Ace of Spades ✓ COMPLETE

35 | r o o m A 2 0 6

On my eighteenth birthday, I was legally free of Charlie. It wasn't as if he had tried to get me back in the first place, but this felt official. I almost wanted to change my last name to make it a done deal. But Ace assured me that he would do it for me one day.

Even though I was no longer his daughter in my head, I guess the police didn't see it that way. Because a few weeks after I turned eighteen, they still called me to tell me that my father had tried to kill himself.

I suppose I wasn't supposed to feel bad for him or feel scared, but I did.

I all but ran to my car to drive to the hospital, where Charlie was hanging onto his life by a thread. Ace has been asleep and I didn't want to wake him, so instead, I settled for sending him a text when I arrived at the hospital.

I sat in the parking lot for fifteen minutes before I could drag myself out of the car and into the automatic doors.

When I finally made it in, I told the lady at the front desk who I was there for with shaky breathing. She gave me the room number and I headed down the hall. I couldn't stop the shaking in my hands or my knees.

His room was silent as I stood outside of it. There was no bustle of doctors, no nurses running in and out. It led me to believe he was alright. And I didn't know what scared me most; the fact that he was okay, or the fact that he had attempted to take his own life.

But when I walked in the room, it was empty. No doctors, no nurses, no patient. I furrowed my brows and glanced around the room one more time; still-

Nothing.

My shaking legs took me to the nurses station and the look they gave me was full of pity. "Yes dear?" One asked me.

"The front desk told me that Charlie King was staying in room A206, but no one is in there. Did he get moved to another room?" I asked her quietly.

She smiled at me but glanced at her hands quickly. "Let me check," she began typing on her computer and scanned the results of her search. She was quiet. "I'm sorry sweetie, it seems like you were just a little late. He passed away almost half an hour ago."

"What do you mean, passed away?" I asked hollowly.

Her smile was made out of brittle. "Would you like to speak to his doctor? I don't know the specifics."

I must have nodded because the next thing I know, I was sitting in one of the many Doctor offices, in a beige, plain room. I sat with my hands together, my lips tight with confusion and shock.

"Ms. King?"

I glanced up to see a woman with dark hair and dark skin, smiling at me. Her smile was kind and without pity. "That's me."

"I'm Doctor Hannanburg. I was the one assigned to your father's case," she spoke with authority and intelligence.

I nodded at her and stared at my hands resting in my lap. She began to explain to me exactly what landed Charlie in the emergency room in the first place. He had taken a handful of sleeping pills and overdosed. His neighbor, my old neighbor, had walked by and the front door had been cracked.

He tried to call out to Charlie but found him lying on the couch, in the middle of a seizure. The paramedics had come and got him stabilized enough to take him to the emergency room. Once admitted into a room, they had believed he was going to be okay. They pumped his stomach of the pills. But he had another seizure an hour later and none of the doctors or nurses could get him stabilized again.

His heart stopped beating and even with three rounds with the external defibrillator, his heart wouldn't restart.

I nodded as if I understood, but while the information was easy to understand, there was something that wasn't. Why would Charlie try to kill himself? The doctor told me he had no alcohol in his system, only sleeping pills.

I sat out in the waiting room after my meeting with Dr. Hannanburg, not knowing where else to go. I didn't think I was steady enough to drive myself back home; so I sat there for who knows how long.

"Mel!" I heard shouted down the hall. I looked to my left and saw Ace frantically making his way toward me. I didn't move to get closer, I just sat there. He knelt down in front of me, tilted my chin up. "Did he-"

"Charlie's dead," I told him with no emotion in my voice. No sadness, not relieved, not anything.

Ace shook his head. "What- what happened?"

"He killed himself. He swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills, the bastard," I spoke bitterly.

He pulled me up until I stood in front of him and then he wrapped me in his embrace. "Are you okay?"

"My father just killed himself and you're asking if I'm okay?" I chuckled a little. "That's just like you," I told him, but not without affection.

He gave me a tight smile after pulling back a little. "I'm worried about you, Mel. Not your father."

"Maybe I should have been worried about him. Then maybe he wouldn't have taken his own life. How selfish of him, not having to live with the guilt of abusing his daughter."

Ace squeezed me tighter and kissed the crown of my head. "It's not fair sweetheart, I know. I'm sorry."

He held me for awhile. It could have been ten minutes or an hour. It could have been no time at all, or forever. But he was exactly what I needed, like always.

Just as I was finally ready to ready to leave, Ace pulling me up from the seat we had both eventually sat down in, I looked over his shoulder and saw a figure approaching the nurses' station.

I pulled away from Ace and squinted to get a better look. "Mom?"

Sorry for the short chapter, it's only about 1,000 words, but I really wanted to get this one out quickly.

Thank you guys for 14k! I appreciate all of you who have read this far.

Getting closer to the end but I decided to add one more little plot line before finishing up. I think it's my way of being in denial about it ending. :(

See you guys next chapter!