Page 59 of Seasons of Love
Something didn't feel right about this. Why was he at the apartment?
Calm down, Aiden. He can't get in. He doesn't live there anymore.
"I don't know when I'm going to be back, and I'm also not available to go out with you."
"Why? Don't tell me you found yourself some loser to fuck around with."
My nerves reached such a high just from hearing his voice that I laughed aloud.
"First of all, Richard, my life is none of your business. When I say I can't see you, take it at face value. Good—"
"Wait."
"What?"
I was losing patience now. Slade had been in the ward for almost three hours and I needed to know if he was okay.
"I'm going to send you a little gift. Just watch it and call me after."
He ended the call, and a moment later I received a message with a video attachment.
I opened the video. As soon as it started playing I turned the volume down. It was footage of my apartment. Someone was taking the camera from the living room through the hall and into my bedroom.
As soon as I saw the next frame I got up from the chair and ran to the nearest bathroom.
I barely had time to close the door behind me before I emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet.
No, this could not be happening.
23
SLADE
The man on the hospital bed wasn't Ted. The man on the hospital bed looked frail, pale, far too slim, and like someone whose life was hanging by a thread.
I'd watched him sleep for the last hour. He hadn't moved, but the machines around him beeped reassuringly. Mike had tried to talk, but I couldn't.
Maybe that was the last time I'd see Ted. Silence was what I needed. Silence and Aiden.
I'd have given anything to have him there with me, but he couldn't be, so I had to focus on the knowledge he was down the corridor waiting for me.
"How long?" I asked when staring at Ted didn't give me the answers I needed.
"The doctors don't know. The cancer spread to his vital organs and he's too weak to have any more treatment."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Would you have come? You left as if what I did was the worst thing someone could have done to another person. I didn't kill anyone, Slade. I cheated, and only because our relationship had been dead for years. Did you ever think what your distance was doing to us? To me?"
Anger bubbled inside me.
"Don't you dare make this about us. This has nothing to do with you and me."
"Oh really? Then how many times have you called Uncle Ted since you left? The man gave you his name. He treated you like a son."
"Boys."
Ted's voice was weak, but even now he was able to convey the warning tone he'd used on us so many times when we hadn't been able to agree on something.
