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Dad wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me away. “Come on, honey. He can’t tell us anything.”
Mom and Mr. Stokes are at the triage desk when we catch up to them. A nurse steps out from around the desk. “Come with me.”
Mr. Stokes asks frantic questions for the both of us, but the nurse waits until we’re in a small, private waiting room to reply. “They’ve been taken to the trauma bay and the doctors are assessing them. All we know for now is they’ve both sustained gunshot wounds. I know this is extremely hard. As soon as we know anything, we will let you know.”
Her gaze drips with sympathy when she looks at me. My panicky brain wants to read into that. To think that it’s because she knows they won’t make it, but it’s likely because I’m wearing a wedding dress.
“Let’s sit,” Dad says, trying to lead me to a chair.
My stomach turns. “Restroom?”
The nurse gestures toward the door. “Across the hall.”
I barely make it to the toilet before throwing up the small breakfast I managed this morning.
This morning. When I was excited and happy. When I had no idea fear like this could exist.
Tori waits for me when I come out of the stall. “Are you okay?”
“I will be once I know he’s alright.”
“Come on, let’s get you some water and wait with the others.”
It’s the longest hour of my life. Every footstep in the hall has me on my feet. Every closing door puts my heart into overdrive.
For some reason, the words Oliver said to me an eternity ago pop into my head. Sometimes, hope holds us by the throat.
When the door finally opens, it isn’t a doctor, but Sawyer. “Do you know anything yet?” he asks.
“Nothing,” Mr. Stokes says. “Do you know what happened? Who shot them? Did you catch them?”
Sawyer shakes his head. “We don’t have anyone in custody yet. Two men entered and tried to rob the place. Another customer pulled a gun on them, and it turned into a shootout. Your boys were caught in the middle. So was the clerk. He was killed. The customer who shot thinks he hit one of the suspects, but he isn’t sure.”
“I don’t understand what they were even doing there!” I cry. “They were supposed to be on the way to our wedding. Why were they there?”
Sawyer shakes his head again. Of course, he doesn’t know. How could he?
Another ten minutes pass and two doctors enter, alongside the nurse from before. “Stokes family?”
“Yes,” I gasp. We were supposed to be family by now.
“I’m Doctor Pick and this is Doctor Thompson. I’m very sorry for what’s happened to your family today. Oliver sustained a gunshot wound to the neck and a fractured skull from striking his head on the floor. He’s in surgery and it is a very touch and go situation right now. We will keep you updated on his condition.”
“Alden,” I choke out.
The expression on his face says it before the words come out. “I’m sorry. We did everything we could, but he was deceased upon arrival.”
Screams.
In my head, in the room, everywhere.
The floor rushes up to me but the landing feels like nothing.
Everything is nothing. It’s better this way. Better in the peaceful dark.
* * *
Alden pokes his head into the treehouse. “Hey!”
