Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
As usual, Sam was a rock under pressure. I was better than I used to be. Hannah was great; she got that from Sam. Kola fretted, just like me.
Sitting there, all I could think was, please let Finn be all right. My son can’t lose him when he just found him.
Having been in many hospitals in my life, as a patient and as the people waiting to hear, I can honestly say, I’d rather be the patient. All the times I’d kept vigil waiting to hear if Sam would live or die were horrific. Watching my son pace and worry, lean against my husband, who had his arm around him, was something I wished he’d never have to live through.
Finn’s parents showed up an hour after us, and when Dr. Wong—a tall woman with short black hair streaked with silver and lovely dark brown eyes—came out to talk to Kola, flanked by two other doctors, they interrupted.
“I’m his mother,” Anne informed Dr. Wong. “This is his father, and we’re the ones you should talk to as only we can say what can and can’t be done.”
“Let me look,” Dr. Wong said and then looked down at the tablet that one of the other doctors beside her was holding. “Actually, it looks like Mr. Kage is the one who I will be talking to as your son has a durable health power of attorney in place, with Kola Kage listed as the one making decisions for him.”
Finn’s parents both stared at Kola.
“He told me that you would both be sentimental,” Kola explained. “I don’t know if you know, but he also has a DNR in place, and the reason he chose me was because he was certain that neither of you would be able to take him off life support if ever the time came.”
“And you would?” Anne snapped at him.
“I would do what I knew he wanted,” Kola informed them. His voice was shaking just a bit, his eyes were haunted, and just seeing how scared he was, all of it, was breaking my heart. “He doesn’t want you to have to make any of those choices.”
“Because he doesn’t trust us anymore? Is that it?”
Kola cleared his throat. “He doesn’t want whoever has to make a hard decision to hate the other. That’s the truth.”
Anne jolted, and Eammon looked at my son.
“So it’s okay with Finn if we hate you?”
“Yes,” Kola replied honestly. “He knows I’m very logical and that I would know that it was the situation you hated, not really me. He had hopes that you would come around down the road.” He took a breath. “I would hope you would, but his wishes—always—are what I would honor. Period.”
“And because you’re going to be a doctor, you’ll be very thorough.”
“Yes, Mrs. Murray,” he assured her. “I would.”
“And is Finn your person?” Eammon asked, sounding broken.
“No, sir,” he told him. “Your son told me straight up that he could never turn anything off as long as there was a sliver of a chance that I would wake up. He’s sentimental too.”
Anne nodded.
“My father,” he told her, “is the person who would decide.”
Anne looked at Sam. “I can see why you would choose your father if sentiment would be what you want to circumvent.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Kola replied, taking a breath. “My father would know everything before he made a decision. That’s how he makes his decisions.”
“And what if your father is gone by the time the choice needs to be made?”
That was it. In the face of the uncertainness about Finn, she had suggested that Kola could also be without his father. He turned, took two steps, and pressed his face into his father’s shoulder. Sam wrapped him up as Kola dissolved. After a couple of seconds, Sam lifted his eyes to Anne. She had the same reaction most did when faced with his displeasure, she took an involuntary step back. I understood. The self-preservation instinct kicked in and the flight response was triggered. She had scared the man’s son, and he was not pleased.
To her credit, Anne immediately took a step forward, wanting, I was fairly certain, to correct what she’d said. Eammon was quicker, though, and took hold of her arm.
I turned to the doctor. “We got off on a tangent there, Dr. Wong. Forgive us. How is Finn doing now?”
“We have him on IV fluids, and after I received the call from Mr. Hunt identifying the substance as GHB, and was told how much Finn ingested, I believe he’ll be just fine."
Kola leaned out of his father’s arms, brushed his tears away, and faced her. “Mr. Hunt contacted you directly?”
“He did, yes. The issue is, just as everyone has a different reaction to prescription medications, something like GHB is very hard to gauge.”
“People can die from it.”