“Could it be you’re confusing guilt and remorse with love?”
Those words stung. “I loved your sister. That’s why I married her.”
“But sometimes love isn’t enough. Come on, Luc. That time is long past and now Paulette yearns to escape her body.”
If Luc thought that were true…
“This morning Maman and Papa asked me to talk sense to you one final time. They said that if you really care about her, then prove it and allow her to go free so this madness can end.”
Luc shook his dark head. “I can’t… All the research I’ve done on coma patients indicates they respond to their loved ones’ stimulation. She could wake up at any time.”
Strong hands clasped Luc’s cheeks. “But she hasn’t, and she won’t because she’s in a vegetative state. A few sounds and tiny movements over thirty-six months means nothing! So I’m begging you—give it up!” he half sobbed the words before wheeling away.
Luc watched his friend’s solid figure until it disappeared around a corner. No one could get to him like Yves, who’d been closer than a brother from childhood.
Overwhelmed by guilt attacking him from every direction, he rested against the wall for a minute and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.
Not only had his four-year marriage ended in failure, Paulette’s car accident was his fault.
Talking to Yves had just compounded his guilt because of the pain he’d brought to her family. Besides their grief over her condition, they didn’t have the kind of money it took to pay attorney fees.
Had Luc become such a selfish bastard, he didn’t care who got hurt any more as long as he got his own way?
Crucified once more by Yves’ tortured plea, Luc went back to her bedside to say goodnight.
When he left the hospital, he passed by the nursing station to let them know he was on his way out. They had his cell-phone number and knew to call him day or night if there was any change in her condition.
Luc left the hospital aware there was no change in Paulette.
There would never be a change.
That was what everyone was telling him, including his sister’s husband.
Jean-Marc was a good man, but he and Giselle never missed an opportunity to remind him it was Paulette’s family who had the last say in the matter.
Her parents had brought her into the world and raised her. They wanted what they felt was best for their daughter. It was their God-given right after all.
Rights.
How Luc hated that word.
Yves had spoken the truth when he’d said Luc had no legal grounds to fight their family.
But wanting Paulette to wake up from that coma didn’t have anything to do with rights.
At the core of his anguish lay the need to rid his soul of a burden growing increasingly heavy.
He’d had three years to come to terms with the divorce. What haunted him was the inability to go back to the day of her accident and prevent it.
Ever since he’d found out she was lying unconscious in the hospital, he hadn’t ceased begging her forgiveness. But he didn’t know if she’d heard him.
Once her family made the decision to turn off the machines, there wouldn’t be a possibility of her hearing him, let alone forgiving him.
He hit his fist against his palm.
Once again it all got down to what he wanted, as if the universe revolved around him.
One word from him to the Brouet family and everything would change for them.