Free Always: Broken Series Book Four by Annie Jocoby Page A

see Adele the next day.
    “Okay,” I said, going over to Scotty. “I have an appointment for you. It’s all set for tomorrow at 3. Would you like me to go with you?”
    “No. Somebody has to hold down the fort at work.” Scotty hung her head. “I thought my nightmares were behind me. When I married you and I had those three beautiful girls, I thought that my life would just keep going great. I thought that I slammed the door on all those things that ripped out my soul. Now this.”
    I sighed. There were still no words. How could I possibly have words? I didn’t know, yet, what we were up against. All that was known was that our little girl had an Osteosarcoma. We didn’t know if the cancer had spread, or if she was going to lose her leg. We really didn’t know much. If I knew something, I could give Scotty some kind of encouragement. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to bullshit her, either. She would see right through that.
    So, I did what I did best. I just held her and let her cry.
    And kept her away from the alcohol.
    For now.

Ten
Scotty
    N ick was convinced that I needed to see Adele. Maybe he was right. I didn’t really know. All that I knew was that my brain was completely confused and scrambled. When I woke up in the morning, any morning, it was as if there was a veil that was covering my mind. That was the only way to describe it. I was foggy and always exhausted, no matter how much sleep I got the previous night.
    Nick didn’t help. I mean, he did, but he didn’t. I appreciated his strength, but he woke up in the middle of the night, almost every night, in a cold sweat. Even if I was able to sleep, when Nick did that, I would wake up as well. Then, I would end up not being able to get back to sleep. I would stare at the ceiling, counting the little popcorn mounds on it. Nick would be able to get right back to sleep, but I never could. My thoughts were obsessively on Addison. I could only think of her.
    In the meantime, I could see myself slowly going under. Well, I wasn’t slowly going under – I was doing so rapidly. I felt as if I had been swept out to sea, so I was in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to go. I could tread water, but that would exhaust me, and I would end up going beneath the waves where I would either drown or be eaten by sharks. Right now, though, I was still treading water, but I knew that I wouldn’t be in a few days. All that I would need would be some enormous setbacks, and I would go under.
    I was in bed with Nick, who was snoring next to me. I got out of the bed and softly crept down the hall. I surreptitiously opened Addison’s door, expecting to see her fast asleep. Instead, she was sitting up in bed, her laptop next to her. She appeared to be looking something up. She saw me and shut the laptop. “I’m going to bed,” she said. “I know I have a long day at school tomorrow.”
    I took a deep breath and went into her room. It was a typical teenagers bedroom – there were pictures of her and her friends on her dresser, photos of the groups that she belonged to as they posed on ski slopes and spring breaks. On the walls were paintings that she made in art class. She was surprisingly good – she definitely didn’t get her artistic inclinations from me. While I could draw up a blueprint with precision, I never was able to paint. My creativity in my brain just didn’t work the way that it seemed to for artists. Her curtains were purple, which was her favorite color, but they seemed to clash just a bit with her walls, which were a different shade of purple than the curtains.
    I pictured her the way that she was 10 years ago, and pictured this room the way that it looked then. I saw the canopy bed that she had loved so much. The canopy bed had long since been replaced by a regular bed with wooden posters - she felt that canopies were for babies. That made me sad. I saw the stuffed animals that were on that canopy bed – Mr. Wingle, which is what she named the teddy