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“It’s Nina. She has the girls and you. She’ll be fine.” He sighs, leaning back to look down at me with narrowed eyes. “He needs me.”
My face goes hard, and I fight back the tears, knowing exactly what he needs.
“Come in with me.”
“Does he have anything in place at home? Family who can take care of him?”
I shake my head at my brother, still replaying the surgeon’s words over and over in my mind. “No.” My chin wobbles. “They’ve sent me home for the night.”
He steps back, squeezing my hand before he drops it. “Alright. I’ll see you back there, okay?”
I hold it together the entire way to my locker, removing my things before walking through the hospital and to my car.
When they told me to finish my shift early and to head home, I’d been gutted, but I agreed. I knew I couldn’t carry on through the night after what happened with Mick, and my mind was completely lost to Lance.
Just as he takes one step forward, he’s knocked ten steps back.
It’s not until I get to my car and pull my phone from my pocket that the tears come.
“Hello?” Nina answers.
I sniffle, clearing my throat to speak, but it’s too heavy, too much.
“Oh, Scar. Where are you?”
“In my car,” I croak.
“Talk to me.”
“He asked…” I try to breathe through my nose, my words breathy and ragged. “He asked me to leave the door open,” I tell her, holding my chest as my heart throbs at the memory. “He hadn’t slept in days, and he asked me to leave it open because he couldn’t hear my voice, and then when I went back to his room at the end of my shift, he was asleep.”
I hear her blow out a heavy rush of air.
“I don’t think I can leave him alone in this, Nina. I can’t watch him struggle alone.”
“So, then what do you want to do?” she asks as if knowing I have the answer and promising not to judge me for it.
“I don’t know,” I lie.
“Mason said he’d go and stay with him. Do you think that’s something you need to do instead?”
“No. I don’t want to leave Ave.”
“Could she go with you?”
No. No way. “Lowerwick is her home. It’s close to school and… it’s whereIneed to be.”
She goes quiet on the phone, just letting me be while I sit in my car and cry.
“I’m scared, Nina,” I eventually say, staring through my windshield and not daring to blink as my eyes continue to fill. “I’m scared of falling all over again. For him, and then the rest of the way down.” I shake my head. “I can’t go back to the person I was when he left.”
“You won’t—”
“I already did.”
“Bring him home, Scar,” Nina says softly.
I cover my mouth as a sob creeps up my throat. “I’m scared,” I manage, the words barely audible.
