Chapter
19: Secrets
Daniel paced the entrance of the hospital for hours. With every passing
minute, he knew Shiri was slipping away. His mind was clouded with images of the
last time this sort of thing happened.
‘Why am I constantly reminded of Alexia’s death?’ Daniel pondered
angrily as he lit a cigarette. This would be his third one so far, but he
didn’t care. Anything was better than thinking about what was to come. Maybe
this time he’d kill himself. But no, Chance had already tried that, and look
where it got her. He didn’t need a more shattered mental state than the
present.
Daniel had remembered to scribble down a note for Darren and Chance just
before he left for the hospital. He didn’t know if they’d get it when they
came back from their trip to New York. He didn’t really care at the time.
Daniel kept his head down towards the floor, never bothering to look up, even
when someone approached him. Before he knew it, someone had snatched the
cigarette from his mouth and put it out with their high-heeled shoes. He looked
up to see Chance standing in front of him, and Darren behind her.
“You shouldn’t be doing that,” she said.
“Why does it matter to you?” Daniel retorted.
“Because I’m your friend and friends are supposed to look out for
each other,” Chance answered.
Daniel rolled his eyes and pulled out another cigarette. Just after he
lit it, Chance snatched it up again and threw it to the ground. “Stop it,”
she sternly told him. She and Daniel began to stare each other down, but
realizing this wasn’t going to get them anywhere, he back away, and the three
of them headed into the hospital.
“What happened?” Darren softly asked, knowing the situation was
already as heated up as it could possibly be.
“Shiri was involved in a car accident earlier this afternoon. When I
saw her, she looked really bad,” Daniel replied, looking down as they walked
into the private waiting room.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know.” Daniel waited to add anything to his reply.
“I’m so scared,” he finally broke down. “What if she…?” Daniel
couldn’t finish off his sentence before beginning to sob.
It was Chance’s turn to jump in and save the day. “Hey, don’t be
afraid. We’re here to get you through this. Don’t worry. Like I said before,
friends are supposed to look out for friends, and we’re here to look out for
both of you,” she calmly said, patting Daniel’s back with her hand.
Daniel looked at Chance strangely. “First you get really pissed off at
me for smoking, but now you’re my friend again. Stop confusing me about
who’s the enemy and who’s not,” he nearly yelled at her. Daniel sat down
on one of the royal blue couches in the waiting room followed by Chance and
Darren.
“Danny, calm down. You know I’m always going to be your friend. Now,
enemy, that’s a little too strong a word to be using. How about look out
because I’m always looking out for you the way you look out for me.”
Before Daniel had the chance to speak his mind about the matter, the door
opened sending everyone’s attention to the man walking through the door. He
was short and old, almost too old to be a doctor. “Mr. Dan Jones?” the old
man asked.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Daniel replied, standing up and moving closer to
him.
“Could I speak to you for a moment?” the doctor said.
“Sure.” Daniel and the old man left the room. The walked outside into
the lighted hallway as the old man began to speak.
“Mr. Jones, I’m Dr. Jack Smith. I’ve been working on your
girlfriend for the last few hours. I’m sorry I have to tell you this,
but…” Dr. Smith trailed off as Daniel began to cry again.
“Oh, God! She’s dead!” he bawled. “I can’t take it anymore. Why
me?”
“I don’t think you understand. Shiri is perfectly fine. She lost her
baby though,” Dr. Smith answered.
Daniel looked up at him with a confused expression on his face. “What
baby?” he asked.
“Yours.”
Daniel was still unable to comprehend all the strange information that
was being thrown in his face. His mouth hung open and he tried to from words
with his fried brain.
“I take it she didn’t tell you,” the doctor said. Daniel shook his
head. “She was two months pregnant. I’m very sorry. If you’d like to talk
to her, she’s awake. I’ll take you to her room.” Daniel and Dr. Smith
walked down the silent corridor and towards room 276.
Daniel hesitated as he slowly opened the door and headed inside. The room
had its shades drawn closed and was very dark. He stepped closer to the bed to
see Shiri’s face turned away from him.
“Hi,” Daniel almost whispered. Shiri turned to face him as he sat
down in a chair close to her bed. A few tears streamed down her face as she
tried not to look into his eyes. He reached over and gently took her hand.
“It’s okay,” he said in a low voice.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Shiri sobbed. “I’m sorry you
had to find out this way.”
“Shh… Don’t say anymore. I’m just glad I didn’t lose you
too,” Daniel replied, tears welling up in his eyes as he buried his face into
her shirt. They cried in each other’s arms for nearly half an hour.
“What’s going on in your head?” Shiri asked as she wiped the tears
away from Daniel’s face.
“Why do you wanna know?” he answered.
“You have a really confused look on your face,” she said.
“I guess I’m still in shock about the baby. I’m sorry.”
“Let’s not talk about it, please. I don’t need the constant
reminder.”
“Okay,” Daniel said as he kissed Shiri. “What do you wanna talk
about?”
“Is Chance here with Darren?” she asked.
“Yeah. Do you wanna see them?”
“No, I’ve just been thinking, why doesn’t she take the blood test
for her marriage license now? She’ll get that over with and I’ll get my DNA
test,” Shiri replied.
“What? No! I’m not about to screw up her life even more than it
already is. She’s had enough stress. The last thing she needs to find out is
that she isn’t her parents’ daughter,” Daniel shot back in anger.
“Look, there is a very slim possibility that she’s my sister, but I
just wanna see what happens. If it is her, then I’ll do the talking and take
the rap for it,” she said.
Daniel rolled the idea around his head. He wasn’t too sure if he wanted
to go along with his girlfriend on this one, but finally decided to stick with
her and replied, “Fine.”
“Okay, thank you Daniel. You’re a great guy.”
“Yeah, whatever,” he mumbled as he left the room. Daniel headed for
the waiting room Darren and Chance were sitting in and quietly entered.
“Daz, can I talk to you?” he asked.
Darren stood up and left the room with Daniel, leaving Chance alone to
wonder what they were going to talk about.
“What is it?” Darren asked.
“Shiri’s paranoid!” Daniel answered, enraged. “She thinks Chance
is her long lost sister when I know she isn’t. She wants you to take the blood
test to prove her wrong, but I don’t want you to do that because I know it’s
going to ruin Chance’s life if she finds out she was adopted.”
“What happened to her? Did she get that bad of a head injury in the
accident?” Darren replied as he began to pace in the hall.
“Apparently! But I’m not about to go back on my word. Besides, you
two actually do need to blood test in order to get your license. Just take it
now and get it over with.”
“Fine, but I don’t wanna hear a few weeks from now that Chance is not
really Chance,” Darren said as he and Daniel began to head back into the
waiting room.
“How’s Shiri?” Chance changed the subject before anything was said.
“She’s fine,” Daniel bluntly replied.
“Hey, Chance, you know what just occurred to me?” Darren asked.
“No, what?” she retorted.
“We need a blood test for the marriage license, right? We’re at the
hospital. Why don’t we get that done?” he said.
Chance thought for a moment before rising and saying, “Sure, why
not?” They walked out of the room together and headed for the elevators as
Daniel stayed behind in the waiting room.
~~~~~~~~~~
The early morning hours of the next day slowly crept into view as the sun
slowly rose above the horizon. Daniel had been sitting outside the hospital for
nearly five hours now, and amazingly, he wasn’t even tired. His mind raced
with crazy ideas he didn’t even know he could think up. On the cold hard
bench, he scribbled down a few lines to a song and jotted down some notes as to
what he was going to say to Shiri that morning.
Daniel had even more on his mind. He was taking another big risk in his
life, this time in involved her. Would she go along with his crazy plan, or
would she dump him the second he told her? ‘Fuck it,’ he thought. ‘I’m
gonna do it no matter what.’ He stood up and began to walk through the door of
the hospital. Before heading upstairs, Daniel picked up a half dozen roses from
the gift shop. He climbed the main staircase and went straight to Shiri’s
room.
Hearing the door open, Shiri fixed her eyes to the figure entering her
room. She knew it was Daniel; he was the only one crazy enough to get past
hospital security to see her. “Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning,” he replied. “I love you, marry me.”
Shiri was dumbfounded. “Are you taking any of my drugs?” she asked
him half jokingly.
“No, I’m serious,” Daniel answered giving her a stone hard
expression.
‘He’s not joking,’ Shiri fearfully thought. ‘Oh, God, no. Why
now?’
“What did you mean when you told me I was the one the day of the
accident when I was holding you in my arms?” he asked.
Shiri thought hard about her answer. She barely remembered what she had
said just before drifting off into unconsciousness, but she did remember telling
him that. “I meant exactly what I said. You are the one.”
“How do you know?” Daniel kept interrogating.
“I guess it’s time you heard the story,” Shiri replied. He gave her
a confused look, but she cut him off from saying anything. “You see, the
Appleby women have a special gift, one that makes them feel the things that go
on the someone else’s life. In my case, yours. It’s said that if you were my
soul mate, I’d be able to pass my gift on to you, and you’d be able to feel
everything I felt. That day of the accident, I knew it was you because the
accident was so far away from the condo, and the only way you could have found
out about it was if you had felt the pain I was in. You did, so I knew you were
them one when you came to me to save me. Daniel, you’re more than my hero,
you’re my soul mate.”
Without taking another second to think about this things he had just
heard, Daniel bent down and kissed her. Shiri responded by wrapping her arms
around his neck and holding him close. They let go of each other and just stared
for over five minutes wondering what the other was thinking.
Daniel broke the silence. “So, is the answer yes?” he asked.
Shiri smiled. “Of course,” she replied. Daniel reached into his
pocket and pulled out the small box that contained the ring. He opened it and
slipped the ring onto her finger.
“This is odd, I was expecting something more gold and glittery,”
Shiri said as she examined the silver ring on her finger. Hearts surrounded the
edges and a vine made its way through the middle.
“I don’t really want people to know about this. I’ve had enough
hell with the media. I don’t want them to know we’re getting married,”
Daniel answered.
“Okay, but what about everyone else?” she asked.
“Nobody is going to know. This is our little secret,” he said,
kissing her lightly.
“Okay,” Shiri replied as she melted into her grasp.