“Oh, I do.” She gives me another one of those stupid secret grins. “I see you, Canon.”
“Speaking of relatives, should we call her mom? Or…”
Her sister?
I know things haven’t been great between Neevah and her family, but they would want to know this, right? But does Neevah want them involved?
“I think we wait on that.” Takira setsESSENCEaside. “As strained as things have been with her sister, I don’t think we can assume anything.”
“She mentioned she and her mom had a good talk at Christmas.”
“Yeah, but it’s all been weird for so many years, I think we let Neevah decide when she brings them in.”
Takira’s phone rings, and she frowns down at the screen, rolling her eyes. “Somebody from set. I had to drop what I was doing to leave. Lemme get this. I’ll be right back.”
She answers and walks up the hall, disappearing around the corner.
A long sigh exits my body, and it feels like my first full breath I’ve expelled since I saw Neevah fall. My hands ache from being clenched so tightly. First around the wheel driving here. And ever since they took her away. But when I open my fists…
I hold my hands out, watching the fingers’ tremor, a reflection of the quake happening inside me. I had to drive here. I could not let the ambulance take her. No one else knows because no one else was there the night they took my mother for the last time in a wail of sirens and a specter of flashing lights. Her palliative nurse had left for the evening. I was home for the weekend from school.
Bacterial pneumonia.
In the end, that’s what took her—a complication of the disease she had fought so valiantly that snuck through the back door.
I’ll never forget the sound of her gasping for air, fighting until the end for every breath.
The idea of seeing, hearing, Neevah taken away in an ambulance the way they took Mama… in the moment, I couldn’t withstand it, so I prayed to God and chased the devil to drive her here in record time.
Slowly, deliberately, I curl my shaking fingers back into fists. It’s a time for control. Not to indulge emotions or to be plagued by fears. Neevah needs me to be strong. To be here, which means I can’t walk out, fleeing the warring scents of disinfectant and disease and the eerie, careful quiet of a waiting room.
I have to stay.
And despite all of that, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
I can’t believe how little thought I’ve given to what’s happening onset or how this will impact production. Best believe Evan and the rest of the cast and crew are thinking about it. Not to mention Law Stone, once he finds out. No doubt I have some difficult conversations ahead of me tonight, but for now, I don’t give a damn about any of it.
Just her.
One small woman has turned my world upside down, capsized all my priorities. And not knowing how she’s doing, I’m adrift.
A young nurse in pink scrubs walks into the waiting room holding a clipboard. “Are you here for Neevah Mathis?”
“Yeah, we are,” Takira answers, speeding up the hall just as the nurse appears.
Did I really not even know my girl’s government name? I’ve fallen in love with Neevah Saint, and it’s a stage name?
“You can see her now,” she says, smiling and turning for us to follow.
When we reach the room, Takira rushes over to the bed and hugs Neevah. Her eyelids droop and there are circles beneath her eyes. Even in just a few hours, there seems to be a darker cast to her skin. She smiles weakly at me over Takira’s shoulder and extends her hand, which I take, and move to the opposite side facing Takira.
“I’m sorry about all this.” She flops back on the pillow, lines of exhaustion sketched around her mouth. “I’ll get back on set as soon as possible.”
“Don’t even think about that right now.” I frown and rub my thumb over the back of her hand. “That’ll all get figured out.”
Before I can reassure Neevah any more, a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair walks in.
“Ms. Mathis?” he asks, glancing from the chart he’s holding to Neevah. “I’m Dr. Baines.”
