by RM Johnson
“Alizé told me everything that happened. I know you’re not to blame for this.” Livvy looked up into Rafe’s eyes. “I know now that I was wrong about that.”
Rafe stood, glad that she had finally came to that conclusion, but Henny was dead. It was too fucking late now.
“I want to know if you can forgive me.”
“Whatever,” Rafe said, standing, anger thick in his voice.
“I don’t understand that, Raphiel. I don’t understand what whatever means,” Livvy said, looking up at him above her.
“Whatever means it don’t make no difference now if I forgive you or not. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“You’re wrong about that. It matters a lot.”
“What are you talking about?” Rafe said.
“Wait here a minute.” Livvy stood from the sofa and stepped out of the room. When she came back, she grabbed Rafe’s hand, intertwined her fingers with his.
“I want you to come with me,” she said.
Rafe felt he had no choice but to follow her. She led him down the hallway. There was a nurse standing outside another door.
“Go right in,” the nurse said, and then she smiled at Rafe. Or did he imagine that?
“What is this, Ms. Rodgers? Where you taking me?” he asked.
They stopped just outside another door, inside the room they had just walked into.
“Raphiel,” Livvy said, letting go of him, reaching up, taking his face in her hands. “I’m sorry for those things I said to you. I didn’t know you. I had no right. And I should’ve known that if my daughter trusted herself enough to love you, then I should’ve trusted her.” A tear came to Livvy’s eye, streaming down her cheek. “Unlike her mother, she obviously knows a good man when she sees one,” she said, and chuckled a little. “You are a good man, Raphiel. When Alizé told you Henny was in trouble, you went to try and save her. And when you saw that she had been shot, you called the paramedics, and they came. And if it had been only minutes later …” Rafe could feel Livvy’s palms trembling on his face now, see more tears coming to her eyes, “… then they wouldn’t have been able to save her.”
Hold it, Rafe thought.
“But they were in time.”
“No. What are you talking about?”
“I’m saying that my baby is alive.” Livvy smiled through her tears.
“No,” Rafe said, pushing her hands away from his face, stepping back from her. “I saw her there. She was dead. I listened to her heart, checked her pulse, and there wasn’t one! She was dead, so why you tellin’—”
“Her heart was beating, but it was so faint because she was in shock. They rushed her to surgery and were able to save her. Because of you.”
Rafe shook his head, tried to hide his face, because he felt the tears coming. “She’s alive?” he asked, incredulous.
“Because of you. And that’s why I need for you to forgive me. I want to know you. I want to be friends with the man that my daughter is in love with. Can that happen, Raphiel?”
“Yes,” Rafe said, the tears pouring freely down his face now. “Can I see her? I want to see her.”
“Of course, you can,” Livvy said, grabbing his hand again, pulling the door open. “She’s been waiting for you.”
RAFE walked into the room and immediately wanted to turn around. She was alive her mother said, but she didn’t look like it. All those machines beeping around her head, the tubes attached to her, pumping fluid in or draining it out.
He took steps closer to the bed. Alizé was on the other side, holding one of her sister’s hands. She was crying, but a smile was on her face.
Alizé was torn up over this, was willing to die when she thought Henny was dead. She was on the wrong track, but something told Rafe that this event would change everything for her, that she would do better because now she knew how fragile life was.
Rafe looked to the other side of the room, saw Wade there, the old guy who was so understanding of everything Rafe was going through. He was happy for Wade. He liked him. He was a good man, and felt he and Henny’s mother would have a good future together. Rafe just wished he could’ve said the same for himself and Henny.
After another reluctant step forward, Rafe stood directly over Henny. The blankets were pulled all the way up to her neck. He knew that if he pulled them down, he would see what he had seen the last time he was with Henny—the bullet wounds, the blood that had covered her. It was his fault. All of that. He knew he had that sordid past, that past that could come back to the present, threaten him or anyone near him, but he let Henny get involved with him anyway.
When he saw her body there on the pavement, when Rafe knew that she was dead, he tried to blame it on Ally, but it wasn’t her fault. If Henny had died, it would’ve been his fault. It would’ve been his doing, and her mother was right. He didn’t deserve her. He should walk away, and he knew it. There was just one thing stopping him: he loved her too much.
Rafe lowered himself over Henny. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful, almost dead, but he told himself he wouldn’t think that.
“Hennesey,” he whispered softly, and when she didn’t respond, he looked up at Ally, then to her mother, worry on his face.
They both held fragile smiles on their lips, as if knowing all was still well.
He turned back to Henny, spoke her name again, a little louder this time. She stirred the slightest bit, her eyes slowly opening. Upon seeing his face, something near a smile flickered.
“Hennesey, I love you,” Rafe said softly, a tear spilling from his face. “But I’ll leave if you want me to. I love you, but I don’t deserve you, and I’ll leave if you want me to.”
It took Henny a moment to respond, a look of disappointment and pain appearing on her face,
“What happened is over,” Henny said, her voice raspy, “But I’m alive, and I love you. We can still make this happen if you want to,”
Rafe felt Livvy, Ally, and Wade moving closer to the bed, circling around him as if so much depended on his answer, the answer that he didn’t have to think twice about. He looked in their faces, felt their support for him, and knew everything would be all right,
“Of course, we can make it happen. Because I love you too, Hennesey,” Rafe kissed her softly on her forehead, “I love you too,”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RM Johnson is the author of Love Frustration, The Harris Men, Father Found, and the #1 Essence bestseller The Harris Family. He lives in Chicago.