Page 195 of Her Wicked Plan

Footsteps rush up the stairs. Multiple. Dad runs down the hall, grabbing the door frame to stop himself from going too far. He sees my mother, his wife, in my arms, and that’s when the tears start for him.

I’ve never seen my dad cry before except for the silent tears from when we heard the news, and my heart breaks all over again.

Chloe comes in behind him, her cry breaking the silence throughout the room. She rushes over to me, falling to her knees to hold our mother's arm.

Myles is the last to enter. He is crying just as hard as the rest of us, but he doesn’t move. He allows the three of us to be here with her.

“I’ll call 911,” My dad announces.

It’s what needs to be done, and soon after he calls, we hear the ambulance speeding down the road. The door is unlocked; they let themselves in, and when they try to take her from my arms, I tighten my hold—shaking my head at the thought of them taking her from me, tears blurring my vision.

“Please don’t take her from me,” I whisper in a broken plea.

“Sir, we need to get her to the hospital,” The EMT tells me in a kind, sorrowful tone.

I loosen my arms, and they gently remove her from my body.

Without her in my arms, I feel empty. My heart broke the moment I realized she wasn’t breathing, and now that she was out of the room, what was left of my heart was completely shattered.

Chloe sits beside me, and I wrap her in my arms. We cry together as Myles sits in the chair, taking our hands into his when my father comes back into the room and sits next to me.

His hand flattens against my back as he comforts me. “She was waiting.”

My head twists to look at his reddened eyes. “What?”

“She wasn’t doing well, and she told me she knew she would pass. She felt it in her soul.” He hiccups, wiping a tear away. “She was waiting for you to get here before she allowed her body to stop working.”

The information only makes me cry harder.

The four of us stay there, embraced by one another in a house that no longer feels like home.

CHAPTER 49

Leo

I had to call Dr. Bennett to inform him that I would not be back on Monday. Although he told me to take as much time as needed, I told him I would return on Thursday. Funeral preparations have taken over the past two days. Chloe submerged herself in all the details with our father. I haven’t seen her cry again.

While we worried about what needed to be done, Myles took it upon himself to care for Carter. Chloe didn’t want to send him to his father and have to worry if he was okay there. Myles kept the little one occupied.

It’s Tuesday now, the day of the service. I had found one of my old black suits in my closet that my mother left untouched.

My father helped me do the tie around my neck because my hands were too shaky. It was like he was teaching me all over again. All of us in black, even Carter, we headed to the funeral home.

When we arrive and situate ourselves in the room where people will come to pay their respects, I begin to feel jittery. Stealing glances at the open casket that sits to our right.

Chloe was worried about Carter seeing his grandmother like this, but she explained it as if our mother was sleeping. People wander in: women who worked at the library my mother volunteered at, people from the gardening club she joined.

All the people that were important in her life.

I watch the visitors arrive through the doors, hugging one another, when I feel something grab at my hand.

“Uncle Leo?” I peek down at Carter, who is staring up at me. He takes a folded-up paper out of his pocket. “I brought my drawing. Can I put it with Grandma so she can take it with her?”

Biting the inside of my cheek, I sense my sister's eyes on me. When I glance at her, she nods, giving me approval to let him do this. “Of course, bud.”

We walk to the casket, his hand in mine, but then he drops it and puts both arms up. I pick him up and hold him at my side. The sight of my mother lying before me scatters the shattered pieces of my heart. For his sake, I don’t cry.

“Grandma looks pretty.”