Taking Jana (Paradise South #2) (29 page)

CHAPTER 52

W
hen she got
to the hospital, her mother came running at her. She’d never seen the woman move that quickly in her life.

In frantic Korean, “
Ja-Na
, you didn’t answer. Again, you didn’t answer your phone!”

She remembered her phone was in shards outside in the parking lot. “What, Ma? What happened?”

Antonio’s hand was at the cusp of her back. She inhaled, so conscious of her lungs filling that she got caught there, unable to let go of the breath.

“He’s in a coma. He’s on life support,
Ja-Na
,” her mother sobbed. Jana’s shoulders dropped drastically as her breath finally found its way out.

“Jana, what’s going on?” Antonio whispered at her shoulder.

She shook her head slowly and whispered to Antonio her father’s status.

They walked her distraught mother to the row of faded pastel chairs to wait. It would be another hour at least before the doctor would be out to speak to them. And Jana didn’t push like she might have before. Now she just wanted to let things move by their natural course. She didn’t have to be the safety net anymore. That wasn’t her place, shouldn’t ever have been, and she’d be sure it never would be again.

After some minutes, exhaustion hit her, and Jana dozed off on Antonio’s shoulder.

But rest was not in the cards it seemed, as her mother’s phone buzzed her awake. Her mother was asleep on her shoulder, so Jana grabbed the damn thing to stop the awful noise. She glanced at the screen. Her brother. She silenced it and let her head fall back onto Antonio’s shoulder.

“The longest day of my entire life,” she said in disbelief.

“Yeah. Mine too.” Antonio placed his hand on top of hers. “Rest as best you can. I’ll wake you when there’s news.”

“Thanks, babe. I’ll try.”

*

A whole hour had passed when a nurse finally came out to tell them it would be an extra thirty minutes or so before Dr. Brighton would be out.

“More waiting?” her mother whined in her
half-sleep
.

Jana could handle the waiting. But being able to take her mother was another story. “I’m going to the office to finalize the billing situation. Be right back.” She got up from the horrendous chair and stretched out the immense kink in her lower back.

“You sure? It’s so late. Why not do that in the morning?” Antonio asked.

“I told them I’d be back to clear things up, some crazy error on the account, and really, it’s a good distraction for me right now.” She threw her chin toward her mother, who’d begun to fall onto Antonio’s shoulder now.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “She can lean on me.” He smiled while Jin continued her snooze. Jana took a mental picture before leaving the waiting room.

God, he really was amazing.

*

“Hi again. Back to see if my dad’s account had been figured out? The whole zero balance thing?” Jana said with a
tight-lipped
smile. If only she was the type of person to accept such an error, a boon as some would consider it, however immoral. She wouldn’t stoop to the low level that so many people in her life had found.

“I do have the file here…but it looks like Ms. Buchard wasn’t able to address your question before leaving this evening. Heck, you can take a look at it yourself, though. If you’d like.” The young desk clerk handed Jana the folder with a sympathetic glint in her eyes.

“You are tremendous, thanks so much.” She took the file to a chair against the wall and let it fall open on her lap. Staring up at her was the billing statement dated that day with a hand written check
paper-clipped
to the sheet. On the top left of the check showed its maker: A.R. Limousine Service. Just like the business card. The check was for a hundred and ninety thousand dollars and change.

She shut her eyes tight. A kick to the head might have felt better.

Damn it, Antonio.
What had he
done?

He’d ruined everything is what. Because whatever direction her life and her relationship with Antonio was taking, it wasn’t going to be without trust between them, nor was she going to let her pride, what little of it she had left, go to the wayside.

*

“Ma…hey, Mom! Sorry, wake up…I need Antonio for a second.”

“Who?”

“Mom, the man you are leaning on, my…Antonio. Just stay here; I’ll be right back.” She motioned for Antonio to follow her. To speak in private. To ask him what the fuck he was thinking, paying down the bill after she’d already
flat-out
refused the offer.

But her mother’s purse rang again, and at the same time, the unit’s doors burst open. Dr. Andrew Brighton was standing at the entrance with news.

“It’s Dae Han,” her mother said looking at the cell, the haze of sleep still apparent.

“Ignore it, Ma. Doctor…Andrew, what’s my dad’s status?”

“You both can come see him. It’s important to see him now, though. Jana, he may not make it through the night.”

Her mother burst out crying, gripping Jana’s arm for dear life. “It’s best to stay as calm and as unemotional as you can, or, I’m afraid, we can’t let you go in, Mrs. Park.” But her sobbing only worsened.

“I’ll stay with her, Jana. You go,” Antonio offered.

She was ready to tear his head off for what he’d done, going behind her back and against her wishes, dipping into his savings! An inner growl built in her chest, but she had no other choice at the moment but to keep quiet and accept his offer to stay with her mother.

Because she needed to see her father or it would haunt her, maybe forever.

She nodded to Antonio with a pencil line smile and followed the doctor to her father.

*

A frail remnant of her father, of Chang Park, lay in front of her eyes.

“Daddy.”

She sat next to him. She didn’t take his hand because she thought the
deep-seated
hate within her would overwhelm her still deeper, undeniable love for the man, and it might stop his heart before the
self-inflicted
heart disease did. Death by hate, by daughter.
Oh
God.

His eyelids fluttered lightly, as if in a dream. Maybe he
was
in a dream. And maybe he wasn’t frowning or disappointed or struggling in that dream. Maybe he had everything he really wanted there in dreamland.

But damn it, what he was supposed to have wanted was happiness and goodness and safety for his little girl. Every father was supposed to want that!

“How could you have known, Daddy, and let me dance? And for so long! All the while, bleeding me, berating me, hating me! Daddy, how could you love me so little?”

And then she wept soundless tears. It was the best chance she had to unload her sorrow, with her father in a deep dream state, a coma.

Through her tears, she saw his hand move, only a fraction, though. It could have been her imagination. But she ventured a look at his face, and his eyes were wide open with fear. He tried to make a sound, but the intubation tube wouldn’t let him. The pools of glistening tears in his
life-weary
eyes were unmistakable. Then a softening, an almost apologetic and pained expression wiped over Chang Park’s face. His hand twitched. Did he want her to hold it?

She softly covered his hand with her own, no longer scared that her
rage-fueled
hatred would stop her father’s heart from beating in his chest. Because obvious regret oozed from the man’s eyes. He’d missed out, messed up, let her down––and he knew it. He’d ignored the love of a daughter, his daughter, and now knowing that was enough justice, enough payback for Jana. And whatever the night held for her father, she felt peace. Having seen the man’s iron heart pierced with emotion, that maybe somewhere in there he’d loved her and knew his failings, she found closure.

CHAPTER 53

T
he look Jana
gave him had slashed his heart, slashed his damn heart to shreds.

Antonio knew she must have found out about the money. Damn it! She was worse than Celeste, with her damn pride.

Whether Jana hated that he’d dipped into his savings or she was worried that he’d hold it over her head as she’d been taught to watch for, he’d stand by his act. He knew why he’d done it. And he’d damn well do it again and again. He loved her. And he hated her to be in pain.

He couldn’t see Jana and him as anything but a unit, one heart, the way he and Michelle were supposed to have been.

But Jana was his true match, his only match. He knew. He also knew he could make her happy. He’d take her home with him to Vallarta if she could just get over the bounds he’d overstepped. He prayed she would see the intentions behind him signing that check. She had to see that his intentions were pure.

His phone buzzed again. It was the fourth call from Jake, but he looked at Jana’s mother on his shoulder and hit ignore again. He’d left a message for Jake at the crime scene earlier, and that would have to be enough for now. He was taking care of his family, and nothing else mattered. Even if Jana hated him right now, he would be here for her.

*

Back in the waiting room, Jana helped her mother up so she could walk her down to her father’s room.

She smiled politely at Antonio. “Thanks for staying with her. I’ll be fine here…why don’t you go? Get some sleep—”

“No, I’m staying here with—”

“No, Antonio. Really, you should leave.” Voiced with a very deliberate harshness. “Oh, and here.” She gave him ten
jagged-edged
pieces of his check and pressed the small pile hard into his hand, like a stamp of shame. “Thanks anyway.”

And she sensed his dismay as she put her back toward him and continued walking her mother into the unit. But she couldn’t care. Or at least, she shouldn’t care, not for another man trying to put her under his thumb. Like Johnnie had tried, and Dane and her damn father had done to her mother and to her. And like she’d seen so many men do to so many women in her life. Char, Amber, Laynie, and on and on. She just couldn’t go there. She had to close this chapter and get back to her life, her work, her calling. As a medical professional. Saving lives.

Saving lives where?
Her ER had closed its doors on her. She’d been replaced. Just like that.

Her beloved and esteemed ER wasn’t what she thought it was, Antonio wasn’t who she thought he was. Everything and everyone, all just illusory.

So then, who and what the hell was real and good and true? If anything at all?

CHAPTER 54

T
he unit door
slammed shut, jolting her out of her thoughts.

A new stoic emptiness had infiltrated her every cell with every next heartbeat. She willed a deep breath as if she were outside herself, like it was a mechanical function she had to consciously instruct her lungs to perform. And in the same robotic mode, she shifted her body, her head, and her tired, tainted eyes to focus on her wilted mother beside her.

“Remember, Mom, you can’t stay in there long. And please, keep calm. He needs peace.”

She felt sad for her mom as the woman shuffled her way toward her dad’s room. Yes, even through Jana’s curtain of detachment, or maybe because of that screen, Jana found pity for the woman. And now knowing that her father had a deeply buried spark of feeling in the center of his severely damaged heart, she also understood that her mother was just a scared little girl, completely reliant on the man. Jin Park must have been terrified, because if Chang, the woman’s husband of
thirty-something
years, didn’t make it through the night, the only people Jin could look to for support were a deadbeat son or a daughter who Jin
full-well
knew she didn’t deserve.

What
would
Jin Park do?

And what would I
do?

“Ma…wait.” Jana stopped Jin from going too far down the hallway. An answer had come to Jana, a solution for whatever occurrence, one that would keep Jana within her own boundaries, her
newly-drawn
lines. Jana dug into her purse and withdrew from it a glossy,
sharp-edged
business card. “Take this. Call the number,” she explained, handing the card to Jin. “Ask for Joe P. Tell him you’re Winter’s mother and that you need to discuss a personal bankruptcy having to do with uninsured medical. Did you hear me, Ma? ‘Joe P., Winter’s mother, bankruptcy.’ Understand?”

Her mom looked ill, bottom lip quivering. “Jana, I don’t know how—”

“Yes, Mom, you do. You can. I know you can, and…you don’t really have a choice at this point, because I’m done. I can’t give anymore, Ma. I know you love me, so you will call.”

Her mother stared at the card, fresh teardrops forming in the woman’s eyes. Jana hugged her mother then, and held her tight. “Be strong, Ma. Be strong.”

Jin only whimpered and sniffled in response.

Jana loosened her grasp. “Go now. Be with dad.”

Jin nodded and turned with a reluctance Jana had never seen in her mother. As her mother took one heavy step forward, Jin’s phone rang. Her mother was so out of it, the woman didn’t even register where it was coming from.

That goddamn phone. Fourth time tonight while it should’ve been muted or
powered-off
in the first place, per all the posted hospital signs. Jana shook her head, wanting nothing more than to send the stupid device flying to its death in the hospital parking lot like she’d done to her own phone.

Especially knowing who was calling.

Especially knowing
he
was calling.

She tried hard to bury the growl forming in her chest. “I got it, Ma.” Jana pulled the phone from Jin’s purse. “You go to Dad.” With the gentlest nudge, she pushed her mother in the direction of her father’s room, then looked down at her hand. Down at the ringing, vibrating phone.

And instead of silencing it, Jana accepted the call.

*

“What the fuck do you want, Dane? Because if you really wanted to know how he was doing, if you gave a damn about anyone but yourself, you’d be here,” she said in a
way-too
-loud voice for a hospital unit or a prison wing for that matter.

The desk nurse, who’d already been glaring at her because of the phone’s disruptive presence in the first place, now rushed over and ushered Jana back out to the waiting area.

“Jana? Is that you? It’s me, Alexa.”

“Oh, God. Alexa….” And through the heavy unit door that was closing behind her, she watched her mother disappear into her dad’s room.

“How are things?”

How the hell do you think they are?
“They are what they are, Alexa. I don’t really know what to say. He’s on the brink…but the real question is, why isn’t Dane calling himself? Why isn’t he here, Alexa?”

“He’s meeting some big clients tonight from out of town, so he has me on duty to follow what’s happening.”

“On duty, huh? To see what’s happening?” He went to a business meeting with their father on his deathbed?
Jesus Christ.
Because big clients were of course more important.

Wait.

“Sorry, did you say clients?”

“Yeah, between the boom of the new business and the twins on the way in a few months, things have been crazy. And your parents made him promise to stay put and said that you’d handle things. You’re a real trooper, Jana, honestly.”

She felt her heart in her chest squeeze then release, squeeze then release,
high-speed
and
slow-motion
at the same time.
It keeps getting better.
She could feel the hot anger broil within her. Blinding, deafening anger.

“Jana?”

“Yeah, sorry. I’m here. So”—she swallowed back the new knot of disgust––“things are good with you guys?”

“Well, other than the distress surrounding your father’s hospitalization, yes, you could say that. The business has been growing by leaps and bounds, and we’re moving next week into a new house that’s closer to the downtown office. We needed a larger place for when the twins come anyway, so it all worked out.”

Jana saw it all then.

That greedy bastard.

And her
parents?
Jana will handle it?
Of course.
Stay put?
But why? Wouldn’t her father want to see his beloved son before the lights went out? Or did Chang and Jin really think this wasn’t the ‘real deal,’ the possible, even probable
end-of
-
the-line
for her father?

Jana wanted to vomit.

Insane. All of it.

“Alexa…I’m not sure you understand. I mean, I don’t know how much Dane or my folks have told you, you know, about…how bad things are and how much I’ve had to—” Then she paused.

She took a long full breath.

What did any of it matter? She’d already made her decision to be done.

In fact, this knowledge made it that much easier to wash her hands of them. Besides the pro bono legal route Jana had handed her mother, she now knew that Jin, and her father if he survived, had another avenue to take. For funds, they
could
go to her brother. He was not
broke.
He was filthy, stinking rich.

“Never mind, Alexa. Congrats on everything, the twins, your new home. I wish you the best. I’ll have my mom call you in the morning to update you, okay?”

“Thanks, Jana. Please give your parents our love. And take care of yourself. Bye now.” And the
eye-opening
call ended with Alexa’s words echoing in her
awe-struck
brain.
Take care of
yourself.

She sank into a hard plastic chair in the barren waiting room.

God, she wished Antonio was with her.

Antonio.

Jesus, what had she done?

So her brother was no longer a poor,
money-grubbing
prick, but rather a
well-off
penny-pinching
prick. It didn’t matter what Dane’s financial statement said, he was still a heartless devil while Antonio, no longer the lowly chauffeur, but the
well-off
entrepreneur, had bled his bank account for her and for her crazy family. His noble, selfless and insane act wasn’t to control her, it was a genuine gesture. It was
love-in
-action, love incarnate, and it melted her heart, her heart that beat for him. Only for him.

She had to go to him. She hoped to God he hadn’t written her off for being so prideful, so hurtful, so damn blind!

*

She got reception to call her a cab and then grabbed a pad from the clerk to write her mother a note:
Had to run. Will be back
asap.

She was bringing the man she loved back with her.

Then she asked for a paperclip and pulled out from her purse the photo of her as a small girl sitting on the lap of her mother’s strong and adoring father, Jana’s
abuelo
. She put the note with the photo and inserted both into her mother’s flip phone.

“Please do make sure Jin Park gets her cell phone. She’s with Chang Park in the ICU.”