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“Did the doctors say anything at all?”
Emilia is trembling and shakes her head. I try my best to remain calm as we drive to the hospital. Emilia is already freaking out — I can’t panic, too. I’m trying not to worry until we know exactly what’s going on.
By the time we walk into the hospital, Emilia has tears running down her face, her shoulders shaking. “I’m Emilia Parker,” she tells the nurse at the front desk. “I got a call to come in. I’m Catherine Clarke’s ICE contact.”
The nurse looks up and smiles at Emilia before checking her computer. “Miss Clarke is on the eighth floor. Are you related?”
Emilia falls silent, so I nod in her stead. “I’m her brother,” I tell the nurse. She nods at the two of us and directs us to go upstairs. My heart is racing as we get closer to her room. When we walk in, Kate is fast asleep in a hospital bed, an oxygen mask covering half her face.
I’m shaking as badly as Emilia by the time the doctor approaches us. “What happened to her?” I ask with more force than required.
He looks up at me, recognition flashing through his eyes. “Carter Clarke?” he says, surprised, before shaking his head and looking down at his clipboard. “I apologize. I attended one of your recent games with my son,” he says, smiling tightly.
I nod and try my best to smile back, but I’m seconds from yanking the clipboard out of his hands.
“My sister?” I repeat. The doctor glances at Kate and inhales deeply, as though he’s bracing himself. “Your sister overdosed, Mr. Clarke. We found an opioid in her system. Benzoylmethylecgonine, to be precise.”
I frown at the doctor, and he clears his throat, his expression tense. “It’s cocaine, Mr. Clarke.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “There’s no way. Kate would never do that. My sister isn’t like that.”
The doctor glances at Kate and then back down at his paperwork. “She was very lucky she was admitted in time. She was mid-seizure when she was brought in. Based on the amount we found in her bloodstream, she has more than likely been using for quite some time. Her road to recovery won’t be easy. She’ll need all the support she can get.”
“Who brought her in?”
Kate’s doctor shakes his head. “The nurses might be able to tell you. For now, I suggest you focus on your sister. She’ll be waking up soon, and I think it might help if you’re there when she does.”
I nod and sit down in the seat next to Kate’s bed, Emilia by my side. She hasn’t spoken a word since we got here. All she does is stare at Kate in disbelief and worry.
I grab her hand and lift it to my lips. “She’ll be okay, Minx. The doctor said they got her here in time.”
Emilia doesn’t take her eyes off Kate as she nods, and I pull her closer. “You should call your parents,” she says.
I inhale deeply and nod. “I know, but what am I supposed to say? How do I explain this? I mean… I never even suspected she might be using. Maybe weed or something, but coke? Did you ever suspect anything?”
Emilia shakes her head. “In the last few months we lived together, she’d been behaving a bit strange. She was coming back late and staying up all night and day with ease. Sometimes she was a bit short-tempered, but I didn’t think too much about it. Come to think of it, a few times she lied about where she’d been, and she did stand me up at La Familia to spend time with Jake instead. At the time it all didn’t seem to be connected, but now that I’m thinking about everything, maybe I should’ve been more concerned. I actually went to a party with her where Jake offered us drugs, and I freaked out. But she said she’d never taken him up on his offer, so I left it at that.”
I’m filled with the same guilt that’s reflected in Emilia’s eyes. We both should’ve paid more attention to her. I should’ve done something about her spending time with Jake.
“Maybe… maybe if I’d still been living with her, this wouldn’t have happened. If we hadn’t gotten together then she wouldn’t have started spending all her time with Jake, because she’d be with me instead. With us.”
I rise to my feet and pull her into me, enveloping her in a tight hug. “No, Emilia. Would-haves and could-haves won’t make a difference. She’ll be okay, all right?” I say, even though part of me is also wondering if Emilia and me dating pushed Kate over the edge.
Kate stirs, and I pull away from Emilia to grab her hand. “Hey,” I murmur. Kate blinks and pulls away her oxygen mask. “What happened? Why am I here? My whole body hurts,” she says, her voice raspy.
I tighten my grip on her hand and try my best to contain my anger as I push the oxygen mask back over her nose. “You overdosed, Kate. What the hell? Since when have you been using drugs? What the fuck?” I say, unintentionally snapping at her. I really wanted to be patient, but I can’t.
Kate’s eyes widen and she glances around the room, her eyes settling on Emilia. She narrows her eyes and pulls her oxygen mask down again. “What is she doing here?”
Emilia stiffens and smiles at me tightly. “I’ll go get the doctor. I’ll make the calls too. It’s easier that way.”
I nod at her in gratitude and turn my focus back to Kate as Emilia walks out the door. “Don’t even try to deflect. What the fuck, Kate? Coke, really?”
She looks at me guiltily and then looks away. “I was just having some fun. And since when do you care, anyway? You haven’t paid any attention to what I do for months. Why start now?”
I inhale deeply and try my best to stay calm. The doctor walks in and I sigh as I walk out the door, giving him a chance to examine her properly in private. Even now she’s in the hospital, she won’t acknowledge the impact of what happened to her. How the hell am I supposed to get through to her?
Chapter 46
