Page 68

Time to get some answers.

NINETEEN

“You didn’t have to come all the way here,” Jesse said. In spite of his words, his eyes were shining with love and relief that we were here. We’d taken a half day at work so we could see him.

“What, you mean the ten minutes it takes to drive from the site to the hospital? All that way?” Cade said, smiling at our younger brother as he pulled one of the small plastic chairs in the corner of the room up next to Jesse’s bed.

“Yes,” Jesse laughed, sitting up a little straighter in his hospital bed, the blankets bunching around his waist.

I walked to his bed, kissed his head, and sat by his hip. “Hey, bud. Brought you something I think you’ll like.”

Cade pulled out the comics we’d bought online, presenting them to Jesse. His eyes lit up as an enormous grin stretched across his face. “No fricken way, how did you get these?” The excitement in his voice squeezed around my heart.

“They were just layin’ around.” Cade waved a nonchalant hand as Jesse rolled his eyes, flipping through the pages. It was the most animated I’d seen him in weeks, reading old comics, and I shared a look with Cade.

We were definitely getting him more. As many as we could find.

“Oh my god, this is the one where Captain Stacy dies!” His eyes widened as he looked between me and Cade in awe. “How did you get this? Seriously, this is like…a collectible! This is worth thousands of dollars!”

Well, shit. The guy who sold them to us only charged ten bucks.

But even so, I’d spend any amount if it meant seeing Jesse this happy. Because he deserved everything. And soon, he’d get the treatment that would save his life.

Jesse had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

He wasn’t responding well to the chemotherapy, but it was still helping in a small way. It was the only viable option at the moment, but it made him so sick that the first week he’d had it, I honestly thought he was going to die.

When the doctor had shown us all the options available for treating his disease, we’d gone through the pros and cons of every single one.

His best chance for long-term survival and complete remission was a new gene therapy treatment that would help get rid of the disease and allow him to get a stem cell transplant.

We wanted only the best for him. To give him the life he deserved.

When he was allowed to go home, we had him stay at the infirmary at Frank’s compound in case anything happened.

My gaze trailed to the oxygen tubes in his nose, down his arms to the IV that was always there. He wore a black beanie we’d gifted him last Christmas that had a black widow on the front flip. It kept his head warm. He also had on one of our hoodies. He was always cold these days.

“How’s it been today?” Cade asked quietly.

Jesse shrugged. “The same, I guess. That mean nurse isn’t on this ward anymore, thankfully, so it’s a little easier to get stuff. Oh! Check this out,” he said excitedly, turning to pick something up off the tiny rolling table within arms’ reach. “Look what Dr. Raji brought me from Calcutta!” He offered the little glass elephant with beautiful design work to me, and I plucked it from his hand.

“Wow. All the way from India? That’s neat,” I commented, letting Cade take a look at it. “Is Dr. Raji’s mom doin’ alright?”

Dr. Raji was Jesse’s main doctor and a saint of a woman. The care with which she dealt with him was unrivaled and we couldn’t have asked for a better person to look out for our brother while we weren’t able to be here.

We weren’t able to be here as much as we wanted to, and that broke our hearts. But we had to work, had to keep earning money and paying off the hospital bills with what we could until we were able to get our hands on Thorne’s savings. We paid for his current treatments, and Frank helped out a lot, but not even Frank would be able to afford the high cost of the gene therapy.

Thorne was going to pay for all the suffering he’d orchestrated. And for once in his worthless life, he’d be helping someone in need. Unknowingly, of course, but that money was going to save Jesse’s life.

“Oh, she’s doing so much better. Dr. Raji said she’s working on a quilt for me. How nice is that? I can’t wait to see it, it’s gonna be so pretty.” Jesse’s expression softened as he spoke of Grandma Raji. She visited him every day, but had recently caught a bad cold and hadn’t been in for a week or so. Jesse adored her.

So did we.

“Nice. That’ll pretty up this room a lot.”

Jesse nodded. “How’ve you guys been?”

He didn’t say it, but I could see it in his eyes. He missed us. But he never said those words, never wanted us to be burdened with his emotions. He felt like he was already an enormous burden on us. He was the purest soul, and that same white-hot resentment that he had to deal with this flared in my gut.