“I want to talk about happy things too,” Grant nodded. He patted his hand on the bed next to him. “But I need to know that we had this conversation. I have been doing a lot of thinking, and, if the time comes, I don’t want you to ever have to wonder what I would have wanted. I want you to know.”
Hailey sat down, and Grant took her hands in his.
“Hailey, if I don’t beat this…” he said before taking a moment to finish his thought, “I want you to go to school and get your education. I want you to play basketball. I even want you to….” Grant stopped, closed his eyes and opened them again quickly. “I especially want you to fall in love again.”
“I will never love anyone else,” Hailey cried.
“I’m glad you feel that way right now,” Grant nodded. “Trust me, I am. But the time would come, Hailey. Eventually, it would happen. I know these things are hard to talk about right now, but if that time came and that man you love is asking you to be his wife, you may be thankful we had this talk after all. I just want to put it all out on the table and let you know that moving on is exactly what I want you to do.”
“It sounds to me like you’re giving up,” Hailey cried.
“No,” Grant gulped. “Hailey, I’m not giving up. I just want you to know that, no matter the situation, I just want you to be happy. I hope it’s with me, but if it’s not…nothing changes the fact that your happiness is all that matters to me.”
Hailey wanted to respond appropriately, to say all the right things and make all the right promises, but she couldn’t find the words to say everything that was on her heart. “You are a beautiful person,” she smiled tearfully as she kissed Grant’s lips. “And I am so glad you’re mine.” A nurse walked in, and Hailey knew the distraction was a Godsend; she stood up, walked outside, closing the door gently behind her, leaned back against the wall and sank slowly to the floor, covering her eyes as her mind raced and her heart pounded.
Randy was exhausted as he walked toward the elevator, heading back to Hope Hull, hoping to grab a few hours sleep before coming back to the hospital to relieve Nora. He spotted what appeared to be a familiar face standing behind the nurses’ station desk in the distance, but, unwilling to believe what he saw and cursing his mind for playing such evil tricks on him during such a stressful time, he rubbed his eyes hoping this mysterious mirage would disappear. When he got closer, the unmistakable sight of Cindy standing there was proof that his past was haunting him not just in thought but right here in the flesh.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded as he hurried around the desk and drug Cindy by the arm away from whatever it was she was snooping through.
“I was just trying to find your son’s room number,” Cindy pled.
It wasn’t until Randy had pulled Cindy from behind the desk that he first got a full view of her, and his jaw and his heart sank in unison.
“We need to talk,” Cindy sighed, glancing down at the giant swell of her belly.
“Dr. Lassiter, let me ask you a question,” Nora said with a frown. “Do you have children?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Dr. Lassiter replied.
“Then let me ask you this,” Nora gulped. “If one of your children was as sick as Grant is…if one of your children had cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant…what would you be doing to assure that a bone marrow donor was found?”
“The same exact things I’m doing for Grant,” Dr. Lassiter reassured Nora with a kind smile.
“I guess what I’m asking is…” Nora paused, “as a parent, am I doing everything that I can do?”
“Of course,” Dr. Lassiter nodded. “There have been numerous bone marrow drives on Grant’s behalf…all of your family and Grant’s siblings have been tested…”
“That’s not completely true,” a deep voice behind them announced.
Nora and the doctor turn quickly.
“Who?” Nora exclaimed, desperately clinging to any hope there may be. “Who hasn’t been tested?”
Randy’s face was flushed, but Nora dismissed it as exhaustion. Something about the way that Randy was staring at her, however, let Nora know that the effects on his face were not merely fatigue.
“Randy, what’s the matter…what’s wrong?” Nora asked as she reached for his arm.
“Nora…it’s Cindy,” Randy gulped.
“Cindy?” Nora shook her head. “Why in Heaven’s name are we talkin’ about her? She isn’t family! Why in the world would you even bring her name up to me right now? I’m thinkin’ of ways to help our son, and you’re thinkin’ about that woman?”
“Maybe I should go check on Grant,” Dr. Lassiter said uncomfortably as he turned to head down the hall and leave the couple to work out what seemed to him could prove to be a very interesting, yet entirely personal, problem.
“No…Dr. Lassiter, stay….this concerns you too,” Randy insisted.
For the life of her, Nora couldn’t fathom how anything to do with Randy’s former mistress could possibly be related to Grant’s doctor, but she was too tired to protest.
“Nora,” Randy gulped, speaking in a defeated tone that frightened Nora from the outset, “what I’m about to tell you is going to hurt you…”
“Randy, you’re worrying me,” Nora sighed as her forehead wrinkled with concern.
“I don’t know how to tell you this,” Randy said as he rubbed his hands together nervously. “It should be a private matter, but it can’t be.”
Nora reached to comfort Randy, but Randy moved away, knowing she would regret the gesture as soon as she heard what he had to tell her. “Nora…she’s pregnant with my child,” Randy blurted.
Nora felt her knees go weak beneath her. She steadied herself and suddenly she was angry. She pounded Randy on the chest with her open hand. “How could you do this to us; don’t you think I have enough on me right now as it is?”
Joanna, who was in town for a visit, had wandered up just in time to hear her father’s news. “You are kidding me?” she exclaimed. “Dad, are you just taking her word for it? There is no telling who else Cindy was sleeping around with! I would demand a paternity test before…”
“Jo,” Randy sighed, mortified by his daughter’s words.
“Don’t tell me this is none of my business,” Joanna insisted. “I mean it, Dad. I would make her take a test before…”
“She’s here because she wants to take a test,” Randy interrupted.
