Chapter 59 Chapter 59
Chapter 59 Chapter 59
“I should absolutely throttle you,” Katherine whispered hours later, her voice thick with exhaustion and relief.
Catalella was slowly drifting back to the surface of consciousness, her eyelids fluttering. “You’d better be fully awake before I go out there and brief your family. They’re about to tear the waiting room apart.”
“You’re...” Catalella’s voice was a jagged choke, her throat scorched by the gastric pump. “You’re mean, Katherine.”
“If I were mean, I wouldn't have spent ten minutes crushed against a freezer getting you this cup of ice chips, would I?” Katherine gently helped Catalella into a slightly seated position, meticulously feeding her the small, frozen shards. She knew the girl's chest felt like it had been run over by a truck, and her throat felt like she’d swallowed glass, but she was breathing. She was alive.
“He left me.”
“Who? Michael?”
“Yes. Apparently... apparently I’m not a ‘real woman’ anymore.” Catalella began to sob, the sound muffled by the ice. “I can’t have children, Katherine! He said I was broken!”
Katherine felt the phantom ache in her own womb flare up. She understood the soul-crushing weight of losing a child, but she still had the hope of a future. Catalella’s path had been scorched by the very treatments that had saved her life. The chemo and radiation had been a scorched-earth policy against the cancer, leaving her infertile.
Katherine knew the urge to wallow, the desire to let the darkness win. But Michael Mathews wasn't worth the breath Catalella had tried to throw away. He wasn't worth the dirt on her shoes. Yet, he was the girl's first love, and first loves were notorious for their ability to destroy. Katherine herself still spent nights curled in a fetal position, weeping for AJ, but she had never considered the permanent silence of the grave.
“I understand that you loved him, but what you did was a shitty thing to do to your mother and your siblings. I’m going to let them in now, but I wish your brother was here to give you the lecture you deserve,” Katherine chastised, her voice stern but her eyes soft. Seeing the girl so defeated was like seeing a bird with clipped wings. “Actually, maybe it’s better he isn’t here to see you like this. He’d be so disappointed, Cat. You know how he feels about fighting for life.”
“He’ll get his chance to be disappointed... when he arrives tomorrow.”
“Wh—what?” Katherine stammered, the cup of ice chips nearly slipping from her hand.
She tried to mask her shock, but Catalella was already looking at her with a confused, hazy expression. Katherine realized with a jolt that the girl assumed she was still in the loop. She assumed Katherine and AJ were still a 'we.'
“He didn’t tell you? He’s flying in tomorrow. He’s going to be my bone marrow donor. We’re a match.”
“Of... of course. He’s the donor,” Katherine managed to say, her heart suddenly performing a series of violent, ecstatic somersaults.
She stood frozen, her mind a chaotic battlefield of emotions. Part of her wanted to scream with joy, to run to the nearest mirror and fix her hair, to prepare for the sound of the voice she hadn't heard in eighteen months. But another part was white-hot with anger. He hadn't called. He hadn't insisted. He had let her mother’s lies stand for a year and a half. The memory of Caroline’s interference made her blood boil all over again.
“I’ll... I’ll just go let your family in now.”
“Are you going to come back and see me?”
Katherine smiled, a genuine, luminous expression. “Sure, in a little while. I’ll give you some private time with Reno and your mom first.”
“Thank you, Katherine. For not letting me die.”
After Katherine had briefed the Rosses—enduring Rosalinda’s tearful hugs and Reno’s silent, nodding respect—she had to find a quiet corner to sit down. Her knees felt like they were made of water. Her body was in total shock, a million conflicting emotions rushing through her veins like a drug. But through the fear and the lingering grief, she felt the unmistakable, rhythmic thump of hope.
The love of her life was coming back. And this time, she wasn't the terrified girl she had been eighteen months ago. She wasn't going to let him go without a fight.
Catalella hadn't mentioned where AJ was staying, but Katherine didn't care. When she finally made it home that night, she didn't go to sleep. She spent the entire night cleaning. She scrubbed every surface of her apartment until it shone under the moonlight. She didn't mind that the housekeeping lasted into the early hours of the morning; she was a woman possessed.
When she reached the bedroom, her heart gave a sharp, painful tug as she pulled the sheets off the bed—the sheets she hadn't been able to wash because they were the last thing that smelled like him. It wasn't hygienic, she knew, but it had been her only comfort. Now, she didn't need the scent of a memory. The man himself was coming.
She replaced them with crisp, fresh linen, smoothing out every wrinkle with a steady hand. Once she was finally done, she stepped back and admired the room, feeling a strange sense of peace settle over her. Then, finally, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, ready for the tomorrow she had thought would never come.