“We wanted to tell you ourselves,” he said with a grim twist of his mouth. “Yes, Nevaeh. I’m sick.”
“But…” I swallowed hard, feeling tears burning my eyes. My mind ran through the list of visible symptoms I could see. Bruising. Weight loss. Jaundice. I’d hurt him when I hugged him earlier, and I tried to remember exactly where my arms had been when I’d squeezed. But I wasn’t a damn doctor, and nothing was coming to mind because I wasn’t studying to go into the medical field. “What’s wrong with you?”
He glanced at Mom and sighed heavily before turning his gaze back to me. “Remember when I had that fender bender back in August? It was right after you went back to Virginia for the fall semester.”
“You said you didn’t get hurt,” I recalled aloud.
He’d been a passenger in Uncle Jesse’s SUV along with my other uncles when they’d gotten rear-ended on their way home from the studio. No one had gotten hurt from what Mom told me right after it happened.
“The seat belt caused some bruising across my abdomen, and I started having some pain. A lot of pain, if I’m being honest. Your mom made me go in for tests.” He swallowed hard and let out a strained laugh. “My past caught up with me, sweetheart. All those years of drinking caused some pretty significant damage. I have Stage 4 liver disease. I’ve had it for decades and didn’t even realize it. If it weren’t for the accident, I still might not have found out.”
“What?” I didn’t understand, or maybe I just didn’t want to understand. My mind couldn’t wrap itself around the fact that he was sick, let alone what disease he had. But it was starting to make sense, even though I really didn’t want it to. Because if there was a name for his illness, a diagnosis, then that made it real.
And I didn’t want it to be fucking real.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Mom finally spoke, but her voice was thick with tears. “Because Daddy is getting a new liver, and he will be just fine.”
I blinked at her in surprise. “Do you know how long people are on those damn transplant lists?” That much, I did know. “It could take years before he gets one and—”
“Uncle Shane is giving me part of his, Nev,” Daddy interrupted before I could start spouting off statistics.
“Really?” I whispered and finally lost the battle against my tears, letting them flow freely. “Are you sure he’s a good enough match? If he’s not, I’ll give you part of mine, Daddy. I know we have the same blood type. Surely we would be a better genetic match.”
“We’ve already had all the tests done, honey. He’s a positive match.”
“But maybe it would be better if I did it anyway. Let me do some research and figure out if it’s better if a child donates an organ for you to have a higher chance of not rejecting it than a sibling donating.” I picked up my phone, already typing rapidly.
Daddy reached across the table and snatched my phone from my hand. Placing it facedown on the table, he glared at me. “You are not donating anything. Neither are your sisters or your brother. This is happening because of my mistakes, and I’m not going to put any of you through that kind of pain and danger to fix them. The only reason I agreed to accept Shane’s offer was because your mom begged me to.”
“Are you crazy?” I didn’t mean to yell, but I was so upset, I couldn’t seem to control the volume of my voice. “Daddy, if the chance of survival is higher for me to give you a part of my liver, then of course, you need to take it. Don’t be stubborn. A small amount of pain is nothing if it means you get better.”
“I said no, Nevaeh. And that’s final.” He picked up his glass of water and downed half of it before pushing his chair back and standing. “Sorry, Angel. I’m not hungry.”
I watched him go before scrubbing my hands across my cheeks and finally looking over at Mom. “P-please. Let me do this. Just let me do the research, talk to the doctors, figure something out…”
But she shook her head. “He’s already made up his mind. It took weeks of me crying and pleading and making all kinds of ugly threats before he agreed to take Shane up on his offer.” Reaching over, she covered my ice-cold hand with her own. “I know this is scary. I’m terrified right now myself. But all we can do is accept your father’s decisions and pray everything works out.”
I couldn’t accept it, though. “But if I’m a better genetic match—”
“Honey, Uncle Shane’s tests showed that they are a perfect match. The doctors said they couldn’t possibly have gotten a better genetic match if they’d searched for a hundred years. Because, trust me, Aunt Natalie and Aunt Jenna both got tested, and while they were matches, they didn’t come anywhere close to what Shane’s is.” She stood and walked around the table to hug me. “It’s going to be okay, Nevaeh. We won’t lose him.”
I pressed my face into her chest and finally released the sob that felt like it had been clogging my throat from the moment I realized something was wrong with my daddy. “How can you know?” I choked out, clinging to her.
“I don’t,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “But I can’t think of any other outcome. If I do, I will definitely lose my mind.”
Chapter 5
Nevaeh
Mom made me finish dinner, but I could barely choke it down. Once the plate was almost empty, I excused myself and, grabbing my phone, ran up to my room.
All I could think about was talking to Braxton. I needed him, but just getting to hear his voice would be enough for the moment. I hit connect on his name in my call history and waited.
He was three hours ahead of me, and I knew he was at his parents’ for that damn family thing with Barrick, but I hoped he would still answer. He didn’t, and I felt a fresh wave of tears flood from my eyes as I fought back a sob.
Swallowing it before either of my parents heard, I called my next best choice of people I needed to talk to.
Mia picked up on the second ring, sounding like she was in the process of being sick again. “Wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” she muttered, and I heard the toilet flush seconds before a faucet was turned on. “Figured your parents would have you telling them minute-by-minute details of what’s been going on since you last saw them.”