Taking Jana (Paradise South #2) by Rissa Brahm Read Free Book Online

Jana’s eyes. Because Jana didn’t know if her death stare would actually kill her mother, and worse, she didn’t know if she wanted it to.
    But it wasn’t her mother’s fault. It was her father. Chang Park and his coronary had pushed Jin against the metaphorical wall. Just like when Jana had run to them, screaming with excitement with her Manhattan Metro University acceptance letter in hand a decade ago. Her mother was the one to break the news: “ Ja-Na Sun, there is no money.” And the woman looked away in the same guilt-stricken way.
    “The billing lady assigned to us wants to speak to someone about the ambulance and the rest of the expenses to come. She didn’t understand me, with my accent.”
    Of course, her accent, after forty fucking years in the US. “What did she not understand you saying, Mom? That your eldest child, the god-blessed son, is a selfish, broke asshole, so your ‘pathetic, unmarried nurse’ of a daughter will come to the rescue? Again!”
    Jin shot Jana a look that was equal to slapping her clear across the face. Hard. Again, Jana was shocked her mother didn’t actually raise her hand and do it, first the smirk, then this? And they both knew Jana wouldn’t have had the balls to ever speak that way to her father. Why then was it passable to disrespect her mother?
    Jana had no answer for that. Damn it, she should really speak this way to both of them, to finally turn off the spigot of her ever-flowing support and the full financial coverage of her fully grown fucking parents. And goddamn her siphon of a brother.
    Jana shook her head as her eyes darted to the gleaming white floor. Remember, Mom is under his thumb, Jana . How could she even put this on Jin? If Jin ran things, if her mother was in a different marriage, a different life, and if her mother was more like Jana’s iron-fisted grandmother, Jin might have stopped Chang’s absolutely ludicrous decision to cancel their health insurance, and they’d have their own resources to cover this mess. And maybe even have life insurance and other contingency plans.
    So, just how much was the burden they lovingly heaped on her shoulders? She dreaded opening the folded mangle of a bill, but her fumbling fingers opened it anyway.
    First page, “ambulance,” sans health insurance, “twelve hundred dollars”. She swallowed back a ball of tightly-wound fear as she flipped to the next page because she knew. She knew what was coming, being in the damn medical field. She wished to God she didn’t though.
    Line item, “quadruple bypass.” Her eyes followed across the page, and her knees got weak. Her head throbbed. One hundred and fifty-two thousand . She stood there with the paper rattling in her cold trembling hands. Still seven to ten more days to go in the hospital. Then the follow-ups , drugs, physical therapy, home care, and all the rest.
    All Jana felt was nausea. A panic attack would have been welcome at that point, or mild hysteria, even. But no, nothing. Any and all emotion including the hope and joy she’d accumulated over the last year of living her dream, her nursing position at one of the most prestigious hospitals the world over, all vacated her being that instant, leaving a cold robotic numbness.
    Jana lifted her eyes and looked up at her mother. Then like a zombie, she kissed her mother’s cheek and left the small cowering woman outside her father’s hospital room, as Jana dutifully made her way toward the business office to discuss her father’s financial situation—now Jana’s situation.
    And it all begins again.

CHAPTER 4
    S he tipped the cab driver well, despite her new completely fucked situation. He’d driven well enough, but most of all, he’d stayed quiet. Noiselessness was what she needed, vitally. Anything else would have been the tipping point. In her fragile, icy state, she thought for sure she’d shatter into pieces. She laughed as the green bills left her hand and slid into those of the bearded driver.