Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty Four
CANDY’S POV
Everything Leah said have taken unpermitted permanent residence at the fore front of my mind, snatching away every ounce of peace I’ve had since I returned, rudely. The theory is just too absurd and too much to add on top of everything else going on right now but the more I ruminate on it, the more likely it seems that she’s right.
There’s nothing I want more in the world right now than to confront my father with everything I have and hear what he has to say in his defense. He might prove her wrong for all I know with a very plausible explanation but I don’t know how his heart will take it if Leah is right.
If all this is true, I doubt the poor thing that’s been put under more than enough stress already can handle it, I know how my dad gets when he’s caught between a wall and a hard place and it’s not a pretty sight.
Putting on a smile to hide my inner turmoil threatening to bubble over, I hurry through the doors of the hospital, matching down the hallway in such haste that I ignore even the nice nurses I’d sort of become acquainted with here since dad got admitted.. I’m not sure what I want to do when I get to his room, but I just want to be there by his side and be able to look him dead in the eyes.
Just as I turn the corner leading down to his room, I see my sister pacing outside the room. She has her back to me but I can point Peach out in any crowd, not just because I grew up with her and know her in and out. Peach has the most attention snagging blonde hair I know and the dang thing makes her stand out.
But Peach is not supposed to be here, I think to myself, at least not yet.
“Hey.” I call, hurrying over to her. “What are you doing here?”
Did she somehow find the same things I did and is here to confront dad too? Unlikely but then again, a lot of unlikely things just seems to be happening around me out of the damn blues.
“I thought you had a class.” I continue, returning her warm hug.
I don’t miss the stark worry in her eyes when she finally releases me from her, as they dart around and it heightens my anxiety. What’s wrong now?
“Mom called me in the middle of my last lecture and begged me to come.” She shrugs.
“Called? Why? Did something happen to dad?”
She looks at me like there’s something going on and she can read off something on me that I know what, which is weird because worrying about a hospitalized person should be normal and not any indications that you just found out your seemingly innocent father might be laundering money for some illegal businesses.
“No, but she’d sounded pretty………. Scared? As soon as I got here, she bolted, said she needed air. I don’t know what the fuck is going on man but I don’t like it.”
My heartbeat picks, my chest cavity tightening. I don’t like it either.
“Why are you outside though? Shouldn’t you be with dad?”
She takes a deep breath before saying, “That’s the crazy thing. Before mom left, she specifically asked me to wait out here because dad is in a meeting and will be done in a moment. The door is locked, trust me, I tried regardless.”
“Oh my God, Peach…..”
“What the fuck is going on? First mom, now you. You all are fucking scaring me.”
Shaking my head lightly as if to free it of the heavy thoughts making it heavy on my neck, I turn to my sister with a calming smile to sate her.
“Everything is fine and I’m going in to check on dad.”
“But mum said they’re not to be disturbed until they’ve finished and there’s that guy.” She points to the further end of the hall where there’s a guy sticking out like a sore thumb in his black suit, finished with a perfectly knotted tie and shades as dark as the devil’s soul.
“He’s not moved an inch since I got here. All He’s been doing is watching this door like a hawk as if he’s waiting for Jesus himself to come through it. I think he’s with the meeting party.”
“Then he should be prepared to pull me kicking and biting from there.” I mutter, determined.
Matching with fake bravado to the door, I’m caught off guard when it suddenly comes open on its own, revealing an older man with greying hair and beards. He looks familiar in a very unfamiliar way and I find myself wondering if I’ve ever met him before. I strongly doubt that though because he looks like he’s from the side of my father’s business I’m not acquainted with but I can’t seem to shake off that feeling that our paths have crossed before. Maybe in a past life.
He too, I notice, takes a good, drawn out look at both Peach and I, as if he’s looking for something and then he just smirks, walking away, his guard dog following after him.
Pushing all that to the back of my mind, I rush inside the room to my dad’s bedside to make sure he’s still breathing. The few minutes I’d spent outside deliberating with Peach had in honest been plagued with horrific images of them harming him and it’s the sole reason id been desperate to get in.
And God help me if they’d so much as hurt a hair on his head because I’ll sell my soul to the devil himself if that’s what it takes to get them back.
I’m glad and relieved though that it didn’t come to that, I’ve lost enough already to add my soul to the mix.
Taking a deep sigh of relief, my heart taking its time to normalize its beating again, I drop myself next to him on the bed. For the first time since I’ve known him, my dad looked scared……scared for his life and that in itself scares me.
I need to know how bad things are right now and how much worse it’s expected to get. And I need to know how we can solve this and get it behind us before it explodes into something unfixable.
In a blink, I hear my mind say fuck it and my mouth say,
“Dad, we need to talk.”
Guess, his heart needs to grow up and get with the program, we have bigger problems.