I started up my truck and tailed Mike and the cops, keeping enough distance between us so they couldn’t tell I was following them. I grabbed my phone and quickly dialed Vic’s cell to give him a heads up. I didn’t know what mess Mike had found himself in but if he was in trouble with the cops then Victor would want to know. He didn’t answer, so I dropped my phone onto the passenger seat and continued following them until they pulled into a hospital parking lot.
The police parked in the fire lane as Mike stepped out of his car. The officers walked around and met Mike, escorting him into the hospital. I followed his date until she found a spot and then I parked my car. I was close behind her as she walked on wobbly heels across the parking lot and into the lobby of the emergency room.
Mike was nowhere in sight, neither were the cops that had brought him here. I don’t know how shit works in Pennsylvania but back in New York when the police paid you a visit and they weren’t there to arrest you it only meant one thing. One of your loved ones was in some sort of trouble. From what I could tell, Mike didn’t have anyone close in his life other than Maryanne. Oh God, please don’t let something be wrong with her, Mike would lose his fucking mind if something happened to his only living parent.
I walked to the water fountain, dipped my head to take a sip, and lifted my eyes to scan the room for Mike’s date. She sat in the corner of the emergency room by herself playing on her phone. I straightened up and walked towards her taking a seat a few seats away from her. I dropped my head and peered at her from the corner of my eye as she lifted her phone to her ear.
“Yeah, it’s me. So are you ready for how my night wound up?” She said with a sigh, leaning back against the plastic chair in the lobby. “Yes, I left with the hot guy from the bar. By the time we got back to his place and started getting into it the fucking cops showed up at his house.”
I lifted my head and turned it slightly to watch as she shuffled through the contents of her purse and propped the phone to her ear with her shoulder. Boy, Michael really knew how to pick them.
“I don’t know they said something about his mother being in a car accident. I know right. So now, I’m sitting in the emergency room because I drove him here. I feel bad for the guy, he’s a mess.”
I stood up and made my way to the reception desk, the woman behind the counter lifted her eyes to mine.
“Can I help you?” She asked me.
“Yes, I was wondering if you could give me some information on Maryanne Valente.”
“Are you family?”
“I’m her nephew,” I lied, knowing it wasn’t likely they would tell me much. “Look, my cousin is in with her now. The cops showed up at his house and told him his mother was in a bad car accident. I want to know if maybe I should call the rest of the family. If she’s critical our family has to trek it from New York.”
She bit the inside of her cheek before diverting her eyes to her computer screen and began to work her fingers against the keyboard. She paused before lifting her head and staring at me sorrowfully.
“You might want to make those phone calls.”
I stared at her blankly for a second, my mind processing the underlying meaning behind her words before the rest of me did.
“Now,” she added.
“Thank you,” I replied, my voice barely audible. I turned around, grabbing my phone from my pocket and dialed Victor again, praying to God he answered the phone this time.
Chapter Twenty-One: 2015
I was sitting on the front porch of the Valente home when the black Escalade pulled into the driveway, parking behind Mike’s beat up truck. It had been hours since I watched Mike walk out of the hospital with tears in his eyes and a blank expression on his face. I lingered around the hospital and tried to find out as much as possible but it didn’t matter because the doctors had declared Maryanne brain dead. The doctors said there was nothing anyone could do, and that being said it was too much for Mike to process. He asked the doctors to keep her on the ventilator until the next day so he could gather his bearings and say goodbye to the only person he had left in life.
In true Mike fashion, he went home with his date from earlier and tried to fuck his problems away. I guess his date didn’t have the heart to tell him that her pussy wouldn’t bring his mother back to life.
Jimmy and Victor climbed out of the truck and I rose to my feet to greet them at the porch steps.
“How is he?” Victor asked, catching me off guard since I hadn’t heard the man ever sound so sincerely concerned in all the years I knew him.
“I think he’s in shock,” I responded. As both men moved to walk passed me I reached out and took hold of Jimmy’s arm. “He’s got someone in there with him so ring the bell.”