He woke up again, and the room was dark.He didn’t know if the shades were drawn or if it was actually dark outside, but he felt like it should be nighttime.Howard knew that he did his best thinking in the darkness of a cold room and thought about what he was going to do now.If they really did fix his belly, he’d have to no longer be nice to people.He didn’t want that kind of pain again.People were just going to have to live with it or not.Frankly, he didn’t care what people thought about him after this.
Waking up again, he was told he’d have to stay awake for a little while.He didn’t think that was right when he was still hurting, but he didn’t say anything.The people at the hospital had done him a solid by taking care of his ulcer, and he was going to be grateful for a long time.He might even donate some money to them for a wing named for him.Yes, he thought, that’s what he’d do.Donate enough money to have the hospital beholden to him.
Dismayed to find out that the surgery had been three days ago, he wondered what sort of shit he’d missed.He had things to do now that he was awake enough to get a phone to his ear, and he wasn’t getting things done fast enough to suit him.His idea of having a wing named after him waswaning now that they were keeping him awake, and he wanted to sue them for not doing their jobs.People were just out for his money, and he didn’t like it.
He finally had to reduce himself to begging for a phone so that he could call his daughter to have her get her ass into gear.This surgery made him realize that he was going to die sometime, and he didn’t like that either.He wanted to live forever, and the sooner he figured out how to make that work, the better off the people around him would be.Damn it, but he hated that he was so weak, too.
The doctor came in once and told him about the surgery.He was so pissed off that he barely paid attention to what he was saying.Something about him having to have training in how to take care of himself, and that as soon as he was on solid foods, then they’d talk again.Cutting him off, he told him what he wanted.
“I want a phone and a computer brought in here for my use.”He said that he’d have to wait a couple more days before he cut him off again.“No, I won’t have to wait.You’ve fixed things up for me, and now I need to get my businesses caught up with.You bring those items in for me so that I can contact my daughter.”
“She was notified when you were out of surgery.”He asked where she was if she knew.“I’m sure I don’t know, sir, but she was notified.She came in right after you were waking up, but I believe she left right after.There were words exchanged between the two of you, and she left here crying.”
“I don’t believe you.Well, maybe I do.Women cry at the stupidest things.Call her again and tell her that I want to see her.She can even bring that husband of hers if she has to.So long as he remains human.I don’t want him coming in here shifting again unless I need him to be something else.”
“I’ll call, but she said not to call her again unless you were dead.And she seemed serious about that.”He said he didn’t care; he wanted her there, no matter if he had to send an officer to get her ass down here.“As I said, I’d call, but I’d not count on her coming.The two of you had an argument, and she went home.”
“I’ll be the judge of what sort of argument we had.”That had made more sense in his head, but he dared the man to say anything.“Just tell her that I said to get her ass down here now.I have things to talk to her about.”
When the doctor left, he had to ask for something for pain again.He didn’t know what they’d given him, but it didn’t put him out like before.Good.Howard wanted to be wide awake when his daughter came around.He was going to have to tell her a few things about her life from now on.
Chapter 10
Devlin didn’t mind going to the hospital to talk to Howard.The man had made Sen cry, and that was enough for him to tell the man off.However, he was going to be professional about it when he told the man to fuck off and leave his sister-in-law alone.Smiling, he wondered if he could actually pull it off, but wasn’t going to try very hard.
He made it to the room, but the man wasn’t there.He’d been taken to x-ray to find out if he’d busted any stitches in his belly when he’d tried to swing at a nurse for telling him that he needed to try and keep off the pain medications a little more.
Devlin had never cared for the man.He’d be polite to him, but he never thought that man was showing his true colors.It was something that he’d learned in being an attorney.He’d tried to tell his brother, but Ivan had said that he was going through a lot and made excuses for him.Now all he could do was tell him how much he wished that he’d listened to him.It made everyone upset that he’d made Sen cry when he had.And continued to do so.
Hearing him coming down the hallway yelling and ordering people around, Devlin sat in the room’s only chair and waited.Once they got him hooked up to all the monitors in his room, the staff left, but he stayed where he was.It took the older man a few minutes to realize that he wasn’t alone in the room, but Devlin had heard plenty.The man really was showing himself now, and he wondered why no one else had noticed it.
“Who the hell are you?”Devlin smiled, knowing that the man knew who he was.He’d been to dinner with him several times over the past month.“What do you want?Where is my daughter?She was supposed to be here when I got back, and I demand that you tell her that she’s to come and see me.I have things that I want to discuss with her.”
“She’s not coming.”He waited until he finished cursing before he stood up.“You said some things to her when she was here the last time, and she said to tell you that she wants nothing to do with you right now.Perhaps when you’re better, but not now.”
“Where does she get off telling me anything like that?I’m her father, and she’ll do what I said.It’s high time she started listening to me or else.”Devlin didn’t bother pointing out that she was a grown woman and he’d had nothing to do with her since she’d been a baby, but waited on the man to calm down again.“You tell her if she doesn’t get her ass down here and talk to me, I’m going to cut her out of my will.Then where will she be?”
“Still quite wealthy, I would imagine.Not to mention happier.”He started cursing at him again, and Devlin stood up to leave.He didn’t have to take this kind of abuse and told the man that.“I have better things to do than to sit around talking to a bully.And that’s what you are.Did you actually tell her that you were sick of being nice to her when all you wanted was for her to take over your businesses?That’s not very nice of you if you were to ask me.”
“No one asked you.And I don’t know what I said to her, but it was probably the truth.Being nice to her was what got me into this hospital in the first place.She should be happy that I’m able to be myself again.All that pussy footing around is what made me sick, and I’m not going to be that way again.”Devlin pointed out that he should have been nice because it was the right thing to do.“No, by god, it’s not.I’ll be the man that I am forever now, and she’ll just have to get used to it.I’m not going to allow her or anyone to treat me as if I were nothing to them.You tell her what I said.”
“I will, but I don’t think it’s going to make any difference to her.She’s stubborn and right in this case.”Howard huffed and clutched his chest.“Did they tell you that you have heart troubles?You should take better care of yourself before you’re dead from a heart attack.It could happen with the way that you’re going.Then where will you be with all your money but six feet under?If I were you,I’d change my will around now if you’re thinking of taking Sen out of your will.Not that she’ll mind all that much.Her uncle and aunt left her with enough money to make sure she’s happy for the rest of her life.”
“Robert was a sap.He told me to stay out of her life from the very beginning if I didn’t want a good relationship with her.”Devlin said he sounded like a smart man.“Shows what you know.I told him he wasn’t to leave her any of his estate either.I wanted her to be beholden to me.So what does he do?He goes ahead and leaves her everything that he had.If he were here right now, I’d take him to task.There was no point in leaving her anything when I had more money than he did.”
“I don’t think that the fact that he left her money had to do with anything.You’re just jealous that he got to leave her anything that would cut you out of the picture.I would have liked that man had he not died.I think we could have been good friends.”Howard told him to shut up.“I will, but only because I’m leaving.If you want to have anything to do with Sen again, I suggest that you be the man that she knew before you got sick.”
He was clutching his chest when he left the room.It would be just like the man to be on life support for the rest of his natural life, and the only one that could pull the plug would be Sen.Wouldn’t that be about the funniest thing that ever happened?
As he headed to the elevator, he thought about the conversation that he’d had with Howard.The man really was off his head if he thought that any of them would allow him to talk to Sen the way that he did for a second time.Especially Ivan.He’d been angry enough to want to come down to the hospital and rip his throat out.He might just end up doing that for the way that he’d treated his mate, and there wouldn’t be a single member of the family who would tell him he’d been wrong.Sen had cried for hours after leaving the hospital.
The very fact that he didn’t remember the conversation that he’d had with her showed what sort of man he was.He’d not bothered with any of the details of what he’d said to her, and that pissed him off enough that he’d like to be the one who ripped his throat out.It would serve him right if the entire family had something to do with his demise.
Devlin was just getting off the elevator when he heard the code blue being called.He didn’t remember the room number that Howard was in, but he knew that it was right around the four-hundred number.Thinking about the man having a heart attack right now made him smile.It served him right that he’d die today instead of after he got his will changed around.Sen was going to be a very, very wealthy woman if he were the man they were calling the code for.
He didn’t bother hanging around to find out but went home.He was going to stop by Ivan and Sen’s house on the way home to tell them how it went, but he would not mention the code being called.He wasn’t sure that it was for the man, and he didn’t want to get their hopes up.He knew that Sen would mourn the loss of her father; it’s the way that it should have been.But he doubted very much there would be too many tears shed in his honor, like the man would hope for.Or demand, for that matter.
Telling them what the man had said was easier because Sen had told him to tell her exactly what was said.Not that he could lie to her, but he would have liked to have sugar-coated it a bit.She didn’t deserve the words that had come out of the older man’s mouth to be repeated to her, and he told her that.
