“Nicholas, I don’t want you starting a scene,” she said, glancing from him to me and back.
“Where is she?” he asked. In the meantime, the woman in the back of the room had gotten up and was looking at Nick with preoccupation.
“She’s asleep. They’ve administered insulin. She’s fine, Nicholas, she’s going to make a full recovery.”
I squeezed his hand. I wished he would calm down, but he was completely beside himself. He walked past Anne and straight toward the other women. She was blond, and when I saw her up close, there was no doubt in my mind: this was his mother.
“Where the fuck were you? How could you let this happen?” he shouted. The bald man next to her tried to get between them, but she stopped him.
“Nicholas, it was an accident,” she said, calm but with eyes full of grief.
“Leave my wife in peace. We were already sick with worry before you showed up—”
“Fuck you!” Nick was squeezing my hand so tightly it hurt, but there was no way I would try to break free just then—he needed me. “She’s got to have her insulin three times a day. It isn’t rocket science, but what do you expect when you don’t think twice about leaving her in the hands of a bunch of dumb babysitters?”
“Madison knows she’s supposed to take her injections, and she didn’t say anything. Rose just assumed she’d done it—” the bald guy explained before Nick cut him off again:
“She’s five fucking years old! She needs a mother!”
This wasn’t just an argument about Nick’s sister. That much was clear. He was shouting at his mother because of Maddie but also because of himself. I hadn’t realized how much she’d hurt him until then, but it must have been hard, losing your mother at such a young age. I had lost my father, too, but in a certain sense, I’d saved myself from him, and my mother had always been there for me. Nicholas hadn’t had a father who loved him, just one who gave him money. I hated that woman for hurting him, and I hated William for not caring for his son enough.
I stepped back when a doctor appeared.
“Are you the family of Madison Grason?”
Everyone turned to him.
“She’s responding to treatment. She’ll get better, but she needs to spend the night here. I want to keep an eye on her glucose levels and her condition in general.”
“What’s going on with her, exactly?” Nick asked.
“You are…?”
“Her brother.”
The doctor nodded.
“Your sister’s suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis. That happens when the body doesn’t have enough insulin and it starts burning fat as a source of energy. When this happens, the liver produces ketones, which are a type of acid that is toxic when it builds up in the bloodstream.”
“What do you have to do when that happens?”
“Your sister’s glucose is up above three hundred. Her liver is cranking out glucose, but her cells can’t absorb it without insulin. With the doses we’re giving her, we’ll get that under control. We’ll run more tests, but there’s nothing to worry about. What bothered me when she got here was the dehydration because she’d been vomiting so much, but that’s behind us now. We’re through the worst of this. Kids are tough.”
“Can I see her?” Nicholas asked.
“Yes. She woke up, and if you’re Nick, she’s been asking about you.” Even knowing this didn’t seem to improve Nick’s mood. The thought that things could have been worse for his sister and that it was her parents’ fault must have been killing him inside.
“Come, I want you to meet her,” he said, pulling me behind him. I’d supposed he’d go in alone, but knowing he wanted me there for something so important filled me with joy.
When we entered Madison’s room, I saw her, a tiny little girl, prettier than any I’d ever seen. She was sitting up on her bed. When she saw Nick, she reached up and smiled.
“Nick!” She frowned from pain just as she said it. She had an IV in her arm; it must have hurt.
Nick let go of me for the first time in hours and ran over to her. It was funny to see him hugging her, sitting there in that giant bed.
“How are you, Princess?” he asked. I wasn’t sure what I felt just then, after seeing him so upset and then so relieved.
The girl was gorgeous but very petite for a five-year-old. She was pale and had big purple bags under her eyes. She made such a sad impression that I was reassured to see her smile.
“You came.”
“Of course I did. What did you think?” he replied, picking her up and putting her carefully on his lap as he leaned against the wall. She reached up and started playing with his hair.
The image warmed my heart. I’d never have guessed Nicholas could treat a child the way he was treating Madison. Honestly, I’d never have been able to imagine him with a child, period. Nick was the kind of guy who made you think of hot girls, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.
“Look, Maddie, I want to introduce you to someone really special. That’s Noah.” Only then did she seem to notice me. She only had eyes for her big brother. That was normal, right? But now those eyes, blue just like Nick’s, settled on me.
“Who is she?” she asked with a frown.
Before I could say I was a friend, Nicholas interrupted me:
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“You don’t have girlfriends,” she said.
I walked over to them.
“That’s true, Maddie, but I think I’ve made him change his mind,” I said with a grin. She was funny.
“I like your name,” she said. “It’s a boy’s name.” Nicholas burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help but join in.
“Uh, thanks. I’m not sure what to say.” Like brother, like sister, I thought, remembering what Nick had said about my name when we’d met.
“With a name like that, I’ll bet the boys let you play soccer,” she said.
“You like soccer?” I asked, disbelieving. Nicholas always called her Princess, and she looked more like one of those than a soccer fan.
“I love it. Nick gave me a ball. It’s so cool. It’s pink,” she replied, still tugging and slapping at Nick’s hair. I understood. I wanted to touch it, too.
We spent a good while with her, and there was no denying it: she was adorable. She was bright for her age and very funny, but she looked exhausted, so we decided to let her rest.
On the way out, we ran into Nick’s mom. You’d think a mother would be worried about her daughter, but she seemed to be on a different planet. She feigned indifference in front of her son, but certain barely perceptible nervous gestures showed me that his presence did affect her.
“Nicholas, I want to talk to you,” she said, looking back and forth between the two of us.
“I’ll leave you alone,” I said, but he held me close.
“I have nothing to say to you,” he hissed.
“Please, Nicholas. I’m your mother… You can’t spend your whole life avoiding me.” She didn’t seem to care that I was there listening. Nicholas was tense as a guitar string.
“You stopped being my mother the moment you abandoned me for that idiot husband of yours.” It was frightening to see him like that, so serious.
“I made a mistake,” she said, as if abandoning your child were something anyone might accidentally do. “But you’re not a child anymore. It’s time for you to forgive me for what I did.”
“That wasn’t a mistake. You disappeared for six years. You didn’t even call to ask how I was. You just left me!” he shouted. “I wish I never had to see you again, and if I could, I would take that precious little girl from you. You don’t deserve her. You don’t deserve to have her as a daughter.”
We walked away. He pulled me down the hallway, then turned, and then turned again until we reached an area that was empty. He pulled open the door of a small closet, and we stepped inside. The only light came from a window near the ceiling.