Building Her Throne Burying My Heart (Claire) novel Chapter 81

I ended up staying in the hospital for only three days. To keep Claire from docking my pay, I had to check myself out early.

Deanna heard I was leaving and rushed over to try and stop me.

“Your leg isn’t even healed yet. How can you leave already?”

I didn’t want her to worry, so I carefully walked a few steps around the hospital room. “See? I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong. But if I miss more work, I won’t have any salary left.”

She just stared at me, completely annoyed. “What kind of company does this? They don’t care about you at all, making you go to work when you’re still hurt.”

“Just quit. Find a new job. I can help you look.”

“I’ll be okay. Really. I need this job to get by, so don’t worry about me.”

Deanna let out a sigh and finally gave up, but as she was about to leave, she turned back to me.

“Just try, okay? Try to hang in there a little longer. Every extra day counts, even if it’s just for me, your only friend. Please?”

Darleen, Deanna, Aaron… that was all I had left in this world. There used to be Claire, but it felt like my presence only made her unhappy. I’d already made up my mind to leave this place. But before I left, I couldn’t let her marry Garrison.

“Let me think about it,” I told Deanna.

When I left the hospital, I went straight to see Darleen. She was in the second stage of her treatment, and things seemed to be going okay. If she could just make it through the next phase, she’d get to go home.

She hadn’t seen me in a few days, and after all the stress and my stomach acting up, I’d lost even more weight. She looked at me, worried.

“Lambert, you look like you’ve lost weight again. Have you been working overtime?”

I forced a smile. “I’m fine, Mom. I started going to the gym, so I’m just getting stronger.”

We talked for a bit. I asked how she was feeling and she said she was doing alright.

“I…”

I couldn’t say anything. My silence gave me away. Suddenly, a single tear fell from her eye onto the back of my hand.

“Thank you, my good son,” she whispered. “You kept all this from me because you were afraid I’d give up on treatment, isn’t that right?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to look at her as my chest tightened and emotion threatened to spill out.

She patted my shoulder gently. “Don’t worry. I’m not giving up.”

“As long as I’m here, you’ll always have a home. As long as I’m here, you’ll always have someone in this world who cares about you…”

Her words hit me straight in the heart. I felt my nose sting and my eyes burned. I just couldn’t hold it back anymore. My eyes turned red.

When she said she’d always be here, that there would always be a home waiting for me, the tears I’d been holding in finally broke free. They streamed down my face, impossible to hide.