We were so happy.
They ruined it.
Everything was gone now.
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted someone to blame, and the only other person I could think to blame was the pitiful man in the corner, who used to be someone worth a damn. I didn’t want to blame myself. I couldn’t blame Wyatt. So Ethan was the best one to blame.
“He figured it out,” I whispered, staring at him, but he didn’t lift his head. “He figured out you were in the walls.”
For the first time, he shifted. Dazed, he looked up at us.
“He said he needed to talk to you. He was so happy. He asked me to help find you, and we had looked everywhere. And then he said you followed the rules. That no one loved this family more than you. He beat himself up for you. He wanted you to forgive him. But you…you wouldn’t, so he had to do it by himself. You left him by himself. It wasn’t his fault you lost Ivy, but you still blamed him and left him to die.”
“I…” He couldn’t even speak.
“He might have left Chicago, but he never left you.” The tears came even though I wanted him to cry, not me. “He never left any of us. All you had to do was call and he’d come. But you never asked him to come. So he needed excuses…he was there…when the church was bombed, he came back for us, and you mocked him. He stayed for your sham of a wedding, and you belittled him—”
“Helen, that’s enough,” my mom said, but I wasn’t finished.
“You wanted him to come back your way. You wanted him to bend at your power. So you went through this whole stupid scheme to get him back when all you needed to do was humble yourself. Just once. Just fucking once! You couldn’t. When you were dying, he came right on time and saved you. He saved Ivy. He got revenge for you. That still wasn’t enough for you. Are you happy now? He gave up everything to get your forgiveness. So he could show you he was serious. He fought every day while you were scheming in the motherfucking walls! Does he have it now! Can you stop hating him now? Now that he’s on his death bed, has he redeemed himself enough for you?”
“Helen, I know you are in pain, but enough!” Uncle Neal demanded.
I could only laugh. “Protect him. Let’s all protect the great king Ethan…who’s next, your highness? Dona was smart to get out when she could. She’d be dead by the end of the year thanks to you.”
“HELEN!” my mother yelled, and I kept quiet—not because I wanted to, but because it felt like my throat was closing.
My heart ached, and I couldn’t breathe anymore.
“HELEN!”
“Call the doctor!”
“HELEN!”
ETHAN
I was in denial.
I was sure of it, but I preferred to stay in denial rather than accept the pain clawing away at my chest. It was for that reason I stayed in the corner…that I watched. I couldn’t look away. I heard her words, they cut deeply, and exposed me for the fraud of a man I really was. I tried to apologize to her…then when I looked back at them…I noticed something. The angrier she got, the more insults she threw, I could have sworn I thought his finger twitched.
It’s just a muscle spasm. The doctors said it would happen. I waited to see it again, but it was gone. The hope was gone.
“HELEN!”
My eyes shifted to her, and I got up as she started to convulse. I wanted to help, but again, I saw something. This time it wasn’t his hand. It was an eyelid.
“HELEN!”
“Call the doctor!” Aunt Cora screamed, and again his eyelids moved. I wasn’t insane. He was trying to do what I wanted to do—help her.
He was trying to help her!
He was there!
“What happened?” The doctors rushed in, and at their voices, his eyelids stopped.
“Step away from her!” I yelled, everyone’s eyes now on me.
“She can’t breathe,” one of them said, and I didn’t look to see her. I just watched him…and again his eyelid moved.
“Lift her head up. We’ll get the—”
“I SAID STEP AWAY FROM HER!” I snapped, pulling my gun on the doctors as I moved over to his bedside.
“Ethan, what are you doing!? Put the fucking gun down!” Uncle Declan hollered at me, and there it was….it happened so quickly, so suddenly that if I blinked I would miss it.
Moving to his head, I put my hand on his head, brushing back slowly.
“Little brother, if you do not open your eyes I will let her die.”
“ETHAN!”
BANG!
I fired, and doctors screamed. Two of them ducked.
“WYATT!” I called again. “She’s turning blue, Wyatt. She’s going to suffocate, right next to you.”
“HELEN! Help her!” Aunt Cora screamed.
“Didn’t you become a doctor so that you wouldn’t have to go to anymore funerals for this family? She’s going to go before you. I swear to God, I will kill her myself. Three.”
“Ethan, enough!”
“Two.”
“ETHAN!”
“One!”
BANG!
His eyes snapped open as if he were awakening from the dead…no, that’s exactly what he was doing. His eyes wide. Staring at me in panic and fear.
“Wyatt!” My Grandma screamed, rushing over to him.
He just kept staring at me.
“Can you hear me?” I asked him.
It looked like it took all his fucking might, but he blinked.
And the gun slipped from my hand, my body hunched over, and I put my forehead on his. “Thank God, you motherfucking bastard. Thank God.”
TWENTY-TWO
“I didn't want the easy kind of love,
I wanted the crazy love,
the kind of love that
created
and
destroyed
all at the same time.”
~ Julie Murphy
ETHAN
We all stood hovering around his bed, and a new doctor checked him over. Standing close, I couldn’t help but pinch my fingers, watching
