BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Four

by Jenn Marlow

“We’re staying at a hotel, and Mama is staying here with you guys…” Laura laughed.

  “Thank God…!” Polly sighed in relief.

  “Let me help you with your bags, Mama,” I said, reaching out for the suitcases she held. “How long are you guys staying?”

  “As long as you need me,” she said matter-of-factly, grabbing some of her bags herself.

  “I’ll be staying for a week, but then we have to get back—not that you were asking me,” Laura said, feigning offense.

  I rolled my eyes, and rather than indulge her, I gestured for her to sit on the couch with Polly while I helped Mama with her bags.

  As we gathered everything up and walked to my bedroom, I heard her whisper just over her breath so that I could hear.

  “How are you…?” she asked and immediately my brows twisted in confusion.

  “I told you how I was.”

  “No. You told me how Derek was, and you are clearly upset, but I mean with everything.” We reached my room with the bags, and I watched as she made her way to sit on the bed. She looked at me just before patting the area just beside her, wanting me to have a seat.

  I sighed.

  I knew what she wanted to talk about…

  “First your dad; then your boyfriend,” she said and sighed with sadness. “You have to be feeling something. So spill….”

  A tear burned the brim of my eye once again. I felt my breath hitch and my defenses fall—as they usually did with her. And I could do nothing more than give a silent word of thanks to the universe that my mama was there. I fell into her, breathing heavily, the tears coming forth full-force with a burdening pain like none I had ever experienced.

  I hated cancer; and I hated that I knew it so well…

  “I just can’t believe I fell for someone with cancer after Daddy,” I sobbed, thankful that she was there to hold me as I did.

  It didn’t matter that I’d have to stay in the living room. It didn’t matter if she brought up a painful memory. All that mattered was that she was there. And that she was holding onto me tightly, and that she’d never let go.

  Chapter 6

  “Can I see him?” I asked Dr. Freeman, who was standing down the hallway to where Derek’s room was. I really didn’t want to acknowledge him at all, but I knew it was always better to ask.

  “Once he’s moved back to his room, yes.” He stood firmly, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and just as soon as he did, I saw in my peripheral that my mama mimicked the movement. I glanced over and noticed that she was looking at him smugly, just as smugly as he had just been looking at me.

  “He’s not in his room?” I asked, worriedly.

  “He just had to get some tests done; he’s done now though.” He reassured, but there was something about his tone that sounded cocky, condescending even, but it wasn’t a surprise. Part of me wondered if that was just his tone and if he really meant it…

  But I didn’t really care to even bother harping on it.

  “Well then get his ass to the room, huh?” Mama piped up, as if it was the most logical conclusion to everything. “You said he’s done with his tests, so wheel him on in there.”

  “Who is this?” he asked me, visibly frustrated. He wasn’t looking at her. It was like he refused to…but that only fueled her more.

  “You know, I have a mouth and a functioning brain, doctor,” she shot. “You don’t have to ask her who I am. I will tell you who I am.”

  He didn’t budge though. He only continued to look at me.

  “I see that she’s probably your mother?” He said it like a question. But he knew the answer. And if it hadn’t been Dr. Freeman—someone I already thought was a giant asshole douchebag—then I would have probably been embarrassed by my mother’s behavior, but it was Dr. Freeman, so I really didn’t care.

  Not even in the slightest.

  “You’re damn right I’m her mother,” she quipped.

  “Charmed.” He finally looked at her and flashed a fake smile if I ever saw one before, just before turning on his heels and walking away.

  “Woo-ee!” she exclaimed. “He’s gorgeous, but he’s an asshole.”

  “Sounds like Derek,” I scoffed.

  “Yeah, I didn’t want to say anything,” she said, “but back when you used to talk about him, he sounded like a pain in the rear.”

  “He was.”

  “But things changed?” she asked, as we continued walking down the hall, towards Derek’s room.

  “They did.”

  “So this doctor—what’s up his ass?” she asked, as we reached his hospital room.

  “He’s Derek’s stepbrother and the jury is still out on that one,” I said, crossing over the threshold.

  I looked forward, not expecting to see anyone in the room, but there he was.

  “I thought he wasn’t in here,” Mama muttered under her breath.

  “Did you just get back in the room?” I asked, confused.

  “Huh?” He seemed confused, and so was I, but looking at his face and the worry on it, I decided not to push the matter. I only had to wonder if Dr. Freeman had been lying to me.

  “Nothing. Never mind,” I said. “Derek, this is my mama!” I gestured towards her, and he glanced up, eyes glistening, with a smile on his face.

  “Hey!” he gasped, excitedly. “It’s nice to finally meet you!”

  Mama walked towards his bed and grabbed the hand he had extended out to her, reciprocating his smile. “It’s great to meet you, too, Derek.”

  I sighed a sigh of relief, glad that my mama had actually got to meet the man that I fell so incredibly hard for.

  “Wish it was under better circumstances,” he sighed, smirking.

  “There aren’t many of those, hon, so don’t you worry about that!” she giggled, swatting him gently on the forearm. He smirked again, clearly amused by her.

  “Your accent is adorable!” he called, louder than I had heard him call since being in the hospital.

  “Derek, take it easy; you don’t need to get too worked up!” I shrieked, worriedly. I couldn’t believe that I had shouted about something so miniscule. I couldn’t believe his shouting had even registered, let alone worried me.

  “Oh, come on now, Zoe!” Mama shot. “He’s fine!”

  She reached out to one of the guest chairs next to the bed and pulled it in closer. “Have a seat next to him,” she said. “Let’s all have a little visit.”

  And so we did. I took the seat that she had pulled closer to Derek’s bed, and she sat beside me. And we talked. And laughed. And I slipped even closer to Derek, wanting nothing more than to hold him close as he impressed my mama with his wit and confidence.

  And it was almost like she sensed it, too.

  Because just as I had leaned closer, hovering so that as soon as she excused herself I could pounce, she spoke. “I think I’m going to head out. See the city; take a nap in your apartment while everyone’s gone….” She laughed adorably, making her way up from the chair.

  “You’re sure?” Derek asked, seemingly genuinely upset that she was leaving. “It seems like you just got here.”

  “I’m sure,” she smiled. “I think you should call your mama though. Tell her everything.”

  I smirked. He shouldn’t have told her that he hadn’t told his mom about anything.

  “I will…” he sighed, and as soon as the words left his lips, she looked at him, knowingly.

  She squared him off and peered into his eyes, as if taking a glimpse at his soul. “Seriously. Do it.” She was dead serious.

  “I will…,” he sighed, truthfully this time. “Somehow….”

  She gave him a saddened half smile and nodded slowly, understanding his hesitance. She grabbed her purse off the back of her chair and walked away, without uttering another word until she reached the door. “Just try and take it easy, relax a little.” And the way that she looked from me to him, I could tell that she was talking to the both of us.

  “She’s sweet,”
he said, as she rounded the corner. “Like you, but more country.”

  I smiled, but only for a moment before I did just as I had intended to do as soon as she left. I pounced, and held him. And for the first time since he entered the hospital, he hugged me back with equal strength.

  I smiled broadly. He must have been regaining his strength.

  I pulled back, my smile beaming with excellence, just before I leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

  “How do you feel?” I asked, pulling away.

  “Better.” He definitely looked better. His skin held color—actual color—especially his cheeks, and he sat up with ease. His eyes even looked like they held more life.

  “When do you think I’ll be able to go home?” he asked. “I need to talk to my family.”

  “Soon. But maybe you should tell them before you leave.”

  “Can I go home tomorrow?” he asked sweetly.

  “No.”

  “Okay, then tomorrow night?” He wasn’t giving up, and I wanted to laugh, but I knew that part of him was very serious. He wanted to get out of the hospital. He didn’t want to be pitied, and he certainly didn’t want his family to see his vulnerability.

  “We’ll see how things go,” I said and smirked. “Call your mom.”

  He looked at me, fear invading his expression. I could tell that he was terrified to tell her the truth. I could tell that he didn’t want her to worry.

  “She loves you,” I said. “She would want to know.”

  He nodded, sadly. “I love you,” he whispered, and although he didn’t say so, I could tell that he was going to call her.

  “I love you, too.” And with that I leaned over his forehead and placed a small and tender kiss atop it. “Call your mom and then get some sleep, alright?”

  I pulled away from him and flashed a sideways smile, trying to ease his concern.

  He nodded, a small tear falling down his cheek.

  “Will you stay with me?” he asked, and immediately my heart fell.

  I nodded. “Always….”

  Chapter 7

  A few days later Derek was released by his good-for-nothing-douche-of-a-brother-doctor. And as I prepared Derek’s lunch the day after his release, I realized that I wasn’t the only one with an uneasy feeling about the doctor.

  “He’s a shit bag,” Fredrick growled. My eyes widened in disbelief, wondering when exactly Dr. Freeman had shit in Fredrick’s Cheerios. I mean, it was crazy. Fredrick never spoke so negatively about anyone, let alone someone so close to Derek and the family he seemed to love more than anything. I had to wonder what Dr. Freeman did to him…because it had to be something.

  I mean before the moment he called Dr. Freeman a “shit bag”, I couldn’t have imagined Fredrick not liking anyone, especially someone that Derek seemed to love so much. He and Derek were thick as thieves. Fredrick loved Derek, and I knew that if Dr. Freeman hadn’t done something truly horrible, he would have liked him just fine. If not just because he liked him for who he really was, then he would have at least liked him for Derek’s sake.

  But he didn’t.

  He didn’t like him at all.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked, turning around from the hot stove, towards the old man.

  He leaned against the refrigerator, holding a pickle in his hand.

  “A lot of reasons,” he sighed, just before crunching the pickle with his teeth, chewing it slowly.

  “Examples, Fredrick.” I was serious. I needed clarification for my own weariness of the man.

  “He was an evil child, for one.”

  “Evil how?”

  “Let me just put it this way,” he sighed and grumbled, finishing off his pickle. He moved from the refrigerator and walked closer to me, just before leaning over my shoulder to whisper in my ear. “He used to torture dogs.”

  My head snapped to look at him quickly, instinctively, my eyes wide in horror.

  “Yep… like your average every day serial killer.”

  My eyes blinked, and my mouth fell open. I tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.

  “One day,” Fredrick said, “he had been torturing a little dog—and I mean torturing him—and Derek went to help the little guy; well, the poor thing was so scared that it reacted negatively to Derek.”

  I stepped back, my hand shooting to my mouth. I didn’t even need to ask what happened. I had seen dogs, and I had seen wild animals. When they were scared, they reacted instinctively, and instinctively a dog could do anything if it felt its life was in danger.

  “The dog mauled him, absolutely mauled him. It’s a miracle his scars aren’t more visible.”

  The soup bubbled and boiled roughly behind me, but I paid no mind to it until eventually the splattering got so loud that it pulled me from my stupor. I had been so enthralled by the terrible story that I didn’t quite care about soup boiling.

  And I kept thinking about poor Derek being mauled by a dog…

  And then wonder if I had seen any sort of scar when I had seen him naked. But I hadn’t. There weren’t any that I had seen, thankfully. But I couldn’t help but wonder if such an occurrence was the reason he was so afraid of dogs, even cute Golden retriever pups.

  “So that incident is what caused Derek to be scared of dogs?” I asked, sad that he couldn’t rejoice in the friendliness of a majority of domesticated dogs.

  “That’s why Derek is a lot of things,” the old man said with a sigh.

  “But they were kids….” I had to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Sure, torturing animals was a giant red flag, but it could have been possible to be warped and psycho when you were a kid and be perfectly normal as an adult, right?

  “Derek was a kid; Joey was the devil,” he grumbled. “Not surprising though; he’s just like his shitty mother.”

  And with those words, he left the kitchen, towards the living room, and I could do nothing more than watch, mesmerized by everything he just told me, as he slowly sauntered off. I had to admit, it had left me with a ton of new information and gave me even more reason to distrust “Joey”.

  As bad as it was, the thing I pondered on the most was the fact that Dr. Freeman’s name was Joey—and how I didn’t know it already.

  How could I have not known his first name?

  I sighed, turning back around towards the soup, just before ladling it out into a large bowl. I smiled. Chicken and dumplings, just like my mama always made. I only hoped it’d be a tenth as good, as I picked the bowl up and placed it on the tray that lay just beside the stove. I had compiled crackers, juice, and water on it already. All that was left was the soup.

  “Hope he likes this,” I murmured, just before picking it up and taking it to his bedroom. As I crossed the threshold, I smiled. He was resting, shirtless, on his bed, watching some ridiculous cartoon. It was too adorable for words, and I couldn’t contain my smile as I sat down with the tray.

  “What’s that?” he asked, looking at it wearily.

  “Chicken and dumplings, asshole!” I slapped his forearm. “Eat it and shut up!”

  “Do you cook often?”

  “I just cooked for you! Often enough!”

  He sighed, pulled the tray up to his chin and dipped his spoon in slowly. He just as slowly scooped it up and hesitated just before taking a bite. I almost laughed. How could he not have known what chicken and dumplings were?!

  “Wow!” he exclaimed with his mouth full.

  “See, now shut up and never question me!” I smirked devilishly and watched him continue to eat.

  “So how did you know Dr. Freeman when the both of you were kids?” I asked, as he scooped another large spoonful of soup into his mouth.

  He choked a bit and smiled.

  “Been talking to Fredrick, I see.” He seemed amused. “Doc and I were neighbors.” And then I realized he hadn’t mentioned his name. No wonder I didn’t know it. Derek never referred to him as “Joey”.

  “You mean Joey?” I asked.

  He laughed
. “Joey… wow… That’s a name he doesn’t hear often.”

  “Have you ever called him Joey before with me? I didn’t even know his first name.”

  “I don’t usually call him by his first name. I call him ‘Doc’ as you’re aware.”

  “So your dad slept with your neighbor?” I asked, feeling appalled as well as confused. How did his parents get along so well if his dad was a lying cheating bag of shit?

  “No.” His tone was direct, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, reacting in a very stand-offish way, and I had to remember what was wrong.

  And then I got my answer….

  “It was my mom who messed everything up.”

  “How so? She seems completely in love with your dad still.”

  “She is.” He said it so matter-of-factly, so sadly, that I couldn’t help but feel heartbroken…for him, for his parents.

  Love was complicated, and there was one thing I knew about it, it didn’t always make sense. Hell, it rarely did for that matter. There didn’t have to always be a reason for thing to go badly.

  “What did she do? What happened?” I was pushing, I knew I was. I was prodding for information, and I knew it wasn’t any of my business, but I wanted to understand. I wanted to know everything.

  “She was the one that cheated,” he grumbled. “With her trainer. Cliché choice, right?”

  “Very.” I was in disbelief. But like I said, not everything made sense with love.

  It was so painfully obvious that his mother wasn’t over his dad, even after all these years, and I wasn’t completely convinced that he was over her either. And it was funny, how someone could love someone else and not want to be with them, or cheat on them.

  Life was funny.

  The world was funny.

  But I could tell by looking at Derek’s face, that the cruelty of a world being funny had definitely taken its toll on him when he was younger. So much, in fact, that it was hurting him even now.

  “A lot of people get divorced, Der—,” I said, reaching an arm out to him to soothe him, and hopefully relax him enough.

  I knew most parents were divorced, but I had never seen someone that it affected so much.