Chapter 66 Joseph's Misfortune
The hospital waiting room was a sea of plastic chairs and the smell of burnt coffee, and Mark sat with his hands together.
He had watched the black car swerve to avoid a truck and tumble into the ditch, and he had been the one to pull Joseph out of the shattered glass before the paramedics arrived, and now he sat in the fluorescent light while the doctors worked on the man who had spent the last month trying to ruin his mom's life.
The surgery had lasted three hours, and when the doctor finally came out, he told Mark that Joseph was stable but broken in ways that wouldn't heal for a very long time, with a crushed pelvis and a head injury that meant he wouldn't be speaking to anyone or meeting with any Vane lawyers for the foreseeable future.
Mark didn't feel the relief he expected to feel, he just felt a heavy, numb exhaustion that made his bones ache, and he walked out of the hospital without leaving a contact number, driving straight to his mother’s house because he suddenly couldn't bear the thought of being alone in his own apartment.
He let himself in through the back door and found Sarah sitting at the kitchen table with a single lamp on, her laptop was closed for once, and she was just staring at a cold cup of tea like she was waiting for the house to tell her what to do next. She looked up when she heard the door, and she saw the blood on Mark’s shirt and the way his hands were shaking, and she was across the room before he could even say a word, her hands reaching for his face to check for injuries she couldn't see.
"Mark, what happened, the police called and said there was an accident but they wouldn't tell me who was in the car," Sarah said, her voice sounding thick with a mother’s panic that didn't care about business or scandals or Harrington empires.
"It was Dad, his car went off the road near the warehouse district, he’s in the ICU now and they said he’s got a long list of broken parts, including his hip and his ribs, and he’s not going to be awake for a while, Mom," Mark said, and his voice sounded like it belonged to a much younger version of himself, a version that hadn't seen the world turn so ugly in such a short amount of time.
Sarah stopped her frantic searching and looked at her son, seeing the way the light hit the tired lines around his eyes, and she didn't say anything about Joseph’s betrayal or the file he had given to the Vanes, she just opened her arms and waited.
Mark didn't hesitate, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder and letting out a breath he had been holding since the day he found out about her and Alex, and they stood there in the middle of the kitchen holding onto each other while the clock on the wall ticked away the seconds.
"I’ve been so worried about you, Mom, I’ve been watching the news and seeing those people treat you like a target, and then the Harrington thing happened, and then the Vanes started calling, and I felt like I was losing you to a world that was just going to eat you alive," Mark whispered into her hair, his grip on her so tight it was almost a plea for her to stay right where she was.
"I am still here, Mark, and I am sorry that my choices made your life a battlefield, I never wanted you to have to pick a side or feel like you had to protect me from the people I chose to let in," Sarah told him, her hands rubbing his back in slow, steady circles, and she felt a small part of the weight on her chest start to lift because her son was finally home and he wasn't pulling away from her anymore.
"I was so angry at first, I felt like the two people I trusted most had made a joke out of my life, but then I watched Alex today at the site. I had made it there without your knowledge. I saw the way he stood in front of you when those security guards moved in, and I realized that he’s just as messed up by all this as we are," Mark said, pulling back just enough to look her in the eye, and his face was calm, the jagged edge of his hurt finally starting to dull after seeing how close he had come to losing his father and his mother in the same day.
"I’m not saying I’m ready to go grab a beer with him yet, but I get it, Mom, I see that you’re a grown woman and you’re smart and you know what you’re doing, and I’m sorry I made you feel like you had to choose between us."
"You are my son, Mark, and there is no choice to be made, because you are the reason I fight so hard to keep the firm and the house, and I promise you that I will get past the Vanes and the Harringtons and whatever else they throw at us," Sarah said, her voice sounding firm and full of the confidence that had built her business from nothing.
"They think they can ruin me because I’m alone, but I’m not alone as long as I have you."
"What about Alex, he's still at the Vane estate with his mother and the lawyers, isn't he?" Mark asked, sitting down at the table and finally letting the adrenaline leave his system.
"He’s handling the audit, he’s making sure Helena can't touch the neighborhood, and he’s doing it so we don't have to," Sarah said, and she sat down next to him, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it.
"But tonight is just for us, no phones and no news, I just want to sit here with my son and pretend for an hour that the world is as simple as it used to be."
"I'm glad you're okay, Mom," he said, and for the first time in months, he gave her a real smile.
"I'm always okay, Mark, I've had a lot of practice," she replied.