I hated seeing my wife like this, I always try my hardest to keep her happy but this was something that was beyond even me; there was nothing I could say to make her stop crying and it was killing me. I walked back into the lobby with Cadence, Cam, Liberty and Devin, handing them all their food and sat next to my wife and started rubbing her shoulders; we all sat around quietly waiting for Khalil to come out of Ms. Carmen's room. No one spoke for what seemed like forever but it was really only about ten minutes when Khalil finally walked out the room, his face was hard to read but when his eyes landed on me and that let me know he wanted to talk to me and he did the same thing to Liberty as Cam and Cadence walked into the room with their mother. Khalil walked over to Devin and started talking to each other quietly, Devin shook his head sadly before finally nodding; Khalil walked over to me and Liberty before motioning for us to follow him, nobody spoke until we noticed Khalil was leading us to the parking lot.
"I am not leaving Camden here, he needs me." Liberty looking at Khalil, me and Liberty rarely agreed on anything but I wasn't leaving my wife either so Khalil had better have a good reason for trying to make me leave my wife's side when she needed me the most.
"Get in the car both of y'all, I'll explain everything on the way." Khalil said Liberty was about to argue until I put my hand on her shoulder, I've known Khalil for a while now and I've never seen the look he had in his eyes; I've seen him beyond pissed and I've seen him sad but this was something beyond even that, so I got in the passenger seat and wait while Liberty kept looking back.
"So what are we doing?" Liberty asked as Khalil started to pull off and I really wanted to tell her to stop talking but I bit my tongue, I trusted that Khalil wouldn't be doing this if it was necessary.
"We're going to get the kids; Noah, Carly, Cori, Cammy, Lauren, Marquise, AJ...... Odi is sick so Blaze is going to stay with the twins but umm..... When I talked to Carmen she told me she was tired, the doctors don't think she'll make it through the night and she wants to see her grandchildren one last time......." Khalil said wiping his eyes.
"Then why aren't we at the hospital we should be with her can't Marcus or Enzo or Zyshaun bring the kids up there we should have never left her side." Liberty said pissed.
"Marcus and Enzo are taking care of...... they have Carmen's last wishes to take care of they'll be at the hospital when they're finished but the reason you're with me is because Carmen had something she wanted me to tell y'all, she knew if y'all came in the room and found out y'all wouldn't want to leave but this was important to her...... She wants y'all to look after Cam and Cadence." Khalil said quietly.
"That pretty much goes without saying, you know I'm going to take care of my wife." I said kinda pissed that they thought I wouldn't....
"No you don't understand Cadence is going to be a wreck she's going to need you to help her get through these next couple weeks hell possibly months but it's really Cam she's worried about...... Cam is so close to breaking, me and Carmen have both been seeing the cracks ever since he got back and Carmen is afraid that this is going to...... Cam is going down go down a path he can't come back from without you." He said looking at Liberty. We picked up the kids and Khalil took; Noah, Carly, Marquise and Cori leaving all the other kids with me and Liberty to take to the hospital.
"How do you feel about what Khalil said about Cam?" Liberty asked as we drove back to the hospital.
"How I feel isn't important, if Ms. Carmen and Khalil feel Cam is slipping then that's good enough for me to want to do anything I can to help my brother in law." I said focusing on the road. "But what really matters is how you feel...... I mean you're with Cam more than anybody you should know if there's any truth to how they're feeling." I said and I noticed Liberty's shoulders tense up..... she was hiding something about Cam and that pretty much confirmed (to me at least) that there was something serious going on with Cam.
The next few hours were extremely hard for everyone but more so Cadence and Carly; when me and Cadence went in the room to talk to Carmen....... let's just say it was hard for everyone. Around midnight Cam, Cadence and Carly went in the room with their mom to be with her along with Khalil, Devin and Sa'vion.
"So what's going to happen with Carly......" Tonya asked quietly.
"More likely than not she'll come stay with me and Cadence but I think that's something that should be discussed between them. No matter what they decide she'll be taken care of, what's important is she's with....." I was cut off by Cam running out the room, I could tell by the look in his eyes that....... I jumped up and ran to the room to check on my wife. I got in the room and pulled Cadence into my arms. "I'm so sorry Cadence." I said kissing the side of her head as she cried and I all I could think was how I would do anything to take my wife's pain away....................
LIBERTY
I found Camden pacing around the parking lot, I knew by the way he was swinging his arms back and forth that he was trying to keep himself from crying, he was also mumbling to himself and when I got close enough to hear what he was saying, he was saying the names I caught a few and realized they were all people from his mother's side of the family. I gently put my hand on his arm and he damn near jumped out his skin.
"Camden......." I said quietly.
"I gotta call my uncles and family..... I gotta call my grandma and...... her friends.... and hell I don't.... I don't...." Camden said rambling on, he was looking for something to distract himself from what was going on around him.
"Camden..... Marcus and Mama Angela have already been making the calls and Enzo and my mother have been making all the.... the arrangements. The only thing you have to do is be there for your sisters because they need you right now and when we get home or to Khalil's house where ever I'll be there for you because I know you're going to need me, so let's go back upstairs and......." I grabbed Camden's hand which was shaking and led him back inside. Once we got back upstairs with everyone Camden walked over to Carly and hugged her, while I walked over to Khalil..... there was something I needed to tell him that has been eating at me since our talk earlier.
"Wassup Liberty?" Khalil said turning back to his brother and sisters for a brief second then looking me in the eyes.
"About what you said earlier....... about Camden being close to breaking, Khalil he's not going to make it, you're not with us when we're alone Camden barely sleeps anymore and when he does he's either sleep on the floor or on the back porch. Not only that he's been...... talking to himself, I don't even think he realizes he's doing it and I've tried to get him to get help but...... this is going to destroy him." I said wiping my eyes, Khalil turned and watched his brother closely.
"I'm going to do everything I can for Cam, but I meant what I said earlier Liberty Cam is going to need all of us but you more than anybody. The first step is to get him through these next few days then I'll dedicate all my time to helping all of my siblings in any way possible." Khalil said before walking over to to his siblings and tried to hug them but Camden pushed him away and walked over to Enzo who had just walked in with Marcus, maybe I wasn't the only person who could help Camden but like Khalil said right now we just had to get these next few days.