Rise Up (A Coach's Love Book 3)

by Alison Mello

  “What’s wrong?” she asks me in a panic.

  “Apparently my ex has been drinking. Ethan sent me a text that she’s drunk.” We hurry to the car and pull out of the garage. “Here, tell him we’re on the way.” I hand her my phone. She taps out a quick text to him while I drive. I knew this was a bad idea.

  It takes me all of fifteen minutes to get to the house thanks to my speeding. I’m fuming at this point. I can’t believe she did this. We hurry from the car. I run up the steps and pound on the door. Tiff answers, “Vincent, what are you doing here?”

  “Picking up my son seeing he was supposed to be home twenty minutes ago.”

  “Laney left with him five minutes ago.”

  My jaw drops. “You let her drive after she had been drinking?” I growl.

  She shrugs. “You know Laney, there’s no stopping her when she has her mind set on something.”

  “Damn it. We told Ethan we were coming.”

  “I know. He told his mother you were on the way, and she got mad at him for texting you.” Tiff shrugs like it’s no big deal.

  “We better head back to the house. She’ll get there and we won’t be there,” Amber says.

  I grab my phone as we head back to the car. I press the speed dial for my father-in-law. “What’s up, Vincent?” He answers on the second ring.

  “Laney is on her way to my house. You are closer than me. Can you head over there. I’ll explain when I get back.”

  “I’m on my way.” He cuts the call, and I pull out of the driveway. I’m gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles are white. I can’t believe she would be dumb enough to drive drunk with our son.

  My phone rings in the car about five minutes later. It’s my father-in-law. “Hello.”

  “Hi, Vincent. I’m here but they’re not. I’ll sit and wait for you to get back.”

  “Thank you. I didn’t expect she would leave. She’s been drinking.”

  “She’s drunk and driving with my grandson?!” he shouts angrily through the phone.

  “That’s what Ethan said. He asked me to go get him because she had been drinking.” Amber turns down the volume because it echoes loud through the car. “Trust me, I’m not any happy about this.”

  “Oh, wait until that woman gets here.” He cuts the call. He is not helping my anger like I was hoping he would. He’s making it worse.

  “Please take a deep breath. Ethan is going to need you. He may be scared or upset.” I do as she asks and take a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. When I pull into the driveway, I’m in a panic because she isn’t here. I hit the locator app to see where he’s at, and the car is stopped. I’m not sure why she’s on Prospect Street. That’s not how you get to my place from Tiffany’s, but I run up to my father-in-law and show him. We decide to go looking for her. He follows behind me as I follow the direction the GPS gives me leading to her destination.

  When we pull up to the scene, my heart skips a beat. They’re stopped because she hit a tree. Amber calls nine-one-one while I run over to the car. Ethan doesn’t appear to be in too bad of shape, but he’s pinned in the car.

  Within minutes the police are pulling up to the wreck along with two ambulances and the rescue truck. They race over to the car and check Ethan first because they’re going to need to cut the door off to get him out. Two EMTs work on getting Laney out while the rest of them work on Ethan. My heart is racing as I pace the sidewalk. My mind reeling with thoughts. I don’t even know what to say to her. I want to kill her for putting our son’s life on the line the way she did.

  My father-in-law is talking with the police who obviously know him from the court system. When they’re done, he comes over to me. “She’s going to be fine. It appears she passed out behind the wheel. They will arrest her as soon as she’s done being checked out at the hospital. Ethan is talking to the paramedics, but it appears he has at least a concussion. It is going to be a minute before they can get him out.”

  “What are you going to do?” I ask, wanting to know if he’s going to bail his daughter out.

  “Absolutely nothing. You know me, I’ve always taught my daughter never to use my position for her gain.” He shakes his head. “This is her mistake, and she needs to fix it.”

  I nod. “I hate that she drove drunk, but I hate it even more because my son was in the car.”

  “I know. She’s lucky she hit a tree and not someone else.”

  It takes some time for them to get Ethan out of the car. My father-in-law follows the ambulance with Laney in it to the hospital so he can speak with her once she arrives. Amber and I stay back to watch them get Ethan out of the car. The second he is on a stretcher I’m by his side. “Son, I’m so sorry. I got there, and you were gone.”

  “It’s okay, Dad.”

  “Sir, will you be following us?”

  “Can I ride with you?” He nods. I toss Amber my keys. “Follow behind us. I’ll have them come get you.”

  “No problem. Go.” I climb into the back of the ambulance. I take my son’s hand and hold it while they check him over. He has a small cut on the side of his head, but other than that it appears to be some minor bumps and bruises.

  “He’s going to fine sir.” The nice woman pats me on the shoulder. Ethan’s eyes drift closed. “Ethan, I need you to stay awake a bit. Can you do that for me?”

  He shakes his head. “I’m tired.”

  “That’s from the trauma your body has been through. Talk to me. Tell me what you got for Christmas,” she says as she moves around the back of the ambulance gathering equipment and continuing to assess him.

  “Um.” His eyes scan the ambulance, watching the medics as he fights to stay awake. “I got a game and a basketball.”

  “That’s cool. Do you play basketball?” she asks him as we pull up to the hospital.

  “Yeah. My head really hurts.” His eyes drift once again.

  “I know, sweetie. The doctor will make you feel better.” She gently rubs his head to try to relax him. “We’re going to bring you into the hospital now, sweetie.”

  They pull him out of the back of the ambulance, and I follow behind them. They take him directly to a room where a nurse asks me to wait in the waiting room for just a few minutes while they get him into a bed and check him over. “He is thirteen and was just in a major accident. I’m not leaving my son’s side.”

  “Let him stay,” the doctor says. “Just please stand off to the side.” I move out of their way and watch as they lift my son off the stretcher and onto the bed. “How are you feeling, young man?” the doctor asks him.

  “My head hurts.”

  “I can understand that. It looks like you’ve hit it.” He moves Ethan’s hair to take a closer look at the cut. He then flashes a light in his eyes. “It appears you may have a concussion, but I want to get some pictures to get a closer look. We need to be sure it isn’t something more serious.” He turns to me. “I’m going to put the order in, and someone will be right back to wheel him down. I’m sorry, but you can’t go with him for that.”

  “I understand. My girlfriend followed us here so while he’s doing that, I’ll go find her.”

  “Who was he in the car with?”

  “His mother. I believe she was brought here too.”

  He looks at the chart. “Yes, she was. She will be released into custody shortly.” He shakes his head. “As usual, with drunk driving cases, the passenger, in this case your son, took the brunt of the injury.” He looks at Ethan. “But he’ll be fine.”

  He shakes my hand and leaves the room. I go over to my son and run my fingers through his hair. His eyes close, and he rests. If they release him tonight, we’re going to need to keep a close eye on him. I’m thankful it’s the weekend, and we can all take it easy tomorrow. If need be I’ll work from home Monday.

  “Dad, are you still here?” he asks with his eyes closed.

  “Yeah, I’m right here, buddy. What do you need?”

  “She’s angry, dad.”

>   “About what?”

  “That I didn’t want to go to New York. She told me I was a bad son.” A tear rolls down his cheek.

  “I’m so sorry, Ethan.” I never would have let him go if I had known she was going to treat him this way. I need to get more of the story. “Did you guys do anything good?”

  “No.” More tears begin to flow. “She told me I didn’t deserve anything for Christmas. That she spent the money she would have spent on me on a plane ticket to come here.” I’m seeing red. Who says this to their child?

  “Buddy, I’m so sorry,” I repeat kissing him on the head. I feel horrible. I can’t take away what she said or did, but I can tell you that together we’ll rise up and get past this. I can also promise you that I will not allow her to take you anymore. Not without a fight.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” He gets quiet. “I tried to tell her I wasn’t getting in the car with her. I told her that you were coming to get me, but that only made her angrier. She wouldn’t listen when I told her she was drunk and shouldn’t be driving.”

  A few minutes later the nurse comes in and takes him to get the scans they need. On the way out, I ask for directions to the waiting room so I can find Amber. She’s pacing the room, and my father-in-law is sitting in a chair with equal anxiety. “He’s going to be alright. They are taking him for some head scans to see how serious the concussion is.”

  “Thank God. He’s going to be alright,” my father-in-law says.

  “How’s Laney?”

  “Upset. She’s already been told that she’s under arrest.”

  I exhale a deep breath. “I hate to say this, but maybe the weekend in jail will do her some good.” I shake my head. “She treated Ethan poorly. He’s very upset.”

  “I need to get back there so I can be there when he gets back. We’ll keep you posted.” He nods. I take Amber’s hand and start toward the door.

  “Vincent,” he calls over. “I’m sorry.”

  I shake my head. “You have nothing to apologize for, but your daughter does. She won’t be allowed to see him alone again.”

  I leave the room. “Are you okay?” Amber asks.

  “As good as I can be. I’m glad he’s going to be okay, but I’m really upset with Laney. What she did was unforgivable.” She looks like she wants to say something, but she nods. We get back to the room and each take a seat, waiting for the nurse to return with Ethan. “Can you believe she didn’t get him a Christmas gift? She made such a big deal about seeing him for Christmas all so she could verbally beat him up.”

  “No way,” Amber says.

  “Ethan told me while we were alone waiting for them to bring him down for his scan.”

  “That poor boy.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” I huff. “Kid was smart enough to now he shouldn’t have gotten in the car with her either. He tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen.”

  Ethan is brought back in a few minutes later. It’s getting very late, and I’m hoping they’ll let us take him home soon. “Your son is a trooper. The doctor will be with you shortly.”

  “Thank you.” I give the nurse a tight smile.

  Ethan lays asleep while we wait to hear if he’ll be released tonight. He starts to groan in his sleep. Amber jumps up and runs her fingers through his hair. “Shhh, rest, buddy.” They’ve already cleaned his cut and put some steri-strips on it. He gradually relaxes and falls back to sleep. It makes me smile to see Amber cares so much for my son.

  She’s such a kind soul. I have to wonder how it makes her feel to look at my son, injured by his own mother’s reckless decision, when she can’t have children of her own. Ethan finally settles. She takes her seat by my side. We hold hands and quietly wait for the doctor to come in.

  It feels like it’s taking forever for them to give us answers, but the doctor finally come in. “I’m sorry for the wait, folks. Another emergency came in tonight.” He looks at the chart. “Your son definitely has a concussion, and it’s a pretty serious one. I am going to release him, but I need to prescribe you something for the pain.”

  “Okay.”

  “It’s very important that tonight and tomorrow you wake him every few hours. He doesn’t have to get up, but wake him, talk to him, see how he sounds. Make sure he isn’t slurring his words and that he remembers simple things each time you wake him up.” He writes some notes. “I’ll give you a list of some things to watch for. He is not to do anything physical for the next five days. After that if his headache is gone, he can gradually start doing light activity.”

  “Thank you, doc.” I shake the man’s hand.

  “I will send the nurse in with your prescription and discharge papers. You have a good night.” He leaves the room. I exhale a deep, calming breath.

  Amber rubs my back, trying to relax me, but it’s not working. “She could have killed him,” I say, resting my forearms on my legs with my head in my hands.

  “Let’s focus on the fact that she didn’t. We need to stay positive.”

  I nod. “You’re right. Thank you for being here with me.”

  “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I love you two. I want to be there for you. Even with your mother’s warning. I’m not scared.” We had quite the discussion after everyone left. She filled me in on what my mother said to her in the kitchen. She wanted me to know that Laney wasn’t going to scare her away.

  “I just want to get him home.”

  “I know.”

  The nurse comes in and gives us everything we need to get Ethan out of here. It’s not easy, but we eventually get him to the car. Amber sits in the back with him and holds him while he sleeps on the ride home.

  It has been an incredibly long weekend. We’ve had to spend long nights waking Ethan every couple of hours, but thankfully he is recovering well. I’m glad he’s still on school vacation so he doesn’t have to worry about missing.

  Today Laney is being arraigned, and we’re heading to the courthouse to see how things go. “Ethan, are you almost ready?”

  “Yeah, Dad.” He comes into the living room looking much better than he did yesterday. Ethan is off to Stella’s to hang with DJ and Mason while Amber and I go to the courthouse. I don’t want Ethan to see his mother in that situation. Plus he still needs to take it easy.

  We pull up to Stella’s house, and she comes out onto the porch to greet us. “Good morning.” I give her a quick hug.

  “Good morning, Vincent.” She smiles at Ethan. “How are you doing, Ethan?”

  “I’m getting better.”

  “Good. Go ahead in. The boys are in DJ’s room.” Stella nods toward the house.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Ethan waves to me and then does as he’s told.

  “Listen, he is still very limited with screen time, and he may tire easily.”

  She gives me a tight smile. “No problem. I already told the boys no Xbox while Ethan is here. They have some other games out to play. I told them if they want, they could watch a movie. I figured that would allow Ethan to fall asleep if he needed to.”

  “We better get going. Thank you again. I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem, Vincent. Good luck.”

  I nod and jog down the porch back to the car. Amber waves to Stella from the passenger’s side before she heads into the house. “Everything okay?” she asks when I get in the car.

  “Yeah. She’s good people.”

  “I agree, though I don’t know her like you do.”

  The courthouse isn’t far. Then again, not much in this town is. I don’t want to chance being late so we hurry over, find a parking spot, and head in. As we’re approaching the door, we bump into Judge Mackey.

  “Good morning, Vincent.”

  “Sir.” I nod curtly.

  I pull the door open, and we head into the courthouse to go through security. “Good morning, Judge Mackey.” One of the security guards greet him.

  “Good morning.” He nods.

  We walk into the courtroom and take a seat toward the front of th
e room. “How’s my grandson?” he asks.

  “He’s doing okay. It’s going to take a little bit for him to heal, but I’m hoping he’ll be better by the time he has to go back to school.”

  “How’s Laney?” Amber asks.

  “Angry. She wanted me to pull strings to get her out of jail, and I told her no. She needed the weekend to think about what she had done.” He sits calmly with his arms over his chest and his legs crossed at the ankle. His entire demeanor is as if this is an everyday occurrence.

  “I have to admit, I’m not sure I’d be as strong as you are if it were Ethan.”

  “Trust me. Nothing I did this weekend was easy. I was tempted multiple times to make calls to try to get her out, but what would she learn?” He shrugs.

  It seems like case after case is being called, but we still have not heard Laney's case. We talk about the cases and Judge Mackey’s thoughts on them as a judge. He’s pretty funny, some of the comments he makes. He tells us in a very hushed tone that he thinks Judge Talbot is soft. One of the cases the judge let the guy out on bail, but Judge Mackey would have remanded him. He’s had too many offenses at this point.

  Finally, we hear the words we’ve been waiting for. “Laney Wilder,” the judge calls out.

  Laney is brought in. She takes a seat at the table where she would typically be defending a client. The judge looks at the paperwork and then back at Laney. “Laney Mackey?” the judge questions.

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “I didn’t recognize your married name.” She shakes her head.

  Laney refused to use her married name for anything related to her work. Everyone knows her as Laney Mackey. She did just what her father didn’t want her to do. She used his name to climb the legal ladder.

  “Do you want representation?” the judge asks her.

  “No, Your Honor. I’ll represent myself.”

  “You sure? You know we encourage representation even for lawyers.”

  “I’m sure, Your Honor.” She stands confidently behind the table.

  The bailiff hands her the police report for her to review briefly. My father-in-law leans in and whispers, “She was way over the legal limit. I’m curious to see what they’re going to do.”