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Dad never talked about the reason he sent Callum to oversee his business in Europe. He never came to visit us but made occasional phone calls to talk to me. No matter how much I invited him for Thanksgiving and Christmas, he always refused.
Dad rarely mentioned him. I never recognized the strange aloofness between him and Callum until now.
Had Dad been trying to keep Callum away from me?
Callum loosened his hold and let me straighten up. He came to stand next to me and took my hand.
The contact between our skins revolted me but I stayed quiet. It was important to see Dad first.
“My car’s outside,” he said. “Come on.”
Leading the way across the room, he took us to the front lawn where his car was parked. I climbed in and waited for him.
It was close to eleven P.M. already. There was barely any traffic on the streets at this hour, allowing us to speed along the familiar route to St. Nicholas’s ER unit.
Reaching the parking lot, Callum got out of the car and then helped me out. He guided me inside the hospital and without any help, navigated to the fourth floor where patients in intensive care were kept.
I glanced up at him, taking note of his confident gait. He’d known about Dad’s accident all day and even knew where they were keeping him. Only a psychopath could carry on with his day as if nothing happened.
“He’s in there,” he said, stopping me in my tracks outside one of the rooms.
“You can’t go inside without a doctor’s permission,” a female nurse told us as she walked past us.
“Wait! Hold up!” I called after her.
The middle-aged woman stopped and turned around to look at me.
“I know it’s late but I just got to know about my Dad,” I explained. “Is there any way you can tell how he’s doing in there? I don’t want all the details, I just want to know if he’s going to be okay.”
“What’s the patient’s name?”
“Leander Baldwin.”
A look of recognition flashed through her eyes, followed by a pitying expression.
“Are you his family?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m his daughter.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “The doctors are still trying to revive him. You’ve got to hold tight and wait until the morning. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more than this.”
“It’s okay,” I said through the painful choke in my throat.
When the nurse walked away, Callum pulled me into a hug. “Don’t worry, Lucia,” he said in a sweet voice while his hands caressed the top of my head. “Even if Dad’s not around, you’ll never be alone. You’ll always have me.”
His words were meant to soothe me but they left me feeling hopeless.
All I could do was hope Dad would pull through the night and that John, Rafael, and Danny would come back in the morning. There was no way I could live a day without them with only Callum for company.
If only I’d known all my hopes would be dashed to pieces, that this was the night that’d bring an end to life as I knew it...
Seven years later
5
Lucia
I cringed as the stream of thick, vibrant green goo filled up the tall glass. The ingredients were a mix of veggies and boiled eggs that had been blitzed together to form a “complete” meal for my ailing dad.
