Finding Christina (Wild Rose #2) (14 page)

BOOK: Finding Christina (Wild Rose #2)
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Chapter Nineteen

 

 

 

Cain Rose Morgan was born at six thirty-one in the morning on March 14
th
. His mother passed away minutes later, and everyone in the operating room believed that somehow, she’d known her job was over. Cain weighed in at two pounds and eight ounces, and he was a whopping twelve inches long. He was rushed into the NICU and Grace was left to mourn her best friend.

She sat completely stunned in the waiting room, as a nurse that had taken care of Christina for a few weeks sat beside her, explaining what had happened. Christina’s heart had simply given up. As though it had known exactly how many beats it needed to thump out. And that was it. She was gone. Vickie told her that she’d likely felt no pain and that she went peacefully almost to the very minute they’d pulled the baby out. Vickie handed her a letter and said it was given to her by Christina several weeks prior, just in case. It was addressed to Cain and she simply held the square of notebook paper in her hand.

The kind nurse had sat with her for a few more moments to make sure she was okay, and Grace reassured her. “I’m okay, you can go. Thank you for your kindness.” After some more time had passed, she called her dad to let him know what happened. “She’s gone,” she managed to choke out, her voice strained with emotion and unshed tears.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry,” Damien murmured. “I’ll fly out today. I can be there in a few hours.”

“Thanks. Cain is beautiful. It’s hard to believe I’m going to be taking care of him now. It doesn’t seem right. It shouldn’t be this way. She should be here.” The doctors had allowed her to snap one picture of the baby after they pulled him from Christina’s womb, and she was in love with the baby already. Because he was the only piece of Christina that was left.

“Are you okay?”

Grace wiped tears from her eyes and blew out a slow breath. “I will be. I have to be, for Cain. I have to for Christina. She would want me to. I’ll see you soon, Dad.”

Grace hung up the phone and pocketed the letter, unable to read what was on the sheet of paper. She couldn’t bear to read the last words from Christina to her son. She hurried from the waiting room and meandered to the cafeteria where she got a cup of coffee that grew cold on the table before her. The last weeks had been spent waiting and watching, hoping for a miracle that never came.

Christina had been intubated ten days after her rash had begun to spread. None of the antibiotics they used had been able to keep the infections at bay, and after she was intubated, her pneumocystis pneumonia got worse. Then slowly everything began to fall apart. But, still she maintained hope. Hope for a future with her friend. Hope that her godson would know his mother.

And he will, even without her being here. He will know that at the end of her story, I knew she was a good person. She had her bad spots, but hey, don’t we all? Christina told me not to judge her until the end, and today I know she was a loving mother and she waited for her son to be ready to come into this world before she stopped fighting. I know that she was brilliant, and beautiful, and she came into my life like a tornado, and left it like an earthquake. She was dealt a terrible hand in life, but she persevered for Cain. Many mothers would have aborted him long ago and tried their best to live their lives, but Christina wanted to make amends for something that happened when she had no control over the situation. This time she made sure she did.

And she left a legacy. One that I will nurture and make sure has a happy home. I wish more than anything she was coming home with me, but I know she’ll always be there. She’s the whisper between each beat of my heart. She gave me a purpose and saved me from myself. Now it’s my turn to save her son.

Grace stood and threw the cold coffee away before making her way back to the neonatal unit. She was let inside after scrubbing up and putting on a clean scrub top. Cain lay in a tiny plastic box, which the nurse told her was called an isolette, and he was hooked to a ventilator and had a tube in his nose and an IV in his arm.

Her heart broke again as she stared down at him. “How is he?” She managed to whisper to a nurse and she smiled.

“He will pull through. I don’t think he’ll need the ventilator for long.”

“Do you know how long he will be in here?”

“A few months at least.”

Grace sat down in a little rocking chair beside Cain’s isolette and she rocked slowly as she wept. She’d never felt more alone than she did in that moment sitting in the ICU.

Christina was cremated. She hadn’t known what to do for her friend, so she set up a small candlelight service in a little church. A few students from school had come, and the couple Christina said had helped her after her attack. Grace had said a few simple words about Christina’s memory.

“Christina taught me more in our time together than most people learn from someone in a lifetime. Christina taught me forgiveness, strength, and that there’s hope, even in the darkest of places. A piece of her lives on in my godson. She wouldn’t want us standing here crying. More than likely she’d tell us all to go get hammered and live it up. I know my life hasn’t been the same since she came into it, and it will never be the same again. I love you, Christina.”

Addie and Patrick had come to visit the baby after the service and they made the offer of adopting him. Grace refused, knowing that was not what Christina had wanted. She promised that she would send them pictures and that they could see the baby often. They made plans to get together for Thanksgiving, if Cain was healthy enough. He was steadily making progress with each day that passed, and Grace looked forward to being able to take him home to Phoenix. She planned to plant a rose bush in the garden with Christina’s ashes under it. So that her wild rose would have a home with her and Cain. At least in spirit.

Grace’s grandparents had come to help her cope with the loss and her new responsibilities and she was grateful for their support. But in the end she was alone with her godson. Five months after Christina’s death, she was able to bring Cain home with her. They sat in the nursery, and she read him the letter from his mama as they rocked. It was the first time she’d read the letter and tears splashed down her cheeks as she read to him. She would tuck it away for him for when he was older, but he’d always know his mother, the amazing person she had been.

Under the poignant letter to her son, Christina had written,
It’s the end now, Grace, and I hope I redeemed myself in your eyes. I hope when you think of me you think of the good things, not the bad. I love you.

Gripping the note to her chest, she whispered, “You did,” and she imagined her voice being carried on the wind to an angel’s ears.

 

 

 

Epilogue

 

 

 

Vickie sat down at her laptop after reading the letter Christina had given her for the third time. She couldn’t stop the tears that coursed down her cheeks. It wasn’t good to get attached to a patient, but she had gotten very attached to the vibrant, charming Christina. It wasn’t fair that the kid had died like she had.

Now, Christina’s last request was scrawled on a sheet of crumpled notebook paper, the words shaky as though she had been writing quickly. The letter was not quite a page long, and half of it wasn’t even to Vickie herself, but instead, it was instructions on what to do if she did die. She’d given the other letter to Grace that morning, and the poor girl had been so bereft, she wanted to tell her that happiness was coming, if only this last request would go where it needed to go.

But she hadn’t. She’d kept Christina’s last secret, because it wasn’t her secret to tell. All she could hope was that good would come out of it.

Smoothing the paper out on her desk, she read it one last time.

 

Dear Vickie,

 

I know I’m asking a lot of you. God knows, I wish I didn’t have to do this, but it’s past time for me to fix something I messed up. I owe it to Grace. If I can’t have a happy ending, she deserves one for herself and for Cain. On the day I die, we all know it’s coming, so don’t try to make me be hopeful and perky about the future. This is my insurance. This is all I can do. I want you to log into my e-mail and type out one final message, from me, to Drake. My e-mail is
[email protected]
and my password is Yalebabe1. This is what I want you to say:

 

Dear Drake,

 

I want you to know that I was wrong. Grace loved you. I hope I’m not too late and you’ve found someone new. But there’s something you need to know. Grace had a baby today, very early. It’s your baby, Drake. You need to know you have a son, and his name is Cain. I may have waited until it was too late to tell her that you’d come back. She met someone else…and she’s raising Cain in Phoenix with her boyfriend Damien. I want you to go see her. I’m putting her address at the bottom of this e-mail. Go meet your son. You deserve that much. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.

 

Christina

 

That’s all I ask. Thank you, Vickie, for being a great nurse and a friend to me when I had no one else. If all nurses had your attitude, I believe the medical field would be a better place. I hope that when you think of me it makes you smile.

 

Your friend, Christina.

 

Vickie pecked out the letter to a man she’d never met, pretending for a few moments she was Christina. She hoped the letter would reach the young man soon and that he could come comfort the heartbroken Grace. The girl had a long road to go alone. As she finished the e-mail, she closed the laptop and wept.
This is why nurses don’t befriend patients. Because we begin to care, and then when they die, it wrecks us. Wherever you are, Christina, I want you to know I did what you asked. I hope you’re at peace out there. Bless you.

 

 

 

To Be Continued…

Discover other titles by

Scarlett Jade

 

The Rhythm of the Heart Series:

September Tango

November Foxtrot

February Waltz

 

Just a Little Taste Series:

Love at First Bite

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

 

Wild Rose Series

Saving Grace

Finding Christina

Raising Cain (Coming Soon!)

 

The Mistletoe Bride (Coming Soon!)

 

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BOOK: Finding Christina (Wild Rose #2)
9.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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