Free Seeking Nirvana by V. L. Brock Page B

it near enough impossible to perch yourself on the edge without slipping.
    I shimmied myself up further before speaking. “I was out cold for four days. In ten days total, they came to see me once. They didn’t come back when they said they would. I’ve been home for nearly two weeks, and not even so much as a phone call to ask if everything is okay.” I drew in a much needed breath before continuing. “Liam, if it was our child in the hospital bed, I wouldn’t have left her side. How can they not care? I don’t understand.”
    The gentle sensation of him rubbing his thumb over the back of my right hand had me lifting my head to look at him straight-on. The little V scored between his eyebrows. He licked his lips. “ I’m sorry, Kady, baby. I didn’t want to worry you, but––”
    In a lightning flash, my bloodied, left hand was covering his, clutching pleadingly. “Worry me? Why Liam, what’s happened? Please tell me. Is everything okay?” I gushed, worry palpable in not only my tone, but in flared eyes which searched his for an answer.
    He slipped himself off the bed, left the room and trudged down the hall with me in tow, continuing to beg for pieces of information that he was blatantly withholding from me, like a dog for tidbits. We stepped into his office, where he dug out a large, gray file.
    “Your mom and dad have been under a lot of stress lately.”
    “Stress,” I responded while he pulled a document from the folder.
    “Your dad got himself into some trouble, and the business has been affected…”
    “What kind of trouble? How has the business been affected? Please, Liam. I don’t understand any of this.”
    His eyes hardened and his jaw tensed. “Calm down, Kady, baby,” he strained through gritted teeth in a tone I was becoming vastly familiar with. I hushed immediately. “I’m trying to explain. Marcus got himself wrapped up in some gambling. Jenson’s has been going under, so I have been loaning him money to keep them afloat. Here.”
    My jaw slacked as I studied the bank statement closely with wide-eyes. “Liam,” I flicked through to the second page, the third page, the fourth page, fifth and sixth page. “Six months?”
    “It’s been longer than that, Kady, but I shred the others. Nearly $25,000 I have loaned your dad, their mortgage was slipping, like I said, the business is real ly struggling. But Kady, baby,”––I pulled my focus from the documents, and met Liam’s caring, considerate gaze. “My dad was a gambler; I know how serious it can get. It’s not something that we particularly want for our future. That’s why I told him he has to clean his act up.”
    Now this is making sense…okay, a little sense. “Thank you for helping them, Liam. I don’t know how I can repay you.”
    He smiled his arrogant smile, and pulled me into his arms , holding me against the warmth of his broad chest. “You don’t need to repay me, baby. Don’t think of them not getting into contact because they don’t care about you, Kady, baby. Think of it as, they know that I will take care of you, and they have nothing to worry about except getting themselves and their marriage on the straight and narrow, yeah?”
    Snuggled against his body, I welcomed his heat and fresh scent. I nodded. “What about, Brittany?”
    “Brittany’ s snowed under with all of her exams, baby. We want her to get a good job don’t we? Even with her pink hair.”
    Pink hair, I mean, really? What on earth possessed her to go with pink?
    At 5:35 p.m., Liam folded himself into a cab, and left for Logan International to fly to Tokyo for his business meeting with Yoshimotto.
    I had held my tongue for what seemed like time without end. Liam’s disclosure revolved continually over and over, and my head began to thump, and my stomach began to churn and knot. How could my dad do such a thing? He knew how my mom felt about gambling. The money he was putting down for all those little betting slips, or decks of cards,