Page 46 of The Impossible

He dropped the gun toward his waist, then lifted it again, almost like he was hesitating.

“An O’Leary woman has to die. It’s that fucking simple.”

Tears streamed down my face and my heart beat rapidly, attempting to jump out of my chest. This was it. I was about to die in the bathroom of a freaking hospital.

I closed my eyes tightly, covering them as if I’d somehow get a peek at my brother before he shot me.

I stood there waiting for what felt like an eternity, but he didn’t shoot. There was a loud bang, then what sounded like something falling to the ground, and after long enough, footsteps coming toward me.

I opened my eyes just in time to see my husband rushing toward me and my brother on the ground under Shawn.

Hondo pulled me into him tightly. “You good, baby, you good. On my life, you good.” He spoke to me, holding me tightly. In his arms I felt like I was good, but a question burned in my soul. Why did my family want me dead so badly that they’d send my brother to do it?

In the midst of all that, I felt like I had to throw up, so I pushed away from him and moved into one of the stalls to throw up my guts. I hadn’t even eaten, so I was heaving after a while.

“You wanna talk about it?” His voice announced his presence before I looked his way.

“About what? The fact that my family wants to kill me?” I had been sitting in the dark since we arrived home from the gala. I was glad what happened hadn’t interrupted the festivities and the meaning of the event. Somehow, we were able to get out of there discreetly.

“Those motherfuckers aren’t your family anymore. I’m your family, the baby we both know you’re carrying is your family. My family is your family, Nic.”

I just looked at him, taking in his entire being. His family had been my family since the moment we said I do and I felt exactly that. But it still stung that the people I shared blood with were doing this. And I still questioned why.

He stood in the doorway, still in his button up, his sleeves pulled up with a drugstore bag in his hand.

“Repeat that shit to me. Tell me what I am to you, Nic.”

I sat up, looking at him before I nodded. “You’re my family.”

He nodded, then approached my side of the bed, taking a seat. “I love you, Nic, and you know that. I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure you fine and you know that too. So believe me when I tell you not an O’Leary will stand beside you and P when I’m done.”

His eyes held so much contempt that I felt like without his actions his words had already done it. I nodded.

“Tell me you’re gonna still love me after I do it.”

“Without question.”

“Bet.”

“Now I get madder when you sit up here and cry. So do your man a solid and stop all that crying over dead motherfuckers whose caskets you’ll never have to pick out.”

I was momentarily taken aback, but I nodded. I glanced at the bag he still held. “Okay, so what’s in the bag?”

He set it in my lap and at first glance I knew what it was. If I didn’t, I was out of my mind, right? Between tender breasts, borderline incontinence, and throwing up food I didn’t eat, I definitely knew what he was trying to confirm.

I was out of the bed a few seconds later, clutching the bag. “Are you coming or you gonna sit in here and overthink?”

“I already know the answer, Nic.”

I paused and turned around, looking at him. “Then why did you buy a test?”

“I didn’t. Moms sent that.”

I shook my head. She was simply relentless in her endeavor to get a grandchild. “Why am I not surprised?”

He chuckled. “You shouldn’t be.”

I went into the restroom and pissed on the stick. When I was finished I cleaned up and went to turn the shower on. Big news came with dark showers because it was the only way I could wrap my head around anything. Lately I had been going through a lot of life transitions.