Sins of the Father (California Dreaming Book 2)

by Stacey Johnston

  When we arrive at New York Methodist, I’m practically pushed out of the ambulance, so that they can get Sherlyn inside. Rushing us through emergency, a nurse sits me in a waiting room, while they continue on with my girl. I barely hear a word the nurse says as she hands me a cup of water.

  “Don’t worry son,” she consoles. “They will do everything they can to help her.”

  I’m praying that is true, I don’t want to think about what my life would be like without her in it.

  “Stephen. Stephen, wake up dude.”

  Jolting upright, I’m startled by someone calling my name. Finding my bearings, I realize that I am still in the waiting room. Fuck! When did I doze off? Moreover, how long was I asleep?

  “Are you okay, man?” Luke asks me, concern written over his face.

  “Give me a minute, Luke.” I blurt out. Needing to clear my head, I run my hands over my face. “How long have I been asleep?” I ask.

  “Not long,” he quickly counters. “The nurse over there said you dozed off about twenty minutes ago. She put the blanket over you because you were shivering.”

  Shit, I hadn’t even noticed the blanket wrapped around my shoulders, until he mentioned it. Looking at the clock, I realize that Sheri has been in surgery now for almost three hours. If they have only just arrived, what took them so long to get here? I would have thought that at least Soph would have been here straight away. The thought that they don’t really care enough pisses me off.

  “Where the hell have you all been? She has been in there for over three hours now.” I snap at him bitterly.

  “Calm yourself dick, we have been fighting with the staff to get up here. The only reason we are here now is Ant. If it weren’t for him, we would still be sitting in emergency.”

  Okay, now I feel like an ass. Shrinking back down, I should have known, there would have to be a good reason keeping them away.

  “Have you heard anything yet?” A distraught Sophie asks. She has just sat down next to me, Ben taking his stance behind her.

  “No, nothing yet,” I tell her, shaking my head.

  When she buries her head in her hands, I put my arm around her to pull her close. She is trembling, her sobbing reaching a point where her body starts to shake.

  Looking over at the nursing station, Ant, and Sarah are in deep discussion with the nurse. The look on Ant’s face reminds me of pure anger; the veins in his neck are bulging. I haven’t seen him this wired since he helped us with our little problem.

  “Do we know what the hell is going on yet?” I calmly, direct at Soph.

  Sitting up, she composes herself. Moving out of my embrace, she looks at me, teardrops glistening at the sides of her eyes.

  “Dad thinks it’s connected to the death of her father. He recognized someone at the game. An old acquaintance of Sherlyn’s father. He doesn’t believe this was a random attack. The gunman had a silencer on the piece he shot her with. He was confident enough, shooting her in a public place.”

  What. The. Fuck! What could he possibly want with Sheri? She was never associated with her father’s secret life. He kept her separate from that side of him. I don’t understand why anyone would want to harm her, or why now.

  The hands on the clock above me have been moving so fucking slowly, making the wait excruciating. We have all, been sitting in this tiny waiting room for nearly seven hours. There has been nothing but quietness, with the exception of the odd sniffle from Sophie on Ben’s lap. The mood of the room has been bleak, and depressive. When Kyle, Luke, Ben, and Sophie joined me, just over three hours ago, it felt like the walls were starting to close in on me. Add Anthony and Sarah’s arrival and it was as if I was suffocating.

  Noise over by the door grabs my attention. Lifting my head briefly, I can see that Hawke, Sean, Tatum and Sumner have now joined us. I don’t think we could fit anyone else into this room if we tried.

  I know something is wrong by the way Hawke leads Ant aside to talk to him. I want to listen, but it’s obvious they don’t want to be overheard. I watch as Tatum and Sumner move toward Sophie, sitting on the floor in front of her. Sean, on the other hand, hangs close to Hawke, and his father, as if he is avoiding the rest of us. I’d say from the hard look on his face, that I was right when I said he wanted Sheri, and he is obviously not happy that she is with me.

  All I have managed to find out is that the gunman they are chasing is a known associate of Sherlyn’s father, who could be looking for retribution. I don’t understand what they want with Sheri, it’s something that I have been going over and over in my head since the others arrived. There had been no visible signs that she was a target or what they would gain from her death. Surely, there is a God, and he wouldn’t be that fucking cruel to take her away from me after everything else he has put me through.

  When the door opens and the doctor walks in, I jump up, rushing over to him. “Anthony Valentine?” he queries as I approach him.

  Cocking his eyebrow at me, Anthony clears his throat and speaks up from behind me.

  “That would be me.” He rests his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it in comfort.

  “This young man is her boyfriend.” Lifting his hand and moving beside me, he motions for the doctor to continue.

  “Ah, okay,” he starts.

  “I’m here to tell you that your daughter is out of surgery, but she is in a critical condition. It’s now just a waiting game to see how her body responds. The bullet entered through the top of her right hip, causing a lot of damage to her mid-section. I won’t lie; it was a mess in there, which is what took us so long. We had to remove the bullet from her spleen, but it will still be touch and go for the next forty-eight hours.”

  She’s alive, that’s all that matters.

  Everything else from that moment on becomes a blur. I just nod as we are told that they have placed Sheri in ICU. The doctor informs us that they will only allow two of us in to see her at a time. This could cause a problem, as I am not going to want to leave her side. Delicate arms wrap around me, and a soft body presses into my back. Knowing, that the only person game enough to get this close to me is Soph, I cross my arms over hers, and hug her to me tightly. Closing my eyes briefly, I tilt my head back to rest on hers, soaking up the temporary comfort she is offering to me. When I release her, she moves to my front to place her hand on my cheek. Her eyes are swollen with tears, but right at this moment, her only concern is me. I think that’s what we all love about that girl; she gives her all to everyone else, regardless of how much she is hurting.

  “She is resilient, Stephen. She has battled against fate all her life and conquered. This will be no exception.”

  That girl really does have a way with words. I can do nothing more than nod, as Ben pulls her into his embrace to lead her toward her parents. When Luke puts his arm over my shoulder, it startles me, causing me to look in his direction. His face, full of emotion as he tilts his chin toward the door, indicating that it is time to go.

  When we reach Sherlyn’s room, we could see her through the glass window, from the hallway. There were so many of us crammed into that hallway that we made it hard for the doctors, and nurses to pass by. Not that anyone cared, and god help anyone who tried to move us. It was the sight of her, hooked up to dozens of tubes, and cables that halted us in our tracks. Her skin was so pale, and she looked lifeless, just lying there on that hospital bed.

  I overheard the doctor mentioning to Ant, that, they had to put her in an induced coma, to allow her body a chance to heal. This meant she was intubated, hooked up to a ventilator so it could breathe for her. Her chest was rising, and falling with each breath, which should have been reassuring, but it was a false impression. It wasn’t a trustworthy indication of how she was doing. They had shut down her body, to allow it time, to recover in peace, the nurse told me.

  What does that mean anyway? If her organs aren’t working, surely that would mean that she is dead. I don’t understand.

  They have cables to monitor her vitals
attached all over her body. I don’t get why they are needed if they are artificially keeping her alive with machines. What is the fucking point of that?

  My poor dream girl has tubes coming out of her body, from somewhere, draining the fluid, and blood into bags hanging from the side of her bed. Clenching my fists beside me, there is too much anger building inside of me. Why the fuck would anyone do this to her? She’s an innocent, a girl, with no connection to the life her father was living. What did she ever do to be lying like this, barely clinging to life?

  I just want to wrap my hands around his throat, and strangle the life out of the man that did this. He would want to hope that Anthony’s team get to him before I do. Looking around, each, and every one of our faces, has had the color drained from it. Standing deathly still, no one can believe what he or she are seeing. Both the girls are being comforted, tears streaming from their eyes, and the boys look like they are barely holding it together. There are tears running down my cheek, but I don’t care. All I want to do, is get into that room so that I can sit beside her, and hold her delicate hand, but they won’t let us yet. The doctor we spoke to earlier is in the room, checking her over while we watch from behind this pane of glass.

  When he finally comes to the door, he gestures for Sarah and Anthony to go in. Thinking they are her parents, he is allowing them first access to her. Both of them had despondent looks upon their faces, Sarah’s eyes swollen with the tears she had been shedding while we were waiting. With slumped shoulders, they stand beside her bed. Anthony runs his hand across her forehead, gently moving the hair away from her eyes. He looks like he is barely holding it together, and it has me wondering if this is how he felt, when his own wife, and daughter were in the hospital.

  Gripping his arm around Sarah’s shoulders, he pulls her into his embrace, kissing her on the top of her head as she breaks down. Her whole body starts shaking uncontrollably, her tears tumble freely. Her crying has an adverse effect on Sophie and Sumner as they both break down behind me as well. It’s a surreal sight, one that I don’t know how to interpret. I’m itching to get in there; I need to be by her side. I don’t know how much longer I can just stand here watching from behind a wall of glass.

  To say I’m in a state of despair would be an understatement. My whole body feels heavy; there is a weight on my shoulders that I cannot shift. When Sarah and Anthony turn to leave, I see their faces and my breathing hitches. They look like deathly white, their eyes puffy from crying.

  My body became numb, even the touch of Sarah’s hand on my forearm went unnoticed until she spoke. “It’s your turn, darling. You need to be in there with her, Stephen. Your face will be the only one she will want to see when she wakes up.”

  Snapping out of my daze, I look into her swollen red eyes, and nod. I don’t have any words to offer as a response, and even if I did, I don’t think I could get them out right, anyway.

  Moving into the room, I take the seat beside the bed, and grab her hand. Her hands are so cold, there is no life to her touch, and it scares me. Her skin is too pale; the color has drained from her completely.

  I jump when a small hand touches my shoulder, readjusting myself in my seat I look up to see Sophie standing beside me. Her tears are still streaming down her face, but she makes no attempt to swipe at them. The look of devastation on her face is evident, as if she is in disbelief that what she is witnessing is actually true.

  I wish this were all a dream that I could wake up from, but the hand I am firmly gripping tells me otherwise.

  “How long will you keep her like this?” I ask the doctor, as he gently lifts the sheet to check the tubing coming out of her stomach once more.

  “We keep her induced like this for forty-eight hours, to give her the best chance and then it will be up to her.” He replies, as he continues what he is doing.

  Not once did he look up at me when he spoke, he just carried on checking her over.

  “We will continue to drain the excess fluids from her body for tonight and I will run some more tests tomorrow to see how she is progressing.”

  When he finally looks up at me, I notice the weariness in his eyes. I had overlooked the fact that even after working on Sherlyn for over seven hours, he was still here. So here he was, standing before me, leaning over her, monitoring, and making sure that nothing goes wrong. I should really cut him a bit more slack.

  “Thank you for everything.” I tell him softly, my voice barely audible. He simply glances over at me and nods his head, before he turns and walks out the door.

  One by one, the stream of visitors has come, and gone from Sherlyn’s room. There have been no changes overnight, and the only movement I have made was to the bathroom. Sarah has brought me in some food and a drink, because I refuse to leave her side. I’m tired; every muscle in this damn body of mine feeling like it is on fire. I’m hurting, but it doesn’t matter, because I don’t hurt anywhere near as much, as this beautiful girl laying in front of me does. I have no reason to complain. The doctor stopped in briefly prior to going home to check on her. He said there would be no indication on whether she would pull through until he could run tests on her this morning. Seeing as though there was nothing more he could do, he headed home, leaving me alone with my beautiful girl.

  “Stephen,” a gentle voice calls to me.

  No mom, I’m not ready to get up.

  “Stephen, please wake up, darling.” The beautiful sweet voice calls out again. Stirring, I am wondering why my mom has woken me, until I start to notice my surroundings and remember where I am.

  “Huh?” I grunt. Lifting my head fully I see Sarah standing over Sherlyn on the other side of her bed.

  “You need to go home and rest. Anthony will take you back to our house for a shower, a meal, and some sleep. Please go with him.”

  Not fully with it, I just stare at her. Putting her hand over mine, she gently smiles at me.

  “I’m not taking no for an answer. The doctor has phoned to say he will be back in a couple of hours and they will do their tests then. He wants our girl to rest for as long as possible. You have time to freshen up. Go.”

  Such a demanding woman, Soph’s mom, but it’s not like I could resist. Not knowing what to say, I just nod. Rising, I kiss Sherlyn on the forehead, whispering that I won’t be long, and follow Anthony out of the room.

  When my alarm on my phone goes off, I jump. Shit, it only feels like I have just gotten to sleep. After arriving here with Anthony, he left me to shower and clean up. We hadn’t intended being here for this long, so I had nothing to change into. Sean surprised me by offering to lend me something, which I gratefully took.

  “Calm down,” a voice tells me. Looking around, I see none other than Sean sitting on the lounge chair across from me.

  “Mom has not long called. The doctor has run his tests but is waiting for the results before waking Sherlyn. We have time.”

  His voice surprises me because it’s a lot harder than I recall. This isn’t the Sean I remember; the one sitting across from me is a darker version, void of all emotion.

  “Thank you,” is all I can muster in return.

  “You hungry?” he asks as he rises from his chair.

  “Starved.” I acknowledge rising myself to follow him into the kitchen.

  Making my way to the stool, Sean places a plate in front of me and pulls out a dish from the oven. This boy is full of surprises today.

  “Don’t give me that look, I’m just reheating leftovers,” he tells me, rolling his eyes.

  Chuckling I reach over and grab the ladle of out his hand to start dishing up my plate. I wasn’t hungry until he opened the lid, now my mouth is watering and my stomach is starting to grumble. Scooping a hefty serving, we eat in silence. I don’t know if the uncomfortableness we are both feeling, is because of the pretty girl between us or not, but it is becoming unsettling.

  One of us needs to clear the air.

  “Is it always going to be like this between us now?” I ask as he shoves
another spoonful of chicken into his mouth.

  Sighing, he places his spoon back down and rubs his temple. Swallowing, he looks up at me. His expression suddenly sullen.

  “I can’t help the way I feel, Stephen,” Sean concedes, pinching the bridge of his nose. I can’t help but notice how tired he looks as he keeps talking.

  “You are like a brother to me, but she makes me want to live, and now that I can’t have that, I’m lost. It kills me watching you two together, but in time, I know that will pass. So, the answer to your question is no. It won’t always be like this.”

  Nodding, I acknowledge his response, but I have nothing to offer in return. Picking his plate up, his places it in the dishwasher before returning the remaining leftovers back to the fridge. As he makes his way to his room, he tells me his father will be back soon and then he is gone. I will take the fact he has retreated to his bedroom as his way of telling me, he isn’t returning to the hospital with us. Finishing my food, I place my plate in the dishwasher alongside Sean’s and take my seat back on the lounge suite to wait for Anthony to return.

  Upon our arrival at the hospital, Anthony’s phone buzzes. Excusing himself, he moves off to the side to take the call, leaving me to make my way to Sheri’s room. I arrive just as the doctor arrives, which thankfully should mean I am in time for them to wake her up. From the hallway, I can see Ben and Sophie sitting beside her bed, so I wonder down to where Sarah is speaking with a nurse.

  “We really need to be able to have more people in the room with her.” I hear her telling the nurse.

  Unfortunately, for Sarah, the nurse isn’t budging.

  “Rules are rules, Mrs. Valentine. Only two visitors at a time. I’m sorry.”