The Day I Stopped Being Mr Nice Guy

The private ward in Silver Falls General hospital pediatric center was too quiet, the only sounds were the soft sounds from the oxygen and the steady beep…beep…beep of the heart monitor. Dante Vance held his daughter’s tiny hand and used his thumb to trace over her small knuckles, desperate to memorize every feel, every proof that she was still here. Her skin was pale, almost the same color with the white sheets.

“Daddy?” Daisy called out weakly. “When will Mommy come? I miss her so much.”

The question was like a hot coal on his skin. He forced himself to smile, like he had perfected over the weeks of disappointment. “Soon, sweetheart. She is just finishing up at work. She will be here.” He said sweetly.

She nodded and closed her eyes.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket for the sixth time, and dialed Clara’s number again. It rang and went straight to voicemail.

‘You have reached Clara Vance. Leave a message.’

‘Clara, for God’s sake, where are you?’ he muttered fervently under his breath.

The door opened suddenly and Nurse Amy entered, pushing in a cart of supplies with a warm smile on her face. “Time for a dressing change, my brave girl. Ready?” She asked brightly.

Daisy nodded weakly as she sank deeper into the covers.

As the nurse began her care, Dante’s phone finally vibrated with a notification from Clara, which at first made his heart skip, until….

‘Stop blowing up my phone. There is an emergency here. I cannot come. Handle it.’

He stared at the words in shock, for he couldn’t believe his eyes. Handle it? Their only daughter, who is supposed to be celebrating her 5th birthday today in ribbons, was fixed up to the machines, fighting for each breath and Clara was telling him to ‘handle it’ like it’s a normal domestic issue. She can’t be serious?!

“Is everything okay, Mr Vance?” Nurse Amy asked nervously, as she notices his rigid posture.

“Fine,” he replied curtly, without raising his head to look at her.

“Mr vance? We really need to administer her Diathystine, if not, she might not make it this year.”

He nodded slowly with a sad smile on his face, as his heart thumped loudly in his chest.

Diathystine is a very rare drug with rare chemical properties and can not been easily gotten or bought. And it seems like the only thing that can save Daisy.

The nurse finished, cleaned up and patted Daisy’s foot gently. “All done. You are one brave little girl.” Then she walked out, leaving Father and daughter staring at each other in silence.

“Daddy?” She called out weakly as she made a feeble attempt to sit up on her bed.

“Yes, my love?” He replied lovingly and hurried over to her side.

She rested her huge eyes on him and and asked gloomily, “Does Mommy not love me anymore?” The quiet agony in her voice shattered him. “I still love mommy.”

“Oh, baby, no. No. Don’t say that.” He gathered her tiny hands in his and said soothingly, as he tried to bottle down his despair. “Your mother loves you more than anything in this world. She is just….she is very, very busy.”

“Daisy smiled sadly and shook her head. Then she said with a small voice. “It is so sad seeing mummy working so hard. I should be helping her.” A small dry cough shook her violently, and when she settled, she continued weakly. “I want to be stronger daddy, so that I can help, then she won’t have to work every day and she can spend time with me as my mummy.”

Dante’s heart dropped. He sat at the edge of her bed and removed strands of hair from her little face. Then with a sad smile on his face, he replied affectionately, “You are such a sweet little girl, and we are lucky to have you.” Then, he planted a kiss on her pale forehead.

“And also Jasper.” She added softly, “It is his birthday too, daddy.”

Dante’s blood went cold. “Jasper? How do you know about Jasper. Sweetheart?” He asked in surprise.

With a feeble attempt, Daisy pointed weakly at the tablet on her bed stand. Dante handed it to her and with a few clumsy swipes, she opened her mother’s best friend’s social media page, Eva, which she had posted a whole album of pictures forty minutes ago.

There was Clara, with a brilliant, unfamiliar smile, Dante hadn’t seen in years, holding a Batman decorated birthday cake with six candles. Standing behind her, was Mason Lockwood, with his hand possessively on her waist, and smiling widely at the camera. In the next picture, Clara was hugging Jasper, with his arms wrapped tightly around her neck with the caption, ‘Celebrating the best little man! Happy 6th, Jasper! So glad we could all be together for this special day!’

Dante stared at the photos in shock. The same day. The same hour. While he sat in a hospital room, begging her to come see her sick daughter on her birthday, but here she was across town, at a lavish birthday party, celebrating another woman’s child, wrapped in the arms of her ex-lover.

His blood turned cold as he placed the tablet aside, with trembling hands, not with rage, but grief.

He settled Daisy under the covers and tucked the blankets tightly around her and said softly, “It is time to sleep, Daisy. You need your rest. I promise…I promise you will see your mother tomorrow.” Even though he knew it was a lie.

Daisy nodded sadly, and closed her eyes as a single tear traced a path down her temple and entered her hair. Dante noticing it, leaned down and kissed her forehead, hoping it will comfort her.

But then he had to straightened up when a wet, croaky cough came out from Daisy’s throat and her small body shook violently.

“Sweetheart?” He called out worriedly.

Then she coughed again and sprayed blood all across the white pillowcase.

The heart monitor screamed frantically, with its alarm lights flashing and the lines on the screen flew around wildly.

“Daisy!” Dante shouted and grabbed her hand. “Daisy, look at me! Baby, stay with me!”

Nurse Amy rushed into the room looking horrified and quickly took in the scene…the blood, the screaming monitor, and in one swift motion, slammed her palm against a large red button on the wall and an emergency alarm sounded relentlessly in the hallway.

“Code Blue, Room 407! Code Blue, Room 407!”

********************

Across town, in the lavish penthouse apartment of the Lockwood Hotel, the air was thick with laughter and the scent of wine.

“Thank you for today, Clara,” Mason murmured intimately as he pressed a glass of champagne into her hand. “It meant the world to Jasper. And to me.”

Clara smiled, even though a pinch of guilt had been in her heart for the last one hour and she had pushed it aside. The continuous buzzing of her phone in her clutch purse felt like a reminder of her wrongdoing. “It was lovely, Mason. But I really must go. Dante has been calling—”

“So let him call,” Mason said and placed a hand on her arm to stop her from getting up. His touch was a reminder of what they had shared. “Clara, I am…I am drowning here. Jasper asks for you every night and putting him in bed alone….” His voice broke. “….it is just hard. Can you…just help me tonight? Please?”

He looked so vulnerable, so unlike the powerful man the world saw, and Clara’s resolve shook. Empathy, which is her greatest weakness whenever he is concerned, flooded her senses. “Well…just to tuck him in right?”

In the bedroom, Jasper bounced on his mattress excitedly. “Did you see my cake, Clara? It was the biggest!”

“I saw it, sweetie. It was wonderful.”

“I like you a lot,” Jasper shouted excitedly and threw his arms around her neck as she sat on the edge of the bed. “You should stay. You should be my new mommy. You are way more fun than my real mommy.”

The words from the six years old, shouldn’t have pleased her, but they did. They filled up a part of her that felt needed, appreciated…a feeling that had been absent in her own home for a long time. She smiled and patted his hair gently. “You are a very special boy, Jasper.”

Her phone buzzed again and vibrated non stop against her leg. With a huge sigh of disgust, she pulled it out. Dante. Again. She has had enough, this had to stop.

She answered in annoyance. “Dante, for heaven’s sake, what is so urgent that you can’t….”

To her dismay, the voice that came through the speaker wasn’t calm or weary. It was a shattered, raw and terrified. It was a voice she had not heard since the day Daisy was born and they weren’t sure she would make it.

“Clara.” Dante called out in panic. “It is Daisy. She is crashing. They are…they are rushing her into the emergency room. Clara, she might not…you need to come. Now. Please.”

The wine glass slipped from Mason’s hand, shattering onto tiny pieces on the marble floor. But Clara didn’t hear it. The only sound in the world was the panic in her husband’s voice and the feeble memory of her daughter’s weak cough playing repeatedly in her head. The party decorations, Jasper’s smiling face, Mason’s pleading eyes….it all faded like smoke.

Her emergency had been calling all along. And she had chosen to ignore it.