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“She’s not family. She’s some cunt he met in the U.S.”
I scoffed, amused. “At least I’m not the lying whore he met in London.”
Ruthgina’s face whitened in shock. The guard standing on my right coughed to cover up his laugh while the other guard wasn’t so inconspicuous with his laugh.
“I think you’ve said enough.” The laugh-stifling guard said as he ushered her to the door.
His counterpart shook his head as he followed behind them, unable to say much about the situation.
“I knew I liked you,” Claudia said with a smirk. “Now, let’s find out how my son is doing in surgery.”
After finding out that Raphael’s surgery was intense, I was more on edge than before. He’d suffered burns along his arm and shoulder. He’d hit his head during the crash, creating brain trauma, including bleeding between his skull and brain.
Claudia kept her cool while we sat in the waiting room. After hours of silence and staring out of the window, my anxiety spiked out of control. The calmer she was, the more agitated I grew.
“How is it you’re so cool right now?” The words broke free abruptly, like soda from a shaken bottle at the first twist of the cap.
“I’m probably more rattled than I appear. I have something on my side that I have to trust in.”
“I’m not religious. I believe in a higher power, but I’m not sure that you can encompass that in a bible,” I retorted.
Claudia smiled, and a lone tear escaped her eye that she wiped quickly.
“Someone that is actually present on earth. Not a spiritual savior.”
I turned, giving her my full attention.
“One of the best surgeons in the world is back there. I’d trust him with my life, so I have no choice but to trust him with Raphael’s.”
“Should I know him?”
“Not really. Raphael has probably never mentioned him.”
I frowned, confused.
“His father.”
Further confused, I opened my mouth to speak, but then closed it again.
“He’s the second surgeon performing surgery. We worried about William getting too emotional about his only child, so he had his best friend take the reins. I’ve watched that man save a life, a stranger, with so much determination that I know without a doubt that he’d move mountains for Raphael. I can only trust in that. If Raphael doesn’t pull through, I know it wasn’t meant to be. I’d hate it. It’d shatter my entire world. I’d feel a loss that I’ll never recover from, but, without a doubt, I’d know it wasn’t because of the two men back there.”
Claudia wiped another stray tear away before she began speaking again.
“Knowledge and skill can only take them so far. They’ll need the help of our ‘higher power’ to move their hands in the right combination to deliver the amount of passion that they’re both feeling right now. That’s where I have my faith right now. Right back there in whatever is going on in that room. They have to save my baby.”
Claudia’s smile didn’t touch her eyes where the sadness pooled. And though I’d watched the two streams of tears that had escaped before, not a single one came after. She kept them in check as she went back to staring at the door where the doctors would emerge.
At this moment, I saw Raphael more clearly than I’d ever seen him. He was almost an exact replica in determination of this woman before me.
Chapter Eighteen
RAPHAEL
Pain flared all over my body at the same time. My left leg felt like it was being broken into pieces. My right arm burned so badly that it itched. And I wanted to claw all the skin off just to get to the root of the problem. My head felt like it was splitting from so many angles that I couldn’t figure out the source. Tired. Through all the pain, it was the one thing that rang the loudest. I just wanted to sleep forever.
The pain increased so suddenly that my breathing stopped. Frozen inside my chest. My voice caught in my throat, but I still screamed.
Now rememba', chile. You can’t cheat death. It always collects. And ya neva' know when it’s due.
