Demetri swore violently as Jaymeson finally sagged against him and stopped hitting things. As it was, his knuckles were already starting to bleed from hitting the granite.

“I’ll drive him.” Demetri sighed and let go of Jaymeson, grabbing the keys to the SUV. “Come on.”

Alyssa put her arm around Jaymeson as they walked out of the house, leaving Nat and me in complete shock.

“We need to be there for him.” I didn’t want to change the subject. I didn’t even want to go. How selfish did that make me? All I wanted was to fix this chasm between Nat and me.

She nodded and walked toward the stairs. “Just let me shower really quick and we can go, I’ll be five minutes.”

Our eyes locked — so many things were unspoken — so many things needed to be said. I nodded once and opened my mouth but again nothing came. She sighed heavily and walked up the stairs, leaving me alone with my thoughts and a blood-stained counter top, wondering how the hell things had gotten so messed up.

Chapter Thirty-two

Demetri

My hands were shaking as I put the car into drive and pulled out toward the hospital. Alyssa needed to run home and change so she was going to meet us there.

Weird how the last time I was at the hospital I was put into a coma in order to heal from all of my injuries from my self-inflicted car accident.

Things had changed a lot since a year ago. Was this what Alec felt like when he had driven to the hospital with Nat? As if every bone in his body was strung so tight that at any moment he would snap? I mean, I may have been pissed at April still, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still my mom. My real mom.

And she just overdosed on pills.

Maybe I got my problem with addiction from her.

Jaymeson alternated between cursing and tapping his phone against his leg. “I need to call him.”

“Who?” I turned down the street and sped toward the hospital, praying to God I could concentrate enough on the road and on Jaymeson to not get us into an accident.

“My father. I have to call him.”

The car slowed to a stop at the light. I turned to face him. His eyes welled with unshed tears. “I can’t. I just… I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I hate him. I hate what he’s done to her. She was more of a mom to me than he was a father. He did this.”

The light turned green. A tense silence blanketed over the car. The minute I pulled into the hospital parking lot I turned toward him and held out my hand. “Give me the phone.”

“What? Why?”

“You hate him. I don’t. He could be the freaking President and I’d still tell him he was a grade A a**hole if that made you feel better — you’re right. Maybe I didn’t cause this, but apparently he did. And he needs to know.”

Jaymeson gave a jerky nod and handed me the phone.

“It’s under Bastard,” he mumbled as I scrolled through the contacts.

I smirked at that. We were more alike than he’d care to admit.

I found his number and dialed it. He answered in two rings. “What the hell, Jaymeson, you know not to call me when I’m in production!”

I laughed. “Wow, you really are a bastard.”

“Who the hell is this?”

“God. He says repent or go to hell.”

“Very funny.”

“I thought so.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay, I just thought you may want to know that your ex-wife is currently in the emergency room. We aren’t sure if she’s going to make it, and her dying wish was for us to order a hit on you, so if you see any sketchy hooded people following you around, well, you know why. Have a good day!”

“Wait!” His voice was raspy on the other end as if he’d just choked on a potato chip and needed water. “April? Accident? What happened? Who the hell are you? Where’s Jaymeson? Is Jaymeson all right? I need him for this movie!”

“Whoa.” I cursed into the phone. “You know what? Nevermind. We’re in Seaside, Oregon, but you may as well go to hell.”

I hung up the phone.

Jaymeson stared at me blankly. “I don’t know what to say.”

“And I thought Angelica was the anti-Christ.”

This earned at least a small smirk from Jaymeson as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

It was an eerie out-of-body experience — to just discover the person that gave birth to you, only to deal with the fear and possibility that she might be taken from you all over again. I wasn’t really sure I knew what I felt. I was angry, sad, confused… I was so many things. It didn’t help that my body felt so freaking numb with each step I took, as if someone had cut open my legs and placed sand inside every tiny crevice until I was paralyzed.

Jaymeson walked to the triage station and asked about his mom.

I waited in the background and looked around. The smell was the same. It still smelled like death — I’d never told anyone about the nightmares I’d had while I’d been here.

I could have sworn I came face to face with the devil in my operating room. Nat’s dad, the surgeon who operated, said it was probably the shock of the accident mixed with the drugs.

I’d nodded my head and shrugged it off because that’s what I did. I shrugged things off and eventually everything was okay.

Clearly I wasn’t over everything. My wobbly legs couldn’t take it anymore. I found a seat and collapsed into it, covering my face with my hands. What was wrong with me? My real mom was in the emergency room and all I could think about was myself. I’d always hated hospitals ever since I was a little kid. I hated sick people — damn, I even hated the smell of bandages.

I lifted my eyes to see the people’s faces. The nurses walking briskly up and down the halls. The doctors, the flowers — the antiseptic.

It felt like my ears were stuffed with cotton as I heard footsteps clicking down the large hall. I looked up and came face to face with Paul, Nat’s dad, and I was transported.

Back to when I was a little kid.

When my dad — the only dad I’d ever known — was dying of cancer.

“Alec, he’s so young, younger than you,” Dad rasped. “You have to make sure he’s taken care of. He’s your brother.”

“I will, Dad. I promise.” Even at such a young age Alec was strong, immovable, forced to grow up way before his time.

Dad coughed. “Son, he isn’t… he’s family, but he’s… he’s adopted. Do you know what that means?”

Alec was silent for a moment and then he said, “Yes, but he’s still my brother.”

“He’s still my son.” Dad sighed loud enough for me to hear the intense struggle it was for him to breathe in and out. “You need to tell him, Alec. When the time is right. When he’s ready to hear it, you need to tell him who she is.”

I peeked around the corner at Alec and my dad.

Tears streamed down his face as Alec took a crumpled piece of paper into his hands and stuffed it into his pocket. “But, Dad… when you’re gone… he’s all I have left. I don’t have anyone.”

“Son.” Dad braced Alec’s shoulders with his large hands. “People always say blood is thicker than anything. That saying means family is thicker than anything in this world. When things crumble around you, you’ll still have Demetri. He may be adopted, from a different mother, but he’s yours, he’s ours, he’s family. I’m leaving him in your care.”

“I can take care of him.” Alec raised his eyes to meet my dad’s and crossed his heart. “I swear, Dad. I swear. If I take care of him, does that mean you’ll live? If I promise right now, will God save you?”

“Son, I want you to listen.” He pulled Alec closer to him and kissed his forehead. “God saved me the moment he gave me you and your brother. He saved me when he gave me such special moments with you two. He may not save this cancer-filled body now — but you better believe God saves souls — and when I leave you — my presence will always stay. Right here.” He pointed to Alec’s chest. “Do you believe me?”

“Yes, Dad.” Tears streamed down Alec’s face. “I believe you. And I swear I’ll never let anything happen to him. I swear it.”

“I know.”

“Demetri? Demetri, are you okay?” Dr. Murray jolted me out of my memory — one I’d repressed for half my life. It was like I couldn’t breathe — when Alec had told me, I had a vague memory of Dad saying adopted, but I hadn’t remembered the actual conversation until right now.

I nodded but felt like air couldn’t get into my lungs.

“Demetri.” Dr. Murray gently put his hand on my shoulder and instructed me to breathe.

I wanted to say, Not helping, Doc, not helping. What came out was some sort of wheeze, and then I saw April.

My remaining family.

She was on a stretcher with a whole bunch of tubes hooked up to her. Her eyes were closed. Jaymeson was shouting for them to hurry as they rushed her into one of the operating rooms. I looked frantically to Dr. Murray. He nodded once and ran toward the closing doors, leaving me once again alone in the hallway.

Until someone put his hand on my shoulder.

I looked up into Jaymeson’s tear-filled eyes, not knowing what to do. Thankfully, he did. In an instant he had me in a tight hug.

“Brothers?” he asked shakily.

I pulled away from him and laughed awkwardly. “Always wanted more than one.”

Chapter Thirty-three

Alec

I checked my cell phone. Nat was taking way longer than the five minutes she said she would. Not that I minded, usually the girl got ready really fast.

Deciding to check on her, I took the steps two at a time and knocked on her bedroom door. The shower was still running. “Nat?”

I pushed open the door and went over to the bathroom.

Steam barreled out of the door that was slightly ajar. I knocked again but no answer. She was probably lost in thought. After one more knock I finally opened the door — only to find Nat on the ground, blood gushing from a gash on her head.

“Nat!” I shouted her name over and over again. “Nat! Can you hear me?” Hands shaking, I grabbed a towel and wrapped her in it as fast as I could. She moaned my name. “Thank God. Nat, what happened? Are you okay?”

Blood streamed down her cheek. I wasn’t sure which part of her head she hit, her eyes rolled back in her head again.

“Shit!” I picked up her limp body and ran with her down the stairs, stopping only to grab my keys and phone. I wasn’t waiting for an ambulance. Heart in my throat, I choked back tears as I set her gently in the seat and put a seatbelt around her limp form. “Sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. I promise. It’s going to be fine. Just…” My voice broke. “Just stay with me, okay? Can you do that? For me? For the baby?”

Nat moaned again.

I put the car in drive and made a beeline for the hospital.

What typically took at least ten minutes took me three. I blew through every yellow light and sped as if her life was in my hands — which it was. Only it scared the shit out of me, because it wasn’t just Nat I had to protect, but our unborn child.