Invisible ( COMPLETED)

Chapter 16

  I've been sitting in the waiting room with a cup of coffee in my hand for the last hour and a half and frankly I was growing impatient. I'm not even family, but the nurses insisted I stay until the man wakes up, then I can gladly leave. I hope this bastard doesn't sue me for the money I don't have nor want to give away.

                  I rise up as a man in a long white coat walks towards the front desk to talk silently to a nurse.

          "Excuse me, Doctor. I'm Aiden Mathews, I brought in the man that got hit by my car. How is he?"

The doctor shakes his head and puts his hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry, but he lost a lot of blood, we did all we could. He'll be lucky to survive through the night."

I gasp and brush my hand through my hair, moving to sit back down.

"We tried to find some form of identity in his wallet, but we only found a few hundred dollars and this picture."

The Doc hands me a small, wrinkled up picture. You could tell it was real old considering the damage. I give a quick glance over the picture and go to hand it back when I stop and look again.

"That's Rae..."

"Who, Sir?"

I ignore the Doctor's calls as I run out of the hospital double doors and into the chill evening air. I barge through the police station, picture in hand, looking for officer Dave. When I find him, I slam open his office doors and he looks up from his paperwork with a smile on his face.

"Oh, Mr. Mathews. Please, come in."

"Save it, you bastard. Tell me what the hell this is!" I throw the paper down on his desk as he takes it in his hands.

With a sigh he puts it back down and looks at me.

"Look, son. I can explain."

"I'm not your fucking son! Who are you? Why is Rae in that picture with you and that woman?"

I don't even notice my unsteady heartbeat, or the fact that I'm holding my breath in preparation for his answer.

I point at the picture with a shaky index finger.

"I know that she only has a mom.  Why didn't you tell me you knew Rae when I came to you the first time and who is that woman in the photo with you two?"

"Because It wasn't any of your concern!"

"It's all of my motherfucking concern! I'm the one who's busting my ass to find this girl that I barely know. But I know her heart is pure and no one will bother to do shit to find her! So I'm doing it! And what are you doing? Sitting in your office with a damn Jelly donut and porn magazines on your desk." I motion to the objects that he was observing when I walked in.

              The old officer stays silent and gets up to open a drawer in his file cabinet. He shuts it and turns around with a book in his hands.

               "Rae is my daughter. She was my world. I cared about her so much and still do, but I had to leave because some very bad people were after me. I hired Linda to look after her. Her mother died when she was three." He gives a teary laugh. "She was always so happy and never seemed to notice that I wasn't. Which was great, but finally one day I got a call that people were going to come get me and I didn't want her to be hurt. I told her to run in a closet and close her eyes. I left and  I paid this woman to take care of her. I paid her a lot of money, God."

Officer Dave shakes his head and hands me the book. I scan through the baby pictures as he continues talking.

"I guess Rae forgot her Mother died because she immediately took this woman in as her mom, even though she treated her like shit."

"And you didn't do anything about it?" I spit.

"I know. I made a mistake. When I finally got my life together, I came back here. Then she got kidnapped and, I know this is wrong, but I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders...It's been so long I guess I forgot how to love her...or care. I don't know which." His head goes down.

"You're a sick bastard. And I hope you rot in hell." I leave the now guilt consumed room and make my way home. Even though I'm on a mission, I still have to focus on school. I'm starting to slack and my dad is asking too many questions about where I've been. Plus Ariel is probably mad at me since I haven't heard from her in days. I need some stress relieved but something wouldn't feel right about relieving that stress with Ariel..