Sucker Punch (TKO 4)

“Okay. Just, say a prayer for me, because I’m scared.”

Brendan has never been scared of anything in his life, so hearing him say that brings a tear to my eye. “I will, Brendan. You’ll be fine. This hospital has the best doctors.”

“Thanks, Paige. If something happens to me, Darla is my beneficiary. I changed my will the other day.”

“Brendan, don’t talk like that.”

“I’ll let you get to work. I guess I’ll see you later?” He’s quick to change the subject.

“Of course you will.”

I hang up the call and stare blankly ahead. How am I supposed to function today when the father of my daughter is going to be undergoing heart surgery in the same hospital I’ll be in?

I walk inside and go straight to the breakroom. Nora is already here, big surprise. She notices my ashen face and comes immediately to my side.

“Everything okay?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” I reply blankly. I begin to explain the phone call from Brendan to her. Her jaw drops much like mine did when he told me.

“Holy shit. Well, keep me posted on him.”

> “I will. I’m going to keep an eye out for when he gets to ICU.” I tell her as I place my things in my locker.

I walk numbly to my area and begin my walkthrough. Half of the day my mind is solely on Brendan and his surgery. I had been wondering what made him suddenly come around, and now it makes perfect sense. I keep praying the surgery goes well and he’ll be okay. Darla just met her daddy and she loves him so much.

My shift is almost over and I notice he hasn’t been moved over here yet. I don’t know how long that surgery lasts, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking he should have been in here by now. I walk up to the head nurse and begin to ask her questions, and when she raises her eyebrow in concern of why I’m curious, I explain.

She grabs the phone and dials an extension. She talks for a moment, then gets placed on hold. I watch as her lips press together and she nods. She says something quickly, then hangs up the phone. She looks down before meeting me with sad eyes. My eyes widen and I already know what she’s going to say, but I can’t help but ask.

“I-is he okay?”

“He didn’t make it, Paige,” she whispers. “His heart wouldn’t start back up.”

Tears blur my eyes and my knees give out beneath me. No, this can’t be fucking happening. What the hell am I supposed to tell Darla now? The head nurse kneels beside me and holds me as I cry.

All the hell he put me through and all the hate I had for him suddenly vanishes. None of that matters anymore. He made a complete turnaround and things were going so good, too good, and now even that is gone. There’s no way I can face my daughter today. I can’t break her heart.

Chapter 34

Austin

“You look like death.” Lance grins as he looks at me.

“I got no sleep last night,” I point out to him.

“Oh yeah, what were you doing?” He raises his eyebrow.

“Sure you want to know?”

“You dirty boy.” He laughs as he puts on his gloves. I grab mine out of my locker and put it on.

“You know she was singing along to Taylor Swift?” I scrunch my nose.

“Now she’s a keeper.”

“You’re weird.” I laugh as we walk to the mat.

I figure I better get my ass on the mat now before exhaustion really hits me and I can’t function. When I walked into the apartment earlier, I slowly made my way to my room and I did lie on my bed but like I told Paige, I wasn’t able to fall asleep.