Read Your Heart to Keep: Holly and Jax for Free Online Page B

wanted to see how our beautiful daughter was doing. We’re so glad it’s over with now and you can concentrate on recuperating.”
    “I’m happy to have the worst behind me too. I want to thank the family of the girl who gave me her heart. That’s the least I can do.”
    There was a heavy silence and I wondered if my mother disagreed with my decision to contact the donor family. When she finally spoke, I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me. “Well, I’m sure they would appreciate that but just let it lie for a while. They’ve had a very traumatic time with losing their child.”
    Their inevitable grief saddened me to my core. Here were my parents sitting with me, celebrating my new life and in some place not too far away was another family organizing a funeral. The last thing they needed was a call from me. It would bring them more pain. I would wait until I felt the time was right. There was one thing I was curious about though.
    “Did they come? To the hospital?”
    My dad answered, “They were here after a while, Hols. They had to make the drive from Sterling. We didn’t get to meet them but we heard that there was a bit of a ruckus after the boyfriend was brought in and found out his girlfriend had died. He was in the crash too but managed to walk away with only mild injuries. Poor guy! It must have killed him to hear that. Then apparently when he heard…” His voice stopped after I heard a loud slap.
    “What? When he heard what?”
    Why did he stop and why did I think my mother just slapped my father? What didn’t she want me to find out?
    “Mom? Dad? What? Just tell me!”
    “What you father was trying to say honey, was that the boyfriend wasn’t aware of his girlfriend’s heart donation and went into a bit of shock after he was told.”
    “Shock? Why would he go into shock?”
    “Well, he had just learned of her death. It must have been a double-whammy to discover that her heart was being removed and given to someone else. There is a lot of mixed emotion when it comes to organ donation. Not everyone is for it. If they were, there wouldn’t be such a shortage of willing donors.”
    “So, already I’ve made an enemy?”
    “You don’t know that. He just needs time to adjust. Once he understands that his girlfriend’s selflessness has saved another person’s life, he’ll see the good in it.”
    I really didn’t need to hear this. I felt guilty enough. In order to save my life, someone had to lose theirs. I didn’t need it compounded by an angry boyfriend. I hoped I didn’t have to face him at any stage. It would be too hard. I wouldn’t have the strength to deal with his attitude. People like that needed to be better educated about the process and what it meant to others. I’m sure if they saw it as a gift rather than a curse we could shift the majority to our favor.
    Maybe when I got home I would start a new mission of raising awareness for the importance of organ donation.
    I closed my eyes. It was all too much for one day. I needed sleep to steal me away for a while so that I didn’t have to think. Thank God for Heidi’s watchful eye.
    “Time’s up folks. Holly needs to rest now. You can visit again tomorrow.”
    After a kiss from each parent and promises of seeing them the next morning, they were ushered out, leaving me in peace again. In an instant I was oblivious to everything.

Chapter Six
    Jax
     
    Back at mom’s trailer I slept for nearly two days on and off, only getting out of bed to eat and take a piss. I think it must have been the trauma of everything because I’d never slept so much in my life. When I eventually got up, I found my old punching bag still tethered from the roof in the corner of the bedroom, so I started pounding it.
    I needed an outlet for all the grief and anger. Maybe I needed to hit the gym and lift weights until I was so spent I’d have to be carried out.
    My right fist was still raw from my little episode on the hospital floor and I had