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“Here’s today’s headlines,” Maralis gloated. ‘“Elegant as ever, Kylie wore a stunning Versace gown to the Met last night, showing her enormous baby bump draped on the arm of her adoring fiancé, Alec Blair. From street kid to one of society’s most elite, Kylie Morgan has become the icon of fashion and good taste.’ Bravo! We’ve done it. You’re a comet, Kylie. No one can touch you now. How does it feel to be uber-famous?” Maralis flitted around the room, rolling up on Kylie as she was having her hair and makeup done.
I always felt like an accessory at these things, as I refused to have hair and makeup done. I found myself being more of Kylie’s protector. I learned why her roommates were so ferocious, and we had sort of called a truce with one another as I saw how much their love and devotion meant to her, and by that turn, me.
“I don’t feel any different,” Kylie said in a faraway voice.
Something seemed off about her that morning, and though I had no reason to be concerned, I was really alarmed.
“Oh honey, you look really pale,” Maralis noted. “Put some foundation in the next shade up on her and do something dramatic with the cheeks. You’re going to holiday parties today; you can get a little fancy. That’ll cover the pallor in your skin.”
When Kylie was dressed and made-up she looked like a doll. I hardly recognized her as the wild-haired woman who woke up with that just-fucked face, or the sweet roommate who wore my loungewear while fighting virtual zombies on my seventy-five-inch flat screen. When she walked out of my apartment that day, she was Kylie Morgan, the world’s most famous supermodel. She handed me her arm, and I was honored to take it.
The work Christmas party was a bore until all of my staff including the receptionist got their ten-thousand-dollar bonus check. It was fun seeing the look of joy on their faces. The next party was even more satisfying. Many deserving kids got jobs, money for education, and homeless kids got housing. It was so joyous and overwhelming I hardly noticed when Kylie fell down the stairs after giving her speech.
Her speech was so beautiful, though I noticed the exhausted graveled tone of her voice. I just noted that I’d make her go right to bed. We could make love another day; she needed sleep. As the baby grew, she got more tired. I remembered clapping and being so proud of her as I’d watched her write and rehearse that speech over and over again, and then the next minute I heard a crash and people screaming. I raced over to the stairs to see Kylie sprawled out and writhing in pain.
I didn’t think. I went into a full-on adrenaline-fueled panic. I grabbed her off the floor and screamed. “Someone call 911! Call 911!”
“Alec! Alec, it hurts!” Kylie crumbled in my arms.
“Get someone the fuck over here now; she needs to go to the hospital!” I was out of my mind.
The whole ambulance ride over to the hospital I was a monster. They had placed a mask over her face, and somewhere between loading her into the ambulance and driving away from the event hall, she passed out, her blood pressure dropped, and in one single instant, I was losing her and Elijah.
“NOOOOO!” I screamed out of my mind.
“Mr. Blair, we can’t allow you back here,” a doctor said as soon as we got to the hospital. “I promise we are going to do our best for her and the baby, but right now, you need to calm down. You aren’t helping her causing a scene like this.” The doctor turned to the throng of people carrying cameras and crowding the waiting room. “Get them all out of here, call the police, get security, I don’t care, just get them out my waiting room.”
All I could do was sit down and wait to hear if I’d lost everything. I called Christian, Avery, and Madison as soon as I got my wits about me, and they came, and we sat in the waiting room where I ate nothing and drank only coffee for nine hours. They never let me see her, and they wouldn’t say much about her condition.
“Why can’t I see her?” I’d ask anyone who’d listen to me.
“They’re just trying to get her stabilized, Mr. Blair.” I think the nurses were tired of hearing from me.
“They should at least tell us something.” Christian was almost as upset as I was.
He’d lived with me through my relationship with Ava, our marriage, and her death. Being my best and only friend, he understood how high the stakes were. Avery and Madison spent most of the time in and out of tears.
“What the fuck is wrong with this hospital? Why can’t you tell us she’s okay?” Avery was losing it almost as badly as I was.
