Page 28 of Forever Love

Vince

Maia squeezes my hand tightly. “I’ve got you, babe.”

My eyes float to hers and though her presence calms me, I’m still a ball of nerves.

“Well, well, Vince Ardito actually in this house for longer than twenty minutes—I’m shocked. And with Maia here no less,” my dad says, walking into the kitchen.

Of course, when he sees my face, the playful smile drops from his lips.

Coming to stand next to him, my mom looks me over. “Honey, what’s wrong? Did something happen to Braden?”

“No, I—” I look at Maia and she gives me an encouraging nod. “Can we go sit in the living room for this?”

Confused, they both nod and we make our way into the large living room. Maia and I settle in the corner of one of the oversized leather couches while my parents sit perpendicular to us on the other couch. “What’s going on?” my dad asks.

Maia nestles into me, firmly pressing her body against mine, like she’s trying to transfer some of her calm confidence to me.

“Everything that happened with Braden brought up some… complicated feelings for me. And questions. I’m sure this will be hard to talk about, but I feel like I need to know… what happened the night of the accident? My parents—Marty and Ella’s—accident. What happened that night? How—how did it go? I know you were with Nick and me. I remember the police coming. I remember knowing she was…” I swallow hard, “…dead. But I don’t know if that was just an assumption on my part. I don’t—”

Maia squeezes my arm before soothingly running her hand down it.

It’s strange sometimes, talking about this. I consider Noah and Marie my parents. I mean, legally, they are. They raised me. Of course, I consider Ella my mom, but in a different way than Marie. I never really consider Marty my father, other than biologically. My true parents are the ones who were up all night with me when I was sick, who cleaned up every scrape and cut, who drove me to baseball and sat through every game, who give me their full and unconditional love. While I have no doubt that Ella would’ve continued to do that for me—I remember her being an incredible mom—I think she’d want me to consider Noah and Marie my parents and treat them that way.

Pain fills my father’s eyes as my mom smooths her hand over my dad’s arm. They weren’t together when the accident happened, but they were friends, so my mom knows the details too.

“Are you sure you want to know?” my dad asks, leaning forward, voice raw.

“I think I need to.”

He nods solemnly. “Okay. Well, as you know, they were hit head on by a drunk driver. Ella was in critical condition—honestly, when the police came and spoke to me, I don’t think they knew for sure if she was alive or not. Panic set in and I had to get to the hospital. Marty was unconscious, but had minimal other injuries aside from a couple broken bones. The people in the other car weren’t wearing seatbelts and died on the scene.”

His eyes close for a moment, and I want to yellstop,no more,I can’t do this, but Maia’s hand wrapping around my arm and her head resting against my shoulder give me the strength to keep going. Still, I feel bad putting my dad through this.

“You might not remember, but my mom was at your house with me. She stayed with you boys so I could go. I know you say you remember her telling you, but I don’t think she did. I think you asked, and she confirmed it. Not knowing what was happening, I called Leo in the car on the way to the hospital. When I got there, they let me back where the doctor told me that Ella’s side of the car was the side of impact, and she was severely injured when she came in. While they were able to intubate her and stabilize her, it was machines doing all the work. Scans showed she was brain dead.”

His breath trembles. Tears come fast and hard, pain exploding out of me like lava. Maia shifts onto my lap, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck and kissing my temple.

My dad clears his throat and keeps going. “Veronica and Leo arrived and I—telling them was awful, but their strength got me through. Veronica called Ella’s parents and Leo came in with me to see Marty.” He sighs at his brother’s name. “He had only woken up a few minutes prior and I—I had to tell him about Ella. That was truly the worst moment of my life. Watching him fall to pieces. He was shouting at the staff to get him to her room. He collapsed against her bed and screamed. From there on out, we had to make tough decisions about organ donation and…” He stops and stares at me. “…whether we wanted you boys to come say goodbye. And bywe, I mean, Veronica and me. We made all the decisions because Marty just couldn’t. He’d sign off on whatever we said, but he was too broken. We ultimately decided it would be too traumatic for you boys to see her like that. I’ve questioned that decision over the years—”

“You made the right choice.” My voice is raw and raspy, filled with emotion. “We wouldn’t have been able to handle that.”

He nods again and I pray we’re almost to the end of the story. Because I can’t take much more.

“We settled on organ donation because we figured Ella would’ve wanted that. After that, we all gathered in her room together to say goodbye. Marty clutched her hand and cried over her for a long time. Leo and I had to physically carry him out of the room. I have a lot of anger at him for how he left you boys, but… I watched the moment he shattered. He never figured out how to put the pieces back together.”

“Thank you for telling me,” I manage to get out.

“I think it’s good that you know,” he says.

“I’m going to go make some chicken and biscuits for dinner,” my mom says, rising from the couch. Both my dad and I stare at her—chicken and biscuits was our go-to comfort food as a kid. The recipe is Ella’s.

“Thank you,” I sputter again. “I, uh, just need some time.”

My dad nods and squeezes my shoulder. “Of course. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Let’s go upstairs,” Maia whispers.

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