Purify My Heart (Chicago Love Series Book 3)

Chapter IX (Middle of July)

Middle of July

Adrian clutched her hand in his as he silently recited the Lord’s Prayer over and over in his head. When he found her, she was slumped over in the tub, allowing the water to cover the lower part of her face. Tears were stained on her cheeks and she was visibly shaken, had he not known any better he would’ve assumed she was trying to commit suicide. Thinking quickly he grabbed her nude body out the water and gingerly tried her off, laying her underneath the covers to conceal her nudity he rubbed her back until she began to speak.

“Chase…New York, a brain aneurysm?” she asked him as though she had forgotten everything in the world.

“Aniyah baby I need you to make some sense, what’s going on?” he uttered fearing what her next words would be. Snapping out of her stupor as if someone had slapped her she recanted the story Sev had given her.

“My baby…he had a brain aneurysm. Sev said he was complaining of headaches, but how is that possible Adrian. How is that fucking possible, he’s a toddler!” she began yelling and screaming.

Without further thinking he threw her the clothes she’d laid on the bed and called Ms. Ella. The older woman had already made plans to charter a plane to New York after speaking to her daughter, but after hearing how distraught she’d been re-chartered her course, and brought them with her. Now hear he was constantly praying for Chase, for himself, but most importantly for Aniyah. He knew that if Chase survived his recovery would be long and difficult. He knew that he’d require extensive speech and occupational therapy, and Adrian silently vowed to himself to be there along the journey.

“We’re here baby,” Ella said grabbing Aniyah around the waist and lifting her out the seat she’d practically glued herself to. It was amazing to see the two women grow and allow their differences to dissipate for the sake of the one they loved the most.  The amount strength that Ella displayed was remarkable, but her eyes shone a pain that couldn’t be described. How do you reassure your child that her only her child would make it when all the odds were against him? He was young, and at the current moment no one knew exactly what caused such a happy young boy as Chase to suffer so traumatically. Was it a head injury, genetic?

The drive to the hospital remained silent and all Aniyah could do was look out the window. Tears began to fall down her face as she watched other children running around playing in the hot summer day, and she began to grow angry. That should be Chase running around without a care in the world; he should be running in the sprinklers laughing, his small curls dripping with water. Yet, who was she to blame, Asia, Sev, God, herself? She didn’t know where to direct her angry, but Aniyah was pissed…hell she was beyond pissed! If Chase died they might as well bury her with him, because she would fuck them all up!

“God’s got this baby,” Ella whispered in her ear as they were led into the hospital.

“Where is he,” she asked Sev ignoring his outstretched hands toward her for an embrace.

“He’s in with the doctor; he’ll be out to speak with us in a moment. I’m so sorry Aniyah,” he said breaking down and wrapping his arms around his body. She knew he was hurting and hurting deeply because this was his child as well, but right now he wasn’t her focus. His pain meant nothing to her because at this very moment he was one piece of the puzzle that led their son there. Not having to suffer a moment longer, a tired and distraught Asian doctor appeared and began to speak.

“You must be Ms. Johnson Chase’s mother,” he began acknowledging her presence.

“Yes,” a weak voice she didn’t recognize as her own began.

“Ms. Johnson your son suffered what is called a Cerebral Aneurysm.  He has a blood vessel on his brain that has filled with blood and is approximately 10mm in diameter, which is small but still serious. Luckily, it hasn’t ruptured and there are some possible treatments.  To prevent this from happening we would like to suggest something called “microvascular clipping”, where we’d basically locate the aneurysm and isolate that blood vessel. Now I understand this is major surgery, but our only other option puts him at risk for another one. We ran some tests on Mr. Perkins here and your son as well, thus we were able to rule out any genetic factors,”