“Just worry about getting better and we can figure the rest of it out later. Oh…these are for you.” Cole handed Jade a bouquet of daisies. “If I remember correctly, you used to love them.” Her heart felt tight as she looked down at the flowers. She had a flashback of Cole picking some from the park in Marymount’s garden to put in her hair when she was around eleven years old. Cole kept talking. “I stopped by the night you were admitted, but I’m not a blood relative so they wouldn’t let me up to see you. Then, I had to go out of town on business for a couple of days. When I got back I found out you were still here.”
Jade didn’t take the flowers. She continued to stare at them then slowly lifted her eyes to his. “Why are you doing this? Why are you here?”
He tilted his head as if that was the silliest question he’d ever heard. “I was worried. I wanted to make sure you were going to be okay.”
“Don’t you think you’re about ten years too late to be worried about me?”
“Cricket…”
All of the anger about everything in her life bubbled to the surface. Jade screamed at the top of her lungs. “My name is Jade! JADE. You don’t get to call me that anymore. EVER.”
Her burst of anger surprised him. Cole put his hands out in a sign of surrender before speaking very slowly. “Okay. Got it. Jade. Clearly you’re upset with me. Although, I’m not exactly sure why? I should be the one pissed at you.”
“Are you serious?” She was dumbfounded.
A nurse stepped into her room looking from Cole to Jade. “Is everything all right in here?”
Jade wanted to say her entire world was falling apart around her. Instead she mumbled, “Everything is fine.”
Cole released a breath because he honestly didn’t know what she was going to say. The nurse gave him a dirty look. “Well, this is a hospital. Please keep your voices down.”
He waited for her to leave before speaking again. “Jade, what happened? What happened to us? We were so close. Even after all these years, I still consider you my only family. I’ve thought about you almost every day since I left the Marymount House.”
“People who care about each other don’t make promises they can’t keep, and they certainly don’t abandon the people they say they love.”
“Abandon? What are you talking about? I never abandoned you. You disappeared on me.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “You’re a liar. I guess fancy colleges and being surrounded by people kissing up to you all day taught you how to do that, huh?” She rapidly blinked back her unshed tears. “You promised me when I turned eighteen, you’d come back for me. You left me all alone to fend for myself in that hell-hole for two years.” Her words came out in a whisper. “You promised you’d come back, but you never came.” Jade didn’t understand where the tears came from. Nobody kept promises. She knew that. He was no different than anybody else.
Cole was in disbelief. His heart was beating fast. Did Jade really think he would just forget about her? Just leave her behind? He loved her like a sister. There was no way he would do that. “Jade, I came back for you, but you had already left.” Frustrated, Cole ran his fingers through his hair. “What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t throw away my scholarship. I kept my promise. I worked my ass off to save up enough money to come and get you on your birthday, and when I came, you weren’t there.”
“I was there Cole! I waited all night until Ms. Lockwood told me I had to leave because of the rules.”
“I’m telling you. I came for you. When I couldn’t find you, I searched for you as best I could, considering I barely had two nickels to rub together. I spent an entire week in that shitty town trying to find you. I only left because I had to get back to my classes. That was my ticket to getting us both out of poverty and to a better life. But, I still made phone calls, checked hospitals, the newspapers, even area morgues trying to find you. I looked everywhere I could think, but I couldn’t find you. When I finally finished school and got a job, I looked for you some more. It was like you vanished into thin air.”
“Why didn’t you call me during those two years?”
“How? On what phone? I mean…I tried a few times at the Marymount house, but you seemed to never be there when I called. You didn’t have a cell phone, and even if you did, you know they would have never allowed you to keep it in that place. They were too scared someone would record something or call the police.”
He was right about that part. “Jade Anderson did disappear. She left the state and got married.” She stared deeply into his eyes. Long moments ticked by as she tried to determine if he was telling the truth. Cole looked so sincere. But how could he be? If she hadn’t actually waited until Ms. Lockwood put her out, she would have believed him. Jade was done with allowing people to lie and hurt her. That was all anyone had ever done since the day she was born.
He was surprised, closer to shocked.
