Page 109 of Volatile Vice

I sigh. “Hold on to Falcon. He’s a good guy.”

She smiles. “Don’t I know it.” She leaves the ICU unit.

I redirect my attention to my mother, grabbing her hand. “I’m here, Mom.”

Her eyelids flutter. “Vinnie?” she rasps out.

I squeeze her hand. “Yeah, I’m here.”

She winces. “I have to…tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“You need to know.” She closes her eyes. “You were always my favorite. Even after how you came into the world.”

I smile. “It was a tough labor. I know.”

“No. I mean…” Her voice cracks. “Your grandfather…”

“Yes, I know he was here.”

“Your father…”

“I’m working with our attorneys to get him a furlough to come see you.”

“Yes. But no. I mean. Your father…”

I wrinkle my forehead. What is she trying to say? “Yes, Mom? What is it?”

“He… Your father is…” She shifts in her bed. The heart monitor accelerates.

“Easy.” I put her hand down, patting it lightly. “You’ll tell me later.”

“No…” She opens her eyes, grimacing. “Must tell you…”

The alarms on the machines start blaring.

“Oh my God, Mom!” My pulse races as fear courses through me.

Her eyes close.

The room floods with nurses.

“Sir, you’re going to have to leave,” one of them says to me.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Just as I ask this, a doctor rushes in, his face grim.

“No, I need to stay. She was trying to tell me something about my dad!” I yell over the tumultuous drone of the machines.

The doctor pushes past the nurses, immediately attending to my mom. He moves quickly. “Code blue!”

“Sir, you have to leave!” The same nurse’s voice cuts through the cacophony again, hands guiding me towards the door.

“No! You don’t understand?—”

But before I can finish my plea, I find myself in the hallway outside the room. The door slams shut behind me, cutting off any protest.