Chapter Ten

 

 

 

The next morning, Cody sat at the kitchen table and started his laptop. He was still wondering how he was going to confront his father when the computer screen lit up with the man’s face.

“My boy! Your mother misses you. How are you?” The question didn’t seem to require an answer, as the man immediately plunged into the details of his hospital undertakings.

Cody let the words fly past him as he stared at the computer screen. Oren O’Neal was the spitting image of Eugene, minus the drooping mouth, sagging skin and white hair. For a moment, Cody was unable to speak past the pain twisting through his chest.

Oren must have seen something that sparked a rare showing of paternal concern. His diatribe cut off mid-sentence, his eyebrows lowered and his face crowded the screen as he leaned closer to his own computer, half a world away. “Are you all right, son?”

Cody didn’t know how to answer. Too much was happening around him, out of his control and yet heavily influenced by his decisions. The night before, Olivia had planted seeds of guilt. Also, a lust that had made it difficult for him to sleep, especially considering how long it had been since he’d even had a date.

He couldn’t take his physical desires into consideration, however. Cody had a decision to make, and whatever he decided would impact a number of people—possibly the whole town. The weight of such a burden was intolerable, and he had to come to a decision soon—before he lost his sanity completely.

“Cody?”

“Uh, yeah, Dad. I’m fine, everything’s fine.” Cody dragged in enough oxygen to fuel his discussion. “Grandpa’s doing really well, according to his doctors. His physical therapy is really helping his recovery.”

“That’s great. Glad to know the therapist didn’t sugarcoat it. I’ll admit to being a little worried that the nurses may have been too optimistic in his medical reports.”

Cody knew that was one of his father’s pet peeves with the staff he currently employed at his hospital. They were too eager to tell him what they thought he wanted to hear, which had led to several dangerous emergency situations. “Yeah, uh…speaking of—”

“Have you found a place to put him?”

Cody blinked, hearing again Olivia’s scathing comment, He’s a man, not a plate! It was on the tip of his tongue to repeat the sentiment, but he gritted his teeth and shook his head, instead. “It all depends on how much money Grandpa’s got and how much I could sell the Double O for”—he took another deep breath—“and how much you’re willing to stop siphoning off, Dad.”

Oren scowled. “I won’t have to borrow—and that’s the correct term, Cody—any more money after the sale of the ranch goes through. Even a little bit goes a long way here.”

For a minute, Cody sat in perfect silence. Raw denial held his tongue hostage while a childish need to scream, kick his feet and declare that he’d hold onto the Double O until hell froze over, rather than letting another take possession of the land his family had worked so hard to maintain, rose to choke him. Part of him truly wanted to keep the family ranch intact, but he knew the battle he faced was a losing one, and the paperwork he’d been going through only confirmed that fact.

Finally, words came. “Dad, the money from the sale of the Double O will be needed to pay for Grandpa’s housing. Assisted living is expensive.”

“Only if you find an expensive place for him to go.”

“They’re all expensive.” Cody waved his hand to head off his father’s interruption. “Grandpa is leaving you and Mom a stipend. He’s already got the money set aside, and with a little finagling, he can release the money now, to be placed in a trust so that you get some every month.”

“That’s ridiculous! I’m not a child to be given an allowance.”

“You certainly can’t go on the way you have been, Dad! I’ve been going over papers for a week now, and you and Mom have taken Grandpa for all he’s worth.”

“That is not even close to true.”

“Like you said, a little goes a long way where you’re living. The money you’ve been given would be enough to fund your entire hospital!”

“What do you think I’ve been doing?”

Cody worked his jaw and struggled not to snarl at his own father—a man who really was doing some good in the world, even if he tended to be blind when it concerned his own family. “Maybe you need to get out of the third world for a minute? Come home and do a little fundraising. Or, hell, stay there until you die. Just write a damned grants proposal and stop sucking up your father’s retirement cushion!”

Oren lowered his eyebrows. “Don’t you dare speak to me that way, Cody. I am your father!”

“And your father needs more from you than what you’ve given!” A jolt went through Cody—unexpected, but not quite reflexive. Painful, angry, but not just directed at Oren. Cody had failed to provide what Eugene needed, too.

Sighing wearily, he rubbed his eyes. “There is funding available to help you out with your mission, Dad. Write some grants, appeal to some foundations. Hell, you could even charge a little like the private hospitals do.”

“I will not charge for medicine! I never will, just as I will never compromise my service by answering to another who holds the purse strings. This is a calling, son.”

“And it’s calling all of Grandpa’s money. You’ve got to find a different way to support yourself.”

“Sell the Double O and—”

“You’d better finish that statement with ‘and use the money to make sure Grandpa is taken care of for the rest of his life’.” Cody stood as a fresh wave of anger scorched his veins, but he bent down to glare directly into the webcam’s lens. “That’s exactly what I intend to do. He earned his money, and I’ll be damned if you—”

“Just let him stay with you, then! My God, you’re there in the States. I assumed your grandfather wouldn’t want to spend his final years in Africa, or I’d have brought him here already.”

Cody gripped his hair with both hands. “I live in a juvenile detention center, Dad! I teach boys who are locked up for crimes committed before adulthood. Some have violent tendencies. I can’t bring Grandpa on campus with me. We’re surrounded by barbed wire! Is that really where you want your father to die?”

Oren crumpled. Cody’s dad was a brilliant, dedicated doctor—a humanitarian to his core—but he was oblivious to any reality but the one he’d chosen to focus on. For the moment, that meant his medical endeavors in Sudan, and everything concerning the Double O—or the rest of the O’Neal family—was secondary. As usual, Oren would simply assume everything would work out.

“Even you can’t be that idealistic,” Cody whispered. “Grandpa deserves a safe place to spend the rest of his life. I would love it if he could stay here, but we can’t afford a private nurse, and if you won’t come back to take care of him—”

“I have work to do here, son. I can’t leave.”

“Then I’ll have to do what I think is best, and you’ll have to live with the consequences, Dad. I’ll try to work everything out, but I’ve given you fair warning. You’re not getting a dime if Grandpa needs it more.” Unable to deal with anything else his father might suggest, Cody disconnected and shut the laptop.

He took one moment to regret and grieve all that he’d never had and all that he’d lost before he understood what was happening, then he picked up his phone and dialed the number he’d been given for the Great Gas & Petrol Company.