E I G H T
S E C R E T S
"Catherine, it's mom." I knew it wasn't good, it couldn't be. Not with the way his voice cracked. I didn't want to cry, or make it noticeable to Justin that this was a bad situation.
"What about mom, is she fine?" I whispered while looking at Justin who had furrowed eyebrows. "Please tell me she is."
"She's in a coma, I don't know what to do. They won't let me in to see her, please come here." I didn't realize that I had dropped my phone, nor did I care. I brought my hands to my face and sobbed into them, not caring at this point who saw me.
"Cat? What's wrong?" He hurried and rushed to my side. Grabbing my phone from the floor and talking to me brother. It had never gotten this bad, yeah she would faint and have strokes, but never a coma.
"Why didn't you ever tell me your mom was hospital bound?" I moved my hands away from my face and looked up at Justin who was obviously hurt by this. "I don't really tell anyone." I sniffled and grabbed a napkin, wiping away the tears. "Can you give me a ride to the hospital?"
"Of course, come on." Before leaving, Justin left a hundred dollar bill on the table and grabbed my hand, running to the front and exiting the door to where his car was parked. Within a minute, the two of us get in and he speeds off to the hospital.
8:31 — After a long drive on the highway to the hospital, and as we drove to the front of the hospital, I was about to get out but Justin locked the door and looked over at me. "I'm going with you." With my teary eyes, I blinked and nodded, knowing that I needed support during a moment like this.
So instead of getting off at the entrance, he drove to the parking lot and the two of us got out, me clinging onto his arm while silently sobbing. "Margot Estelle. I'm her daughter." I told the receptionist once we walked inside the hospital. The nurse smiled at me before having me sign a paper, and then gave Justin and I the visitor sicker.
"I know it's a terrible moment but you have a beautiful last name." Justin whispered beside my ear and a small smile appeared on my face, which I know he noticed because he also had a huge smile plastered onto his features. "Thanks for being such a great friend and coming, it means a lot."
"Anything for you, so you don't mind telling me what's going on? Your brother just told me she was in a coma and critical condition." My eyes filled with tears as I thought about my mom but I nodded. "She has brain cancer, I believe it's stage two. We found out a little over a year ago and I didn't really take it well. My mom's like my best friend and I used to depend on everything for her. She really was my role model so when she told me she had cancer, I shut her out for a week. I didn't talk to her because I was mad at the fact that it happened to her, and she doesn't deserve it. After a few months of treatment, my dad ran away. I don't know where or with who but I haven't talked to him since then."
"You don't have to tell me anymore if you don't want to."
"No it's nice to let this all out." I mumbled while we continued to walk to where her room was. "My brother used to study out of state, he was ironically studying to be a neurosurgeon. He called himself the next Derek Shepherd. He still is studying to be a neurosurgeon but it's getting harder for him because he doesn't want my mom to die and he's trying his best to learn more so hopefully one day, he's able to save her. The thing is, we know she won't make it. The doctors think it's growing too fast and that we can lose her before the year ends, and that's what we both fear the most."
I felt his arm wrap around my shoulder and pull me closer to his body, and it felt amazing to finally be able to tell someone everything. "Cat, I promise i'll be here every step of the way." I smile and nod, not saying a word as we near my moms room and instantly I spot my brother sitting in the waiting room, looking off into the distance.
"Joshua." I ran over to him and hugged him as soon as he'd gotten up from his seat. I could feel his tears against my bare skin and as much as I wanted to cry with him, I could never. One of us had to be strong. "What have they told you? When can we see her?"
"They said that uh, she is fine. All her organs are good but that she had a stroke which is what they think 'caused the coma. I asked if I could see her but they said that they're still testing." I took a step back and looked up at him, seeing his bloodshot eyes.
"She'll be fine, the doctors told us that she was doing really good so it can't be anything bad. We just have to have hope that she'll wake up real soon and be with us again."
I mumbled while he looked at me, slowly nodding. "I know this is hard for you, for the both of us. But together we can get through it."
"Yeah, we can. I wish dad was here. He needs to be with us."
"No he doesn't Joshua, he abandoned us. He left us to fend for ourselves when mom couldn't help. He hasn't dealt with all the pain that we have. You and I are working are asses off to barely afford her treatment and where is he? Not here, so he's the last person that needs to be with us." I was no longer sad, but just straight out angry. How could he say that our father deserves to be here? That we need him?
"Yes he does, you know that. What is he doing here? Is this your new boyfriend, are you trying to get the money out of him, it sure -." I pushed him out of my way and quickly walked over to the nearest bathroom, ignoring both his and Justin's yelling. "Fuck." I yelled as soon as I got into the bathroom, locking the door.
Even when our mom isn't conscious, we're fighting. "Catherine." Justin spoke from the other side of the door. I closed my eyes, letting the tears flow and ignored him knocking on the door. "Okay then, don't answer. I'm just gonna lay against the door too."
"Nothing? Well that was a real low thing for your brother to do. He actually flicked me off after he saw that I was coming to you. You sure you're related? I can hear you crying by the way, I don't like it." I laughed at the last thing he said and I got up from the floor, unlocking the door. "I'm sorry that I have feelings." He laughed with me and gave me a hug.
"You good? I know that was some real bad stuff he told you." I nodded and wiped away any tears that were left. "I think we should leave, let me just ask a doctor if I could see my mom and then uhm yeah." He nodded and walked away from me, and went to sit at the waiting area.
My eyes wandered around the hallway, and they diverted to my moms room. There was a guy that seemed to be around her age, that caught my attention. I feel like I know who he is. "Excuse me." I called out while I walked towards him. He turned towards me and he had a small smile.
"You must be Cat, you look just like her." I smiled, nodding in agreement with him. I always get that from everyone. "Yes, that's me. Are you the guy from room three-twenty?" He laughed and nodded while shaking his head as he looked through the small window on the door but much to our dismay, all we could see was the doctors and not her.
"I know I don't know your mom as much as you do, of course. But these few weeks that we have spent together have been different. She's taught me a lot, which is weird because you'd think being at my age, I'd know enough. She's lovely and strong. Extremely strong, so I have hope that your mom will make it through this and wake up better than ever."
I smiled at his words, knowing that he was right. She was strong, and would beat this. "You think if I ask, they'll let me talk to her for a minute."
"Of course, make it seem like you're about to burst into tears. That's what my daughter does if they're testing on me." I laughed while nodding, and proceeded to knocking on the door. In a matter of seconds, a nurse opened up the door and looked at me with a small smile. "We're not allowing any visitors with Mrs. Estelle."
"I know," I sniffled," but I leave soon and I really want to talk to her incase anything happens. Please, this is my mom we're talking about."
The nurse closes the door and I can hear some sort of commotion behind the door, that's until I see everyone leave the room. "The doctor comes back in twenty minutes from the lab, we'll be back in fifteen." I nodded and quickly walked into the room, closing the door behind me.
She looked so peaceful and calm, it was beautiful. Seeing her like this made me somewhat happy because for once, she wasn't in any pain. Well, she was but she just couldn't feel it in her unconscious state. "Hey momma, I don't know if you can hear me or not. If you can, just know that I love you a lot and whatever happens, I will always be by your side. Joshua's out there, he said some mean stuff to me but you know, nothing I can't handle. He brought up dad, and how he should be here. I took it bad, of course. You know how I am." I spoke, holding her hand. "We don't need him, I know that just with Joshua and I, we'll all be fine. Please wake up soon. I know I'm rambling at this point and I feel like I'm speaking nonsense but uh, I love you. A lot and you're my world, so please don't leave me. Not yet. I don't know what I would do without you."
I didn't realize that I was crying, and her hand was full of my tears but I wiped them off, along with any tears on my face. I looked over at the clock and realized that the nurses would be back soon. So I quickly pressed a kiss against her forehead and left the room, bidding her a goodbye.
As I got out of the room, I bumped into someones back and realized it was Justin. I assumed he was waiting at the entrance of the door. "We can go now." I mumbled as I looked into the small window one more time, smiling at her.
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I know a lot happens but in future chapters, a lot of this will come into play and make more sense. If you guys are confused, or anything like that please leave a comment below and i'd love to answer your questions. But if you like the book, pleasee vote and comment what you like about the story. So like I said, I hope you guys like this chapter and i'll most likely update tomorrow morning.