Return II

Chapter 8

Michael's POV

"Are you miss Natalie's father?" A young woman asks as she inches toward me. I nod and quickly stand. I cannot help but notice the many papers in her hands. In fact, I pay more attention to them than her face. 

The young lady, whose name tag suggests her name is Clara, smiles a shy smile and sticks her hand out to me. I hesitantly grab it and shake it a couple times before quickly dropping it. I breathe in deeply and wait for her to speak. 

"Hi, I was informed that you wanted to talk to someone about Natalie's removal from life support." Clara says. My heart sinks in nervousness. I slowly nod and try to maintain eye contact with her. "Y-yes." I stutter and she motions for us to sit. Butterflies fill my stomach. It is never good when you are asked to sit just to talk.

"No, I'm fine with standing." I say as kindly as possible and Clara nods with a shy smile and a bite to her lower lip. I press mine tightly together and almost forget that I'm hidden under pounds of make up and prosthetics. I almost forget to change my voice, too. 

"There sure is a lot of nurses here, isn't there?" I ask and Clara giggles. She nods and re-positions the papers in her arms. Trying to get my mind off of Natalie surely did not work like I had hoped.

"So, the other nurses that are in charge of Natalie and I spoke about the options and we had to call in a lawyer and an attorney to get everything straight." Clara begins and I sigh. I almost apologize for putting them through so much hassle, but then I remember that this is for Natalie. If it takes a million nurses and six lawyers, then so be it. I will do anything to save my daughter.

"So?" I ask nervously. Clara finally peels the papers from her chest and shows them to me. I read the first sentence of the first paragraph and realize that the many papers she has in her hands are contracts. I immediately look to the bottom of all of them and see that they are all sighed by Taryn.

It takes everything for me to not yank the papers from Clara and rip them up. I cannot believe Taryn sighed contracts without telling me. This is legalized now, and there is nothing I can do about it, unless I take her, and them, to court. But I cannot do that, because I cannot risk being discovered. The law will need my personal information in order for me to fight. I would have to claim Natalie as my daughter to everyone, and I am not ashamed to do so, but I could get arrested for my hoax. 

But I promised Natalie, and I am not one to break my promises.

Why am I being so selfish about this? I am supposed to put others before myself. After all, that is how I was raised. 

This is ridiculous. I want to find Taryn and scream at her until she goes deaf. I want to break everything in sight and I want to run away. I never want to stop screaming and crying.

"The new date is November 6th at 3:00." Clara informs me and my heart sinks. November 6th is in two weeks. 3:00 is when I  "died."

"The other option is a court date, which can be set up within the next few weeks." Clara finishes and I shake my head. I throw the papers to the floor and press one of my hands to my face and the other in the air in front of me.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, no, no." I repeat and turn away from the nurse. I walk away from her and to the hospital exit doors. 

"Dad." Blanket's soft voice fills my ears and I rub my eyes before looking down at him. He stops walking and lets me finish clearing the remaining the distance between us. "You alright?" I ask and he shifts his position.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." He says and I smile. I place my hand on his shoulder and nod. "Yeah, I will be." I say and he tilts his head. "Will be?" He asks and I nod. "What just happened?" He asks and I shake my head. I look above his and find my mother standing in the doorway. "I think you have received enough news for today." I say and look down at my son again. He stares at me blankly. "Let's just go spend some time with her, okay?" I say and he nods. "Okay."

My youngest son and I walk back toward Natalie's room and pay no mind to my mother behind us. We walk into the room and everyone's eyes follow us as we make our way to Natalie. I allow Blanket to visit with her first, and take a seat between Taryn and my father. I do not want to talk to either of them, so I stay quiet, even though Taryn says my name and my father nudges me.

I watch as Blanket sits at the chair next to his twin sister's bed and places his hand over hers. He stares at her and glaces at me every once in a while. Everybody watches him as if he's putting on a show and I can feel the tension and pressure that is being weighed on him. 

Blanket leans over and whispers something to Natalie, then lies his head on her hand. After a few moments he leans back and keeps his hands to himself.

I want to speak up, but I feel that this moment of silence being shared between my family and I is much needed. Prince walks through the door after a few minutes and to my surprise, no one's heads turn up. He walks over to Natalie and rubs her forehead, then kisses it and walks away from her. He takes a seat on the opposite side of the room and retrieves his phone from his pocket. 

After watching him scroll through the screen for a few minutes, he glances up and catches me. He looks down again and presses the middle button then looks up. He sighs and stands and everyone's eyes follow him. 

"It's getting late. I'm gonna go home and get some sleep." Prince says. No one speaks for a long while. "Me too." Paris finally agrees. I look over to Blanket, everyone else following. He looks up and looks between everyone. "School night?" He asks and I nod. "Yeah." Prince answers aloud. Blanket stands and walks to his brother and sister.

Without saying goodbye, the boys leave. Paris stays back and embraces me along with a kiss to the cheek and tells me she loves me. I return the loving gesture, then she exits the room and leaves with her brothers.

I feel awful that the boys did not at least say goodbye to me. I got me thinking that they may be angry with me about leaving. They may be angry with me for everything I have done and put them through.