Falling for my Ex-Fiancee’s Best friend

The second the phone rang, Demelza jumped up from Nathan and lunged for the phone. It was Harriet. Demelza had a mental picture of Harriet biting her nails. She hoped it wouldn’t be bad news, but with all the calls her mother had made in the past few days, Demelza honestly didn’t expect any more good news; her father was already in the hospital, though. What news could be worse than that?

“Mother,” Demelza said shakily into the phone.

On the other end of the line, Demelza heard Harriet inhale deeply. “I didn’t want to bother you, sweetie. I know you’re exhausted. Today was such a hectic day for all of us…”

Demelza found it hard not to keep the irritation and anxiety out of her voice. “What’s the matter now, ?”

“It’s just… your father’s here in the hospital, and you know, well. I was wondering about the bills. We barely scraped together the money for the last time he was admitted and_”

“You didn’t scrape the money together, mother, I paid the bills last time.” Demelza flipped.

“I know, I know. You’ve been wonderful, baby” Harriet responded. “I was just wondering if_”

“You didn’t have to call this late at night to ask for money, mother. You make it sound like I need to be reminded to assist if necessary.

Demelza sighed. “I’ll take care of the money. Don’t worry about it. And don’t call this late again. I have to get to work early tomorrow.”

“I know, baby. I know.” Harriet repeated several times. “So… you’ll take care of the… bills…?”

Demelza’s jaws stiffened in response. She had no idea how much the hospital bills would cost this time around, and she sincerely doubted that she had the money. Nathan had been the one to foot the bills last time, and then he had paid the ransom requested by her abductors.

He had already done so much.

Still, she straightened her back when she replied, as though she were sure of every single thing that came out of her mouth. “I’ll handle the bills, mother. Now get some sleep. We’ll come check in with you guys tomorrow.”

Her mother’s response was full of relief. “Oh, thank you. Thank you, Mel baby…”

Demelza clicked the power button and fell back against Nathan. His eyes were closed, but she knew he was still awake. He was always awake whenever she was awake, and as far as she had noticed, he did not fall asleep until she had fallen asleep.

“Everything alright?” Nathan asked. Demelza’s response was to sigh and lie back against him.

“Nothing at all. It was just my mother.”

“Oh? Everything’s alright at the hospital?”

“Everything’s alright. It was nothing. Don’t worry.”

Nathan opened his eyes to look at her. She was back to resting her head against his chest, so he only saw her hair. He exhaled heavily and leaned back again. He stroked her hair and rubbed her back with one hand.

“Everything’s going to be fine, Demelza. We’ll drop by the hospital first thing tomorrow before we head to the office. Your father’s going to be alright. Don’t worry about it.”

Demelza believed Nathan’s words, even though she felt somewhat skeptical. She soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

Early the next morning, they wasted no time in stepping out of the house and headed straight for the hospital. The doctor still maintained that tests needed to be run. Her father’s health was no better. He looked stable, better than yesterday, but Demelza needed to be sure exactly what was wrong with him before she would finally be at peace.

They left the hospital with Demelza feeling more agitated than before. Her mother had made herself scarce when Demelza and Nathan had arrived at the hospital, and even when Nathan had gone to meet the doctor to ask about the bills, her mother was nowhere to be found. Now they were driving back to the office and the rising rays of the sun were just hitting their faces.

“Are you alright?” Nathan asked. He’s been doing that a lot more often these days. Demelza huffed and squirmed in her seat.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay…” Nathan drew out. “Because it looked like you were about to perform a surgery on that doctor.”

Nathan was met with an unimpeachable wall of silence. He hastily changed tactics. “Everything’s going to be fine. Right now, though, I think I might die for some coffee.”

Demelza narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not planning to make me get you coffee, are you?”

“Well, you are my secretary after all. But I was thinking more along the lines of you drinking coffee with me.”

Demelza huffed again and turned her head to the window. Nathan chuckled. In the rearview mirror, he could see her smiling.

Demelza’s sunny mood lasted only until late in the day, when she was alone with Nathan again, and her phone rang. She groggily picked it up.

“Mother_”

“You need to get to the hospital quickly! It’s your father.”

Everything cleared away from her mind. She didn’t wait for the call to end, she just turned to Nathan. “My mother just called. It’s the hospital. Something’s up with my father.”

Nathan didn’t need to say anything, he just picked up his coat. Demelza was already rushing out of the office.

She burst through the doors of the hospital, hair and thoughts flying wild.

“Where is he?” Demelza demanded.

Harriet, her mother was sobbing, and tried to wrap an arm around her neck, but Demelza shrugged her off. “Where’s the doctor? What’s he saying? What’s wrong with dad?”

She had just placed her hand on the handle of the door when the doctor appeared.

“Ah, you’re finally here. Good. The test results are in, and they don’t look good. Do you want to sit down to hear it?”

Demelza shook her head, unable to form words any longer. Nathan moved behind her to massage her collar.

The doctor read: “Liver failure, and not onset. It’s in its final stages, which means only one thing…” Harriet’s voice trailed off but she found it again. “your father’s been having drinks secretly. Are you aware of this?”

Demelza spluttered. “Drinking? My father doesn’t drink anything other than water. I mean, he drinks fruit juices sometimes at family meetings_”

“Alcoholic fruit juices?” Silence. “And these family meetings are a usual occurrence?”

“Well…”

“When’s the last time you had one of these family meetings?”

Demelza could not answer. It had been a long time since she had been back home. Now that she thought about it, she had not been in the life of her father, or mother, or anyone from her family at all. She had lost total contact with everyone from her life before.

After she met Nathan, he became everything. He became her everything. She had not needed to return for a visit or even checked in. Just how long exactly had it been since she had been home? She couldn’t answer. The realization filled her with pain and regret.

There was no way she could say that she was caring about her father’s health when she had not even been present in his life. She was only there whenever her mother called to inform her that there was an emergency. She had been so focused on making money and being happy and living for herself…

“Look, I don’t know what the relationship between you and your family is, or how long ago you’ve been away, but the results here show that your father has been imbibing an awful amount of alcohol. It’s something any medical personnel would have seen a mile away. You say this isn’t the first time he’s been admitted?”

Demelza nodded. “He was admitted not long ago. I was on my way there before I was…” she trailed off remembering the last time that she had tried to visit her father in the hospital and had gotten abducted.

The doctor leveled his gaze at her. “If he’s been admitted before, then the doctor must have surely informed you that he has a liver problem and should under no circumstance imbibe alcohol. The only reason he would wind up here again is if his liver can’t function properly. That will only happen if he’s drinking.”

Gears were already turning in Demelza’s mind. She hadn’t read the report last time. She had been absent since then. She had not checked, but her mother… her mother was with her father in the hospital last time. She probably knew the results of the last visit to the hospital.

Demelza turned slowly to her mother whose tears were falling even faster now. Harriet’s face was a mask of sorrow and guilt. She was mouthing words but Demelza could only hear the blood roaring in her ears. And Demelza felt something in her heart break even the doctor asked the question again.

“Has your father been drinking?”