He Said the Cat Needed Him. There Was No Cat Chapter 06

He Said the Cat Needed Him. There Was No Cat Chapter 06

The day after we returned to Fairview, my father went back to the hospital for a follow-up.

He kept insisting he was fine.

But until the results came back, one hand never left his chest.

My mother paced the hallway.

“This is all my fault.”

“I never should’ve let your father wait that long yesterday.”

I took her hand.

“This isn’t your fault.”

She looked at me, her eyes red.

“How isn’t it?”

“If we’d known how badly you were being treated, why would we have kept hoping he’d come to dinner?”

I said nothing.

When the results came back, the doctor recommended more observation.

“His recovery after the stent is acceptable, but the emotional stress over the last few days has been too intense.”

“I’d like to admit him for two nights.”

I went to handle the payment. When I turned around,

Adrian Cole stood at the far end of the hallway holding an insulated soup container and a bag of supplements.

He must have driven through the night.

His eyes were bloodshot.

The moment he saw me, he hurried over.

“How is your father?”

“They’re keeping him for observation.”

He held out the soup container.

“I had someone make this.”

“I never got to taste your mother’s soup that night, and I…”

“Adrian Cole.”

I cut him off.

“None of this helps now.”

His throat moved.

“I know.”

“I just want to do something.”

My mother came out of the room and stopped when she saw him, her expression complicated.

Adrian Cole lowered his posture completely.

“Mrs. Bennett, I’m sorry.”

“What I did that night was unforgivable.”

“I shouldn’t have made you and Mr. Bennett wait, and I shouldn’t have hurt Claire.”

My mother looked at him.

After a long moment, she only said,

“Don’t stand here.”

“Hospital hallways need to stay quiet.”

A faint light finally returned to Adrian Cole’s eyes.

He followed us around and handled everything he could.

Registration, payment, prescriptions, the wheelchair.

He moved through each task quickly and efficiently.

My father was stubborn and refused to let Adrian support him.

Adrian still followed every step of the way.

That afternoon, my mother sat outside the room and spoke quietly.

“Adrian wasn’t always like this.”

“When the two of you first started dating, he came to Fairview, picked up your father’s medication, and even saved every dosage time in his phone.”

I knew.

Adrian Cole hadn’t always been cruel.

Once, he had been good.

Good enough that my parents treated him like a son.

That was why they made excuses every time he failed to show up later.

They didn’t want to believe they had misjudged him either.

That afternoon, the doctor called the family in to discuss my father’s condition.

Adrian Cole followed when my mother and I entered.

The doctor flipped through the test results and frowned.

“Has the patient experienced any severe emotional stress in the last two days?”

My mother’s expression changed instantly.

My heart sank too.

The doctor continued.

“He already has a cardiac stent. He cannot be exposed to extreme emotional swings.”

“This episode isn’t especially severe, but there are clear signs of an acute stress response.”

“Put simply, he became overwhelmed by anger and anxiety.”

“In the future, keep unnecessary family drama away from him.”

My mother’s hand curled tightly.

I asked, “Mom, besides waiting for Adrian Cole yesterday, did something else happen?”

She wouldn’t look at me.

After a long silence, she spoke in a low voice.

“That woman came by while you were buying the train tickets last night.”

Adrian Cole’s head snapped up.

“Who?”

My mother glanced at him.

“Vanessa Reed.”

The hallway outside the room was silent.

My mother’s voice turned rough.

“She said she came to apologize.”

“She had bandages on her hands and said she hadn’t meant to hold the cat or embarrass Claire.”

“She cried and said she couldn’t bear losing Claire as a friend.”

“She said that if she’d known Claire would resign, she never would’ve let Adrian defend her at work.”

Adrian Cole’s face slowly lost all color.

I asked, “What happened next?”

My mother’s eyes filled with tears.

“Then she said you and Adrian had broken up.”

“She said she wasn’t the other woman.”

“She said she had been afraid to admit she loved Adrian because she didn’t want to betray you.”

“But now that you didn’t want him, she asked whether she could finally take care of him openly.”

I stood frozen as cold spread through my fingertips.

It sounded exactly like something Vanessa Reed would say.

She truly believed she had been hurt too.

She truly cared whether I hated her.

And she was also desperate to claim the place beside Adrian Cole for herself.

My mother’s voice shook harder.

“Your father asked what she meant when she said Claire didn’t want him anymore.”

“She said, wasn’t Claire the one who ended the relationship first?”

“She also said Adrian had spent the entire night with her in the emergency room and was already exhausted, so she hoped we would stop blaming him.”

“Your father almost dropped his glass after hearing that.”

Adrian Cole finally spoke.

“Mrs. Bennett, I didn’t know she came.”

My mother looked at him.

“Does that make any difference?”

“Why did she dare come here?”

“Why did she think she could stand in front of us and say Claire no longer wanted you, so she could take care of you instead?”

“Because you gave her every reason to believe she could.”