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I’m frozen.
She…she knows who I am?
I’m vaguely aware of heavy footfalls drawing near, more certain at first, but then growing softer and more spread out. How I know they belong to Nolan, I have no idea, but there’s a comfortable familiarity in the rhythm his work boots produce that has some of the noise thrashing around my brain quieting.
“Mel…” he says warily.
“Thisis Sky?” she says, and something clunks in my chest.
Nolan says nothing, and all I can do is stare blankly ahead.
“I thought Sky was a woman.”
I flinch, and I hear a muttered curse.
“Nolan, why didn’t you–”
“I can explain.”
“Excuse me, Abigail’s family?” a man’s voice cuts in from somewhere nearby.
Mel rushes away, and I glance up to find Nolan doing the same, joining her over where the doctor waits by the doors blocking off the waiting room from where I imagine Abby is.
They talk for a moment, their voices too hushed and too far away to decipher, before they disappear through the swinging doors.
A gasp punches through me like I’ve been holding my breath. Blinking rapidly, I try to wrap my head around what just happened.
Vance blows out a breath, and a glance over shows him scrubbing his palms down his face. He mutters something under his breath, shaking his head, before dropping down in a chair.
Somewhere nearby, there’s a sort of scratching sound that has me wincing. My heart grows louder, thudding heavily in my ears, intermingling with the other sounds now filtering in. Like before, but more intense now that Nolan’s no longer here.
Now that I have this new information to process.
My anxiety spikes, feeding the storm brewing.
“Are you okay?”
I blink and look up to find tired, reddened eyes looking back at me.
I quickly look away.
Vance…
I don’t know this one. I meant to look it up, after Nolan told me about him, but I…I forgot.
I feel his dark, weighted gaze drifting down to where my fingers tap furiously against each other at my sides.
Bile rushes up my throat, and it’s so loud, I feel like my head’s going to burst.
“I…I have to go,” I mutter, blinking hard at the floor.
In my head, a voice is shouting at me.What are you doing?! Don’t leave now.
But I have to…
I can’t be here.
I sense Vance snap his head up, his mouth opening to say something, but I stop him before he can.
