Page 140 of Toxic Temptation
“You’re going to lie to your own mother?”
“I’m protecting her.”
Waylen gives me a look that says he knows exactly what I’m really protecting. “Right. Sure you are.”
I grab a dish towel and whip it at his head. He ducks, laughing.
“She sounded better today,” he offers. “More like herself.”
“She sounded exactly the same as always.”
“V—”
“She still sounds like she’s drowning, Waylen. Like she’s been holding her breath since the moment the coffin hit the dirt and she still can’t remember how to exhale.”
His smile fades. “Give her time.”
“How much time does she need? Because I’m running out of ways to pretend everything’s fine with her. With either of us.”
“Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe you should stop pretending.”
I stare at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe you should tell her how you really feel. About Dad. About her. About everything.”
The suggestion terrifies me more than facing down Jeremy Fleming ever could. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because what if she can’t handle it? What if hearing how angry I am makes her worse?”
“What if it makes her better?”
I don’t have an answer for that. Instead, I walk past him toward the living room, deliberately sticking my foot out to trip him as I go.
He stumbles but catches himself, laughing. “Real mature, V.”
“I learned from the best, big brother.”
But as I watch Luka absorbed in his documentary about black holes, all I can think about is the spark in Mom’s voice when she asked about my boyfriend.
And how much it's going to hurt her when I show up alone.
48
VESPER
I stare at Miranda like she just told me the hospital is on fire. “What do you mean, ‘The surgery was moved’?”
Her fingers dance nervously across her keyboard. “It’s right here in the system, Dr. Fairfax. Drayton Jones’s surgery has been rescheduled for Wednesday at… 3:00 A.M.”
“3:00 A.M.? As in 3:00 A.M. in the morning?!” My voice cracks. “Who schedules surgery at three in the fucking morning?”
Miranda’s shoulders hunch. She won’t meet my eyes. “I’m sorry, Vesper. I just input what comes down from Admin.”
I push past her into the nurse’s station, my hands shaking as I scroll through the scheduling system. There has to be a mistake. There has to be some way to fix this.
But every override I try gets denied. Every code I enter comes back with the same message:Access Restricted.
