The Deadline (The Friessens: A New Beginning) by Eckhart Lorhainne

Author:Eckhart, Lorhainne [Eckhart, Lorhainne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Andy listened to the ringing once, twice as he paced in the empty visitors’ room on the pediatric floor.

“Hello?” A younger boy’s voice answered the phone, and Andy wondered if it was one of Laura’s brothers. There was something about the voice that was similar to hers.

“Hello, could I speak to George Parnell?” Andy said.

“Dad!”

He listened to the boy call out, and there was a clatter of dishes in the background. There were other voices, and a woman asked the boy who it was. He figured that had to be Laura’s mother.

“Hello?” a man said into the phone.

“Is this George Parnell?” Andy asked.

“Yeah, yeah, who’s calling?” the man asked. He said something to someone in the background that Andy couldn’t make out.

“My name is Andy Friessen. Your daughter, Laura, is my wife,” he said. There was silence on the other end.

“Give me a minute,” the man said. There was rustling, and it became quieter as, Andy guessed, a door closed. “Laura is married? Why? She’s so young. Is she all right?”

This didn’t sound like a man who hated his daughter. There was concern there. “She’s fine. The reason I’m calling is Gabriel, our little boy. He’s very sick.”

“Gabriel? You have a child?” The man was hesitant on the other end.

“We have three, two newborn twins, but Gabriel is the little boy she had when she was pregnant at fifteen, when you asked her to leave.”

“I didn’t know his name,” the man said. “So she kept him.”

Andy wasn’t sure what to make of his response. “Yes, she loves him. I love him. But he’s very sick right now. He has leukemia, and the only way to save his life is a bone marrow transplant. It needs to be a perfect tissue match, which can only come from family, but Laura’s not a match.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that, but I don’t understand how I can help,” the man said.

Andy felt the first alarm bell go off. If that had been him and Laura his daughter, nothing could have kept him from being here and making sure she was taken care of, that his grandson had everything he needed. Hell, if his daughter got pregnant, he’d never toss her out—though he would kill the boy who did it. Andy couldn’t understand anything about this man.

“You’re his grandfather, and we need you and your wife, as well as Laura’s brothers, to be tested for a match,” Andy said. His voice had become so humble, and it made him ill to suck up to someone this way. He ground his teeth, wanting nothing more than to reach through the phone and shake the man.

The man took a breath on the other end. “I’ll have to talk to my wife.”

“Seriously? I’m confused on what your hesitation is. This is a little boy who’s done nothing to you. I don’t understand why you’re not all over this. Do you hate your daughter that much?” Andy said. He was shaking, and he didn’t realize how loud

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