They Saved My Sister and Let Me Drown, So I Took Hollywood novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Room 412

Room 412 smelled of disinfectant and the hospital's one lily.

My father lay propped on three pillows with a clear tube under his nose and a monitor beeping behind him.

He looked old for the first time in my life.

The doctor had told me in the hall that it was angina, a warning.

He'd be home in two days if he behaved.

I had been ready for a stroke, a death, a performance.

I wasn't ready for him to be real.

The whole family was in the room.

My mother sat by the bed, holding his hand in both of hers.

Roman stood at the window with his arms folded and his jaw set.

Griffin sat in the corner chair, scrolling his phone, not scrolling anything.

Coralie was curled on the couch under a blanket with Landon beside her, and her eyes were red.

All of them watched me come in.

"Adaline," my father said. His voice was thin and warm. "You came."

"Mom asked."

"Sit with me."

I stayed by the door.

He nodded.

"I'm sixty-two," he said. "I don't know how many of these I get. I've been unfair to you."

I waited.

I had waited all my life for that sentence.

I felt it land somewhere in my chest and find nothing to hold on to.

"I want to fix it," he said. "Come home. We'll put your name on the picture. 'Additional material by Adaline Haverill.' It's more than a lot of writers ever see."

The room breathed in.

"Additional material," I said.

"A credit. Your name on a film at the festival. You'd be part of this."

"On my own script," I said.

"On the family's work."

Roman unfolded his arms.

"Ads," he said. "Take it. For Dad. It's a good offer, he's sick, nobody's asking you to eat dirt."

"You're asking me to hand over four years of work for a line in the credits."

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