Chapter 5

I made it home a few minutes later, and to my horror, my grandma was standing outside in the light drizzle, holding her portable oxygen tank tightly in her arms and waved me at me when I stopped the car directly in front of her.

“Grandma, what are you doing? I would have gone inside to help you,” I complained, leaned over, and opened the door for her. “You should not be outside in this weather.”

“Oh, Macy, it's alright,” she gasped and climbed into my car. “Let's go.”

“Where are we going?” I asked her, hoping she would give me the answer this time.

She didn't answer me again. Instead, she was typing something on her phone, and suddenly, I heard the GPS robotic voice telling me to stay straight for two miles.

“Okay,” I exhaled, put the car into drive, and headed down the road, curious as to what was going on. Why is she acting weird about this errand?

“Why can't you tell me now? Is something wrong?” I asked quickly, thinking something was wrong.

“Just drive, sweetie,” my grandma said, and locked her phone and looked out the window. “It's a gorgeous day outside. How was work?”

“It was good. I had a man come towards the end of the day, and I thought I was going to get fired. He was so rude that I couldn't stop my mouth from running,” I informed her and added. “Don't worry, I didn't get fired.”

“That's wonderful, dear. Never let anyone talk down to you,” she approved. We settled into a comfortable silence for ten minutes, but that silence was quickly broken when I followed the GPS directions and turned into a nursing home parking lot.

“Grandma?” I asked her, confused. “What is going on? Is this the right address?”

“We have a meeting with the administrator,” she informed me, unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door, and climbed out of the car.

“Wait,” I cried, and quickly killed my car and jumped out. “No grandma, why? I thought we talked about this?”

“You talked, Macy, and you weren't listening to me, honey. You have been working so hard and running your poor body down for me because you are so stressed about this lung transplant that may never happen -”

“Please don't say that,” I whispered sadly as I walked behind her. She isn't giving me a choice but to follow behind her. “It will happen. We just have to keep our faith.”

“Macy, I'm tired. I promised you that if they found the lungs, I would agree to the transplant, honey, but I'm getting old now. I have trouble bathing myself. Changing my clothes, even cooking breakfast for you, is leaving me breathless. Soon, I'm going to require around the clock care, and you can't do everything yourself. It's best that I do this. It's the best option for us that I stay here and be surrounded by people that can better help take care of me while you get on with your life,” she explained as she walked closer to the front building doors. “It's time for you to stop stressing so much. You have no life, Macy. You work and come home then start stressing over me, you never have time to just relax and allow your body to physically and mentally relax,” she said and stopped talking as she started to cough and wheeze, and I was surprised she could talk that much. She must have been fighting the need and pain to cough because normally, she has to talk in shorter sentences before she loses her breath and can't breathe.

“But it doesn't feel right leaving you at a place like this,” I cried, tears flowing down my cheeks. “You would be alone, and I won't be here to help you when you need,”

“I will have plenty of people here to help me if I need, sweetie. I know you don't want to leave me here. I know, and I understand, but you need to understand my condition is only going to get worse. Soon, I will be bedridden, hooked up to a permanent breathing machine. You won't be able to deal with the demand of care I will need,” she paused, closed her eyes and took several long, deep breaths, and pushed the clear masked tighter against her face. “The insurance only pays for seven hours a day of care only four days a week -”

“Four days? Why didn't you tell me? I thought Lucy was going every day that I was at work. I would have found someone else to take care of you. People find sitters all the time,” I rushed out, hurt that she would keep something like that from me.

I can't believe I have been at work thinking my grandma was being taken care of. Then, to find out that some of those days, she had to do everything for herself. She was probably suffering and exhausted, and that thought just caused my heart to break and more tears to fall.

“You should have told me. I would have figured something out,” I whispered and watched as she tried to open the door but didn't have enough strength.

“You would have only worried more, dear.”

“Please, let's just go home, and we can think more about this,”

“Macy, I have made my decision. I have already been talking to the administrator. They have been in contact with my insurance, and I have already been accepted. I will need you to pack up a few of my things and bring them to me here. I'll be staying here tonight,” she informed me before adding. “Please open the door for me, honey.”

I couldn't do anything but push the door open for her. She has made up her mind, and I don't think anything that I would and could say to her will change her mind.

She is right. Her condition will only get worse, and once that happens, I won't be able to take care of her full time and work to save the money for her transplant.

I'm in a damned if I do and damned if I don't situation, and I hate.

Later that night, I'm sitting on my bed, trying to stop the tears from falling and the sadness from filling up my chest.

She forced me to leave her there.

I'm not totally unreasonable, I understand something things were going to need to change, but she didn't need to move out. It breaks my heart that this is the position we were forced into.

Elderly people should be allowed to have better options for a more qualifying insurance that would at least pay for a full-time nursing assistant every day that she needs. I don't have anyone else I could ask to come sit with her. I don't have support that I could count on.

I used to, I had a few friends while growing up, but then I lost my grandpa, and I quit doing things with my friends.

And once my grandma had gotten sick, things had just gotten worse in the friend department. They ceased calling me, and I stopped worrying about them. It wasn't that I didn't like having friends, because obviously, I did. I loved having friends.

Who wants to be friendless? I just needed to focus on my grandma instead of their silly dramas, and all they wanted to do was party.

I couldn't do that. As soon as I found out the news about my grandma, I started working and then worked some more. I didn't have time to maintain friendships, and if they had understood better, maybe I'd still be their friend.

They would always bitch and complain that I wasn't the fun Macy anymore.

Well, of course not.

I had been told the only person I had left in my life that I loved unconditionally was going to die without a new set of lungs. She wasn't too old to receive them.

She is only fifty-two years old. My mother had me young, which I'm grateful for now because if my grandma had been over sixty-five she wouldn't have been eligible.

It's getting late, and I may as well just go to bed earlier than usual tonight. Normally, I'd stay up till around midnight doing household chores so that my grandma wouldn't feel the need to try to do anything unnecessary around the house.

I'd stay up until all the dishes were washed, food set up for the next morning, and the laundry was washed, dried, and folded.

“I should call and check on my grandma,” I sighed and reached over, jerked my purse off the nightstand, and pulled out my phone.

I programmed the nursing Oakwood into my speed dial list, they are now number one. I quickly hit the button and put it on speaker, and laid my phone onto the bed and waited anxiously someone to answer the phone.

On the fourth ring, someone finally answered. I was fixing to hang up and called again. “Hello? This is Oakwood Nursing home.”

“Um, hi, I'm calling to check on my grandma. Tonight is her first night at the facility and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay before I went to sleep,” I explained the reason I was calling.

“What's your grandma's name?”

“Oh, I'm sorry, her name is Mae Campbell.”

“Ah yes, Mrs. Mae is assigned to my hall. She is doing just fine. Settled in nicely. She played a game of dominos with another lady down the hall, and then she ate almost all her dinner.”

I smiled when I heard my grandma had someone again to play dominos with. She and my grandpa used to play that game every night and when he passed away, I'd try to play with her, but I wasn't good at it and preferred to play goldfish.

Maybe this will work out for the best.

“Okay, thank you. Please tell her I called to check on her,” I said softly.

I don't want my grandma to think I had just left her and not called to check on her. I know plenty of elderly people get left in places like that simply because their families would rather not take care of them anymore. I told her I'd be there tomorrow morning with a few of her things.

I packed her one suitcase when I had first come home and cried the entire time I was doing it.

“I sure will. Have a good night.” The nurse replied and hung up the phone.

I blew out a calming breath, happy to know that my grandma's first night at the nursing home was at least going good and that was one less thing I had to worry about, for now.

I pulled my purse to me, looking for my phone charger, and when I opened my purse wider, the note from that man was just sitting staring at me.

What could this man possibly want from someone like me? He is so far out of my league that it isn't even funny. It's embarrassing. I quickly pulled up the search engine on my phone and typed in his name.

I slowly scanned over the bio about him that popped up at the very top.

Nicklaus Diavolo is a twenty five year old businessman who is the chief operating officer (COO) of his families company and is considered one of New York city's most eligible bachelor. Too bad we can never catch him with the same girl twice. Any land would be lucky to land a man like that. He is not only a multi billionaire, but he also attends charity events with his parents and is very generous with his donations to children and to animals.

I tossed my phone into the bed after reading that. He doesn't seem too bad now that I know more about him. Any man that helps take care of animals can't be that bad, right?

With shaking hands, I slowly pulled the note out of my purse and flipped the paper open.

"What should I do, Grandpa?" I looked up towards my ceiling and asked softly. "He said he could help with her lung transplant. Or do you think he is just playing a cruel prank on me?"

What if he really does need something from me?

What if this offer is real, and this could be my only shot at being able to save my grandma?

"Fudge," I growled and yanked my phone off the bed and pulled up the GPS. I have no choice, I have to see what this note is about. If he could actually help with my grandma, at this point, I'd do anything he asked, within reason, of course. If I don't go to Nicklaus and find out what exactly he means, I may regret not doing it later on if something does happen and I don't have my half of the bill.

I slowly typed the address into my phone, grabbed my purse, slung it over my shoulders, and headed out.

Hopefully, I'm not going to be walking into something crazy or dangerous. I just have to take this chance for her.