by M J Giani
“Ummm...” she muttered, without realizing, that she had spoken aloud.
“Excuse me?” Kate asked. “Did I miss anything?”
“Oh? Nothing, nothing.” She had to control herself, it was enough to hear the Cole’s name to change her mood. “Sorry, I was distracted. What did you ask?”
“Were you daydreaming? I told you that after all, Cole returned.”
“It's a joke, isn’t it?”
“I'm not kidding! I got a message from your mother right now. It's true.” She protested.
“You know how long he will be staying? Why didn’t my mother refuse to see him?”
“I don’t know. You'll have to ask her yourself. Maybe he’ll stay for long enough to check on Father.”
“One day is too much already!” Anna noticed that Kate was staring at her, when suddenly, something crossed his mind.
“Will he stay at home or in a hotel?”
“I don’t know all the details. You know, from the moment that my brother was gone, he did very little to keep in touch. In fact, he never called me at all, nor I called him. Don’t tell me you're still worried about what happened between him and Byron.”
“Nothing happened between them!” Anna shouted, feeling outraged and frightened. Even after all these years, she refused to think that Cole and Byron might’ve been involved, whatever that was.
“Well, they haven’t even spoken to each other anymore. Yet, Kate, I'll go there at the end of the week. Father would be pleased to see his grandchildren.” Anna didn’t know whether she should go there or not, knowing that Cole would be in her family’s house made her uncomfortable. When Byron went to his last mission, he told her that when he got back, he wanted to get divorced, and this time nothing, would make him change his mind. Anna refused to believe him and tried to think of something to do to make him stay, but she didn’t know what. She hadn’t spoken a word to her family, hoping to make him change his mind – after all, her baby Jason needed a mother and a father – but Cole’s arrival would ruin everything.
She had to stop them from seeing each other, or at least, preventing something to happen between them. She pressed her fingers in the china cup she was holding, but then she was afraid of breaking and put it back again on the table. Why? Why didn’t Byron love her? Was it because of Cole? Anna looked at her son, who was his father's face, when she felt itchy in the back of his hand.
While she was looking for her bag, she was actually thinking about a certain blue package she had there, wondering if she would have time to go to the bathroom – perhaps a few minutes, or even a few seconds would suffice. She started scratching her hand harder. Anna had never been faithful to Byron: shortly after their marriage, her husband’s lack of sexual interest had made her doubt his sexuality – the same Byron who made a fool of himself trying to seduce her.
When she got ill and Byron started accepting more and more missions abroad, she went out as much as possible, from clubs to sex parties, and even orgies. Soon after that, she began taking pills to make feel good, followed by heavy drugs, and today, she was a complete addict, not in the tablets themselves –she obviously stopped whenever she wanted to – but the sensations that they gave her. When Byron found out, he made her go to rehab, but once the baby was born, he stopped trying. She even endured it for a few months, but it was easy to fall into temptation again, as he never stayed home long enough to control her.
“Would you mind if Jason stayed with you for a few days? He would like to stay with his cousins.”Anna decided on an impulse.
“Of course not, you know he is welcome. When does Byron arrive? You look a little lost without him, I've noticed.”
“Yes...you know when it goes on missions, I am filled with longing, and I can’t even think properly or sleep in the empty bed.” Anna said, trying to convey nostalgia some with a smile.
“You have to tell him that he must leave the service and run a good police station closer to home. Jason and you need him.”
“I think so” Anna said, feeling depressed. It was easy to perpetuate the lie when he wasn’t there, but she didn’t know what she would do when he came back.” Maybe you can help me convince him, when he returns.”
“With pleasure” Kate said, smiling. “You know, Rob, John and Cole are my blood brothers, but you’re my favourite sister.” Anna laughed. When her mother became a widow with an only daughter, she did everything she couldto get rich. Shelet them adopt Anna, and gave her everything she wanted. Anna was beautiful and charming, and her mother always told her that if she smiled and looked pretty, she would have everything he wanted in life. Byron didn’t know if she loved him or if she was obsessed with him, but he knew for sure that she didn’t want him to stay with Cole. She always had what he wanted, and she would do anything to stay with Byron.
9
Cole and Kelly got to the front door, and before they knocked, the door opened.
“Yes?” A short lady with a maid uniform asked them.
“I'm Dr. Cole Taylor, and this is Nurse Kelly Barnes. You’re waiting for us, I believe.”
“Cole Taylor...?” She asked in amazement” I thought...” Poor woman. Apparently, no one had warned her about his new name.
“Doctor” He added “Dr. Cole Taylor. If you could announce us.” His voice had taken an authoritarian tone – apparently, it was easy to resume his role as the heir of a great, wealthy family. He opened the door.
“Who is it, Ms. Parker?” Cole heard his stepmother’s voice. Funny it hadn’t changed a bit, she still had high-pitched tone that irritated him.
“Dr. Cole is here, ma'am.”
“Oh, really?” Cole didn’t know how she was such a good actress, she might’ve had a great career if she wasn’t so busy chasing rich husbands.
“Let him in.” With a gesture of her hand, Mrs. Parker opened the door and let them in. Cole tried not to think too much about that house as his, but he looked at those walls and they only brought him bad memories. Besides, it looked like a beautiful museum: good to look at, but not to touch. In comparision, the home of his adoptive mother was smaller, but much more welcoming in its simplicity, than this cold and barren castle.
“Cole, my dear!” Olivia exclaimed, waving at him. He felt, rather than see Kelly’s suppressed laughter; Lady De Vere was so uptight that her smile looked more like a grimace than a happy gesture, due to her ridiculous quest for eternal youth.
“I came as soon as I could.” Cole said firmly, and he was surprised and pleased about this, as he wanted to keep everything as professional as possible.
“You did nothing, but your duty”, Olivia replied. She came towards him and moved as if she was going to kiss him in the cheek, but as he didn’t want this woman near him, he pretended not to see it. Regretting was he was about to do, he put his hand on Kelly’s back.
“This is the nurse Kelly Barnes, and also my best friend.”
“Oh, you brought a nurse! That was well-thought of you.” As alway, Olivia only heard what interested her. Both turned around, when they heard the sound of high heels clicking on the bright, pristine floor. Everyone looked at the stairs, and at the top, was his half-sister Anna.
“Hello, brother. I'm amazed you came. I thought you wouldn’t dare setting your foot in this house again.”
“I thought your father needed a diagnosis.” His voice was dropping irony all over, but he couldn’t help it. He was already frustrated from going back there and having to take care of a person whom he would rather not see again.
“My father? He’s not even your father?”
“It seems he isn’t, since he disowned me when he kicked me out of this house.”
“Cole, I don’t care that you came to save Walter, but I won’t admit these lies in my house.” Olivia intervened.
“Lies? Look, I have a very tight schedule here, I am sought in every corner in the world. The fact that I’m here is one heck of a favor. I am a surgeon, and a very good one, at that, so treat me as such. The small C
ole you knew is not here anymore. You can stop doing this and show me where the patient is, or I'll go away.” His patience had run out, and he would not allow them to make him feel like a child again.
“Leaving us so soon?” When Anna got close to him, Cole looked at her attentively: her skin, which had once looked healthy, was full of pimples that looked more appropriate in a small child. Despite the tons of makeup she was wearing, her eyes were so swollen that he could only see the pupils – she couldn’t fool a doctor like him. Cole looked at Kelly to see if she also saw the same as him. His sister was completely drugged –he wondered with what, exactly. He suppressed his urge to say something that could help her, somehow. What was happening in that house was not his problem.
Cole had given up on that family and he wasn’t going to meddle in their personal problems. He was there to do something and so he did, he could put all these people in the past...But then he thought of Byron. When would that man disappear from his thoughts? Cole had only been there for a few minutes and he was already thinking about him right in front of his wife. Kelly was right: he needed to stay focused and to distance himself from them.
When Cole saw his father lying in bed, he felt no pain or anger, and simply looked at him. For a few minutes, he seemed to be looking for different person, a complete stranger, but as soon as his father looked away from his stepmother and looked at him, Cole had to struggle not to shrink and return to the skin of the young Cole who had been ridiculed, abused and kicked out of the house because of that man. As if sensing the fear that was threatening to envelop him, Kelly squeezed his shoulder, as a sign of support. Cole sighed with relief. The decision of bringing his best friend was, by far, the best decision he had made. He wasn’t going to let this man ruin his good life. Cole straightened his back and walked to the bed.
“Can I see your medical file?” He said to Olivia, not knowing if would be able to look at his father, let alone talk to him.
“Look who came back home, it’s the bald-faced faggot!” Walter’s voice held much resentment, as if their last meeting had taken place the day before, and not many years ago.
“Did you come to see if you could you steal Byron away from your sister? They are very happy together, and they have a child now! Walter said very proudly. “A handsome young man named Jason.” The tone of his voice was full of scorn. Cole looked around, and saw the arrogance in his half-sister’s face, as if he had been challenged to say something. As for Olivia, she looked confused. He decided to deal with this part, since it was easier to deal with that, than Byron’s marriage.
“Did anybody warn you I was coming?” His stepmother cringed a little.
“I thought you weren’t coming at all, or you would give up and I didn’t want to give you false hope.” False hope? This man didn’t want him in his house – in fact, his only hope at that time, was that Cole walked away and never came back.
“If you could bring us the Sir De Vere’s medical file, perhaps Doctor Taylor could give you his professional opinion. Also, bring all medications you can take at this time, with every procedure.” Kelly asked, dispelling some of the tension that was in the room. Cole couldn’t even breathe, and he didn’t know if it was from the disgust in his father's expression, or the smell of disease in the air.
“You finally got a woman? Didn’t you say you preferred sucking a good dick?” Criticism and insults continued from the sick man. Cole wanted to turn his back and walk away. He should’ve never come here, even Kelly looked like she was losing the little patience she had.
“Father!” a voice said at the door. When Cole turned, he couldn’t help but cringe: there was his brother John, and in Cole’s mind, he was still the same monster from his nightmares, with great strength and all the anger in the world. “You have to keep calm, you’re sick.” Cole was surprised by his brother’s calm tone; it simply didn’t fit with the memory he had of him.
“Pff, now I can’t say what I think, in my own home! This is my home and I havent died yet, so I’ll do and say what I want!”
“Yes, all right, but if everything’s depending on Cole, you may not do it for years to come. Please, let him do his job.” He was surprised, he could only be joking. What was he up to? Was he being nice to him to help his father?
“Will you stop being nice? It doesn’t look good on you. I took an oath when I finished my course, and that was that I wouldn’t leave a person in distress.”
“I don’t...” John stopped talking when he walked into the large room, and Kelly looked surprised, since he was looking at her with interest. Cole recognized the look on Kelly and John’s faces. Desire. The same expressions, the same conclusion.
“Sorry, I didn’t know we had visitors. I'm John De Vere. Nice to meet you...” he said, walking towards her with his hand stretched to her, ready to greet her. Cole was surprised with her attitude, the smile on his face and, especially, his flirtatious looks. He looked at her friend, convinced that she would give him the cold stare and angry attitude that she always reserved for men, or whenever Cole spoke about his family. But instead, she looked at him with her killer looks, as if she was saying "Come on, I'm interested”, bowing her head and pursing her lips, as if asking for a kiss.
He was shocked and, frankly, quite hurt with her attitude; she had always been his great defender, along with his mother, and at the first opportunity she had of facing one of the people who had hurt him, she was having a crush? Fed up with everything, he gritted his teeth in anger, removed his hand from Kelly’s shoulder, and moved towards the folder that his stepmother had in her hand. He knew he had hurt his friend, but she had just broken the fundamental code of friendship: never become friends with your best friend’s enemy.
His heart started beating faster, and he caught his breath when his pain had reached its highest. Looking his father’s medical record, Cole tried his best not to cry. He was a grown man, and thank heavens, he knew he had at least one person who would never let him down: his foster mother. She had already given more than enough evidence that she would be with him forever and on his side against whatever it came at them.
The analysis showed all kinds of tests done at the city’s clinic, and one reading allowed Cole to determine what was his father’s problem: he suffered from coronary artery disease.
“Father had a heart attack, and nobody told me about it?”
“You didn’t seem very interested about him during all these years, why should we call you to tell you about it?” Anna’s voice contained all the poison of the world, not hiding that she would never allow Cole to feel at home.
“If I had been told, it might’ve prevented many of Father’s ailments he’s having right now. Coronary artery disease can be fatal.” Cole was beyond himself that he had been kept in the dark about this matter. He knew that he and his father were great enemies, but Cole was the best in his area, he could’ve helped.
“As if! I didn’t want you here then, and I don’t want you here now! My doctor is very capable, and he has more years of experience.” Cole looked at his father when he spoke. Walter had always doubted his abilities, but this time, he wouldn’t let him discredit everything he had done to get there.
“Enough!” Cole shouted. He couldn’t say who he was more surprised about this, him or the others in the room. He looked at each of them and spoke quite firmly.
“I didn’t want to come, but you’ve asked it to, and as Head of the Cardiological service, I have a very tight schedule. If I could stop everything to come here for two days, then you can also swallow your anger and put up with me for the same period of time.” Kelly approached him with pride. Cole took a deep breath.
“I will contact your doctor to know your agenda, and evaluate his medication and rest.”
“Yes.” said Walter, very reluctantly. “I won’t lose my temper and I’ll rest as much as I can to avoid operation.”
“So this is what we’re going to do: We’re all going to leave this room and give you some rest. When you have spok
en to your doctor...” Cole looked at the documents in his hand “Dr. Marcus, is it?”
“Yes.” Olivia confirmed, relieved that the fight was over.
“Alright, then. I’ll go to the hotel and I’ll make some phone calls. I’ll stop here tomorrow.” He put the papers in his hand bag and turned his back. He didn’t want to stand there for another minute, and frankly, he was beginning to feel suffocated.
“Hotel?” Kelly asked behind him. “I thought we were...” She looked disappointed. She actually looked disappointed, Cole really didn’t believe I was seeing.
“Yes I'm sorry, but I'm going to the hotel. You can stay, if you want to.”
“Oh, nurse, we have many rooms, you’ll be more at ease if you stay with us.” When she wanted to, Olivia could be the perfect hostess. Too bad she never treated him that way.
“Since’s everything’s worked out, I’ll leave. I'll be coming back here tomorrow.” He walked away quickly, but he didn’t care – he had the information he needed, to begin with. When he reached the car, he heard the front door open, and he knew who it was, before he even turned around.
“Cole, wait!” Kelly said, running so as to catch up with him. “Wait!” she asked again.
“Yes?” Cole asked more sharply than he intended to.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“I know.” Cole sighed. The worst was that he believed her. He turned around, and without saying another word, he got into the car and went to the city.
His family’s reaction was exactly what he had expected, but Kelly was supposed to be his shield and protector, she was supposed to be on his side. Cole felt disgusted.
10
Cole checked into one of the hotels closest to the clinic where his father was being followed, as he wanted to go there first thing in the morning. The faster he ended this, the faster he could go back home.