“I don’t have a document. You provided our attorney with the hospital information, so the cashier’s check is written out to the hospital.”

  Trish narrowed her eyes on Dwayne and sat back down. “Stop grilling this woman and go get Jon-Jon.”

  “I thought you were going to get him?”

  “I think you should.” Trish turned to Alexis, gave her a quick, tight smile, then nudged Dwayne with her elbow.

  Dwayne got up. “I’ll go, but I just don’t understand why they keep pushing our court date back if they are so concerned about Jon-Jon.” He headed down the hall, mumbling all the way.

  Trish gave Alexis another tight smile.

  Alexis glanced above her head. “I love your coffered ceiling.”

  “Thank you, the ceiling is the reason I love this room so much.”

  Alexis was so nervous she couldn’t think of any more small talk, so she sat there, staring at her hands. Her ears became attuned to the grind of wheels as Dwayne pushed the wheelchair from the back of the house to the living room at the front of the house.

  Trish spoke up. “My husband may seem a bit angry, but it’s been tough dealing with Jon-Jon’s injuries. We’ve had to sit here, watching him be in pain, unable to do anything about it.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner,” Alexis told her, and she meant it.

  Trish looked as though she was about to say something else, but Dwayne entered the living room with the young man. Alexis’s stomach clenched. Guilt pricked her conscience. As Dwayne locked John’s chair in place, the only thing that kept Alexis from making some excuse, running out the door, and pushing this whole incident to the back of her mind was the knowledge that she could do some good for this family.

  Her mother had taught her that trick. Don’t think about it, and it doesn’t exist. But John Robinson did exist, and she had done harm to him and his family.

  “I wish I had come to see you sooner, John. I’ve wanted to tell you how sorry I was about the accident.” Don’t cry. Don’t cry. But a few tears broke through anyway. Alexis wiped them away. “I wish this had never happened to you.”

  Jon-Jon nodded in agreement. “Wish I had taken another route that day.”

  She wished that for him as well. Regret hung on her heavy, like a soggy mink coat. “Our attorney told us that you were a college student with a football scholarship.”

  “Yeah, I was.”

  “Were you any good?” the minute she asked, she regretted the question. Small talk obviously was not her thing. It was wrong of her to make him think of things he would never be able to do again.

  Rather than a look of loss and sadness, a gleam shone in Jon-Jon’s eyes as he said, “Sure was. I was on my way to the NFL. Was gonna be the next Emmitt Smith.” The smile dropped. Jon-Jon turned his head toward the wall.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Alexis looked around the room, hoping that she hadn’t offended John’s parents.

  Dwayne asked her, “Did your attorney tell you how the accident stole my son’s life and left us without the means to get him the help he needs?”

  “Dwayne!” Trish hushed him. “Mrs. Marshall is a guest in our home.”

  Shaking his head, Dwayne said, “Naw, Trish, she needs to know why it’s important to get this court case going. Maybe they’ll stop postponing if they know how much they took from Jon-Jon.”

  “Mr. Robinson, please believe me when I say that I do understand what I have cost your son. That’s why I’m here.”

  “I’m not doubting your sincerity,” Trish said. “But Dwayne has a point. Why do you keep getting the court date pushed back if you really want to help?”

  It was reasonable for them to assume that she was trying to deny them their day in court, but seeing Jon-Jon changed everything. “My husband thinks we should go to arbitration rather than court.”

  Dwayne turned back to face Alexis. “Your husband doesn’t want it getting out about how reckless you are, huh? Might hurt that tech company he owns, right?”

  Maybe it was a mistake to come. Maybe she had waited too long. Alexis recognized she was not a welcomed face in their home. She needed to cut this short and get going. She opened her purse, took out a piece of paper, and handed it to Trish. “This is the information I have about arbitration. You can do your own research. It is binding.” She turned to John. “And you’ll get the money from arbitration a lot faster than waiting on the next date for court.”

  Dwayne crossed his arms. “It wouldn’t be if your husband wasn’t tying our hands.”

  She stood. “I probably shouldn’t have come. I just thought I could help with John’s surgery. I’m sorry that my husband feels the need to push the court date back, but you won’t have to worry about any of that if you go to arbitration. I will not be contesting that the accident was my fault, so you are guaranteed a win.”

  “My dad told me that you brought a check for my surgery,” Jon-Jon said.

  “Yes, John.” Her eyes softened as she looked at him. “I was informed that you are still in pain, so I don’t want you to wait for court or arbitration to get this surgery.”

  Dwayne scoffed at that.

  Jon-Jon asked, “What if I decline arbitration? My father wants our day in court.”

  “The money for surgery is yours. I wish I could do more, but I’ve given you everything I had in my personal account. I don’t want it back. I want you out of pain.” Her voice caught, but she held back the tears this time.

  Alexis heard a door open, a baby crying, and then she heard someone say, “Ugh, I just fed you. Can’t believe you’re hungry again.”

  “Hey, pipe down back there!” Dwayne yelled at the girl.

  “Sorry!” someone yelled back.

  Trish said, “We will have to discuss this with Jon-Jon before we can agree to arbitration.”

  The baby was still crying. Alexis said, “I completely understand. I just wanted to come and express my concern for John and bring this information. The document I handed you has the telephone number you’ll need to call if you decide to do it.”

  Trish handed the paperwork to John. “Thank you,” she said.

  “I won’t take up any more of your time.” Alexis put her purse strap on her shoulder and was about to walk out of the room when a young woman entered with the crying baby on her hip.

  The young lady looked at John. “I don’t have any more money for formula. Can you spare a few dollars so I can run to the store?”

  Dwayne went in his pocket and pulled out a twenty. “Get him some diapers if you need those too.”

  She put the baby in John’s lap. “You want to hold your hollering son while I run to the store?”

  Alexis tried to remove the shock from her face, but her eyes were wide as she asked, “You have a baby?”

  John grinned a grin that lit up his whole face. “Yes, ma’am. This is my baby.” He then turned to the woman who handed him the baby. “This is Alexis Marshall, the lady who hit me.”

  “What?” Hand on hip, head bobbing, Marquita said, “Lady, you owe me some diapers.”

  Trish shook her head. “Marquita, the baby is hungry.”

  “Yeah, he is. And guess what? Formula is expensive too.” Marquita eyed Alexis. “You owe me some formula too.”

  “Marquita, if you do go on about your business,” Trish threatened.

  “Okay, okay. But we all know that Jon-Jon can’t pay for nothing Marcus needs right now and it’s”—she pointed again—“this lady’s fault.” Marquita grabbed her keys and left the house.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Trish told Alexis. “The girl gets out of control sometimes. I want to work with her, but she does try my patience.”

  A tear drifted down Alexis’s cheek as she looked at John holding his baby. “I am so sorry I did this to you. I shouldn’t be here.” She rushed out of the room and quickly walked to the front door. She couldn’t take any more. Yes, she wanted to help, but this was too much. Knowing that she had destroyed John’s life was hard enough, but now there was a child involved. A child that would never know the man his father could have been all because she tried to pick up a phone that she dropped. All because her mother had another episode.

  She made it to her car, got in, and sat there for a moment. As a child, Alexis watched her mother destroy herself and the lives of the people around her. Alexis swore that when she grew up she would build others up and never tear anyone down. She’d seen enough of that for a lifetime. Seeing what she’d done to John Robinson and his family was something that would take Alexis a long time to get over, if she ever could.

  As she prepared to pull off, her cell phone rang. A quick peek told her that her mother’s nursing home was calling. She was not in the mood for whatever Vivian had gotten herself into today. Alexis didn’t want to know about it, didn’t care about it, so she let the call go to voice mail.

  She drove off and focused on the road. On the highway Alexis was tempted to pull off at one of the exits that had a McDonald’s. That Oreo McFlurry was calling her name. Talking herself out of the McFlurry, she kept driving.

  Halfway home, Alexis received a call from Michael. She didn’t feel like talking to him, either, since it was his fault that she had to go to the Robinsons house. Why did he have to postpone that court case over and over again, even though he knew the Robinsons needed the money?

  Michael hung up but then called her right back. She had ignored his call when Ethan had his swimming accident, so no matter how upset she was with him right now, she knew she needed to answer the phone this time. “Yeah, what’s going on?”

  “Alexis, are you okay? Why haven’t you been answering the phone?”

  “You only called one other time, Michael. I’m fine.”

  “You didn’t answer the phone for the nursing home either.”

  “They called you?” They never called Michael. She had told them not to bother her husband unless they couldn’t reach her for an emergency situation. “Oh! Don’t tell me she ran away again?”

  “I need you to be calm right now, okay? Are you calm?”

  “Michael, just tell me what happened. Are they threatening to move her again?”

  “Not this time, baby. Your mom had a seizure.”

  Red light. Alexis pushed down hard on the brakes, not realizing how fast she had been going. “She what?”

  “She had a seizure. They took her to the hospital. So, you need to get over there.”

  * * *

  When Marquita arrived back from the store, she handed Dwayne seven dollars. “Here’s your change.”

  He handed it back to her. “Keep it. Moochie will need formula again soon.”

  “Right.” Marquita took the money and shoved it in her pocket. She was about to walk away when Dwayne stopped her.

  “The words you’re looking for are thank you.”

  “Huh?” Her forehead crinkled.

  With the flick of the wrist, Dwayne said, “Nothing. Go on and feed my grandson.”

  “Well, thanks for the money,” she said. But as she turned away from Dwayne, she rolled her eyes. She went into the kitchen, fixed Moochie’s bottle, then joined Moochie and Jon-Jon in his room. Marquita lifted the baby off the bed, sat down in the chair next to Jon-Jon, and started feeding her son. “I guess I’m supposed to say thank you around here, so thanks for watching your son while I ran to the store.”

  Sitting up in his bed, then wincing from the pain, Jon-Jon asked, “What’s your attitude about?”

  Lowering her voice, she told Jon-Jon, “I don’t want to get thrown out of here or nothing, but your daddy just told me to say thank you for the money he gave me for Moochie.”

  “And?”

  Moochie was sucking the nipple on the bottle so fast that Marquita pulled it out of his mouth for a moment to give him a chance to swallow. “And I don’t think it’s necessary. He is Moochie’s grandfather. He should want to do things for his grandson.”

  “He does, but my parents think people should be polite.”

  Marquita shrugged. Moochie finished his bottle. As she burped Moochie, Jon-Jon told her about the arbitration Mrs. Marshall had asked him to consider. Then Marquita said, “Let me ask you something, Jon-Jon.”

  Jon-Jon’s eyes were trained on her.

  “Are you planning to go to arbitration or wait to go to court?”

  Jon-Jon’s lip twisted as he pondered the question. “I don’t know. My dad is set on going to court. He had me turn down the insurance payout because he thinks we’ll get more for my injuries in court.”

  “And you don’t think you’ll get as much in arbitration? Is that why you’re hesitant?”

  “Not saying I’m hesitant. I just want to research it.”

  Moochie fell asleep in her arms, she smiled down at her son. “I know what I think doesn’t matter, but Moochie needs things. Your parents have already given us a place to stay, so I don’t want to keep asking them for money.”

  Jon-Jon laughed at her. “You just want to get the money from me so you don’t have to say thank you.”

  “They do have a lot of rules.” She scrunched her nose at him. “You know I’m right. We shouldn’t have to ask your parents for money like that. And since your mom is looking for a job, I don’t think they have much money to spare.”

  “True that,” Jon-Jon agreed. “It does make me feel some kind of way that my daddy has to give you money for our baby. I’ll think about what you said, and when I make up my mind, I’ll talk to you about it first.”

  It made Marquita feel good that Jon-Jon listened to her and was going to give her a heads up on his decision. He was acting like she and Moochie mattered. She then began to wonder if they mattered because he wanted to do right by his baby or if he wanted to do right by her too. Her heart couldn’t take the rejection right now, so she wasn’t about to ask him how he felt about her.

  She got up and left his room before her moonie-swoonie eyes gave her away.

  Chapter 19

  What was she thinking, not answering a call from the nursing home? Alexis turned her car around and drove straight to the hospital. When they left the hospital two weeks ago with Ethan, Alexis never imagined that she would be right back in the same emergency room asking for her mother’s room.

  The doors opened and she was told Vivian Cooper was in bed twenty-three. When Alexis got there, the room was empty, not even the bed was there. Where was her mother? Vivian had had a seizure. Why wasn’t she in her room? Her eyes darted from one side of the room to the next. Was she too late?

  Frantically, she scurried to the nurse station just outside the room. “Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m confused.” Scratching her head, she said, “I was told my mother was in room twenty-three.”

  “What’s her name?” the nurse asked.

  Alexis told her.

  The nurse typed something into her computer, then looked back up, “Yes, Ms. Cooper is in that room. She’s getting an MRI. She should be back in a few minutes.”

  Sighing with relief, Alexis ran her fingers through her hair as her stomach growled. She had forgotten to eat. “I need food.”

  She went to the cafeteria and purchased a sandwich, chips, and a bottle of water. She kept hearing Michael tell her that her mother had a seizure. What could have happened to cause a seizure? It wasn’t as if Alexis thought her mother was in the best of health, but she never would have imagined something like this.

  Back in the room, Alexis sat down in the reclining chair that was situated next to the wall. She took her phone out of her purse and scrolled Facebook to give her hands something to do while waiting on her mother. But Facebook proved to not be a welcome distraction as one of her Facebook friends posted a picture of her mother with the caption, “Rest in heaven.”

  She put her phone back in her purse and stared at all the gadgets on the wall. Her son had been hooked up to a bunch of tubes the last time she had been here. She wondered what her mother would look like when she came back to this room.

  Within a minute the door opened, and her mother’s bed was wheeled into the room. Alexis stood. She waited so they could reposition the bed and the monitoring equipment next to her bed.

  “The doctor will be in shortly,” the woman told her before leaving the room.

  Her mother looked groggy, like they had pumped her full of drugs. Alexis wondered if they were aware of her mother’s previous history with drug abuse. They had her hooked to an IV that led to two different bags of fluid. Hopefully, the workers at the nursing home informed them. She would have to speak with someone about that.

  Alexis noticed those protruding veins again, but now she studied her mother’s face and saw the wrinkles in her forehead, the crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes, and the puffiness under her eyes. Vivian had lived her life like a roller coaster, with all the ups and downs—this way and that way, round and round, spinning and screaming. It was drama and trauma most days, and Alexis never thought it would end. Vivian was only sixty-eight, but she looked eighty. When had she gotten so thin, so small? Alexis wondered. Even Vivian’s auburn hair, which matched Alexis’s hair color, now had gray strands in it.

  A knock at the door caused Alexis to turn away from the frailty of her mother that she was now forced to reckon with. A man with a white lab coat stood at the door. “Hi, are you my mom’s doctor?”

  “Yes.” He stepped into the room. “Do you have power of attorney for your mother?”

  Alexis nodded. “That information should be in the hospital records because she’s been admitted here before.” She then extended her hand. “I’m Alexis.”

  They shook hands. “I’m Dr. Gupta.”

  “Can you tell me what happened to my mother?”

  He opened the chart he brought with him. “We’ve run several tests, and it appears she has suffered a brain aneurysm.”

  His words felt like a whooshing wind that knocked her off her feet. She glanced over at her mother as she sat back down in the recliner. She studied her, trying to see if she was breathing. “B-but I didn’t think anyone could survive something like that.”

  “She’s still with us. We gave her a sedative in her IV because she was worked up when she arrived.”