Page 37 of Great Pretender
“You’re welcome.”
She lifts her head and meets my gaze.“I meant what I said last night.I’m going to help you get the team.I owe you so much.”
“That’s not why I helped. I don't want you to think it was some bribe or some shit like that.”
“I don’t.”
“Good. And you don’t have to help me.I’ll find some other way.” Although it’s gonna be hard.“You were right. Everything you said was right, and I can’t involve you in my crazy plans.”
She shakes her head. “I’m insisting.It’s the least I can do.”
I sigh. “Baby, let’s just focus on your father for the moment.He’s the one who needs help now.Did the hospital say when they’ll do the surgery?”
“Today at ten,” she answers, and a tear runs down her cheek.“I’m so scared, Chad. What if he doesn’t make it?”
“Don’t think like that. We have to try to be positive for him.I’m going to be there with you so you don’t have to be afraid.”
“Thank you, I don’t know what I’d do withoutyou.”
As she rests her head on my chest, I hope I can live up to thecomment.
I keep remembering what she said the other day, that it would be worse withme.
She would be more hurt if I didit.
Idon’t want to hurt her.
But what else can marriage with a planned divorce lead to?
14
Piper
Ithought my nerves and resilience to handle stress were ruined after what I went through with Mom.
Today apparently has shown I still have something left in me.
Dad has been in surgery for the last four hours, and I haven’t gone crazy with worry.
Or maybe I have, just of the catatonic variety, where I can’t talk. I can barely breathe.
My one constant is Chad.
Eight years ago, he was sitting right next to me the way he is now, holding my hand, being there, being everything I need—my lifeline.
While I know Dr. Cormack stated he could remove the tumor, and he sounded confident the surgery was the answer, I can’t stop thinking of the other thing he said. About the risks that are usually involved.
There was a reason he didn’t go into too much depth about that. And it didn’t have to do with my petrified state. It was because I should know them. I do, and the consent form Dad had to sign earlier with the warning sheet of all the possible things that could go wrong heightened my anxiety.
All I could tell myself was that we were lucky to even be in the position to think of risk. If I didn’t have Chad, I don’t know what I would have done.
Eighty thousand dollars isn’t the kind of money anybody would be willing to lend just like that.
“Try not to worry so much,” Chad says, cutting into my thoughts.
I glance at him sitting next to me and wonder for a fleeting second what this plan of ours will look like.
I don’t know why I’m thinking about that. Maybe my brain is clutching at things to fill out my thoughts that won’t drain me.
