snoring, which is a good sign that it didn’t cause her any distress.
“Send it to me, thanks, Stewart,” Tate says to the tech before guiding me out of the room and toward where the nurse is pushing Cassie’s bed out of the scanning chamber. Pulling his phone from his pocket and reading a message, Tate is quickly replying. I keep forgetting that we aren’t his only patient in this hospital.
I follow them down the corridors and into the elevator to take Cassie up to the private room upstairs that I made sure we were booked into. I’d pay to have the whole floor if it wouldn’t bring attention to us.
“I’ll be with you in a minute, I need to check on another patient, something isn’t looking right.” With that, he disappears down another corridor with haste, and I can tell he’s concerned.
I get Cassie settled in the room and make sure the blinds are drawn so the room is only dimly lit until she is fully awake and we know that she’s not sensitive to the light anymore.
I hate waiting and not having anything to occupy my mind. It leaves me in a bad place because I start worrying about things. I’m best when I can be solving something.
The silence in here has me deciding on one thing. We can’t live like this anymore; it’s not healthy for Cassie, the kids—or me, for that matter. Just seeing friends in the flesh instead of over a video call in the last twenty-four hours has been playing on me the whole time. I always thought being on my own was the way to get through this. But now I know, the only way through it is to finish it. Jason needs to be taken down, either through the courts or I’ll arrange it myself.
My family deserves a normal life.
But first, I need to get Cassie through this. Jason is the last person I want on my mind.
* * *
Tate’s minute turned into two hours, but I would never complain. Someone’s loved one needed him, and while Cassie is resting, nothing can be done anyway.
The door slowly opening has me looking up from her face, but my hand goes to the small pistol under my jacket. Ashton brought us in through a back access to the hospital, so we weren’t detected with our weapons. I don’t ask questions with him, because I trust he has everything taken care of.
The look on Tate’s face as he walks in tells me all I need to know.
We have a problem.
Now I just need to know how bad this problem is.
“Has she been awake at all?” Tate takes her pulse and listens to her heart.
“Not since we got her settled in here. I’ve let her rest.”
“Good. It’s for the best,” he says, reading the tablet in his hand.
“Just tell me. No bullshit, no technical terminology, just straight words. Is it a tumor?” I’m not waiting for Cassie to be awake for the answer, and he knows that.
“I’m afraid so, but you knew that was going to be my answer, didn’t you.”
I nod at him. From the moment I met him online, I could tell that was what he suspected, I saw it written all over his face. I like this guy, he says it how it is, and that’s what I need.
“The problem I have, though, is I can’t tell from the scan if it’s benign or malignant. It isn’t always obvious in the MRI. I wish it had been, but it wasn’t. I’m going to have to do a biopsy to work it out, but regardless of the results of the biopsy, it has to be removed. It’s in a section of the brain that will continue to make the seizures worse if we don’t take it out. Luckily, though, it is in a position I can get to easily and get rid of it, but of course, there are risks like with any surgery. I know you don’t want to hear this, but you are going to be here for a few days at least while we work all this out.”
The noise in my head is rushing. This is the worst scenario. Having Cassie exposed and vulnerable for who knows how long, while my kids are nowhere near me if they need me.
“When can you do it?”
“You don’t even want to know the details and risks?” Tate looks at me, perplexed.
