The Pull of Destiny (78 page)

“I will,” I replied, twisting my fingers
into my hair.

“Great. Pastor Weeks says call him when
you’re ready to go home. Now, you take care, okay?”

I nodded obediently. He just had that
‘take charge’ kind of character that I just had to react to. “Okay. Thanks,
officer.”

“You’re welcome.”

He passed the phone to Aunt Kelly, who
immediately asked, “Sweetie, what’s going on with Luke?”

And here I was, thinking that she hadn’t
heard me or didn’t care.
Awkward.

“His aneurysm burst. He’s critical,” I
explained. “I can’t leave him.”

Aunt Kelly sighed. “I know. That’s my
Celsi, putting other people above herself.”

I knew that she was smiling and it
suddenly brought tears to my eyes. I learnt from the best. “It’s what got me
into this in the first place,” I murmured. “I’ll be okay.”

“I’m going to call Enrique.”

My heart almost stopped as Aunt Kelly
said this, her voice firm. I knew that she knew about my meeting with Enrique
but I had gotten an ‘I don’t want to talk or hear about it’ vibe coming from
her so I didn’t talk about how happy I was to have found my dad.

Or should I say, how happy I was that
Luke found my dad for me.
But
this... This was huge.

“Are you sure, auntie?” I asked warily.
Maybe he wouldn’t want anything to do with me once he found out that Nate used
me as his punching bag. Or maybe he would take me away from Aunt Kelly!
I
don’t want to think about that.
But Aunt Kelly was adamant, and when she
got that way, she was as stubborn as a mule. Yes,
that
mule on Family
Guy.

“I’m sure. It’s time we had a little
talk. And I think he deserves to know what's going on.” Her voice softened.
“Don’t worry. If he’s anything like I remember, this won’t have a negative
effect on your relationship at all. Let’s face it; you’re special to a lot of
people.”

Aunt Kelly always knows the perfect thing
to say.

“Thank you, auntie. For- everything. For
understanding,” I whispered, blinking back the tears.

“I love you, sweetie. And don’t you ever
forget that.”

I nodded. “I love you too, auntie. But
I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Ok, bye.”

***

I walked back into the room,
greeted by Vanessa and Hope’s questioning looks.

“What happened? What did your
aunt say?” Hope asked as I handed her the phone and sat down in the middle.

I told them everything,
tiredness seeping in as I spoke.

“Nobody should have to deal
with that kind of BS. I hope he goes away for a long time. Coward,” Vanessa
muttered vehemently, tossing her glossy brown hair.

“Me too,” I admitted wearily.

Vanessa leaned forward to look at Hope.
“Is Astor on his way?

“Yes. He should be arriving by now,”
Hope replied, her eyes dull. “Faith won’t go to sleep, keeps asking where her
brother is so he’s coming back with her.”

“Poor baby,” Vanessa clucked
sympathetically.

Hope nodded. “She was so hysterical
about her big brother.” She swiftly glanced at Vanessa, as if imploring her not
to believe whatever Mr. Astor might have told her about Luke and Faith’s
relationship. “They’re really close, no matter what Luke's dad might say.”

“I stopped listening to Luke's dad years
ago,” Vanessa said airily, waving a dismissing hand. I could almost feel the
relief radiating out of Hope’s pores as she beamed appreciatively. “Nothing
that comes out of that man’s mouth is positive. And knowing that he’s the main
reason Luke's aneurysm burst is coz of him…” Vanessa turned to me, her eyes
glimmering with red-hot anger as she continued. “They were having an argument.
Luke's little sister saw him collapse in front of her just because his dad
didn’t have the decency to wait till they got home to ream him out.”

A few minutes later, the door opened for
the umpteenth time and Mr. Astor strode in, dressed in a perfectly tailored
suit. He looked like he was coming straight from a board meeting and as I
glanced nervously at Vanessa; I saw her top lip lift up in a moue of aversion.

Beef?

A sleepy Faith shuffled behind him,
dressed in her Dora pj’s and fluffy slippers. She was clutching a teddy bear in
her hand and when she spotted her mom she ran to her and hugged her knees.

“Where’s my son? What's going
on? I want to see the doctor, a nurse- somebody!” Mr. Astor blustered, pacing
up and down the small room.

Coolly, Vanessa stood up, folding her
arms across her chest as she glared at him. “Why are you so worried about Luke
all of a sudden?”

Mr. Astor snapped his head towards her,
a stony expression on his ruddy face. “What the hell are you on,
Doctor
Wright
?” He managed to make ‘Doctor Wright’ sound like as insulting as
possible and Vanessa's lips tightened. “Of course I’m worried, he’s my son!
Now, what’s the update on his condition?”

“Now that he’s critically ill you want
to act like you care?” Obviously, Vanessa wasn’t having any of his ‘worried
father’ dramatics. Her nostrils flared as she stared him down.

Faith had clambered on the bed, her head
resting against her mother’s shoulder as she watched the two adults go at it,
her brown eyes wide. “If you
cared
you would have let me see him before
this happened.” Mr. Astor opened his mouth to reply but Vanessa just
steamrolled over him. I could tell that she’d been waiting years just to say
her piece and I commended her in my head.
Good for you, Vanessa. Good for
you.
“What kind of father doesn’t even tell the mother of his child that
her son has an aneurysm? Did you think I didn’t need to know?”

Mr. Astor's mouth fell open. He obviously
couldn’t believe that his ex-wife was actually not backing down. “Why the
hell
do you think I called you?”

“You only called me because you thought
there was no hope.” Vanessa narrowed her eyes. “Why else?”

Face working, Mr. Astor bellowed, “I
sent my private jet to come pick you up! And this is how you repay me? By
blaming me for something that’s beyond my-.”

“Daddy, stop yelling!” All eyes fell on
Faith as she raised her head from Hope’s shoulder, her eyes bright with tears.
“You yelled at Luke and he’s hurt!” She started crying, her shoulders heaving
with wretched sobs as she looked up at her astounded (and more than a little
bit embarrassed) father. “I told you not to, daddy!”

“Sweetie, I-.” Mr. Astor cleared his
throat, brushing imaginary lint off of his jacket. “I’m sorry.”

That apology sounded like it hurt.

Vanessa exhaled loudly. “Can we please
just sit here and wait like civil adults?”

“Okay,” Mr. Astor nodded, defeated. He
sat in the lone chair in the room, his gaze straying to me. I looked down at my
hands as Vanessa plopped next to me.

“Thank you.”

“Miss Sawyer?” I looked up to find Mr.
Astor's eyes on my face, looking-
gasp
- concerned! Jerking his head in
my direction, Mr. Astor asked, “What happened to you?”

Hope answered for me, which was just as
well since my mouth had gone completely dry. Mr. Astor scared me, okay? Half of
the time I thought he was going to go off like he did at the gala
. I don’t
want that happening again.
“Her cousin happened to her.”

“He did that to you?” I nodded in response.
“You should have him arrested.”

“He’s been taken in,” I said,
my voice cracking.

Mr. Astor nodded awkwardly.
“Good.”

***

As we waited for news on
Luke, Faith fell asleep in Hope’s arms. Mr. Astor called in a passing doctor to
take a look at me ‘just in case Vanessa missed something’. The doctor
proclaimed that Vanessa had done a wonderful job and offered her a residency at
the hospital. Vanessa refused politely.

Finally, Dr. Khan came in
with the news we had all been waiting on tenterhooks for. He stood by the door,
(
for easy getaway if Mr. Astor tried to attack him
?) a somber expression
on his round face.

“Good news, everyone,” he started. I
looked up at him, my heart thumping in anticipation as he continued. “The
operation was a success. We managed to stop the bleeding in a timely manner. I
placed a
small
titanium clip across the base, or neck, of the aneurysm to block the normal
blood flow from entering
.
Now we just have to wait for him to wake up.”

Stroking Faith’s hair, Hope asked, “He
will
wake up, won’t he?”

Uncomfortably, Dr. Khan put his hands
behind his back, rocking on his heels as he shot a nervous glance at Mr. Astor.
“Mrs. Astor, Luke is in critical condition right now. At this moment, all I can
say is its touch and go.

“Will you stop with the jargon and give
us a straight answer?” Mr. Astor snarled, getting up from his chair.

Vanessa stood up also, flinging her arm
in front of Mr. Astor as he advanced menacingly upon Dr. Khan, who stood his
ground. “Astor-,” Vanessa started, grabbing hold of Mr. Astor's arm. Hope
looked on with wide eyes.

“No!” Mr. Astor shook free of Vanessa's
grip, poking a finger into Dr. Khan’s chest. “Ever since I started dealing with
him he’s been spewing poetry or something. Tell us what's really going on. Don’t
sugar coat it, for goodness sakes.”

As I watched Mr. Astor rage rudely at
Dr. Khan, realisation dawned upon me. Mr. Astor's aggression came from fear, it
had to. He was scared stiff that something would happen to Luke but he didn’t
want anybody to know that he was scared so he masked it with rudeness and
intimidation. Unwillingly, my heart went out to him.

Dr. Khan stared at Mr. Astor hard for a
long minute, swallowing. Finally, just as I thought he was going to flip Mr.
Astor the bird and just walk out, he started talking in a clinically detached
voice, his face devoid of expression. “As you wish. Luke is in a coma.”

“He already was in one, wasn’t he?” Mr.
Astor asked and I swear I saw Hope rolling her eyes.

“That was a medically induced coma,
formulated to get his blood pressure back to normal since it was soaring in his
unconscious state.” Dr. Khan paused for a second (
dramatic effect?
).
“But when we finished the operation, he slipped deeper into the coma instead of
coming out of it.”

Vanessa gasped, covering her mouth with
her hand. “Oh, no.”

“At this point, we don’t know why this
is happening. The operation went as well as can be but Luke isn’t responding as
I’d like. At this point, there’s nothing that we can do.”

Dr. Khan gave Mr. Astor a level look as
the tension in the room rose. It was clear that the doctor hated not being able
to do anything more for his patient, but Mr. Astor didn’t seem to notice that.
He’s
set on playing the blame game.

“Nothing?” he growled now, leaning in to
Dr. Khan’s personal space. “I paid you- .”

“Mr. Astor, with all due respect. Your
son is in a coma. Only he can find his way back if he chooses,” Dr. Khan stated
matter-of-factly. Mr. Astor subsided and Dr. Khan continued, his voice soft and
polite. “The operation may have been a success but that means nothing right
now. All the money in the world can’t change that.”

Hope spoke up slowly. “So now what do we
do?”

Turning to her, Dr. Khan said “We wait.
And pray.” He looked around at all of us. “I mean that, if you are spiritual at
all. Prayer always helps.”

“Can we see him?” Vanessa asked
hopefully, standing next to her now quiet ex-husband.

Nodding, Dr. Khan said, “Yes, but I must
warn you, he’s hooked up to a life support machine. It might be distressing to
see him like that. But by all means, you may see him. He won’t know you’re
there but your presence might have the power to bring him back.”

Our party followed Dr. Khan down the
hospital hallways until we arrived at the recovery room. The door was closed
and a nurse sat in the little office across from the room.

“He’s in here,” Dr. Khan told us. “I
must leave you now. I have another operation to administer. If anything happens
I will be paged.”

“Thank you doctor,” Vanessa called over
Mr. Astor's head as the doctor trotted down the hallway. She turned to Hope,
who was carrying Faith. Faith was awake again but she still had that groggy
look to her. Poor thing hadn’t nearly gotten the right amount of sleep. “Hope,
do you mind if I go in with Astor? Alone?”

Hope gave Vanessa a bemused look.
“What?”

Mr. Astor also shot Vanessa a ‘WTF’ look
mixed with fear.
He probably thinks she’s going to come at him with a
syringe once they’re alone.
“I’d like to explain something to him,” Vanessa
elaborated, still focusing on Hope, who nodded.

“Sure.”

Grabbing Mr. Astor's hand with force,
Vanessa opened the door to Luke's room and almost yanked an unwilling Mr. Astor
in.

They were in the room for almost five
minutes and when they emerged, Mr. Astor had tears in his eyes. Vanessa patted
his shoulder as she whispered soothingly into his ear. Faith, Hope and I
watched with open curiosity.
What I would give to know what Vanessa said to
him in there.
Even though I knew that I would never know what Vanessa had
said to move Mr. Astor to tears, I was glad that she had said it. Was this what
it took for him to realise just how special Luke was?

I followed Hope and Faith
into the recovery room, my heart in my throat as I laid eyes on Luke after what
seemed like an eternity. He lay motionless in a hospital bed, hooked up to an
IV. An assortment of equipment was arranged around his bed, machine screens
blinking and beeping away. Luke's chest rose and fell under the thin hospital
sheets, the only indication that he was even breathing. Apart from the lights
from the monitors and a small night light by the bedside table, the room was
dark. The blinds were shut tight and I glanced around the room before looking
at Luke again. Tears welled up in my eyes.
Just when I thought I was all
cried out...
A bandage covered the top half of his head and his face was
bloodless, paler than pale. He had dark smudges under his eyes and a tube had
been coaxed in between his lips. I hated seeing Luke like this.

“Oh, Luke,” Hope whispered,
stroking his cheek as she put Faith down. I wiped away tears, staring down at
my boyfriend and fighting back a rising wave of despair.

Faith looked up at me, her
forehead creased. “Why you crying?” she whispered, tugging at my sleeve.

“Because Luke's sick,” I told
her, sniffing.

“He’ll be okay,” Faith said
reassuringly, squeezing past her mother. She patted Luke's hand, smiling
adoringly at him. “
Right
Luke? And you’ll teach me how to ride my bike like you promised.” She looked
serenely up at me, beaming all over her chubby face as she spoke with such
assurance that I was moved to tears. Again.
Like that’s anything new.
I
felt like waterworks. “Luke says people should never break promises.” She
reached into the pocket of her little bathrobe and pulled out a hanky, which
she solemnly handed to me. Stunned by the five year olds maturity level, I took
it from her as she said, “Don’t cry, he’ll be okay. I know he will. He’s my big
brother. Who else is going to play ‘tea party’ with me?”

CHAPTER 32

ordinary
miracle.

A long,
stressful week passed and Luke was still comatose. Since Aunt Kelly decided
that I wouldn’t go back to school until the bruises on my battered face faded,
I visited him every day, trying not to let my feelings of despair get the best
of me. But it was harder than I thought. Every time I saw Luke lying in the
hospital bed, the shallow rise and fall of his chest the only indication that
he was alive, memories of our last conversation flooded my mind, filling me
with guilt.

Luke's
condition was definitely taking its toll on the Astor's as well. For instance,
Hope couldn’t take being in Luke's room for longer than five minutes. Her
excuse was that she couldn’t handle seeing Luke so pale and still. Every time
she did force herself to enter Luke's room, her eyes filled with tears and she
wouldn’t look at him. She spent most of her time at the hospital outside Luke's
temporary home in the
Neuroscience
Intensive Care Unit, curled up on the comfy armchair in the family waiting
room, skimming through the magazines that the hospital provided.

Vanessa, on the other
hand, spent every second she could by her son’s side. It seemed that she was
making up for lost time, which was so bittersweet, in my opinion. She hadn’t
been able to be with Luke for years, had missed out on crucial parts of his
life, and now she was here and he had no idea. My heart constricted with
sadness whenever I peered into the curtains shielding Luke's bed from public
view and saw Vanessa gently stroking Luke's hair, or telling him a story about
his childhood. She always had an optimistic air around her, which is why I was
crushed by what happened when I accompanied her to the bathroom after a long,
uneventful day. Standing at the sink and washing her hands as she stared into
the mirror, her face crumpled all of a sudden and she burst into tears. 

“It’s not fair,” she
sobbed as I hugged her, my cheeks wet from tears of my own. “I’m trying to stay
strong for everyone’s sake, but it’s not fair!”

Mr. Astor was always at
the hospital, walking through the hallways talking earnestly to Dr. Khan,
snapping at somebody on his cellphone or just sitting, slumped, in a chair in
the waiting room, waiting for news. He still insisted on arguing with the many
doctors who were caring for Luke, but Vanessa's calmness seemed to have had a
positive effect on him. He no longer bullied Dr. Khan, at any rate.

Poor little Faith couldn’t
understand why her brother wasn’t waking up. After being so sure that Luke
would get better in record time, she seemed to be giving up hope, slowly but
surely. She was quieter and more introspective, crying constantly and asking
Hope why Luke was still asleep.

“I miss him,” she
whispered to me once, her little hand reaching out to find mine as she blinked
back tears.

So I decided to ask Hope’s
permission to take Faith down to the daycare. God knows I needed some time away
from Luke's sick bed. Tempers were starting to fray, most noticeably Mr.
Astor's and Faith was starting to jump whenever she heard her father yell.

“Daycare?” Hope asked, a
doubtful look on her pretty face as she glanced at Faith, who was solemnly
engrossed in a jigsaw puzzle that she had done countless times before. “I don’t
know. Do you think it’s a good idea?”

I nodded, hugging my knees
as I leaned forward in the chair I was sitting in. “I think it would do Faith
good to be around kids her age for a while,” I said delicately. Although she
was five, Faith didn’t go to daycare. Okay, she was so rich she had a nanny and
pretty much didn’t
need
daycare, but there was no substitute for being
around people your own age, people who understood you. I wondered if Faith ever
came into contact with anyone other than her direct family and family friends
and felt a pang of sorrow for her.
Poor thing leads a closed off life.

Continuing, I added,
“She’s been spending so much time in here that she’s probably going stir
crazy.”

Hope let out a sigh of
agreement. “This is so hard for her, the whole Luke situation,” she whispered,
her voice breaking as she said ‘Luke’. I knew exactly how she felt. Every time
someone said his name, my heart skipped a beat.
Please, find your way back,
Luke. We miss you so much.

I swallowed hard past the
sudden lump that formed in my throat. That was another reason I had to leave
the NICU, even if it was just for a short while. Whenever I was here, all I
could think about was Luke. His presence was everywhere I went, and it was all
I could do to not break down into tears, begging God to bring him back to us.
At least if I was amongst the kids, my mind would be focused on something else-
namely, keeping Miss Campbell sane long enough for the kids to make it through
the day in one piece. Not going to lie, when Miss Campbell turned red and
started muttering under her breath, it scared the salad out of me. Sure they
would ask me what happened to my face a couple hundred times (
kids and their
short term memories
) but I could handle that.

“Yeah. I think she would
enjoy herself.”

Shaking herself, Hope
nodded. “You’re right. You don’t mind looking after her, though?”

“Of course not,” I declared,
shaking my head. Faith was probably going to be the most well-behaved child at
the daycare. Just don’t let William get to her...

“Faith, sweetie?” Hope
said, standing up and walking towards Faith, who was dismantling her puzzle for
the umpteenth time. “How would you like to go somewhere with Celsi?”

Snapping her head up at
the sound of her name, Faith stared at her mother with wide, brown eyes.
“Where?” she asked softly, glancing at me. I smiled at her and as rewarded by a
small, hesitant smile back. My heart went out to her.

“A daycare, sweetie. You
get to play with lots of toys and kids your own age.”

I gave an encouraging nod
as Hope looked at me for backup. The watchful expression on Faith’s face meant
that I had some selling to do. “It’s a lot of fun, Faith. I go there to take
care of the kids. You get story time, a snack and you get to play loads of cool
games.”

Ah, crap.

I was doing a really bad
job of selling the daycare idea to Faith. Judging from the look on her chubby
face, she didn’t want to go anywhere, but she didn’t want to be rude or make a
scene, which was refreshing. Usually kids used any excuse they could to throw a
tantrum. But Faith just nodded reluctantly and stood up.

“Okay,” she said dully,
bowing her head and scrutinizing her feet. I walked over to her and took her
hand in mine.