AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“H-here,” I stutter, shakily reaching into my pocket for Nolan’s keys. I all but throw them at him. “T-tell him…sorry.”
I don’t wait around for a response, though I’m vaguely aware of him calling out “Hey!” But it’s quickly swept up in the competing sounds.
The ER blurs around me, colors and movement seeming to pulse in and out of my vision in time with the noise grating on my ears.
My breaths pick up and I’m near-hyperventilating by the time I blow my way through the sliding glass doors.
A sob works its way up my throat, my body buzzing with energy. Self-hatred like nothing I’ve ever felt before surges to the surface, adding even more fuel to the fire, awakening old doubts and fears and frustrations.
I’m barely aware of the sidewalk blurring under me as it gives way to pavement, then grass, then more sidewalk. Stoplights flicker over the snow piled up around me, casting it in reds, greens, and yellows.
A sound half-sob, half-shout tears out of me and I shake my head, clenching my hands together so tightly, I feel something wet, like maybe my nails dug in too hard.
I tune into that sensation—that brief sting. The slickness of what I imagine is blood, or maybe just sweat.
Either way, I focus on that, counting each step it takes me away from the hospital.
Away from Nolan.
I’m so, so sorry, Nolan…
CHAPTERFORTY-THREE
NOLAN
“Ican’t believe I let this happen.”
At the sound of Melody’s voice, I lift my gaze up from where my daughter sleeps peacefully in a hospital bed, my fingers stilling in her hair. “Mel…it was an accident.”
Her face bunches and she shakes her head, crossing her arms more tightly over her chest.
“Melody,” I whisper, my voice breaking. “She’s okay.”
But still, she stands there at the corner of the bed, refusing to budge. Like she’s afraid to draw any closer.
Apparently, Abby’s heart rate spiked in the ambulance, something Mel was too distraught to process at the time in order to tell us. That’s why they took her back alone to be checked out…just in case. With her being so young, and this being the first time she was ever injected with Epinephrine, they just wanted to rule out any underlying conditions.
But tests came back good, and according to what the doctor told us when he brought us back a few minutes ago, the irregular, increased heart rate is to be expected, as are other side effects like dizziness and nausea among other things.
They put her on oxygen for a bit just as a precaution, and gave her some antihistamines as well as a mild sedative, which is why she’s knocked out cold right now.
Her skin is red and blotchy in areas, but she’s breathing on her own—no wheeze or rasp to be heard—and the heart monitor is beeping steadily, so the doctor says she should be good for discharge by morning. They just want to keep her overnight for observation, seeing as she’s so young and her reaction was so severe.
And to think, this could easily happen again…
“I don’t know how I forgot to tell him.”
I shake my head. “It just didn’t come up. It’s not like he was making cookies or something to bring over. It was just…” I shrug. “Shitty luck.”
“No, no I don’t believe that. If someone’s going to be in her life, they need to know from the start. It should’ve been the first thing I started with.”
I cough a little at that, and flit my eyes up to meet her gaze. “Hello, she’s allergic to nuts. Oh, by the way her name’s Abby.”
She tries to scowl, but a short laugh escapes.
And then she’s crying.
Shit.
