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“Sophia called an ambulance. This is where they brought her,” he says when I meet him at the hood of the car, answering my unspoken question. “We’ll move her if…” he trails off, but I don’t need the words to know what he means.
“I’m sure they’ll do a great job here.”
After navigating our way to the ICU, we’re finally buzzed in and find both Sophia and Zoe in the family room.
Both of them jump the second we walk in, their faces pale, their eyes dark and pained.
“Any news?” Seb asks as we take seats with them.
“No. But they’re not sounding very hopeful. I found her just in time, but even still, I’m not sure her body is strong enough to fight it.”
“Then maybe they shouldn’t even be trying,” Seb says sadly, earning himself stunned looks from both his sisters. “What?” he asks, sounding shocked that they’re surprised. “She’s been trying to achieve this for years. We might as well let her go peacefully.”
“She hasn’t wanted to die, Seb,” Zoe argues.
“Hasn’t she? So just existing in a blur of darkness and drugs is better?”
Zoe’s lips part to argue, but unsurprisingly, she doesn’t really have a response.
“She’s been so positive this week,” Sophia says after a few minutes. “She even came to the park with us the other day. I really thought she might have been turning a corner.”
“How many times do we have to go through this same cycle?” Seb barks, standing from his chair in a rush. “I’m fucking sick of this bullshit. You talk like she was going to get better. She never had any real intentions of kicking this. She was an addict, Soph. This was always going to kill her.”
“Is, Seb. She’s still here, still fighting.”
“What’s the point?” he snaps. “She hasn’t been a mother to any of us in years. What’s the point in any of it?”
He blows out of the room in a rush, leaving the three of us with our chins dropped.
“He’ll be okay,” Sophia assures me. “He just needs a breather.”
My need to follow him, to support him, burns through me.
I take a step forward to do so, but Zoe’s hand lands on my forearm.
“Soph’s right. Just give him a minute.”
Trusting that they know him better than I do, I drop my ass back into the seat and rest my head against the wall.
That minute turns into ten as I sit on the edge of the chair in my need to flee the tension in the small room, but the second I decide to make a run for it and hunt him down, the door opens, and a doctor with a serious expression on his face steps inside.
My heart plummets, because just from the look on his face, I know exactly what he’s about to say.
And not five seconds later, I discover I’m right.
Helen’s not going to survive this.
She’s hooked up to machines that are breathing for her right now, but there’s no point in continuing trying to bring her back from this. Just like Sophia said, her body is too weak after all the years of abuse.
Sophia and Zoe’s quiet sobs fill the room as the doctor backs out once more, telling them they’re welcome to go and see her and sit with her for as long as they need.
“I need to find him,” I say, cutting through their sobs.
I’m up and out of the room before they can say a word.
I have no clue where he’s going to be. I’ve never stepped foot inside this hospital before, so I just start walking.
Pulling my cell from my pocket, I open the app he installed for me a few weeks ago and wait for it to load as I take the elevator to the ground floor.
Something tells me he’s escaped the building, so I follow my gut while I wait.
I step out into the late morning fall sun and pull my hoodie around myself tighter as the cool air makes me shiver. Thankfully, the app finally loads and I find his cell in a green area beside the building.
Walking in that direction, I keep going until I close in on his dot.
I find a cute little charity garden that’s been donated by the family of a child who lost their life a few years ago and pocket my cell, knowing that he’ll be somewhere close.
I walk through some immaculately pruned bushes and find a dark figure on the farthest bench.
My heart aches for him as he sits there, looking totally defeated with his head in his hands.
