Page 5 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)
Vin ripped through the intersection dialing Dali back with no avail.
Tahli.
Baby Love.
On a loop, his psyche repeated his daughter’s paralyzing words, as the blare of horns and screech of tires made Vin glimpse his rearview, briefly considering if the light had even been green.
He couldn’t focus enough on the answer. The answer didn’t matter. If a cop wanted to hightail him to the hospital, he could feel free. But Vin wasn’t stopping this car until it reached it.
“It’s bad, Dad… She’s not waking up.”
More horns.
Shit. He almost hit someone on an E-bike while cutting off a truck. Weaving in and out of lanes, Vin drove the Benz like an F1. His cell phone glowed in the passenger seat and he almost reached for it in angst, until he realized it wasn’t Dali returning his unanswered calls. It was Bianca.
“Fuck out of here,” Vin grumbled, only because in his mind, she was tying up his line. His life line…between him and Tahli.
Tahli.
Baby Love.
His dollar had never been good enough.
That’s how Vin had viewed his life. One monster-ass vending machine displaying countless options and possibilities, until Vin stood in front of it, ready for his turn to pay the cost and get his reward.
But his dollar wasn’t good enough. It was too wrinkled or too old and therefore rejected.
He was sent to prison at his young age with his wrinkled dollar and regrets.
Then one day, after a few court dates and freedom on the horizon, he was back in front of that vending machine. This time, it somehow accepted his crumpled dollar. Opportunity hadn’t gotten away from him. It’d just been postponed. He paid up and waited to select his destiny.
But the bag got stuck. What he had chosen sat dangling in view but wouldn’t drop.
He could see the dream - the life he desired - but he couldn’t grasp it.
Until one day, when he was about to walk away in defeat, a five-foot-something, brown-sugared, big smiled, bigger energy force came and kicked the side of the vending machine.
“That’s all you had to do,” that smile alluded. Because life was that easy for her. She kicked the vending machine and not only did what Vin desired come toppling down, but a whole bunch of other shit came with it.
Like hitting the lottery. He grabbed up all that good shit, even the stuff he didn’t ask for. Way more than he knew what to do with. Because this rigged-ass machine of life had slipped up and given him way more than his wrinkled dollar was worth.
All at her doing.
He had cheated that vending machine. He had cheated life and gotten her.
Vin didn’t remember where or how he parked—only that it was the first turn into the parking lot and near a door. If he didn’t have a car when he left this hospital, it wouldn’t matter. If the world didn’t have her, it would perish.
His anxiety transformed to abrupt fury upon entry.
His eyes flew around the room where everyone moved too casually for the severity of the situation.
An orderly wheeled a patient down the hall.
What looked to be a doctor exchanged paperwork with someone.
Two nurses sat at the front desk giggling.
Fucking giggling. The world was crumbling, and they were–
“Tahli Hayes.” Void stares stemmed. “Hall...Tahli Hall.” One lady punched into a computer while the others remained insouciant.
“Aye!” Vin thundered, rumbling the entire hospital. “Somebody tell me where to find my fucking wife!”
“Where is she?” Vin barreled past Robert, Tahli’s father. Leah’s husband and Tahli’s uncle, Mike, dangerously stepped into his path.
“Get the fuck out of my way!” Vin knocked Robert’s brother aside.
“Dad, wait,” Milo beseeched, tugging on his shirt while Dali had a grip on his arm.
“Daddy!” Terran cried out.
Vin had no destination. No target to unleash his fear-soaked wrath. He had to find one. Quickly. Find that or find Tahli.
“Son, let me speak to you for a minute.” Robert’s bloodshot eyes matched his defeated tone. Scared the shit out of Vin. It meant it was worse than Vin prayed for. And instantly, tears welled in Vin’s lenses.
“Why? Where…where is she? Huh?” Vin’s heart hammered. His whole body trembled. “Where is Tahli?” He gritted through clenched teeth, balling his patience up in his fists.
“Paige? Abby?” Vin grilled the two friends huddled near the wall. “Somebody fucking talk.” Paige held tight to her inscrutable shield. Abby looked like she was about to go shoot up again. Just then, the nearby restroom door swung open, and Vin’s lids inflated.
“Dalvin–”
“Dad!” Dali cried out on top of Robert. But Vin palmed Drew’s face, yanked his head forward and slammed it against the door.
“Dalvin! Fucking stop!” Robert boomed on his back.
“Oh my Godddd! The blood of Jesus!” Vanessa screeched.
Suddenly, hands were gripping Vin that he fought off with a running back’s resistance.
He made it back to Drew, slumped down against the door in time to kick him in the face; but missed from Robert’s shove.
Security guards were on his ass. Every grip Vin yanked from, another took its place.
“Please, please! Don’t call the cops. We got this. He’s grieving. We got this!”
“Were you driving, bitch? Were you fucking driving?” Vin roared over Robert pleading with security, as it seemed every person in the room played defense.
“He wasn’t driving. He wasn’t!” Vanessa yelped. “Dalvin, it was only Tahli in the car. It was only…” Vanessa’s sobs took over her words. Through his hazy vision Vin caught Abby and Paige rushing to him.
“Vin, the kids…the kids are watching,” Abby reminded him.
“Dalvin…you have to calm down, or they’re going to haul yo’ ass out of here,” Robert threatened. The tear that toppled from Robert’s lash line brought Vin to his edge of sanity, face joining his fists in a squeeze; cheeks trembling.
Vin was a man harnessing a tornado. He squalled wind through clenched teeth, and watched Drew catch his stability enough to make a dash toward him.
Good. Come catch this rage, boy .
But the security hemmed him up as well. Eyes darting around white floors and walls, Vin tasted insanity. Out of his mind but aware enough to be know it.
Tahli.
“They’re taking her in for surgery,” Robert murmured.
“She’s got a brain bleed and a punctured kidney from a piece of the car door that’s lodged,” Robert sniffled, too composed for Vin.
Like he was accepting shit they shouldn’t be accepting.
“They didn’t need to rush her because of the placement, it’s dangerous to remove.
They’re trying to strategize the operative angle and which surgery to perform first. But they did let us see her just in case… ”
That made Abby break down in Paige’s arms. Vin’s furious eyes snapped to Robert. He loved the man like a father but was seconds from severing his head from his body with bare hands.
“Would you like to see her before we take her into surgery?” Some white guy in scrubs stepped up, as Vin swiped his big palm down his face. No way was this him. No way was this her. In this hospital. Circling the drain.
“Yeah,” he breathed out shakily, heart rattling in his chest. He cleared the emotion and mucus from his throat, trailing the doctor down the hall on wobbly legs. When Vin followed him into the hospital room, he clamped his eyes against the sight, gritting his teeth for composure.
“I’ll…leave you for a minute. But we do have to get her in.
” He heard the doctor utter from another galaxy, as Vin finally opened his eyes on the fingers he’d been tugging.
TAHLI. Those letters were spelled out above his joints.
He wasn’t even sure how he made it over to her.
Felt like he was as unconscious as she was.
He used to love watching her sleep. The rise and fall of her pillowed chest used to make Vin’s heart swell.
Her breathing, his white noise. Her state of calm, his sweetest peace.
Now, with this machine keeping her alive, and these cuts flecking her smooth, copper face, Vin hated everything about the visual.
He needed her eyes open. Without consideration, his desires invoked his voice.
“Bab-” He choked on a cry before swallowing it down. “Okay. I’m here now. Wake…Wake up, baby love.”
She didn’t listen. Her chest swelled and deflated with every rise of the oxygen bag.
“Get up, Tahli,” Vin caught the pain drenching his orders, quaking each syllable. “Tahli, please. Get the fuck up.”
His lips vibrated. “Tahli…come on.” Vin swallowed her hand into his, pressing it to his lips.
“You…you gotta get up, baby, okay? Baby love, stop. Don’t do this to me. Get up, Tahli.” With her cold fingers against his nostrils, Vin smelled the vanilla from her lotion. It was unbearable.
“No, fucking no,” he breathed onto her hand. “Tahli, please. Baby…wake up. I…” Vin crumpled to his knees at her bedside, swiping tears from his cheeks.
“You’re right... Okay? You were right. You were fucking…
I…I can live without you. Okay? You don’t gotta be mine. You don’t gotta come back to me, but…” Vin squeezed his face, never having never fought an agony of this magnitude in his fucking life. All-consuming. Torturous. Hell’s anguish.
“I can’t live without you here . I…I need you here. We need you here, Tahli.” Cries choked out his words. “So…stop fucking playing with me, baby love. Wake up, okay?” Vin kissed her fingers. Once. Twice. Five, six, seven times.
“Tahli, I’m serious. Come on.” At every inch of losing it, he battled it.
“Tahli.” But she didn’t budge. Her stubborn ass kept her eyes shut, chest peacefully rising and sinking, like tides to the shore.
Nodding in a silent agreement with the man he knew was pulling the strings, Vin kissed his teeth.
“Alright, mothafucka. You win. You made your point. I don’t deserve her. But you better fucking keep her here,” Vin aimed a sinister finger up to the heavens.