“Excuse me,” the doctor interrupted, taken aback when all of us turned to face him. “I need to speak with Liam Parker’s next of kin.”
The look on the doctor’s face, the air of doom all around us…I knew it was bad.
“That’s us,” Clara stepped forward, gripping her husband’s hand. “That’s…all of us.”
But even as she spoke the words, I knew I shouldn’t be here. I had no right to listen in as the doctor told all of them what was going on. Yet, I couldn’t make myself leave. My heart felt like it was tearing in two at the thought of what might be happening right now.
“Mr. Parker has suffered severe smoke inhalation…placed on a ventilator…we’ll have to wait and see…”
Each of those phrases sent a shockwave of grief through me, but it was the overwhelming guilt that sent me running for the door.
Because if Liam hadn’t rushed to my apartment to check on me, he would have been in the ambulance sooner.
He would have gotten the medical treatment he needed.
And maybe he would be talking with his family right now.
35
LIAM
Groggyand still stuck breathing with the oxygen mask over my face, I struggled to pass out instead of listening to the yelling going on in my room.
“But where have you been all this time?” Ma asked Michael.
“I was working.”
“Where? Surely, you could have at least called me.”
“I kept in touch with Lizzy. You know this.”
“Yes, you talked to your sister instead of your mother. Apparently, she has more rights to know how you’re doing than your own mother!”
“Mrs. Parker,” a woman stepped in. “I can assure you, your son had every intention of contacting you as soon as he could. We were dealing with a lot?—”
“Too much to call home?”
“Well…sort of. National security issues and?—”
“And that outranks his family?”
Tugging the mask down from my face, I tried to speak above the noise. “Any chance you could take this outside?”
Not that anyone heard me. My voice was still just a crackle of beaten words that sounded like nothing more than a whisper.
Besides, what did it matter if they were disturbing the sleep of a man who had just nearly died in a fire when the prodigal son had finally returned?
“I have a family just like Parker, and I had to do the same thing?—”
“LikeParker? His name is Michael,” Ma snapped.
“And I’m sleeping,” I muttered.
“He was saving the world!”
“Oh, please. No one saves the world. He’s not a superhero.”
“If you only knew about what he was doing?—”
