Page 30 of Home to Me (The Andrades 2)
“I know my boys better than anyone else. I know exactly what it would take to get him drinking again, and then he’ll help himself right out of his new job. Push me and I’ll show you the real Nick.”
“You don’t mean that, Patrice.”
“No? You don’t want to be on my bad side, Rena. I can turn all of them against you, and I’ll start by showing the world what a little whore you are. Do you think you and Nick weren’t seen? Weren’t photographed? The tabloids love a good scandal. Could you say the same about your parents?”
As disgust rose in her throat, Rena’s temper soared. “I don’t know what happened to you or why you’re as bitter as you are, but I guess I should have expected this phone call. I heard about how you threatened Julia. You scared her, but you don’t scare me. And you don’t have the control over your sons that you think you do. Not anymore. They are so much more than who you see when you look at them. And they love you, even though you don’t deserve it. You want to hurt me? Bring it on. Try to turn them against me. You’ll lose. And then, maybe, you’ll finally see how loyal and loving your sons really are.”
Rena waited for Patrice to counter with her own threat.
She readied herself for whatever form it would take.
Patrice said nothing for a moment, then there was a sound as if she and the phone had dropped to the floor.
Does she really think I’m going to fall for this?
“Patrice? Patrice?”
She didn’t answer. Rena heard ragged breathing and a faint moan in the background.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before I call 911 for her.
“Patrice. You can stop pretending. You’re not fooling anyone.”
Rena hung up her phone, then started pacing back and forth. No one believes Patrice had a heart attack. This is just another attempt on her part to use the sympathy card.
Rena tried to call Patrice back, but there was no answer.
Dammit.
She almost called Nick, but she thought about what Patrice had said about driving him back to drink. Was this part of her plan to do that?
She called Luke instead. “Luke, I think your mother just had another episode. She was on the phone with me. Should I call nine-one-one?”
He asked her for the details of exactly what had happened then, said he’d send an ambulance over and meet it there. He hung up without another word and Rena sank into the chair behind her desk.
Gio and Julia walked in, arm in arm, laughing over something. They took one look at Rena and froze. “What happened?” Gio demanded.
“Your mother may have collapsed. Luke is on his way to check on her. I was on the phone with her when she fell.”
Julia rushed to Rena’s side and put an arm around her. “That must have been terrifying, but you did the right thing by calling Luke. He probably has a hundred doctors looking her over by now.”
Gio frowned. “I should go, too.”
Rena stood. “Gio.”
Gio stopped on his way out the door and turned to look at her. “Yes?”
She wanted to tell him what Patrice had said to her. She didn’t believe for a second that Patrice was actually ill, but she couldn’t explain why she thought that without revealing how she felt about Nick. “Do you want me to call Nick and Max?”
“No,” Gio said. “I will.” He strode out the door, half dragging Julia behind him.
Rena sat back down at her desk and covered her face with both hands.
Is it a sin to not pray for someone to live?
***
Nick sat in the main library of his mother’s house with Gio and Luke. Like Gio, Nick was still dressed in his business suit. Luke was in scrubs. The only communication they’d had since they’d arrived was a nod of acknowledgment toward each other.
Luke finally broke the silence. “Does anyone know if Max is coming?”
Gio crossed his legs at his ankles and leaned back in his chair. “He’s in the British Isles looking at some property. I told him we’d keep him informed and tell him if he needed to be here.”
Nick asked, “Has anyone seen her yet?”
Luke folded his arms across his chest. “No one besides her physician. He turned the emergency team away. He claims this is a condition she’s already under treatment for.”
After running his hand through his hair, Gio said coldly, “How possible is it that this is all for show?”
Luke looked at the door with a skeptical expression. “I don’t like to think badly of anyone in my profession, but her doctor is suspiciously territorial. He wouldn’t let me see her or her records. Granted, I’m a surgeon, but I’m definitely qualified to recognize the severity of what he’s vaguely calling episodes. So I have to ask myself, what is it he doesn’t want me to see?”
Nick looked from brother to brother and said, “I’m surprised neither of you stormed in there demanding the truth.”
Gio shrugged. “I don’t even want to be here. I damn well don’t want to be in there.”
Luke shook his head and balled his hands on his knees. “I can’t bring myself to accuse her of something I don’t have any proof is a lie.”
Nick walked over to sit at his father’s old desk. “It’s easy to understand why Father wanted another family, isn’t it? Look at us. What is there about us that anyone could love?”
Gio stood and joined Nick. “Father loved us. He did. What happened between him and Mother didn’t change how he felt for us.”
“I wonder if he and Mother were ever happy,” Luke asked quietly as he also joined them. “I’ve tried to remember a time when I saw them hold hands or laugh together. I don’t think I ever did.”
Nick rubbed a hand over his chin in frustration. “I’m so tired of wondering why we are the way we are. Maybe it’s time to just let the past go and move on.”
Gio stared straight ahead and grit his teeth. “If only it were that easy.”
“Gio, we need to talk,” Nick said.
“Talk away.”
“Not here.”
“I’ll probably be returning to Cogent for a few hours after this.”
“It’s not about work.”
“Okay, I have all day tomorrow.”
“Saturday?” Nick repeated the word, stalling. “Sunday would be better for me. I’m often tied up on Saturdays.”
Luke and Gio both gave Nick a confused look, but Nick pretended not to notice. Although he had decided to tell Gio about Rena, doing it while waiting to hear about the health of their mother didn’t feel right. And there was no way he was going to miss seeing Rena to break the news to Gio. Sunday or nothing.
“Fine,” Gio said. “Come for dinner. Julia loves to have company.”
“Where is she?” Luke asked.
“All things considered,” Gio said, “we thought it was better if she didn’t come.”
“She and Mother are still fighting?” Nick asked.
“No,” Gio said firmly. “I don’t let them anywhere near each other. Julia is too important to me.”
There was a time when Gio’s comment would have angered Nick. He remembered accusing Gio of choosing Julia’s side over their mother’s. At the time he had believed Gio was wrong, but he could only imagine what his own reaction would be if he heard that his mother had threatened Rena.
A bald, heavyset doctor dressed casually in khaki pants and a polo shirt entered the library. “Your mother is feeling better now, and she’d like to see all of you.”
Like men headed off to the guillotine, the three brothers followed the doctor to their mother’s first-floor bedroom suite. She was dressed in a silk peignoir and sitting up beneath an ornate comforter in the middle of a king-sized bed. She lifted a hand slowly as if it were a difficult feat and beckoned her sons to her side.
“The doctor says I’m fine. I’m so sorry to have worried you.”
Luke stepped forward and studied his mother’s face. He lifted her hand in his, taking her pulse at the same time. “What are these episodes?”
She pulled back from him and folded both of her hands on her lap. “Talking about it only makes it more real and I don’t want to get upset, so please, respect that.”
Nick stood beside Luke. “It’s not like I’m asking the question. Luke might know something that could help. Or”—he looked across the room at the hovering physician—“no offense, know a specialist in the field. What would it hurt to let him look over your medical records?”
Tears came to his mother’s eyes. “Why do you always have to push, Nick? Can’t you for once do what I’m asking of you?”
Gio took his place beside Nick. “Nick is merely concerned that you might not be getting the treatment you need. We want the best for you, Mother.”
Patrice went pale and raised a shaky hand to her chest. “I’m tired. Please leave me.”
Not one of the brothers moved at first. Nick wondered if Luke and Gio felt as torn as he did. Part of him wanted to call her out and demand to see her medical records. Part of him felt like the world’s worst son who wanted to apologize for doubting her.
Gio was the first to speak. “Get some rest, Mother. I hope you feel better.”
Luke bent and gave Patrice a kiss on the cheek. “Call me if you need me.”
Nick hovered over his mother and she took his hand in hers. “Nick, I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m not myself right now. Please, forgive me.” A tear rolled down her cheek and Nick wiped it away.
“Don’t cry, Mother. There is nothing to forgive.” He gave her hand a final squeeze and followed his brothers out into the hallway.
Luke looked at his watch as soon as they were alone. “I hate to rush off, but I postponed a surgery and I can’t push it back it again. I have to go.”
Gio turned to Nick. “I’m heading back to Cogent.”
Nick nodded. “Me, too. I have my own car, though.”
Gio paused. “I have time now if you’ve changed your mind and want to talk about anything.”
Having had his fill of family dealings that day, Nick said. “I’ll talk to you on Sunday.”
