Veronica- “Head to the hospital.” Lyrek told the driver. Thinking the call was about Andrew, I quickly sat up and faced Lyrek. “What is wrong? Is my brother okay?” “It was my grandfather; he needs to speak to us right away.” Lyrek answered. Thankful that it wasn’t my brother, I leaned into Lyrek’s side for the rest of the trip to the hospital. Once we arrived at the hospital, I realized I no longer had the slice of cake I was going to give to Andrew. At some point in all the chaos, I must have dropped it. “What is wrong?” Lyrek asked as he helped me out of the car. “I lost the cake.” Turning to the driver, who had exited the vehicle to let us, he instructed him to return to the restaurant to get a whole cake to bring to the hospital. After the driver agreed, we headed inside. I wasn’t sure what Mr. Cole wanted, but I had a feeling it had to do with the reporters we ran into. When we reached his room, the door was open, and his grandfather had a laptop on his lap. A pair of read
Veronica-“As you know, I want my grandson to get married, but this…” Mr. Cole paused as if he were searching for the correct phrase. “Let’s just say this has put us in a rather difficult bind. The tabloids are going to ruin everyone involved.”“What can I do?” I leaned forward in the chair, giving him my undivided attention.“I need you to be completely transparent with me. If we are going to have any luck getting ahead of this, then I need to know more about you. I was informed that you are the reason Lyrek has agreed to stay. While I am grateful, it isn’t going to look good to the world.”As he spoke, he opened the laptop he had put aside. After a few clicks, he paused to scan the computer screen. I wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but I knew I would soon find out.“Your brother is sick with an incurable brain tumor, which Lyrek has agreed to help you with. It says here that you adopted your brother, and your parents are no longer in the picture. You work four jobs and don’t hav
Veronica-Security guards were everywhere. Nurses were yelling at them for being in the way. While some were being told to show their credentials before entering Andrew’s room. This was getting out of hand.“I don’t care who you are, you need to show me your work badge if you want in this room.” The security guard that was positioned outside of Andrew’s room was talking to one of the night shift nurses.“I told you I don’t have it on me tonight, but you can ask any other nurse here, my name is Margaret and I work here.” The woman glared at the security officer; her arms crossed over her chest.I didn’t know the nurse that well, but I did know she worked here. Stepping forward, I placed myself between her and the man. “This is not happening right now. I understand you are just doing what you were asked to do, but it is late at night, my brother is sleeping, and you both are being very loud. She works here. Now, find something else to do. You are not required to stand outside of my brot
Veronica-When I woke up this morning, Lyrek had already gone. He had sent a text to my phone telling me he was dealing with the press. I spent the day with Andrew but after hearing all the rumors and whispers floating around the hospital, I decided to go work a shift at the bar.I had only seen Lyrek once today; he had been talking to a patient’s family out in the waiting room. I wished he would have told me he was back, but I knew he had a lot of things on his mind.I was relieved to not see any news reporters on my way into the bar, but I had a feeling it was because of Lyrek. Rick was surprised to see me when I walked in, but he agreed to let me work tonight. Not once did he ask questions, which I couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or not.It only gave me anxiety, because it wasn’t like there wasn’t a lot of chatter going on at the bar. I have only been here an hour and I was wondering if it would have been better for me to stay at the hospital. Sighing, I continued to try to ig
Lyrek-I hated that I was on call tonight. Today has been draining enough. All I wanted to do was climb into bed with my beautiful wife and sleep. I had just been about to call it a day when I got paged for emergency surgery.Instead of going to find my wife, who I haven’t seen all day, I was currently scrubbing my hands. Staring through the window, as I scrubbed, I wondered why everyone was acting strange. Normally I would get a full rundown of the patient.Instead of being able to look at the chart myself, I was told by the chief of surgery that there wasn’t time. Currently, I was getting a verbal rundown of the patient. I guess it doesn’t really matter, this was a rather basic surgery.“What is the patient’s name?” I asked the intern that was assigned to me.“Uh.” She seemed nervous, but then again most of the interns seemed nervous when around me.“If it is a Jane Doe, then just tell me that, you don’t need to get flustered if you don’t know the name. Most gunshot victims come in
Veronica-Ugh, my head hurt like hell. I knew I had a few drinks at the bar, but after that, I don’t remember what happened. Maybe I had drunk more than I realized, and I had a massive hangover.Squeezing my eyes, I groaned as I slowly opened them. Feels like I got hit by a bus or something. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the bright lights in the room I was in.When I could see better, I realized I was in an unfamiliar room. I could barely move because it felt like my head was being held down by an enormous weight. Adjusting my eyes, I blinked a few times until I could see things clearly.Feeling something strange on my hand, I looked down to find a large body lying next to me with their head beside my hand and their hand holding mine. That had to be an awkward position to lay in, especially since I knew far too well what it was like to sleep in that position. Just then the head of the person turned until they were laying on the other side of their head.“Lyrek.” I whispere
Veronica-I was beginning to believe I was coming down with a fever. My temperature was normal every time it was checked, but I kept feeling flushed. At least I did right now as I watched Lyrek playing video games with my brother.It has only been a few days since my accident, and I had already been transferred back to Andrew’s room to continue my recovery. I felt a little strange that Lyrek had reassigned a few nurses to take care of me since I wasn’t a pediatric patient. If anything, I felt embarrassed by the special treatment I was receiving.I know that he owns the hospital, but this was simply weird for me. I was glad to be with my brother, I just didn’t want to be treated specially. Yet, as I watched Lyrek with Andrew, I felt like something was wrong.Not in a way that I needed to worry, but it wasn’t normal for me. All the sounds in the room seemed to vanish when I looked at him and time slowed. Every time he blinked; I was drawn to the way his long dark lashes bounced slightly
Veronica-Now I was just getting annoyed. I week has passed since the first night Nurse Margaret came into the room and said everything that she did when she thought I was sleeping. Every night, except for one, she has been doing it.It has been different things that she has said and each time I pretended to be asleep. It wasn’t like I could do much because she wasn’t doing anything wrong exactly. I didn’t want to disturb Andrew or Lyrek, who has been staying in the hospital every night so far.I couldn’t do much either since I was still healing. Except today was different. It wasn’t even two in the afternoon and Margaret was working the day shift. It was also the day I was supposed to get discharged as a patient, so I had a feeling something was going on.If it wasn’t for the fact she has never picked up an extra shift since she has worked here, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. After working all night, however, I found out she was supposed to be working until six in the evenin
Veronica- Ten years later “Hurry up mom and dad! We are going to be late!” My nine-year-old daughter Lexi yelled as she ran ahead to the bar, where we were meeting everyone. It was now Christmas, and we had a tradition to meet at the bar every year. Rick still managed the bar, but he now did so with his husband, whom he met while he was in Europe. This year it was a little different from our usual get-together because this year Lily couldn’t join us. She was in Africa working with Doctors Without Borders. I was really proud of everything she has accomplished these last few years since graduating from medical school. The main person that I was looking forward to seeing was Andrew. He was in college now, studying to be a medical researcher. His life was relatively normal now, having been cancer free for ten years. I never thought he would have made it this far, but I was thankful every day that his illness was a thing of the past. I haven’t seen him since the school year started, b
Veronica-It wasn’t easy, but with the help of Lily, a team of wedding planners, and a lot of money, we managed to get the wedding I have been planning for the last few months up and going. It took us only forty-eight hours. The best part of it all, Lyrek’s grandfather was able to hold on.I had a feeling that the wedding was giving him the desire to live because I could tell by looking at him that he was fighting to stay alive. When I told him my plan it was a light flipped on in him and he now had the will to live. Lyrek tried to argue with me about rushing the wedding.He wanted me to have the wedding of my dreams, but I managed to win him over to my way of thinking after I told him that it wouldn’t be the wedding of my dreams without his grandfather here to celebrate it with us. After all, it had been because of his grandfather that we were together.I thought it over and concluded that even if he would have pursued me, I wouldn’t have been as willing to be with him at the time. I
Veronica-Waking up in Lyrek’s arms was the best thing in the world at this moment. After the last twenty-four hours, I have been more grateful to have him by my side. I wish he would have let me know what he was doing, but I understood why he kept me in the dark.Rolling over in bed to face him, I saw he was still sleeping. Taking a moment to admire his features, I smiled at how relaxed he looked. Moving my gaze to the other side of his body, I noticed Andrew was lying in bed next to him.I must have slept like a rock if I hadn’t noticed Andrew joining us in bed. Reaching over, I gently caressed the side of his face. His features weren’t as relaxed as Lyrek’s, yet he didn’t seem to be nearly as influenced by past events as I expected him to be.“Good morning.” Lyrek’s sleepy voice pulled me from getting too far into my thoughts.Tilting my head back, I looked up to see him smiling at me. “Good morning.” I repeated his words.“Are you hungry?” He asked, his tone soft and low.Instead
Veronica-I was beyond worried right now. As many times as I called Lyrek, it went straight to voicemail. I didn’t know what to do and even the police had to call in the FBI because they were getting nowhere.With nothing better to do, I have been pacing the lobby of the theater, trying to reach Lyrek. My nerves were a wreck. I didn’t think Lyrek would up and abandon me, so I couldn’t help but feel that something was very wrong.The Chief of Police also thought something was wrong and has been trying to track him down. He had one of his officers try calling every hospital in the area, including different police units. I wanted to call his lawyer, but I didn’t have the number.I couldn’t call his grandfather, because he wasn’t doing very well, and I didn’t want him to worry. Pacing back and forth was all I was good at right now. It wasn’t helping anything, aside from helping hold on to the little bit of calmness I had left.Finally, my phone rang, and I quickly looked at the screen. A
Lyrek-With no choice but to wait until their attention was away from Andrew, I kept myself hidden. The minutes were ticking by slower than I wanted. The men guarding Andrew were getting impatient, but I couldn’t move without putting him in danger.Looking across the room, I tried looking for Snake, but I couldn’t spot him. My hand tightened around the hilt of the dagger until my knuckles turned white. One of the men returned to the computer, while the other was pacing.If I was going to get Andrew out of here, I needed to do it soon. The moment I thought about it, there was a loud explosion coming from the other side of the factory. Both men moved in the direction of the explosion.“What the hell was that?” One of them asked.“Sounded like a bomb going off. This is an old factory so it could be just nothing, but I am going to go check it out. Stay here with the kid and keep trying to fix whatever is going on with the computer.” One of the men took off running and the other returned
Lyrek-“Found them.” Snake said a bit later.Pushing away from the table I was leaning against, I moved to stand behind my friend. Looking over his shoulder, I saw a map on one of the computer monitors with a blinking red dot. We weren’t very far from the location.Pulling out my cell phone, I dialed Veronica’s number. Thanks to Snake, he made it so I could use my phone, but it was now a secure line, and it couldn’t be hacked or traced. I had to hand it to him, he really knew what he was doing.“Did you get the money?” She asked the moment she answered the phone.“I need a little more time, but I am getting closer. Have they contacted you again?” I asked my wife while I watched Snake type like a madman on the computer.“They called once since you left and told us that you better have the money soon or they were going to start hurting Andrew.” The fear in her voice was as clear as day and I knew we were running out of time.“I promised you that we will get him back. I am going to do ev
Lyrek-“Where is my son?” Veronica asked the man that was on the phone.“Don’t worry about that right now. What is important is how you are going to come up with five hundred million dollars to get him back. If you don’t want him hurt or worse, I suggest you start calling the banks and get me my money.” The man said.With that amount of money, it was going to be difficult to produce. It wasn’t that I couldn’t get it, but it wasn’t like I had that kind of money laying around. Even if I went to the bank to withdraw it from my personal account and even take it from the foundation funds, it would take a long time.“I don’t have that kind of money!” Veronica was starting to become hysterical, which only fueled my anger.Stepping closer to her, I wrapped my arm around her in an attempt to comfort her. I knew it wasn’t going to do much, but I wanted to remind her that she wasn’t alone. My thoughts were racing with who the caller might be.We thought it was her parents, but the man’s voice wa
Veronica-It didn’t take long for the police officers to show up. Every second of waiting had felt like an eternity. I couldn’t breathe without feeling like I was going to have a panic attack. If it weren’t for Lyrek, I would have broken down the moment he told me.There was a lot of chaos going on currently as everyone in the theater was being questioned. While giving my statement to the police officers, Lyrek and I had to separate so he could also talk to them. I hated that in this situation everyone was a suspect, but I also didn’t care as long as Andrew was found.“Do you know of anyone that would have done this?” The police officer assigned to question me asked.“I was attacked a few months ago because the mugger was wanting money from me. I don’t know if it is related or not, but that is the only thing I can think of.” I admitted, even though I didn’t feel like it was relative to the current situation.“We have already investigated that. Is there anyone else that would have done
Veronica-Three months later“Come on! The movie is about to start!” Andrew yelled as he raced ahead.I couldn’t help but laugh as Lyrek and I followed him into the theater. While I knew he was excited to be able to see the movie he had been waiting for, I didn’t know why he was in such a hurry. It wasn’t like there weren’t going to be any seats, being that Lyrek reserved the entire theater room for us.Over the past few months, things have been a little weird. Not in a bad way, but in a way that was still taking me some time to get used to. When Lyrek did anything for us, he did it in a big way.Every time we went out, he made it obvious that he had money to spend. I wasn’t a huge fan that he was spending money so elaborately, but I couldn’t fault him either. His excuse was that he wanted us to enjoy everything life had to offer.No matter how much money he spent on me or Andrew, I was still not used to having someone take care of me to this degree. On the plus side, it has allowed m