An Heir At Any Price: The Billionaire's Obsession - Contemporary Romance (7 page)

I got up and got another cup of
coffee. Taking it outside again I sat down and thought about
Aiden’s wounds and wondered if they could be healed if he were to
fall in love again. I wondered if having a woman in his life that
adored him and would be loyal and dedicated no matter what could
chip away at those scars until they were eventually gone. I came to
the conclusion that I believed to be the correct one although it
wasn’t what I had wanted it to be: Aiden was like a bird with a
snapped wing. He could be fixed, his wounds weren’t fatal, only
crippling. But by what or whom he could be fixed was another story.
I really didn’t think I was capable of doing that. I wasn’t strong
enough. I’d been trying to change my mother for years, and look at
her…

I showered and dressed and decided
that I would tell him at breakfast. My chest ached at the thought
of having to give him up. I’d let myself get too attached. But it
had to be done and I was going to do it this morning if I had to
beat myself into it. The longer I dragged it out the more at risk
my own heart became. I don’t believe that having a baby for him
will heal him and I don’t believe he would ever fall in love with
me. If I walk away now, I’m doing us both a favor.

I had just picked up my purse and was
ready to leave for my breakfast date with Aiden when my phone began
ringing. I felt sick to my stomach when I looked at the caller I.D.
It said, “Memorial Hospital.” I knew it was about my mother before
I picked it up.

“Hello.”

“Hello, is this Holly
Valentine?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Miss Valentine this is Bridgette
Baxter. I’m a social worker here at Memorial Hospital. We have your
mother here and you’re listed as her emergency contact.”

“Yes, what’s happened? Is she
okay?”

“I was hoping you could come down and
we could talk in person, you, me and the physician. Your mother is
okay, for now physically, I don’t want you to worry about that. But
we really need to talk about a long term plan.”

“Of course,” I told the lady. “I’ll be
right down.” I called Aiden then and got his voicemail. I left him
a message that I had to take care of a family issue and I would
give him a call when I was finished. Then I called a cab and headed
to the hospital to see what kind of trouble my mother had gotten
herself into now.

Chapter Seven

~

I arrived at the hospital with a sense
of De Ja Vu. I had done this so many times before and each time it
left me with a headache, sick to my stomach and angry all over
again at the situation my life is in through no fault of my own. I
usually wasn’t one to feel sorry for myself, but my time with Aiden
recently had shown me another whole side to life and that had made
this one that much bleaker.

I went to the admission counter and
told the woman who I was and who I was here to see. A few moments
later a woman a little older than me in a nice business suit and
heels came out to greet me.

“Holly?”

“Yes, Miss Baxter?”

“Yes, please, call me Bridgette. Do
you mind if we go talk before you see your mother?”

“No, that’s fine. She’s
okay?”

“She will be,” Bridgette said. I
followed her down a long corridor and into an office that said her
name and LCSW on the door. She was a licensed clinical social
worker. I couldn’t help but wonder what I might be if I’d had the
chance to go to college. I had the grades, I probably could have
easily gotten a scholarship if I’d applied…but my dad was sick and
someone had to take care of my mother.

I took the seat Bridgette offered me
and before we began talking a middle-aged man in a white lab coat
joined us. Bridgette introduced him as Dr. Easton. He was the
doctor caring for my mother.

After exchanging pleasantries he said,
“Miss Valentine, your mother was apparently found by a friend of
hers, passed out in her front yard. She’d been drinking, I’d say
from the blood alcohol level for at least twenty four
hours.”

I thought of myself at the spa and at
dinner and then the opera. I’d left her alone, was I to blame for
this? The doctor was still talking and I made myself focus and
listen.

“Her blood alcohol level was three
times the legal limit. We had to give her several bags of
electrolytes and fluids due to her severe dehydration. I’ve ran lab
tests and a CT of her abdomen and although I spoke to her already,
I feel compelled to speak to you as well and she’s given us
permission to do that. Her liver is barely functioning. Her body is
beginning to build up toxins that her liver should be filtering
out. She has varices in her esophagus; do you know what that
is?”

“Broken veins?” I asked.

“Yes, basically. They come from
long-term and repeated use of alcohol. They can cause internal
bleeding and lead to all kinds of other life-threatening issues.
She has a severe ulcer and from her labs it appears that she hasn’t
been eating well at all because her nutritional state is so poor.
Her blood glucose however, likely from the alcohol intake, was
alarmingly high. We will need to test her for diabetes, and if she
doesn’t have it now, it’s likely she will in the near future if she
keeps going at this rate. She has other physical issues as well,
all related to long term excessive use of alcohol. Her blood
pressure is unstable, she may have an arrhythmia…I can have the
nurses get you some printed information on all of them. The bottom
line however is that if she doesn’t stop drinking, the next time
this happens she might be found dead. She won’t be around long at
this rate. ”

My mind was reeling. I of course knew
my mother wasn’t healthy. She was too thin and her skin always
looked bad. If I wasn’t mistaken, she’d also started losing some of
her hair. Her teeth were almost all rotten and she refuses to go to
the dentist. She was a mess and I knew it, I just hadn’t been aware
how bad off she really was until now. I suppose I hadn’t thought of
how that poison she insisted on using in copious amounts was
destroying her insides as well.

“So what do we need to do for
her?”

“Medically, I can prescribe some
medications and dietary supplements for her to treat the symptoms,
but she’s going to have to stop drinking or nothing is going to
help her for very long. I have to get back on the floor. I’ll let
Bridgette go over the rest with you. She’ll give you my office
number before you go in case you think of any
questions.”

“Thank you, doctor,” I told
him.

“You’re welcome Miss Valentine. I’m
sorry to be the bearer of such grave news.” It was bound to happen.
On really bad days every time the phone rings I think this is going
to be the news, or worse.

Once he’d left Bridgette said, “Dr.
Easton and I had a talk with your mother about all we just went
over with you. She agreed that she needed to stop drinking but
expressed that she was sure she wouldn’t be able to do it on her
own. She tells me that she’s been through rehab before, but that it
would be hard for you to pay for it now. I’ve done a little
research and I’ve found three rehab centers in the area that take
her insurance as long as the share of cost is taken care
of.”

My mother had Medicaid, but because of
a small pension check she gets every month from my father and the
home she now owns since his death, they gave her a high share of
cost. An ER visit usually runs me around $2000.00 and that’s just
our part. I can only imagine what rehab was going to cost on top of
the bill she had already racked up here. Bridgette didn’t look like
a woman who often worried about money.

I heard myself saying, “Whatever we
need to do to get her help,” and then I started trying to figure
out in my head how “we” were going to do that. The only solution I
could come up with was accepting Aiden’s offer. I couldn’t see any
other way out. If I didn’t, I’d be drowning in the medical bills my
entire life.

“Would you like to see her now?”
Bridgette asked me. I wanted to say no. I was angry with her, hurt,
disgusted…but as usual I didn’t.

“Sure, thanks.”

***

The room was dark, just the way she
liked it. She had undoubtedly already yelled at some poor nurse for
opening the blinds and they hadn’t made the same mistake twice. The
thick, velvet curtains pulled tight across the window left it void
of light. I switched on a small fluorescent lamp near the door so
that she wouldn’t complain about it getting into her eyes. She
looked like she was sleeping. Her face was more peaceful than I’d
seen it in a long time. The fluids they gave her went far in making
her at least appear healthier. I remember when I was a little girl,
I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Now
sometimes I don’t even really recognize her. I sat down on the
chair next to her bed.

“Mom?”

Her eyelids fluttered but she didn’t
open them. I called out to her again and her peaceful face turned
into a scowl.

“Go away.” She grabbed the sheet on
the bed and turned on her side away from me.

I was suddenly incensed. She had no
one to blame for this but herself yet here I sit feeling guilty and
worrying about her and the bills…all the things she should be
worrying about and she had the audacity to speak to me that way. I
was about to do something I was very unsure of in order to secure
both of our futures. That should have been her job, or at least our
job together. She’d put us both right here though, I wasn’t going
to take the blame for that. Getting angrier I stood up and pulled
the sheet back off of her.

“No, I will not go away. As usual, I’m
paying for this little excursion. You have no idea what I am going
to have to go through to pay for it. The absolute very least you
could do is express some real remorse for a change. I feel like I’m
raising an obstinate child most of the time and I’m sick of this,
all of it. I’m going to pay these bills, and you are going into
rehab when you leave here.”

My mother opened one eye slowly and
then after a few seconds she opened the other. She groaned I was
sure it was a headache. If she’d been at home she’d have a beer or
vodka in her hand by now. She used to tell me that the best way to
get rid of a hangover was to treat it with a vodka chaser. Ah, the
lovely things a mother teaches her child.

When she pulled them fully open, I
could see that she had tears in her eyes. It wasn’t fazing me
though, I knew it as just another of her well-practiced
manipulation techniques.

“
Holly, I don’t want to go
to one of those places. I want to stay home. I’ll miss it and you…I
can stop. I don’t need to be put in one of those cold, scary
places. The people are mean and I don’t sleep because I want to be
home in my own bed so badly…Please tell me that I don’t have to go,
Holly.”

“You can’t do it by yourself, mother.
You’ve tried before, it doesn’t work. If you refuse to go to rehab,
I walk away.”

“What does that mean?” she said,
looking truly confused.

“That means exactly what I said. I
walk, Mom. I’m not doing any of this with you anymore. This is the
last time. You get into rehab and get some help and I’ll pay for
it. You walk out of here and go home, I stop paying for it all. But
mostly, I stop seeing you. I have no desire to ever see you like
this again. I’m through.”

She was looking at me with hurt and
shock in her eyes. I’d never threatened to walk away before, and
she knew that without my help she would be homeless by now. Her
face changed and she looked like she was going to argue again.
Either the look on my face stopped her, or there was something left
in her pickled brain that told her this was an okay
deal.

“Okay, Holly. When do I
go?”

“Soon,” I told her. “I’ll let you know
after I make the arrangements.”
I got up to head for the door and I heard her say, “I love you.” I
loved her too, God help me. I couldn’t stop and turn around though,
I didn’t have the energy.

I walked down the hall and through the
lobby and out the double doors into the fresh air. I stood there
for a minute, gulping it in. I felt like I had been starving for
it. Once I got enough air in my lungs and my hands stopped shaking
I took out my phone and called Aiden.

“Hello?”

“I decided to do it,” I blurted out. I
was afraid if I didn’t just say it that I wouldn’t.

“You decided to have my child?” he
said, to clarify.

“Yes, I can meet you now to go over
the contract if you have time. I just had a few more simple
questions.”