So I've been having a really depressing week. Mandie, my best friend, had to go back to England this morning because she just got a call that her mom is in the hospital with cancer. They didn't catch it quick enough and she kept putting off going to the doctor's so when she finally went, she was really far progressed, so she's probably not going to make it. Mandie's mom was like a second mom to me and Mandie didn't take the news well either. She is such a sweet lady. She really didn't deserve this.
Not going to go and sob story you guys. Just keep Mandie's family in your thoughts and prays. I know they'll all appreciate your support.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"I always felt guilty as a kid. All the other kids all loved both of their parents. I only loved my dad because he loved me. She never did. I was an afterthought if she if even thought about me." Johann paused, his neatly cut blond-brown hair looking especially blond in the sunlight streaming through the window of the judge's chamber. "Last year I called her on my birthday and she yelled at me for interrupting her massage. She's never known when my birthday is. Half the time, I wonder if she even remembers I have one."
"But Wade does love you? He knows when your birthday is?" the judge, Judge Carson, a friend of George's, asked Johann.
"Yeah. A few years he's flown up for it if he could get the time off work. When he couldn't, he'd send me a gift and video chat with me or we'd talk on the phone." He looked over to the bookshelf to his right, before looking back at Judge Carson with his hazel eyes, "I think he does love me. He always used to joke that I was his extra little brother, that he's change his bed out for bunk beds so that Dad would let me stay with him and Aunt Annaliese and Uncle Earl. Half the time, I'd wonder if he really was joking. There was day's he'd say it with a voice that was real serious. He'd start count up money, along with his brothers, Weston and Wyatt. They said that if they gave their parents the money to move my stuff into Wade's room, because Wyatt and Weston shared their room, maybe they'd be more willing to let me stay with them. They wanted my Dad to live in the guest room."
"What did they think about your mother?"
"Wade hated her. I never knew why, just that he didn't like her one bit and she hated him just as much, if not far more." Johann ran his fingers through his hair. "She and Grandmother both had very prejudice ideas, about Southern, Catholics, and Jews. Dad converted to Catholicism before he got sick because he felt it gave him more answers to life. My mother wanted to divorce him then."
"What stopped her?" Judge Carson asked the fifteen-year-old.
"She loved his money. She wasn't ready to lose that. I overheard her on the phone with one of her friends. She said if Dad hadn't signed a PreNup, she would have divorced him then and there."
"So you don't want to live with your mother?" Johann made a face.
"No. I really, really don't."
"Do you want to live with live with Wade, then?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Even though he lives in Alabama, a thousand miles away from here?"
"Even though he lives a thousand miles away. Living at the end of the world is better than living with that woman."
Zoe lifted up the photo on the shelf in Wade's uncle's home. Jeana was living with Wade's Nana for the time. The woman in the photo was definitely not Jeana. She was incredibly beautiful, with long blonde hair. As Zoe looked at her, she knew she had seen this woman before, but where? She set the pick back onto the shelf and took a picture of her with her phone.
"That's Wade's mama," Lemon told her later as she and the Belle walked through Central Park. Lemon was studying the image on Zoe's phone, trying to figure out why Zoe would have known her. "She was born up here, but when she married Wade's daddy, she moved down to Bluebell. Only a handful of people actually know that though. It's the Kinsellas' best kept secret."
Zoe stared at Lemon. "Why is that?"
"Well, you see, Wade's Grandpa owned a magazine that's nationally syndicated. When Wade's mama live up here, she was on the board of directors and her brother took the company over when their father died. I only know this because Mrs. Kinsella used to take Magnolia and I shopping once my mama left."
"Was she nice?" the doctor asked. She wanted to know more about Wade's family.
"Very nice. She was such a sweetheart." Zoe nodded, taking her phone back from Lemon as it rang.
"Hello?" Zoe was quiet for a while. "We'll be right there." Zoe stuck her phone in her purse. "Come on," she told Lemon.
"What's going on?"
"They're recessing for lunch and Wade wants us to be there after lunch."
Zoe hailed a taxi and climbed inside, Lemon following her. Cars were rushing everywhere. One man lost control of his car ahead of them, hitting a patch of ice. The taxi driver stopped at the red light as the man ahead of them ran into the intersection, hitting into another car, but the car behind their taxi didn't stop, pushing their car into the pile up. There was the sound of honking, the sound of metal and glass crunching all around them. She screamed, but the sounds around her drowned out her screams. Zoe felt a sharp pain in her stomach. Everything was blurred, other than the red that was overtaking her left eye as they were thrown around, then black.
"Where are they?" Wade muttered to George as he looked at his friend. George shook his head, pressing the end call button again.
"Lemon's not answering. That's really not like her to not answer her phone. Have you tried Zoe?" Wade nodded.
"Voicemail." Wade's phone rang and he picked up immediately, not checking to see who was calling and he paled as he heard the voice on the other end. "Thank you for let me know, Liam," he said, hanging up, "That was Zoe's brother. Zoe and Lemon were in an accident. They're doing some tests on Lemon. Zoe's in surgery," he told George, who immediately paled at the thought of his fiancé in an accident. "We need to go."
"Go where?" Michael, George's lawyer friend, asked them.
"My fiancé and Wade's girlfriend were just in a really bad accident." Michael frowned.
"Go. I'll ask to reschedule this." Wade paused.
"What about Johann?"
"My son used to go to school with him before his mother put him into that English school. He's more than welcome to stay with my family for the night." Wade nodded, shaking his hand as George gathered up their stuff.
"Thank you."
Beep… beep… beep… beep… beep…
"Uggh!" Zoe groaned. She knew that sound all too well. She lifted her hand, seeing the tubes running into her hand. With her other hand, she slowly lifted to touch her forehead. She could feel where she had had stitches. Under a blanket, she could see her right leg in a cast again. The sight was all too familiar.
"Hello, Ms. Hart. I'm Dr. Ashton."
"I already know," Zoe told him, "Broken leg, minor concussion, and minor anemia. I get that." The doctor's face darkened.
"Look, Ms. Hart-"
"Go get Dr. Samuels or my dad," she told the young doctor. He looked flustered and went to speak.
"Too late, Zoe," Paul said, walking in, "You can go, Dr. Ashton. I can handle Dr. Hart." The young doctor gave Paul the folder, then stormed from the room. Paul pulled up a chair next to Zoe. "I heard your diagnosis of yourself. You're partially correct."
Zoe cocked her head and her friend, looking at him confused. "What did I get wrong?"
"You had a miscarriage." She stared at him blankly.
"But that's not possible. I wasn't pregnant," she told him.
"About five weeks."
"But I wasn't pregnant," Zoe insisted. Paul squeezed Zoe's hand and tears became to come. She moved one hand onto her flat stomach as a sob escaped her mouth. She felt like someone had torn out her heart. She felt like she was missing someone she who she hadn't even known the existence of, sort of the way she felt when she learned Harvey was her real father, only more devastated. She could learn things about Harvey through the people who knew him and whatever she could find on him. She'd never get to know her baby ever. She'd never get to hold them, or tuck them in. She found herself longing for the child she'd never get to meet.
"I'm really sorry." Her boyfriend appeared in the doorway of the hospital room and she looked up at him, her eyes filled with unshed tears and her cheeks streaked with the shed ones. It was a truly heartbreaking scene for Wade. Paul stood. "Let's talk outside," he told Wade. The bartender nodded, looking at his girlfriend, and then following the doctor outside.
"Is she going to be okay?" Wade asked worriedly.
"She's got a broken leg and a very minor concussion that's mostly gone. She has minor anemia." Wade nodded, turning back to go into Zoe's room, but Paul reached out and stopped him. "She lost her baby."
Wade froze, and then blinked. "Baby? Zoe wasn't pregnant." Paul nodded.
"Zoe didn't know either." Paul sighed. "She was five weeks pregnant." Wade inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall. Suddenly, her tears as he had first entered the room made sense. When he opened my eyes, there was a dark hair girl and a blonde, Roxana and Gigi, who stood frozen.
"Zoe was pregnant?" Roxana asked, her eyes large with sadness. When Wade nodded, she clasped a hand over her mouth. Gigi pushed past him, entering into the room. Wade followed behind her as Gigi hugged her friend. Zoe's eyes met his, silently begging him not to leave her, to stay, to come there. He complied, moving to sit next to her on the small hospital bed, lifting his tiny girlfriend into his lap, mindful of her leg. As she clung to him, Gigi stood and left the room with a feel better, dragging Roxana in tow. His shirt was soaked with Zoe's tears over the loss of someone they didn't know that would always be a part of their life.
Wade hugged Zoe to him. He was going to be a dad. He was going to have a family, him, Zoe, their child, and his cousin. Or they were, before that awful accident had taken their child away from them. He had found out only a few minutes ago, and he could already feel the pain of the son or daughter he'd never know. He could only imagine how heartbroken Zoe must feel. He looked up as someone knocked on the door. He nodded silently to Dr. Hart, who let himself in.
"Oh, Ketzile," he said softly, embracing his daughter into his arms, "I'm so sorry," he told her, rocking her gently as Wade stood and watched. "I called your mother when I found out. She's on her way." Zoe sniffled and nodded. "Get some rest," Dr. Hart ordered her tenderly before turning to Wade. "Take care of her. I'm going to go get her charts and file from Dr. Ashton."
"Paul," Zoe finally chocked out as her father went to leave, "Paul has them. He took them from that Ashton kid." Dr. Hart nodded.
"I'll go get them from him then." He turned back to his daughter, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Get some rest, Ketzile." Zoe nodded, laying into Wade, curling her head onto his chest. She was going to be a mom. She hadn't even know...
So depressing news = depressing chapter. It started out alright, but then she told me what happened and it was amazing she even got a flight out on such short notice. But my chapter goes kind of depressing. Don't hate me! I didn't mean to take that much out on Zoe! I promise.
Hopefully tomorrow's episode will lighten my mood up a little.
Remember to review. 55 reviews to next chapter. 60 if you want it up by tomorrow or Tuesday at latest or if you want to cheer me up. Little reminder, keep Mandie & her mom & her family in your thoughts, please.