She remained silent, looking at me with some form of shock in her eyes.
“And not that it’s any of your business, but myfiancétreats me just fine. In fact, your stupid kids couldneverbe half the man Reece is.” That said, I walked back to my brother, still keeping Erik’s phone though.
Since I knew his passcode, I simply allowed myself to unlock Erik’s phone and call my fiancé. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if Reece would pick up since he couldn’t stand my ex-skating partner, but I had a bit of hope he would.
I waited and waited, and just when I thought he would ignore the call, Reece picked up.
“To what do I owe this pleasure, Erik?” he said, sounding just fine to me.
I could feel the anger that I was truly trying to contain bubbling up, and unfortunately, I didn’t manage to let the steam evaporate before I spoke. “Where are you?!”
Reece was silent.
“Are you at least on your way already? It’s the traffic, isn’t it? God, it’s so horrible today.”
I was met with even more silence.
Why was he so quiet?
Sure, Reece very rarely, nearly never raised his voice toward me, and I wasn’t expecting him to yell back at me… but some form of reaction would’ve been nice.
“Anyway, I guess I’ll hang up then and give this stupid phone back to Erik and his god-awful stepmother, who, by the way, happens to Millie. Did you know that? She’s been giving me shit about you not being here, but that doesn’t matter, does it? I just needed to be sure you haven’t gotten in some?—”
“Accident?” His voice was way quieter this time. “I’m fine, Brooke.”
My hands started to shake at the sound of his voice. Something was wrong. “You don’t sound fine.”
All of my anger suddenly disappeared, replaced by something that made my lunch do not-so-funny things inside of my stomach.
God, I was such an awful fiancée, wasn’t I? Instead of asking if he was okay, I immediately started being rude to him.
“Are you okay, Reece?” I asked carefully, not sure if he’d even tell me now. He said he was fine, but really didn’t sound it.
“I think my dad’s going to die,” he told me after yet another few seconds of silence. “Pretty soon.”
“What?” Panic now mixed with all that regret inside of me, which was far from a great combination.
I looked up at my brother to see if he could hear the conversation through the phone, but judging by the confused look on his face, I assumed he didn’t. It was quite unfortunate because I had hoped Eden could just… I don’t know, tell me I was dreaming this whole conversation.
“What do you mean?” I pressed.
“I’m at the hospital right now because”—his voice broke—“my dad was in an accident with my mom. Mom’s fine, but…” I gasped softly, covering my mouth with my hand in shock. “Dad’s in surgery, and I don’t think he’ll get out of there alive. The last update we’d been given wasn’t good.”
“I… Reece, I’m so, so sorry.” Tears swelled in my eyes as I felt my heart sink deeper with every second that passed. “Which hospital are you at?”
“Hospital?!” Eden muttered in disbelief. “I’ll get Mom and Dad. We’re leaving.”
“New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center,” Reece replied.
“Okay. That’s not that far. I’m on my way, okay?”
“No, wait,” Reece began, then cleared his throat before continuing. “I’ll be at the arena in twenty minutes.”
“Baby, you don’t have to come, it’s okay. I’m sorry for yelling at you, I?—”
“I know,” he interrupted. “But I want to be there. My mom is right, he wouldn’t want me to miss the competition or my game for him.”
“But if he’s… dying… that’s a different thing, Reece. That’s notjustbeing in the hospital.”
