He places his palms on his thighs and pushes himself up from his seat. There’s a divot in the bed where his ass was resting, way too close to Raiden’s legs that are currently tucked under the standard issued hospital blanket. Even the custom, crocheted blanket I bought him is missing.
“After all these years, that’s the first thing you have to say to me? I have to admit, I’m disappointed Jericho. I thought much higher of you than that.” His uppity tone doesn’t go unnoticed by me or the other two people in the room watching us showdown.
I straighten my spine, feeling a residual throb in my leg from where I didn’t take my prosthetic off last night. Just another way I’m lacking.
“I don’t care what you thought of me. I asked you a question and I expect an answer,” I demand.
His nostrils flare, as if the open disrespect from me annoys him. Good. He should be annoyed. And he should also get the fuck out of here and go back into whatever hole he climbed out of.
“I know your type, Jericho,” he taunts, walking up to me until he’s standing right in front of me. My bigger build overshadows him, but he has a quickness in his eyes that he didn’t have before. Or maybe I never noticed it. This isn’t the same boy who used to play football with me, this is a ruthless businessman, willing to cut down anyone and anything that stands in his way.
And I’m currently preventing him from sinking his claws into whatever he has planned.
He continues, not bothered by me using my size to intimidate him. He brushes off an imaginary piece of lint from his shoulder, not a care in the world. “You think that you can control everything, the same way you used to when we were younger. You think you’re smart enough or strong enough to do anything you set your mind to.” His eyes zero in on mine and I feel a shiver run up my spine at his teasing gaze. “I always thought you were too dumb to see what was in front of you, but I realized something else while I was sitting here packing away Raiden’s things.” He draws off, cocking his head and waiting for me to break and ask him what he realized. He thinks I’ll caveunder his silence. But stronger men than him have tried to break me, and none have succeeded thus far.
“You’rescared,” he hisses the word, pushing forth the syllables and consonants to further prove his point. “You were scared then, just like you’re scared now.”
Josh is wrong. I’m not scared. I’m pissed. My anger is at its breaking point and I’m two point five seconds away from decking him in the face, consequences be damned. He’s way past due for a good knock down.
“You don’t know anything. Not about me. Not abouthim.” I point at Raiden, sleeping soundly on the bed with the tubes all still attached to him. His heart rate is steady in the beat of silence between us. “So unless you have something useful to add, get the fuck out. We don’t need or want you here. And neither does he.”
“Wellll,” Josh steps back, and sits himself back on the edge of the bed where he was sitting previously. He positions himself comfortably, crossing one leg over the other and resting his arm across them. “There’s a slight problem with your plan.”
Ema’s sob is loud and I whip my attention to her as Rodney wipes tears away from her face.
“You see, Jericho. I’m Raiden’s husband. So, by default, anything that has to do with him, has to do with me.”
No. No. They’re divorced. That can’t be true.
“I see the look on your face, and I hate to tell you this but… I never signed the divorce papers. I always figured Raiden would come crawling back to me. I never figured I would get to hold his life in my hands like this.”
A rumble of thunder roars outside of the window. A loud explosive noise. It sends me back to the last time my life was changed. A time when I thought I would never survive. I would never recover. I would never get to see the light of day again, or play football with my friends, or see Raiden ever again.
That nightmare becomes a reality as Josh’s words crash over me.
35
JERICHO
Rain splatters against the window, breaking the long drought we’ve been under. Some people are rejoicing, the rain finally soaking into the ground and bringing new life.
I’m not rejoicing. I’m standing in defeat as the nurse explains everything Josh said to me as he walked out with Raiden’s belongings in a trash bag.
Josh has power of attorney over Raiden, due to them still being married. Even though Raiden filed the paperwork for a divorce. He signed the paperwork and did everything he was supposed to. Josh didn’t though, and by doing that, he signed Raiden’s death certificate with a pretty pen and paper.
Josh is choosing to pull Raiden off the ventilator. The one thing keeping him alive. He didn’t even have the decency to look upset as he carried away the last of the remnants from Raiden’s room. It looks the same as the first night I came here, the silence coming from the emptiness.
Hollis and Connor are in the hallway with my parents while Ema and Rodney listen to the nurse go into more detail about what the following week will look like.
Week.
I have one week left with Raiden. If he doesn’t wake up, that’s it. No more. There will never be another chance to talk to him, to see his eyes light up in happiness, to watch him as he performs. It’ll all be snuffed out.
I stare at him in his hospital bed, sleeping soundly as the world falls apart around me because what more can I do? I can’t fight it. I can’t fight with Josh over it, the nurse told me that much. I’ll never win. Not when he and Raiden are still legally married.
I’ve never hated a man more as I watch the gentle up and down motion of the tube down Raiden’s throat pushing oxygen into his lungs.
When the nurse leaves, none of us move. We stay frozen in the moment while we take in the information. We can’t change this. There’s nothing we can do or say. Josh has to be the one to change his decision, and based on the way he walked out of here he has no interest in doing that. He wants control, it's what he thrives on. It’s something I realized when his words replayed in my head. He never cared about Raiden. I knew that, I always knew that. I didn’t know that Josh could be so cruel though, to let someone die all because he never came back to him.
