The next morning rolled in and Darien and I got up to shower and get Ariel ready for school. I told Darien to go to his office and prepare for work while I looked after Ariel. I was still the nanny after all.
“Ariel, you look so pretty in that dress!” I said, while she twirled around in her baby blue dress with white stockings and a white hair bow.
She even struck a few poses in the mirror. Girls. I remember when I was her age.
“Thanks, Mommy…” Ariel said, turning around with her hands behind her back. Uh oh, she laid down a new title on me.
“Mommy?” I didn’t know how to handle this one.
“Yeah, you’re gonna be called Mommy from now on.”
“Well, I’m honored. But I love it when you call me Willow!”
“But I want to call you Mom!” Ariel whined, pouting.
Oh no, this was getting difficult. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Nor did I want to try to replace her mother. I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Ariel, I—” My phone buzzed in the pocket of my jeans. “Hold on, let me take this call, Ariel, I’ll be back.”
She sighed, frowning. I went out into the hallway and to my room. I would have been glad for the distraction of the call that had come in at just the right moment, except that it was from my mother, and that’s never a good thing.
“Hello?”
I looked out the tall window of my room. It was cloudy outside, a dismal looking day.
“Willow, I’m so sorry,” my mother said. “But we had to make a decision.”
“Mom? What decision? Are you talking about Sam?”
Panic rose up in my throat and my head felt light. The carpet beneath my feet began to feel like burning coals.
“Yes, the doctors said his chances of waking up are very small. We can’t afford to keep—”
“What do you mean you can’t afford? I’ve been paying the bills for him to stay alive! What’re you saying?”
“And where have you been getting that money, young lady? We haven’t seen you at home for weeks now.”
She was dodging the question. Where I got the money was none of her business. The only thing that mattered was that I wasn’t breaking the law to get the money.
Though if I didn’t have this job, then I’d happily break laws to keep Sam alive.
“Mom, get to the point, what’s happening to Sam?!”
“We’re taking him off the machine,” she blurted out.
A painful silence drifted between us for a few seconds before I felt myself unravel.
“No! Don’t you dare! He’s still alive, don’t kill him!”
I slammed my fist on the desk in my room. I felt helpless, powerless, miserable, but also so very angry. A fury rose up in me so strongly that I was surprised by its intensity.
“Willow, we’re so sorry. The hospital will be taking his machine in two months anyway. Holding onto a false hope will only hurt more.”
“I hate you! I can afford to keep him alive, so this can’t be about money!” I fell down onto my knees, gripping the phone with a fatal pressure. “Mom! Mom!”
I looked at the phone and saw that she hung up on me.
What the fuck? I was doing everything I was supposed to. Things were going fine!
Darien ran into the room and knelt down by my side, holding my shoulders.
“Willow! Are you okay?!”
I jerked away from him, standing up and pointing to the door. “Leave, just leave me alone.”
My voice was breaking. It felt like another demented personality was about to erupt out of me.
“I’m sorry,” I immediately told Darien. “I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s not your fault. You’ve done everything to help and have stood by my side this whole time. Yet it was all in vain. I have to go now.”
I needed to see him! Sam couldn’t die now. There was still time, still hope. I ran out of the room, grabbing the keys to the Lamborghini that I had on the small table next to my door.
“But Willow—Willow, wait, where are you going?!”
I outran Darien and got to the garage where I pulled out and sped toward the hospital.
“Sam, I’m coming, I won’t let you go!”