Taking Jana (Paradise South #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

mother was asleep in the corner, her feet dangling inches above the floor in a chair that looked as comfortable as a bus stop bench.
    And her father…how long had he been back from surgery? Jana picked up the chart at the end of the bed. Quadruple bypass, 17:00, only five hours ago. He probably hadn’t been conscious yet. She read on. “My God.” Her words escaped in a hush, the exhale of her prior gasp.
    How had he made it all these years? Four coronary arteries had each been hovering at eighty percent blockage. She felt lightheaded and dizzy. She crumbled into the nearest chair which rolled along the smooth tile floor.
    It hit the bed lightly.
    Her father stirred. She spun the seat and then rolled the rest of the way to be face to face with her dad at the head of the bed. She put her hand on his.
    “Dad, I got here as soon as I could, as soon as I found out.”
    “Yes, Ja-Na . I know,” he whispered, his chapped lips formed a straight line, and with a stoic nod and a weak blink of his eyes he said, “You’re at your job’s mercy. It’s okay…I’m sure you tried.”
    Amazing. Fucking unbelievable. No confusion or disorientation after the surgery, no questions concerning his physical state, fresh with transplanted arteries in his damn chest, but so ingrained in him was his dogma.
    After flinching from what she should have expected from the old hard-ass , whom she couldn’t help but love and try to please even still, Jana looked away from her father to regain her composure. She saw her mother’s eyes were open then. And, as usual, her mother kept silent.
    Jana returned her attention to her father, but he had already dozed off again.
    Her mother feigned a smile, but her eyes were tired and maybe a bit helpless. She said in Korean, “He’s been in and out like that for the last hour.” Jin slowly stood up from the chair hidden in the corner of the icy hospital room and went to Jana.
    Each of Jin’s ashen hands held Jana’s shoulders lightly while she placed a light kiss on her cheek. She whispered, “I tried so hard to reach you. And so did Dae Han, but you are here now, at least.”
    Yes, of course. The dutiful son tried. And her mother’s use of her brother’s Korean name almost made her laugh out loud. ‘Greatness and Devotion.’ What a complete crock of shit.
    “Dane, Ma. He goes by Dane now. Remember, he tossed his Korean name to the curb like he did his family.” She couldn’t help herself. But she stopped there, her mother’s eyes gauging Jana with an evil glower.
    “ Ja-Na , or Jana ? Why you so hard on your brother when you do same with your Korean name? Not very nice.”
    Not…nice? Her heart pounded hot anger through her veins. And like she was going to correct everyone she met as to the correct pronunciation of her name? Jesus . “ Wrong syll-A -ble, buddy. ” No. But she upheld the most important aspects of her Asian culture––as a dutiful daughter always putting family first. And…where the hell was Dane ?
    It didn’t matter. She didn’t want to wake her father by ranting about all the hypocritical family crap slung at her, including how truly not nice her brother was to her, to her parents, so she stood up and led her mother out of the room.
    The monitors’ incessant noises, albeit familiar and usually even comforting to her, were far too disconcerting anyway being all wired up to her wilted, weakened, ghost of a father. She needed to tell her mother how serious things were with her dad. His diseased heart was the only important matter now, the Parks’ highest priority.
    *
    In the gleaming white hallway outside the hospital room, her mother smiled like a porcelain doll at each nurse that walked past. God, her mother was clueless.
    And it hit her. Jana could spell it all out for her mom, but her mother wouldn’t have a fighting chance in hell of doing anything about her father’s health. Knowing her father, and…well, knowing her mother, for that matter. Dad doing what mom