Page 104 of Still Yours
Stone: It’s Ma.
I race through the hospital doors, familiar enough with the layout that I reach the oncology floor in minutes.
The elevators open directly into the waiting room where I find Stone pacing, hands on his head.
“Stone!” I rush up to him.
Fear and love pour into my body, urging me to put my hands on his waist and pull him close. Tensed muscle and the soft fabric of his shirt brushes against my palms. I dig my fingers in, and it’s like trying to carve into a rock.
“It was so fast.” Stone’s voice is hoarse. He won’t look at me. I stare up at the underside of his chin, covered with day-old scruff and strange cuts I don’t remember seeing on him before.
“What happened?”
“She fell walking to the bathroom.”
“I meant your face.”
“Oh.” If it’s possible, his expression shutters further. “I had to sort something out.”
“And that something was…?”
“Not important.”
He lifts his hands to his face, his knuckles scraped and clotted with blood.
My stomach plummets. “Stone, what did you do?”
“Ma fell. It’s bad.”
“Berta’s supposed to help her when she needs help at night.” My brows draw together as I realign my concerns. Stone’s battle wounds could wait. I scan the waiting room where there is one other couple talking quietly in their seats and another man with his head thrown back, snoozing. No Berta.
“Where is she?” There’s an edge to my voice. “How could she have missed?—”
“I let her go.”
My head snaps back to Stone. “You what?”
“I thought I could do it. Iwantedto do it.” Stone’s voice breaks. He tears out of my grasp, digging his fingers in his hairas he whirls, the cords of his arms drawing a haphazard map along his skin.
“She’s my mother. I should be able to help her through her worst moments. And I did everything you told me—set up the monitor next to my bed to listen for her. But she didn’t call out. Not until…”
Stone’s unable to finish.
“It’s all right,” I soothe.
“They won’t tell me anything other than she’s fractured her hip.”
“Oh no.”
With the cancer eating at her bones, Mrs. Stalinski’s become unnaturally fragile for her age.
“The doc told me to wait, but I’m about to burst through those doors, alarm or not. I have to know if she’s okay. It’s my fault she’s lying in a hospital with broken bones.” Stone’s voice wrenches.
I grab his face and force him to steady. “Listen to me. There is nothing you could have done. She didn’t call out. She didn’t ask for help. She got out of bed, and as wonderful as she is, your mother is a stubborn mule. Even if Berta stayed, she wouldn’t have heard either.”
Stone moves his head, shaking out of my hold, his eyes hazy with pain and responsibility. “I should’ve protected her. Slept next to her. Prevented this.”
“I’ll sort this out.” I draw my shoulders up. “My credentials will get me past that door. Is Dr. Silver here?”
