“They’re transferring her to Phoenix. But I don’t know if?—”
I hung up on him and opened my phone’s browser. I tapped frantically, scrolling to try to find a phone number for the hospital.
Kelly. How could you do this? Why did you do this? Please be okay.
“Maeve, what happened?”
The wifi cut out and my phone stuck mid-search. “Bollocks!” I yelled, banging the phone against the coffee table until Connor started bawling. I checked the screen.Great. Now black lines zigzagged across the screen.
That wasn’t better. That wasn’t getting me closer to finding outwhat the hell happened to Kelly.
“Why won’t this thing work?” I yelled, tossing it on the table and grabbing for the phone poking out of Flynn’s pocket. Connor’s cries reached an eardrum-bursting pitch. Jane bundled him out of the room, her concerned gaze boring into me.
“Oi!” Flynn grabbed his phone and held it out of reach. “I’ll let you use this, but first you have to calm down and tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s Kelly!” I yelled. “Pastor Jim said she’s in the hospital. He said she swallowed a bunch of pills, like she…like she tried to…”
I couldn’t even say it. I couldn’t evenconceiveit. Angry, frightened tears spilt over and rolled down my cheeks.
Flynn’s face transformed. He held the phone out and opened the browser. “What’s the name of the hospital?” he said.
I told him, and he looked up the number on his browser, then called it and held the phone up to his ear. I tried to grab it, but Flynn stood up and walked over to the hallway entrance. He poked his head out the door and yelled up the stairs. “Guys, you need to get down here,now.”
Rowan was the first person to come running. He hovered in the doorway for a moment, then he must’ve seen my facebecause he rushed over and wrapped his arms around me, resting his head on my shoulder.
“What happened, baby girl?” he whispered.
I tried to tell him, but the words still wouldn’t come out.
My sister tried to kill herself.
I just couldn’t comprehend how this had happened.
There must’ve been some mistake. Kelly would never do something like this. She’s the most vivacious, in-love-with-life person I know. Not to mention the fact that she’s a believer. To her, suicide means a fast pass to hell, and she’d never risk that.
No, it can’t be real. It’s some kind of mistake.
I felt so helpless, so far away from her.
Flynn moved out into the hall, and I could hear him talking into the phone. I wanted to run after him and hear what was being said, but Rowan’s arms felt so reassuring around me, that I couldn’t move. He was the only thing holding me up.
Another warm body materialized beside me. Arthur’s strong arms wrapped around my waist. “We got you,” he said.
Footsteps clattered down the hall. Corbin and Blake burst into the room, crowding around me. “What happened?” Corbin demanded.
“My sister—” I choked out. Rowan’s hand closed over mine, and he squeezed. When I looked into his eyes, I saw panic there, like he didn’t know what to do. But he didn’t let go of my hand.
Flynn came back into the room. “I managed to talk to someone at the hospital. She’s out of intensive care but she’s still unconscious. They had to pump her stomach. They’ll keep her on observation until she wakes up, and then they’ll move her to a different ward for a mental health evaluation. But she’s okay. No lasting damage.”
Tears of relief streamed down my face.Kelly’s okay.
“Who is this? What’s happened?” Corbin was practically yelling. His face went all pale.
“Maeve’s sister.” Jane appeared at the doorway again, rocking a grizzling Connor. “Someone in Arizona just called Maeve to tell her she’s in the hospital.”
“She swallowed a lot of pills,” Flynn added, giving Corbin an odd look. “But they said she’s going to befine.”
“How did you get that information?” Jane asked. “American hospitals are notoriously terrible. They’re only supposed to release details to family.”
