472 Ba
ch 37

Zack looked out the huge window of his office in the very heart of Manhattan. It had been two days since he had had that phone conversation with Andrea in which she had only asked one question and he hadn’t even known if she had heard the answer because all she could hear afterwards was Ben yelling at her not to leave. He would have liked to say that he hadn’t been able to sleep since that moment, but the truth was that he hadn’t been able to sleep since the moment he had gotten on that plane to leave Canada. The shadow of Mason Lee standing in the doorway kept coming back to his head again and again. The unpleasant introduction, the threats that he hadn’t cared about at all, and then that declaration. “You can ignore everything, but the reality is that Andrea and I are never going to separate, because there is a daughter involved,” Mason had hissed with satisfaction. “A daughter that you abandoned!” “That doesn’t matter, it doesn’t change the fact that I was Andrea’s husband for years while she has only been with you for two weeks. Have you heard of “better known evil”? Well, I know I’m the bad guy, but at least Andrea knows me. Is she mad? Yes. Will she get over it? Yes. She always gets over it. “Andrea wouldn’t go back to you even if she had to!” Zack had exclaimed because he really believed that at that moment. “Are you sure?” Mason had laughed. “Andrea is so incapable of letting go of me that I’m sure she didn’t even talk to you to tell you that I just visited her. Do you want to know how far she’s willing to go for me? Fine. Tomorrow she’s going to come ask you for money.” Zack remembered the feeling of disbelief and astonishment at that statement, but he hadn’t even needed to ask the man what he meant. “I came back with a debt, a fifteen thousand dollar debt… I just had to go and ask her for the money, she told me that tomorrow she’ll ask you for it,” Mason had sentenced. “It’s nice to believe that she loves you and wants you and all that, but the reality is that you’re just an ATM for her, a nice one… but you’re only good for giving money.” Zack had resisted the urge to hit him because he really considered him trash. He had settled for slamming the door in his face and trusting that everything he had said would only be a stupid lie. However, the next day, all those fears that he did not want to have became palpable the very second Andrea asked him for money, not only what she owed him for the contract but more. While signing that check “To the bearer” Zack felt all those butterflies in his stomach dying. How could it be true? How could Andrea help that poor guy despite everything? Thanks for reading at LeeNovelas.com. And then his survival instinct had jumped in. Exactly as it had done with Giselle, his instinct had told him to get away, because he had endured a broken heart from Giselle but he could not endure it from Andrea. He was more or less on time,He hadn’t even packed his suitcase yet. He had left Ben with just one instruction: “help her at work” because, despite everything, he couldn’t get rid of what he felt for her and he just wanted her to be okay, but he couldn’t wait for Andrea to tell him that Christmas was over and that, despite everything, she was going to return to the father of her daughter. So he had said goodbye to the baby and left that same afternoon. And now he was in New York, waiting for a miracle to happen that would make him forget that four thousand kilometers behind he had left a family that had begun to be very real to him. He was lost in these thoughts when his cell phone began to ring. “Mom?” he answered immediately when he saw his mother’s number on the screen. “Son, how are you? Remember. Read this novel only at LeeNovelas.com, not on other sites.” “Well, did something happen with Dad?” he asked, scared.Yes, yes, something happened. They notified us a few minutes ago that there is a possibility for a transplant. You know that he had been taken off the donor list because of all the other complications, but his cardiologist called us a moment ago, the transplant team ruled out a donor heart because it had… some problems. But your dad’s doctor got them to authorize giving it to him. “Do they want to put another sick heart in him?” Zack murmured. “But less sick than your father’s,” his mother explained. “They would do two surgeries in one, the transplant and the repair of a valve on the new heart… I know it’s complicated, but his doctor says it’s our only chance for him to be with us for a few more years…” Luana explained. “Please, you have to come. He’ll already be in the operating room when you get there but I need the family together. Please.” Zack took a deep breath, any chance that would give him more time with his father he would take without hesitation, so he just nodded. “I’m leaving immediately for there, mom.” An hour later he was flying to Zurich, and when he arrived his father was in the middle of surgery. The worry and anxiety of the operation made it easier to avoid questions about Andrea and the baby with a simple: “they are fine”, but deep down he knew that sooner or later he would have to face that conversation with his father. Hours passed before a doctor came out. “He is in serious condition,” he told them, “but his heart is working. We have to keep him in intensive care for several days, waiting for any eventuality, but the two operations themselves were a success. “Is there any chance that he will reject the heart?” Loan asked anxiously. “In any transplant operation, rejection of the organ is always a possibility, but we will be attentive. We have to have faith and hope for the best,” the doctor replied. Mr. Nikola was regaining his strength, after a few days he left intensive care and was transferred to a room. He was recovering little by little, with Luana close to him almost all the time. Zack watched from outside his father’s progress and encouraged him when he had the chance. Finally, a few days later, they declared him out of danger and Luana decided to ask Zack what had happened to Andrea. “Why do you think something happened?” he replied. “Do you think I suck my thumb? From the little I knew about her, if something hadn’t happened, she would have arrived with you on that plane, so I repeat: What happened to Andrea, Zack?” That question left him frozen. He hadn’t wanted to tell his mother what had happened up to that point, but he couldn’t continue lying to her when he saw her face full of expectations. “Andrea is no longer in my life,” Zack replied, looking outside. Luana was surprised but felt the need to help him. She pulled out a chair for him to sit down and tell him everything that had happened. Zack told her everything that had happened as soon as they returned to Canada,and Luana understood that he was devastated by the possibility of her going back to Adriana’s father. —Well, son, I don’t want to tell you this, but Ben is right — his mother sighed. You got ahead of yourself… —And what was I supposed to do? Stay and politely wait for her apology for leaving me? —Zack grumbled. —Well… I just hope that leaving you was really her intention, because if it wasn’t… well… you’re not going to have a good time — his mother replied. —Of course that was her intention, mom, otherwise how did she think of asking me for money for that man? —Well, I don’t know, but I assure you that leaving without asking was not the best strategy, and we both know that you are very impulsive — his mother replied. Either way, you’re going to replace out how things are when you go back to Canada for her. Zack opened his eyes wide, frightened. —What do you mean…? Go back…? —Don’t make that face, as soon as your father opened his eyes the first person he asked about was Adriana —his mother told him shrugging her shoulders. —But… —But nothing, Zack! You’re a grown man, you should have known there would be consequences when you decided to lie to your father — Luana sentenced —. Now he wants to see his granddaughter and you better bring her to him, because he just had a heart transplant and if something happens to her you won’t forgive yourself in your life. So fix it, go get the girl, because I guarantee you that he won’t rest easy until he has her here. And as if he were a damned oracle, not even two days had passed when his father asked him exactly that. —I want to see my granddaughter. I don’t understand why you didn’t bring them, Zack! Please go get them! —Mr. Nikola murmured taking off his oxygen mask and Zack’s heart was in his mouth. 16 —Okay, Dad… okay… I’ll go get them.because she just had a heart transplant and if something happens to her you will never forgive yourself in your life. So fix it, go get the girl, because I guarantee you that he will not rest easy until he has her here. And as if he were a damn oracle, not even two days had passed when his father asked him exactly that. —I want to see my granddaughter. I don’t understand why you didn’t bring them, Zack! Please go get them! —Mr. Nikola murmured, taking off his oxygen mask, and Zack’s heart was in his mouth. —Okay, dad… okay… I’ll go get them.because she just had a heart transplant and if something happens to her you will never forgive yourself in your life. So fix it, go get the girl, because I guarantee you that he will not rest easy until he has her here. And as if he were a damn oracle, not even two days had passed when his father asked him exactly that. —I want to see my granddaughter. I don’t understand why you didn’t bring them, Zack! Please go get them! —Mr. Nikola murmured, taking off his oxygen mask, and Zack’s heart was in his mouth. —Okay, dad… okay… I’ll go get them.