“What impression” he asked, “do you think that kind of behavior will make on a judge? How do you think they’ll react to the fact you were arrested for physical assault? Or that you broke a man’s jaw with one punch?”
I ground my teeth and refused to blink. He was talking about the bodyguard the Delvania royal family had assigned Raphael. He was talking about the fight that had not only made the news in Australia and America, but had become a viral hit on YouTube.
I stared down into his face. My head roared.
“Charles,” Jacqueline snapped. “You’re being stupid.”
“I’m being a father,” he snarled, turning to her. “I’m protecting my daughter. I’m protecting my family.”
“How?” Jacqueline gazed at him, disbelief and disapproval in her eyes. “By belittling the man your daughter loves?”
“Love?” He barked out a dry laugh. “It’s not love. It’s lust. Lust for a muscle-bound –”
I bunched his shirt in my fist. I couldn’t stop myself. “I’d stop if I were you, Chuck. Despite what you think, I’m not a violent guy, but you’re pushing me to a place I suit very very well.”
He turned back to me, triumphant glee burning in his eyes. “You’re a Neanderthal, Osmond. And no Neanderthal will ever marry my daughter. Or raise her son. I’m going to convince her now to let Dr. Waters use Robby’s bone marrow, and when my grandson is cured, when I’ve saved him, she will see you have no worth in her—”
“Dad!” Amanda’s voice shattered the air. “That’s enough.”
I turned, straightening away from Charles. Just in time for Amanda to slap her father across the face. The crack of her palm on his cheek sank into my cold rage.
Jacqueline gasped. “Mandy, no.”
“That’s enough,” Amanda repeated, glaring at her father. Her cheeks glistened, wet with tear. Fury boiled in her eyes. “You’re not helping at all. Don’t you see that? Don’t you see you’re only hurting us more?”
“Us?” Charles echoed, rubbing at the red palm print on the side of his face. “I’m trying to save you and Tanner, not hurt you. Robby’s bone marrow is almost a match. You know that. There’s a chance Tanner’s body will accept it. And instead of agreeing to the transplant, you place all your hope – and Tanner’s life – in the man who abandoned you, who left you to go pump iron.”
“That’s not what happened, Dad.” Amanda shook her head. “And you know it.”
Charles sneered at me. “Okay, fine. But he’s not a match. His parents aren’t a match. My God, Mandy, even his friend isn’t a match. He cannot save Tanner. There is nothing he can do for you except take . . . except take you . . .” He stopped, yanking his glasses from his face with one hand and rubbing at his eyes with another.
“Except what?” Amanda asked, studying her father.
From the corner of my eye I saw men hurrying toward us. Big men. Big men wearing dark clothes that could only be security uniforms.
“Except what, Dad?”
“Except take you away,” he ground out. “Except take you back to Australia so we never see you, or Tanner . . .”
“Oh Jesus, Dad.” Amanda shook her head. “Are you serious? My son is dying, your grandson is dying, and you’re worried about geography?”
Anger crossed Charles face. His eyes grew flinty. “I’m worried about what’s best for my grandson. And what’s best for him is to—”
“Excuse me.” The biggest of the security guards had reached us. He ran a composed inspection over all of us, lingering for a moment on me. I knew why – he was weighing up his odds of taking me down. The odds weren’t in his favor. “We’re going to have to ask you to leave now.”
“It’s okay.” Amanda placed her hands on Charles’s chest and shook her head at the guards. “We’re okay.”
“I’m sorry, miss,” the biggest guard said. He flicked a glance at me and shuffled his feet. His Adam’s apple jerked up and down his throat. “But we can’t have this kind of disruption in the foyer. I have to ask you to exit the building.”
“I’m going to see my grandson,” Charles snarled, trying to shove past Amanda.
The guards moved. I moved faster. Hooking my fingers around Charles’s upper arm, I pulled him to a stop.
“Get your hands off me,” he ordered.
“Charles,” I answered, my voice calm. “I get I’m not what wanted for your daughter. I understand that. But I promise you I will never hurt her. I will never betray her. I will never tear her soul apart by being selfish. I will be there for her in the darkest of times, when life is destroying her, I will be there for her. That’s how much I love her. As much, I’m sure, as you do.” I held his gaze, willing him to understand what I was saying. And what I wasn’t saying.
He looked at me, searching my eyes for something. I don’t know what.
“Do you understand?” I said, loosening my grip on his arm. A little.
“Dad.” Amanda stepped between us. The soft touch of her fingers on my chest filled me with an emotion I still can’t explain or describe. “I love him. Can’t you understand that? I never stopped loving him. And I never should have let you bully me into not calling him when Tanner was diagnosed. The last twenty-four hours have been the most horrific and the most wonderful twenty-four hours of my life. If Brendon wasn’t here . . . well, they would only have been the most horrific. Can’t you see that?”
He gazed down at her, studying her face. And then he shook his head. “Can’t you see,” he said, “the very horrific nature of the last twenty-four hours is why you think him being here is so wonderful?”
Amanda’s shoulders slumped. My gut clenched.
“Please go, Dad,” she said. “Please leave. Now. I revoke your permission to visit Tanner or to have any access to him while he is here in New Dawn.”
The security guards tensed.
Jacqueline sobbed. “Oh, Mandy.”
Charles narrowed his eyes on Amanda, staring at her. “You don’t know what you’re doing. Don’t come crying to me when your son is dead.”
He turned on his heel and began to walk away. I grabbed his arm before he could take a step. “Remember those words, Chuck, when your grandson turns twenty-one and you’re not there to celebrate it with us.”
Eyes burning with contempt, he shook me off and hurried from the foyer, through the main doors.
Just as a tall guy with messy blond hair and a short, neatly trimmed beard entered the building. A guy who pulled his sunglasses from his face, grinned at me over the distance, held out his arms wide and announced, “Cousin. I’m here.”
Sixteen
Considering All Possible Outcomes
I blinked. After the insanity I’d just lived through, my brain couldn’t fathom how Caden could be standing in – now walking through – the hospital foyer.
He was in Australia. Not here. He’d driven to Sydney from Melbourne to see Dad, his uncle, for Dad’s birthday. I’d spoken to him on the phone only a short while ago.