Jackie clutched her purse. “Is he going to die?”
Bill looked at her square in the eye. “I honestly don’t know.”
Inhaling a deep breath, Jackie straightened. “Okay, then. I guess I’m taking my mother to Charleston. Can you look after the kids?”
“I can do that. I’ll head home as soon as I get Mack off.”
Jackie returned to her family who were huddled together near the exit door. “Bill is sending Mack to Charleston in an air ambulance for surgery.”
Lovie’s hand flew to her throat. “In a helicopter. In this weather?”
Jamie pulled the radar up on his phone. “The storm is almost over, Gran,” he said, showing her the screen. “Why isn’t Uncle Bill performing the surgery? He’s the best.”
“Some doctors aren’t comfortable operating on their own family. And he thinks of Mack like an uncle.” Jackie smiled at Jamie. “But thanks for your vote of confidence.” She turned to Lovie. “I guess that means you and I are going to Charleston.”
“I’d like to go with you, Miss Jackie, if that’s okay.” Annie lowered her head, staring at her feet. “I don’t know him all that well yet, but I’d like to be there for him.”
Jackie gave Annie’s arm a quick squeeze. “Of course you can go with us. Anybody else?” She looked at Sam and Jamie.
“You go ahead, Mom. Faith and I can manage the market tomorrow,” Jamie said to Sam and she nodded.
Jackie looked to the sky when she heard the thumping beat of a helicopter’s rotating blades overhead, the sound of impending doom. “Okay, then. I guess we better get going.”
Eighteen
Sam
“Annie seems to have a calming effect on Mom,” Sam said when she saw her mother and Annie talking softly to one another in the backseat, their heads held close together. “I’m glad we brought her along.”
Jackie glanced in the rearview mirror. “That girl can talk to anybody about anything at anytime.” She cleared the last light on the outskirts of town and increased her speed. “So. Now that we have forty-five minutes ahead of us, tell me, what’s going on between you and Eli?”
Sam ignored her sister, staring instead at the headlights of oncoming cars. Since her encounter with Eli in the Sweeney’s parking lot earlier, she’d tried not to think about him, about his job offer and the idea of him moving all the way to New York. She’d been fighting the urge for a drink all night. The crisis with Mack had set her nerves on end and made the craving that much stronger. She was relieved to be surrounded by her family, to be heading to MUSC where they would hold vigil in a hospital waiting room instead of at home where the temptation for alcohol might prove too great.
Sam thought about calling Megan. She’d hit it off with her new AA sponsor, but she didn’t want to scare her away by dropping a load of baggage on her too soon, only hours after their first meeting. Making friends with other women had never come easy for Sam. She’d always had a hard time finding things in common with them. She liked being outdoors, engaging in recreational activities like hunting and fishing. Most women she knew preferred shopping and playing tennis, pastimes more suited to Jackie, things Sam knew little about.
Sam brought her phone to life and texted Moses: “En route to MUSC with Mom. Mack had a heart attack. I’ll call you when I know more.”
He texted back right away: “Please do. I will say a prayer for him. How are you holding up?”
Sam returned her phone to her lap, leaving his question unanswered.
“You’re avoiding my question, Sam. What is going on with you and Eli?” Jackie asked, keeping her eyes glued to the road. “It hurt my feelings to hear about your breakup from Annie. After everything you and I went through last summer, I thought we’d grown closer.”
“What’s left to say if Annie already told you about us? Eli and I broke up. Our relationship is over.”
“I hope this isn’t your old fear of marriage coming back to haunt you.”
Sam’s face tightened. “My fears never went anywhere. The situation is complicated. And I’m sick and tired of talking about it.”
“When you find someone who is so obviously perfect for you, like Eli is for you, making the commitment is the easy part.”
“He may be perfect for me,” Sam said. “But I’m clearly not perfect for him.”
“Says who, you? You don’t get to make those decisions, Sam. If you’re not careful, you will end up alone.”
“Can we please forget about Eli for now and focus on Mack?”
For the rest of the drive to Charleston, Jackie and Sam spoke in hushed tones, so Lovie couldn’t overhear them discuss the complications of Mack’s condition and the chances of his survival. Being married to a cardiologist had its benefits. Sam marveled at how much her sister knew about the risks associated with open-heart surgery and the recovery times for someone Mack’s age.
Slippery roads doubled the time it normally took them to drive to Charleston. Bill had texted Jackie detailed directions on where to go once they arrived at the Heart and Vascular Center. They turned the SUV over to the valet parking attendant and entered the building. A security guard pointed them to the nearly empty surgery waiting room where they checked in with the receptionist before making themselves comfortable in a group of oversized chairs clustered around a square coffee table.
“Should I go find us some coffee?” Annie offered. “I think we’re in for a long night.”
“That’d be great, Annie.” Jackie removed several bills from her wallet. “Get some sandwiches and snacks too, if you can carry it all.”
While Annie was gone in search of the cafeteria, a nurse—her hair pulled into a severe bun with the facial expression to match it—came to the waiting room to brief them. According to the nurse, the surgery team had whisked Mack into the operating room as soon as they got him prepped.
“He’s been in the OR for about thirty minutes now. You can expect the operation to take up to six hours.” After promising to update them periodically, the nurse disappeared once again behind the closed double doors.
Lovie got up and began pacing the floor, her shoulders slumped, her hands twisting in knots. “I don’t understand why I can’t see him.”
“He’s in surgery, Mom, in the operating room,” Jackie said. “The doctors and nurses are taking good care of him. Mack is a fighter. He will make it through this just fine.”
Sam took Lovie by the arm and led her back to her chair. “Annie will be back in a minute with sandwiches. I bet you’re starving. You didn’t eat any dinner tonight, did you?”
“How can I possibly think about eating, knowing what they are doing to Mack in there?” Lovie pointed at the double doors.
“It’s important that you keep up your strength,” Jackie said. “Mack is going to need your help when he gets out of the hospital. Who will take care of him if you get sick?”
Annie returned with a turkey sandwich, chips, and coffee for each of them. Scooting her chair closer to Lovie, she helped her old friend unwrap the plastic from her sandwich and pour cream into her coffee.
Sam shot her sister a look. Is this kid for real?
Sam and Jackie did their best to direct the conversation away from Mack’s surgery while they ate. But Lovie was too distraught, dazed, and confused to talk lucidly about anything. Finally, frustrated, Jackie removed a pill bottle from her bag, broke a white tablet in half, and insisted their mother take it. “Xanax,” she mouthed to Sam.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Do you always carry around a supply of narcotics?” she whispered.
“I have anxiety, Sam. After what I’ve been through the past year with my husband, that shouldn’t surprise you.” She dropped the pill bottle back in her bag. “Besides, Xanax is not a narcotic. It’s a carefully controlled substance.”
“Which is all the more reason we shouldn’t be giving it to our mother without her doctor’s approval.”
The nurse returned around midnight, reporting that everything was going smoothl
y in the operating room. The others nodded off sometime later. But Sam, no matter what she tried, couldn’t get comfortable enough to fall asleep. She was dozing when she heard Annie stir sometime around four. Through a cracked eyelid, Sam watched the girl leave the waiting room.
Curious, and a tad suspicious, Sam got up and followed her. Her unease mounted as Annie bypassed the ladies’ room and exited the front of the building. Careful to keep her distance, she walked as quietly as she could manage in her rubber-soled Sperrys. She trailed Annie down Doughty Street and around the curve onto Jonathan Lucas. Her concern escalated into full-fledged alarm when Annie entered the Hollings Cancer Center. When Annie got on the elevator, Sam waited on the ground floor, watching until the signal light indicated the elevator had stopped on the third floor. To save time, she opted to take the stairs. Bolting up three flights, she arrived on the third floor in time to catch a glimpse of Annie’s green work shirt as she was disappearing through double doors marked ICU. Sam punched in the button on the wall that released the lock and opened the doors. She spotted Annie down the hall, speaking to a petite brunette at the nurses’ station. Sam hid behind a tall metal cart, her back pressed against the wall, watching and waiting until Annie crossed the hall and entered one of the patient’s rooms. She allowed five excruciatingly slow minutes to pass before she followed her.
In all the twenty years since she’d last seen him, Sam had not forgotten the face of the man she’d once planned to marry, the man who’d broken her heart. She would have recognized Allen anywhere despite his bald head, sunken cheeks, and skin the color of an overripe banana. Once so handsome and alive, the man lying in the bed in front of her reminded Sam of a baby bird.
What the hell is Annie doing visiting Jamie’s father?
Of course. The eyes. Sam had never noticed it before, but she’d sensed it many times. And it wasn’t just Sam. Her whole family had commented on that odd feeling of familiarity, like they’d known Annie all her life when they’d only just met her. The shape of the eyes was the same—wide set and upturned—but Annie’s were more the color of dark chocolate whereas Jamie’s were as black as soot. Like his father’s. Like their father’s.
Sam stared first at Allen, then at Annie. “Which one of you wants to explain what’s going on here?”
Allen’s lips spread into a smile, revealing teeth stained and rotting from chewing tobacco. “It’s good to see you, Sam. You’re looking well.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about you.” Sam smacked herself in the forehead. “God! How could I have been so stupid?” She glared at Annie. “You’ve been lying to us all this time, living in my sister’s guest house, babysitting for my niece, working in my place of business. It wasn’t a coincidence that you”—she pointed at Annie—“showed up out of the blue on our doorstep. Because you”—she jabbed a finger in Allen’s direction—“sent her there to find us. You need something don’t you, a kidney or bone marrow?”
The guilty look on Allen’s and Annie’s faces told Sam everything she needed to know.
“Well, you won’t get it. At least not from my son. You’re not getting one drop of Jamie’s blood. You gave up all rights to his body parts when you abandoned us twenty years ago.”
Fury raged through her body, threatening to blow her mind to pieces. Her chest tightened and her throat constricted. She needed air and fast. She dashed out of the room, shot past the nurses’ station, and flew down the hall, then the stairs, and out of the building. Gripping her purse to her chest, blinded by tears, she ran as fast as she could down the deserted dark sidewalks. She ran until her lungs ached and legs finally gave out. She slowed to a walk, gasping for air. First Eli and their breakup followed by the hostage situation. Then Mack. Now Allen. Four major crises in less than a week. Too much for an alcoholic to face without comfort from a bottle.
She looked around, surprised to find herself surrounded by the stately buildings of the College of Charleston. There did not appear to be a bar or restaurant nearby, at least not that she could see. Everything was closed at that hour, anyway. And it was still dark outside. She roamed the downtown streets of Charleston, block after block with no set direction in mind. When she passed a bum on one of the street corners, she considered asking him for a sip, but that seemed desperate, even despite her unbearable craving.
Where was Annie’s mother in all this? The woman who’d beaten Sam out of the job as Allen’s wife. Sam thought back to the night of Faith’s wedding. “I’m from Florida,” Annie had said. “My mom is a maid at a seaside motel and my father works in construction, but he’s been out of a job for going on three years.” All lies. Except the one about Allen being currently out of work. That much was obvious.
All these years she’d wondered what had happened to him, where he lived, whether he still worked as a fisherman. He’d never tried to contact her, and she had no idea how to get in touch with him. Not that she’d ever wanted to. He’d made his feelings for her clear when he left her at the altar to raise their child on her own. There’d been times when she’d worried about how she’d track Allen down if Jamie became ill and needed stem cells or an organ donation. How ironic. No way in hell would she let her son donate any of his precious body parts to a man who had never so much as sent him a birthday card.
What was so special about Annie’s mother that Allen would choose to marry her? How was it fair that Annie had been raised by her father when Jamie had spent every day of his life wishing he knew his? The old hurt, the sense of loss that had consumed her for years after Allen left, came rushing back. She couldn’t bear the pain, not after breaking up with Eli and the threat of losing Mack.
When the sky grew pink over the houses and buildings of downtown Charleston, she entered the first establishment she could find that served breakfast and booze. She slid onto a stool at the empty bar and ordered a coffee and a double shot of whiskey. She drank the shot in one gulp and ordered another. Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket with an incoming text, and she realized she had seven missed calls from Jackie.
Sam read the text from her sister: “Where are you? Great news! Mack made it through surgery. The doctor says he’s going to be fine. He’s still in recovery. Mom has gone back to be with him now. I assume you’ve gone out for breakfast. Please bring us some.”
Sam didn’t have the strength to explain the situation to Jackie. She kicked back the second shot and ordered a third. Another text came in from her sister fifteen minutes later: “You’re scaring me, Sam. Did something happen? Please let me know you’re okay.”
As much as Sam wanted to keep Allen’s condition a secret from Jamie, she knew Annie wouldn’t let that happen. She’d recognized the determined set of the girl’s jaw—the same stubborn willpower she’d seen on her own son’s face many times. Annie aimed to get whatever her father needed to keep him alive.
She texted back: “Ask Annie.” And then powered off her phone.
Nineteen
Jackie
Jackie slid her phone back in her oversized black bag and turned to face Annie who was sitting next to her. “What’s going on with Sam? She said you would know.”
The color drained from Annie’s face. “So she told you.”
“She didn’t give me any details. She just said to ask you.”
“I haven’t been completely truthful with you about who I am.” Annie slumped back against her chair. “My last name isn’t Dawn. It’s Bethune. Allen is my father. And he’s here.” Annie aimed her thumb over her shoulder. “A block over at the cancer center. Sam followed me there earlier when I went to see him.”
“Allen Bethune… You mean Jamie’s father?”
Biting her lip, Annie nodded and looked away.
Jackie’s mind raced as she considered Annie’s revelation. “Which makes Jamie your half brother. Which makes everything you told us about hitching a ride with the family with the cute baby a lie. You came to Prospect with a specific agenda in mind.”
“I came to Prospect t
o meet Jamie.”
Jackie sprang to her feet and began pacing back and forth. For the past hour, a steady flow of people had filed into the waiting room to await the outcome of their loved one’s surgery. The room was already full, but people continued to arrive. Jackie sat back down, lowering her voice. “You tricked us. You led us to believe that you are destitute, that you live in Florida with your family, when all this time you’ve been on a mission. What exactly is it that you need?”
“Part of Jamie’s liver,” Annie said without hesitation.
“Whoa,” Jackie said, exhaling loudly. “I can only imagine how Sam responded to that.”
“She seemed pretty upset. I didn’t mean to hurt her, Miss Jackie. You’ve gotta believe me. Sam has been nothing but kind to me. This isn’t about her. This is about me trying to save my father’s life. Unfortunately, I don’t think she sees it that way.”
“She’s very protective of her son. But I’m sure you already figured that out for yourself.”
“Yes, ma’am. This hasn’t been easy for me, you know. Especially once I started to get to know your family. I’m sorry for taking advantage of you. You’re all so nice. You’re lucky to have each other. My daddy is the only family I have.”
Jackie’s head jerked up. “Where’s your mother? I take it she’s not working as a maid in a motel in Florida”
“No, ma’am. My mama took off when I was a baby. I haven’t seen her since.” Annie looked Jackie straight in the eye. “Go ahead and say it. My father deserved it after what he did to Sam.”
“You know about what happened? About what Allen did to Sam?”
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