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I nod, pulling up the chair closer to her bed.
Taking her small hand in mine, I ask, “What happened?”
Shorty glances at the window and sighs. “Jo’s been missing, and no one has seen him.” She sniffs and turns to me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, rubbing small circles inside her palm.
“Did you know he has bipolar disorder?”
I shake my head because I never knew.
She sniffs and wipes her nose with her other hand. “Yeah, he, um… he was diagnosed when he was sixteen years old. Jo drank more and started to use cocaine.”
I look up at her with wide eyes.
“Yeah,” she huffs, “it was his way of dealing with everything that was going on at home.”
She cries harder this time. I squeeze her hand, comforting and letting her know I’m here.
“He would have these awful episodes, and I never knew how to help him.”
I could hear the torment in her words. Shorty always felt hopeless whenever things were out of her control, especially regarding her brother.
I listened intently as she spoke about Josiah’s struggles and the countless episodes he had experienced.
I couldn’t imagine what Shorty was feeling at a young age, not only trying to survive her father’s ongoing abuse but managing to keep Josiah’s secret buried deep inside her.
She explained that the changes in his moods and hallucinations worsened when he drank or did drugs.
What broke my heart was hearing about Josiah losing it one day and attacking her.
My hands balled into fists wanting to drive them through a fucking wall. Not only did she have to survive her father’s beatings, but her brothers too.
“That’s why I am so worried about him,” Shorty says, looking straight into my eyes, bleeding with pain. “Without his meds…” she stops, buries her head in her hands, and cries.
I climb onto the bed and hold her in my arms. Shorty leans in and cries on my chest. I rub my hands up and down her back and place a kiss on top of her head.
She didn’t have to finish the sentence because I knew that without his meds, Josiah would relapse into a deep depression leading to bad decisions.
“I just need him to be ok,” she cries through suppressed sounds of hiccups.
Her body trembles with sobs when she says, “I can’t lo-lose him.”
My stomach churned over her words. If something happened to Josiah, that might be enough for her to jump off the bridge straight to hell.
If anything were to happen to her, I would dive into the depths of hell and bring her back to me.
“You don’t have to go through this alone, Shorty. I am here for you. Iwantto be here. Just please don’t push me away,” I plead.
Those words break her walls down, and she cries hard. Shorty buries her head in my neck.
“I’m taking you home,” I whisper in her ear the same time Ash walks in. He takes Shorty from me while I get on my feet. He quickly puts her back in my arms. She snuggles against my chest and continues to cry.
When Tia and Seb see Shorty in my arms, their shoulders sag in relief. I walk out the front doors with my girl. After I tuck her in my car and buckle her in, I lean down and place a kiss on her forehead.
Chapter 15- Donovan
“Dude, you keep staring at your phone like it’s going to come alive.” Wyatt walks past me with a towel wrapped around his waist.
