What does it mean to be resilient?

What does it take for one person to rise up against the odds, to shatter the barriers placed against you?

For me, it's all about being ready to prepare for the inevitable as my convoy of friends, supporters, and the police escorted me to St. Anslem Mercy Hospital where my family was being held. And as soon as I swung open the door, I was hit by the endless flashing lights of the paparazzi before Officer Talbot and Logan swiftly came to my side, guiding me from the barrage of questions with Whitfield, Sellers, Valenzia, and Dr. St. Pierre following behind us as we stepped into the cool and sanitizer-laced air of the lobby. Inside, a lot of commotion from the other patients and their families and friends went down to a standstill upon my arrival. "Are you Wendell Harding?" A motherly Black woman in a doctor's lab coat asked me as Logan and I stepped to the receptionist desk.

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

"I'm Dr. Lisa Torres-Sanders, the main doctor for the family," she said as we shook hands. "And I take it that the people with you are from your new school Cartier Valley?"

I nodded. "They wanted to come as a show of support," I replied.

"Understandably so, giving the situation and all. Right now, I want to be frank with you with what's going on at the moment," Dr. Torres-Sanders said. "Right now, most of your family is DOA- dead on arrival with your stepsisters Alicia and Bianca killed on impact and your stepmother dying en-route to the hospital. Now, as for your father? Well, he's still in and out of consciousness and he's a stubborn old man. But he's living on borrowed time."

"What do you mean?" I wanted to know.

Before anyone could answer, I heard a loud voice that sounded way too familiar. "Where the fuck is my father-in-law and my wife?"

I whipped my head around to see the one person that I hoped to never see again- the one person who had pulled the first and only judas Iscariot move in my life that set me off. "Corey," I breathed, my eyes widening in horror. "What are you doing here?"

The masculine brunette snorted, glaring at me. "What am I doing here? I could be asking you the same thing since Damian gave you the boot and cut you loose," he spat before turning his attention to the others. "And who the fuck are they, your fellow men and women from the Creepshow Roadshow?"

"We are his therapists, dean, and roommate from Cartier Valley," Dr. St. Pierre said formally, though his eyes were full of contempt and hatred. "We came as a show of support to-"

"Don't even bother," Corey replied dismissively. "And I'm the real son of the family, so you all can go back to the gutters where you belong and take Hardass Harding with you."

"Sir, I'm Dr. Torres-Sanders, and I'm the one who made the call to Ms. Whitfield to tell Wendell of what's going on," the female doctor said, her motherly demeanor replaced by a serious and formal one. "And far as I can tell, you are not blood-related, so you have no say on what Wendell will decide about what's going on."

"You bitch, I wasn't talking-"

The doctor snapped her fingers twice and a hulking police officer came to her side. "Officer York, please escort this unruly gentleman out to his car," she said.

"You can't do this to me," Corey spat angrily. "Wendell, you need to make the right call and save my future father-in-law and my fiance! If you really care about the people who tried to do right by you, then you'd need to save their lives."

We all ignored his insults and threats to have us arrested as I turned my attention back to the older woman. "What about my father?" I asked.

Dr. Torres-Sanders sighed. "Wendell, your father has had many injuries and lacerations and it's not looking good in his case," she replied. "And from where I stand, he's living on borrowed time right at the moment. He has a slim to little chance of survival and I'm afraid that he's not going to live much longer. His family is dead and you are the only person that he marked as his power of attorney, meaning you have the final say on what we can do right now. Do you want to let us attempt to resuscitate him or do you want to let him die in his final moments?"

Did I want him to live, readers?

I mean, he's the main person who didn't want me to have any say on how I wanted to live and that I was his main punching bag and whipping boy. He was the one person who accused me of not living according to his twisted version of the American dream.  And no matter what I did or how I presented myself to everyone, it would never be enough.

"No, doc," I sighed. "Turn off the machines right now."

The older woman nodded. "If you want to see him, now is the time to say your farewells," she replied. "And if it's any comfort, I would have thought of the same thing in your shoes. He was one cold fish for treating you like trash. And if I had my way, I'd make sure that he and his family be given their just desserts."

"Thank you," I said. "I just need a moment to collect my thoughts before I see my father and then I want to talk about what I want for their final arrangements and which funeral home to send them to."

"Very well," the doctor said. "Let me know when you're ready."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Logan asked me, "Why didn't you let him have a chance to live?"

"I don't think that it would have mattered," I replied. "If anything, I think that the old man was living on borrowed time and that he was on death's door. And I didn't want that bastard of my ex-crush to hold any sway with my father. If I knew any better, those two might have been planning for my demise."

"Point made," Logan agreed after a moment. "And I can see why you had a crush on him back then, right before he broke your heart. Thank God that I'm the one who took your virginity and that you became mine."

"They do look like the perfect couple," Ms. Whitfield piped up, giving me a small smile. To me, "Wendell, are you sure that you want to face down your family and the dying man who broke you? I understand if you want to"

I curt her off with a shake of my hand. "No use in delaying the inevitable," I commented. "I owed myself the moment to say my goodbyes and just let it all out. I'd read them for filth if it wasn't for the fact that my snarky alter-ego didn't cut me loose."

"Well, just remember to say what you need and want to say and get out while you can," Sellers told me. "And if you can help it, lower the number of profanity to a minimum."

**************

I really didn't have much to say to the stepmother, the Gemini Drips, and Bianca's boyfriend Marco since I hardly knew them other than being total assholes. The one person that I needed to bear all to was my ex-father... or rather, the man that I thought was my father before telling me that I'm not his by blood. I finally reached his dimly lit room, the beeping from the machines the only interruption filling the air. I saw him lying on the bed, his entire body wrapped up in gauze as his breathing was labored and led on by the machines. "Well, old man... here I am," I said. "I never expected to be the one to make the final calls with you and the others, but you did make me your power of attorney and I guess it's only fitting that I say things to gain some closure.

"The moment when you told me that I wasn't really your son and that your brother was tricked into sleeping with my mother- the one woman who was denied a chance to live and see me grow up before dying- was when I knew that this was going to be the last time that I addressed you and everyone else as my family. I never understood why, but I knew that I would never be seen as your son. I actually want to thank you for declaring that I wasn't your real son because that would mean that I would have to introduce you to Logan, my first-ever real boyfriend who loves me for my faults and wants me to rise above my situations," I went on, not wanting to look at the bandaged face of the now-dying man. "I knew that you'd hate him from the start and that Marco and Corey would also hate him as well."

I took a deep breath, calming down the rising panic in my chest. "I guess there's not much for me to say after all of that," I said quietly. "At first, I had nothing but hatred and disgust for you and the others before I was sent to Cartier Valley. If anything, I was the one who was supposed to die- I was the one person who was supposed to be denied a full life while you and the others continued to party hard. But I guess fate has a way of changing plans. And right now, I'm glad that I'm staying alive and I'm having a lot to live for. And right now, I only have pity and remorse for what I did and for what could have been. This is goodbye, old man. This is me telling you that I am the last Harding standing and I have no regrets of pulling the plug."

I saw the waiting male nurse and nodded, allowing him to call the time of death before turning off all the machines. I sighed heavily and made a beeline for the hallways where Dr. Torres-Sanders was waiting with Logan. "You okay?" the latter asked me.

I nodded. "It's done," I said. To the doctor, "I want my family's bodies to be taken to Phipps-Weston Mortuary, the same funeral home where my grandparents had their arrangements done for their funeral. And can you tell the attorneys for my father to call me at Cartier Valley so I can discuss everything?"

She nodded. "I'll get started immediately," she said. "And your father has asked for something unusual, something that I thought would never be done for a kid of your former caliber."

"What?"

The older woman sighed heavily. "If he and his family passes away, you are to do the eulogy for their funerals," she replied. "And Corey will be wanting to talk to you how it wants to be done."

I turned to my boyfriend with a look of surprise and shock in my eyes, his look of confusion and anger filling his. And we were both thinking the same thing: this was going to be bad. Very bad!

Ooh, child! The tea is getting ready to be spilled to the maximum, y'all! And in the next chapter, Corey and Braden are issuing out ultimatums to Wendell before Logan has a gag-worthy question that involves a ring! Tune in, folks, because the next two chapters are going to be full of surprises!

Dedication: luisstorytellerEN

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