TPG Read Free Page A

what he could afford,
and even though it wasn’t fancy (hell, it wasn’t even on speaking terms with fancy)
it was good enough. More importantly, it was only a few subway stops away from
his thirteen-year-old daughter, Bree.
    He pushed open the
door to the vestibule and stepped over the takeout menus that had piled up,
then trudged up the five flights to his one-bedroom apartment, repeating to
himself the same thing he always did as he made the hike— Think of the money you’re saving on a gym
membership.
    He unlocked the
door to his apartment, flicked on the lights and tossed his keys on the dining
room table, then let out a yawn as he looked around his sparsely decorated
place. Not that there was that much to decorate. The bedroom was barely big enough for his queen-size bed and computer
desk, and the dining room was simply a small alcove with an IKEA table only slightly
larger than a card table.
    At least the
living room was a decent size with an exposed brick wall giving it a nice
rustic feel. But most of the room was taken up by the new sectional couch he’d
purchased, which converted into a bed for Bree when she slept over. It was just
like the one he’d slept on when he visited his grandmother as a child, which
only served as a reminder that he’d become a secondary parent and shifted back
a tier in Bree’s life, no longer with her every day.
    He kicked off his
shoes and was sitting down on the couch when he heard the electronic tunes of
his BlackBerry break the silence of the empty apartment. He knew it was Tom
without even having to look at the caller ID.
    “What did you find
out?”
    “Looks like the
leading candidate is a ruptured aneurysm. A brain hemorrhage,” Tom said,
completely alert now. “She’s still unconscious.”
    Kyle sunk back
into the cushions and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “How?” he asked. “What
caused it?”
    “They’re not sure.
But there’re no signs of trauma. Could’ve been something in her system. Maybe
drugs. Or it could be she was taking blood thinners, or it might’ve been
alcohol related. Or maybe it runs in her family. They’ll have to do the usual
checks.”
    “Is she going to
make it? Did they get it in time?”
    “Too early to
tell. But she’s still breathing. Vitals seem to be okay.”
    “But they have no
idea what kind of damage it might have caused?”
    “Not at this
stage, no.”
    “Her parents,”
Kyle asked. “Do you know if they’ve been contacted?”
    There was a pause.
Kyle realized the mistake as soon as he finished the sentence. He hadn’t been
thinking.
    “Didn’t you say
her mother was the one who called you?”
    “I did.”
    “So why ask if her
parents have been notified?”
    Kyle could’ve lied
again. He could’ve said he was mistaken, or that he was just tired. But the
lies were already spiraling out of control. He needed to put on the brakes.
    “What’s really
going on here, Ky?”
    Kyle sighed.
“Probably just what you’re thinking.”
    “Shit—she’s
a student, isn’t she?”
    “She is.”
    “You were there
with her?”
    “I was meetingher, yes.”
    “At one in the
morning? Christ. What the hell were you thinking?”
    “I don’t know,”
Kyle said. “But whatever was going to happen, never did.”
    “Because she
collapsed?”
    “Yes.”
    There was silence.
Tom was still close enough to Kyle to know the tough times he was going
through. Or at least most of it. He knew about the divorce. He knew that Kyle
had shut down his practice, and he probably knew why. He probably knew about
the patient who died, and the lawsuit that followed.
    So maybe the
indiscretion wasn’t that much of a surprise. Maybe Tom expected it.
    “Yeah,” Tom said,
breaking the silence, the disappointment evident in his voice. “The parents
were notified. The mother’s already there.”
    “I appreciate the
help, Tom. I really do.”
    Tom gave a
halfhearted “any time,” and to Kyle’s relief didn’t follow up with a lecture