Page 135 of You Make Me Feel
I blink. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well next time you want to play the hero, give mesome warning, okay?” she says, using the back of her hand to wipe her tears. “Is it too much to ask to have at least one brother who doesn’t have a death wish?”
Wyatt’s eyes meet mine. He winks at me.
“Okay.” I nod. “But can I see Sadie?”
“Soon, when she’s done talking to the FBI,” Eden says softly.
Hey,” Asher says, walking into the room. “You’re awake.”
“Yeah, I am.” I look him over, trying to see if he’s hurt. Because the last thing I remember was shots being fired. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I am.” Asher shakes his head, looking way too smug. “Shame about Darien, though. He offloaded one bullet into the air, and then I shot his shoulder and he dropped the gun. You didn’t see that part, sadly. It was a beautiful aim.”
“Will you shut up about getting shot at?” Autumn mutters.
“How hurt is he?” I ask.
“Not enough. But that’s okay. He’s the FBI’s problem now. Plus, he seems to have lost some bank account numbers, which will piss a lot of people off.” He fills me in on the painting, on Darien losing the phone. On Sadie.
I’m asking more questions when there’s a tap at the door.
“Mr. Fitzgerald?” a low voice says.
And of course, all four of us answer. Wyatt and Asher laugh, Hudson shakes his head.
“I mean the one in the bed,” the man says, walking into the room. “I’m Dr. Johannsen.”
Hudson walks forward. “Hudson Fitzgerald, thank you for coming.”
He shrugs. “I was close by. And honestly, the team here has things under control.” He looks over my notes. “There are a few more tests I’d like to run once you’ve been awake a while. And of course we’ll need to keep you under observation for a bit. But first of all, can I ask how your eyesight is? It says here you have RP.”
“What’s RP?” Hudson asks. “Is it a side effect of his brain injury?”
Wyatt clears his throat. “Guys, we should probably give Zach some privacy, huh?”
“They don’t know?” The doctor winces. Like this is all his fault. And not mine for keeping it a secret.
“They don’t,” I say. “But I guess they’re about to, right?”
Because it’s tomorrow. I think. The day I promised myself I’d stop hiding the truth from them. “Could you give me a moment alone with my family before we continue?” I ask him. “There’s something I need to tell them.”
“So there’s really no cure?” Autumn asks twenty minutes later, after I’ve told them about my near-miss in Rome, my meetings with the doctors, the subsequent diagnosis. “Are you sure?”
I nod, feeling sick, because I’m about to put a dark cloud over their heads. “Not at the moment. There’s a lot of research going on. And I’ve agreed to be part of a trial. But right now, there’s nothing that can cure it.”
“So you’re going to go blind?” Eden asks softly. There are tears in her eyes.
I swallow hard. “Not necessarily. We don’t know how quickly it will progress or to what extent. Every case is different. But I’ll probably lose more of my vision. It’salready started with my peripheral vision. Hence the near miss in Rome.” And missing Darien right fucking next to me in my apartment.
I take a deep breath. “But there’s something else you need to know. And I’m so damn sorry. But the cause is usually genetic.”
For a second, no one in my family speaks. Which might be the first time in living history.
Hudson swallows hard. “Usually?”
“Again, there’s a lot to learn about the condition. Sometimes it’s passed on, so it’s possible our parents were carriers. You’ll all need to be tested. And your kids.” I wince, because fuck, this is hard. I hate this. “My doctor is sending swab kits over. They’re trying to narrow down the genetic cause from my tests, and then they can cross reference it with all of yours.”
