I was a jumble of emotions: terrified that Hank was going to retaliate against me for tattling, thrilled that his meanness was finally being called out, empowered by the knowledge that whatever happened, Mom had my back; I wasn’t alone.
The fight between her and Hank lasted more than an hour, insults and curse words flying back and forth. Condemnations of Mom’s parenting and jabs at Hank’s fucked-up childhood. “If you think I’m gonna have a baby with you when this is how you treat my kid—” Mom said.
Abby tried to pull me away upstairs. “You shouldn’t be listening to this.” But I needed to hear it for myself. I needed to know that Mom loved me exactly as I was, that Hank’s cruelty said only bad things about him.
At last the fight had run its course, the voices too quiet to follow. Footsteps approached.
I turned and scrambled back up the stairs, but I’d been caught. “Emmett, s-sport?”
To my surprise the voice wasn’t angry, but thick, syrupy. I turned to find Hank gazing up at me. His eyes were wet, his hands clasped and supplicating.
“Come down and let me talk to you, okay?”
My eyes flicked to Mom, who stood behind him. She nodded.
Reluctantly I trudged downstairs, nerves chewing a hole in my belly.
Hank dropped to his knees, grasping my hands.
“Sport, I—I don’t know what got into me. I’m sorry, I— You’re not a pig, okay? Y-you’re a great kid. I just worry about your eating sometimes, your health. But what I said— I’ll never speak to you like that again, all right? Just please—say you’ll forgive me.”
I was overwhelmed. I’d seen him like this only once before, years ago, the day Mom found out he hadn’t fed me while I was home sick from school. She was watching me, waiting. I could tell she wanted me to accept his apology, to make this all go away.
So I did. He let out a breath of relief and held me as he wept.
I didn’t like it. Even at his nicest, Hank wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of stepdad, and his hands felt different on my body now that he’d called it fat.
But I didn’t want to be mean. With my arms around his shoulders, I patted his back, and trusted that everything was about to get better.
CHAPTER 14
Lizette picked Emmett up from the hospital the morning after the procedure. The pain wasn’t too bad: a sore throat, some tenderness at the back of his hip. It smarted as she helped him up into the SUV, soda bottles and fast-food trash crunching under his feet.
The real damage was deeper down, a trauma that only distance from this place could heal. Why had no one told him it was going to be like that? Why hadn’t they stopped when they realized he was awake? His hands shook as they fumbled for the seat belt.
Terms likemedical malpracticeandpunitive damagescame to mind in Abby’s voice. No doubt he’d have a case. Yet the thought of going to court made him uneasy. Why would anyone trust his testimony, when he wasn’t even sure what had happened himself?
When Emmett had awoken from the procedure, he had found himself in an unfamiliar room. His head was woozy, his pain big and slippery. The sun’s position through the tinted window told him it was afternoon.
The nurse from before came in, grabbed a clipboard off the back of the door, and checked the readings on a beeping machine. “You’re awake.”
“What—what’s happening?” Emmett’s voice was a rasp, his throat shredded.
“Procedure’s over,” the nurse chirped. “Everything went good. We’re gonna keep you overnight just to be safe.”
“Lizette. I need to—”
“I just spoke with her. She’s gonna get you tomorrow. She was worried about you. You have a good friend there.” A smile sparkled at the corner of her eye.
Who was this woman? She seemed a mile apart from the one he’d met in the waiting room that morning, the one who sped him through pre-op checks. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going to happen?”
“Happen?” She lowered her clipboard.
“No one told me anything.”
“Mmmm.” She furrowed her brow, sympathetic but skeptical. “You don’t remember? We talked before the procedure. I took you through it step by step: the bone marrow extraction, collecting the stem cells—”
“Shoving a feeding tube down my throat?”
