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I’ve just reached my car, when the sound of my name enters my subconscious.Huh?
“Logan? Are you okay?”
Cory’s panicked voice becomes clear, and I stop.
“Ah, yeah, I…” I trail off, unable to answer with the truth.Why can’t I tell her?“I’m just in a rush.”
Her eyebrows rise; she’s not buying it. We’ve known each other for years. She can see right through my bullshit.
Offering her a smile, I pray she lets it slide or at least drops it for now and questions me later.
“Okay,” she hesitates. “As long as you’re sure?”
I pull her in for a quick hug, grateful for her response before stepping back, ready to run again. “I’m sure. Thank you.”
When I pull up at the hospital, I have three missed calls from Summer. Unsurprisingly, Cory didn’t believe me, but I appreciate her letting me go. Switching off my phone, I shove it in my pocket and move in search of the reception area. Now more than ever, I need to talk to Dad. We need to sort this shit out once and for all because time is too short.
With his room number in hand, I race up the steps and round the corner of his ward. Mom’s standing in the hallway talking to a nurse as I come to a stop beside her. She smiles up at me as she finishes her chat.
“I’m sorry. He hates hospitals. I’ll talk to him and make sure he’s a bit nicer next time.”
I huff out a laugh, because that’s Dad. One of the nicest guys around, unless he feels helpless, then he’s a grump.
“Did you run here? You look out of breath,” Mom asks, her lips pulled into a smirk.
“What? I’m super fit, Mom. You can’t say that.”
She laughs, and I instantly relax. She wouldn’t be joking if Dad wasn’t okay.
“Let’s go and see him.”
As soon as I push open the door, alarms start blaring, and an announcement comes over the PA system. Mom and I freeze as nurses run from their stations, heading in our direction.
That can’t be right?
Mom gasps and shoves past me, moving straight to Dad’s bedside with the nurses rushing into the room closely behind her. All while I stand frozen in the doorway.
“We’re going to need you to move away, ma’am,” one nurse says, finally snapping me into action. I reach Mom and wrap her in my arms, walking her back until I hit the wall as she cries out for Dad. “Don’t you die on me, Ray. Don’t you dare,” she yells out over and over before falling into a heap on the floor, bringing me down with her.
My eyes fill with tears as my heart thuds in my chest.Mybeating heart reminding me it’s there, while my dad’s is failing him. “It’s going to be okay, Mom. It’s going to be okay.”
I want to believe my own words, but one look at the doctor’s face has me convinced that I’m lying. It’s not okay. It’s never going to be okay again.
The sounds in the room become deafening between Mom’s wails, the raised but calm voices, and the incessant beeping. But when the beeping stops, and it’s silent for a second, I wish for the noise to return until we’re hit with a sound I will never forget for the rest of my days.Flatline. He’s gone.
“Noooo!” Mom screams as she thrashes around in my arms. “Help him. Help him.”
I’m not entirely sure what happens after that because I’m so focused on Mom that nothing else seeps in. But when my grandparents arrive and Mom runs into her own mother’s arms, it suddenly hits me. My father’s dead, and he left this world thinking I hated him.
My throat clogs with emotion, and a guttural cry releases from within before I double over in pain. My chest aches, and I can’t breathe as a million thoughts run through my mind.Why didn’t I say I’m sorry? How did I let our feud, my feud, go on for so long? And how could he die?
I’m not sure if a minute or an hour passes when suddenly Mom’s screaming my name instead of my father’s.
“Logan? Oh God, Logan.”
I’m vaguely aware of her falling to the floor beside me and wrapping me in the warmth of her arms, but all I can see is the bed in front of me and Dad’s lifeless body on top of it.
“Logan. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, baby.”
