Neighbor Dearest(57)
“I have to. You need to stay with the dogs.”
He pointed to a small older Nissan. “That’s my car. Be careful.”
“I won’t crash.”
“I’m not worried about the shit car. I’m worried about you.”
Running to the vehicle, I dialed Damien’s phone. It went to voicemail. I then punched the address for General into my phone. Ten minutes later, I parked illegally at the emergency room entrance.
Out of breath, I rushed to the front desk. “I need to know if Damien Hennessey is here.”
“I’m sorry you’ll have to wait in line.”
Leaning into the counter, I shouted, “No! You need to tell me if he’s here!”
She must have noticed that I was crying, because she decided to check her computer.
“Spell his last name?”
After I obliged, she shook her head. “I’m sorry. No one by that name has checked in here. He must be at Memorial.”
Without responding, I ran as fast as I could back to the car, punched the other address into my GPS app, and sped the entire way to Memorial.
While tears streamed down my cheeks, my mind raced with fearful thoughts, namely that if something had happened to Damien, my very last words to him were, “I don’t want to ever see you again.”
I would never forgive myself if something happened to him.
I just needed to see him.
I needed to get to him.
He needed to be okay.
When I finally arrived at Memorial Hospital, my heart felt like it was in my mouth as I made my way to the emergency room.
“I need to see Damien Hennessey. He was brought here about an hour ago.”
The receptionist punched some keys and said, “He was admitted.”
“Where is he?”
“Are you family?”
“I’m not related, no.”
“They may not be able to give you much info or let you see him. He’s on the third floor, though. Take those elevators.”
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion: sliding into an elevator at the last second; weaving my way through the halls of the third floor.
Then, I saw him. Or so I thought. In my haze, I had mistaken Tyler for Damien. Tyler was pacing with his hands in his pockets.
He stopped when he saw me and looked a bit panicked. “Chelsea?”
A rush of adrenaline hit me. “Where is he?”
“He’s okay. He’s okay. He’s alive.”
Thank God.
Thank you, God.
“I need to see him.”
“You can’t right now.”
“Why not?”
“He’s with his doctor.”
“I’m going in.”
He placed his hands on my arms to stop me. “No, Chelsea.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
Tyler just stared at me for the longest time. He walked over to the nurses’ station and grabbed a tissue before handing it to me.
“Come on. Let’s take a walk.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BROKEN HEARTED
Tyler led me out to a grassy area just outside of the hospital doors. The late afternoon sun was starting to set, and the cool breeze dried my tears a bit.
He was alive.
I reminded myself that whatever Tyler was about to tell me couldn’t be that bad because Damien was alive. He was talking to his doctors, right?
“It’s gonna be okay,” he said.
“What’s going on, Tyler? Don’t beat around the bush anymore. I can’t handle it.”
“Come sit.” He led me over to a bench. “This is a conversation you were supposed to have had with him. But if he had his way, it never would have happened. I don’t care if he kills me. You need to know.”
“What? Need to know what?”
“Damien fainted. His blood pressure dropped suddenly. He was probably under a lot of stress lately and not taking good care of himself. That’s what brought him here today.”
“Okay…that’s not that bad.”
“It’s happened before. Over the past few years, he’s been getting more symptoms—symptoms that didn’t exist until recently.”
“Symptoms of what?”
“Damien has a heart condition, Chelsea. It’s called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.”
“What?”
“A long name, I know. It’s inherited. It’s the same condition that killed our father.”
My heart sank, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What does it mean?”
“It means a part of his heart muscle is thickened. Sometimes, there are no symptoms and people, like my dad, don’t even know they have it. They just go into sudden cardiac arrest. Many of them die. In Damien’s case, we found out through genetic testing that he has it. More recently, he’s been experiencing some mild symptoms.”