AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He leaves, returning with the stretcher a few moments later, but it feels like a lifetime. I move aside, lost, as Remi and Felix load Kate onto it.
Once she’s settled, Felix asks, “You comin’?”
I reach for her limp hand on the cotton sheets and squeeze softly. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
“Dad,” a familiar voice calls.
I look up to find Hazel, Miley, and Summer staring back at me. I don’t know how long they’ve been standing there. Watching me. Judging me for crying over Kate. For fucking breaking. But I don’t care. Let them watch me break. Let them see how much I care about the girl they’re determined to rip away from me.
They don’t look pleased with themselves, though. The girls look…scared. And young. Younger than their years. Like the little girls I remember. The little girls who used to call me Daddy and would wrap their arms around my neck, begging for a piggyback ride or an extra story at bedtime. They look like the little girls who trusted their parents to protect them. To keep them safe. And here they are, huddled against their mother’s side. Watching me.
“If I call you later, will you answer?” I ask Miley.
Without hesitation, she tells me, “Yeah. Go. Be with her.”
“And you?” I demand, holding Hazel’s gaze.
She bites her bottom lip, her blue eyes glassy with unshed tears as she nods. “Yeah, Dad. I’ll answer.”
“Good.”
Without another word, I walk beside the stretcher, holding Kate’s limp hand as I follow Felix and Remi back to the rig and climb inside.
Kate’s asleep. Or at least drowsy. She keeps fighting it. The need to give in and rest. Her eyelids flutter, and she shifts slightly on the stretcher, wincing when her head lolls too much to one side and puts pressure on her wound.
“Will she need stitches?” I ask Remi.
Remi nods. “Yeah, definitely.”
“She was more awake last time.”
“Every seizure’s different.”
Remi’s right. I know this. Every seizure is different. Most wouldn’t even warrant a ride in an ambulance. Not unless it lasted more than five minutes. But today, Kate hit her head. She injured herself. It’s always possible with seizures, which is why she was willing to sacrifice her memory for the medication that prevents episodes like this. But it’s my fault she missed two doses. My fault her shirt is covered in blood.
My fucking fault.
I squeeze Kate’s hand again, taking in her trimmed fingernails and how dainty they look in my grasp.
“You okay?” Remi checks on me.
I sniff and lean back in my seat while refusing to let go of Kate’s hand. “Yeah.”
“You sure?”
“It’s different,” I mutter. “When it’s someone you love.”
With a sigh, she glances at Kate’s prone position and nods. “It is.”
The rest of the ride is silent as we make our way to the hospital and settle Kate into a room.
Remi was right. Kate needs twelve stitches. They also give her some pain meds for the splitting headache and sore muscles, along with a dressing gown since she’d soiled her clothes. I text Blake, asking her to bring Kate a clean pair of pants, and she promises to drop something off.
But the silence kills me.
Because I almost lost her today.
And I’ve never been more terrified in my entire life.
