Twenty-Two
Isha
Words came out of my mouth, garbled, screamed words that did nothing to help Jude as he collapsed on the ground, blood spurting from his temple.
I dropped beside him, hands flailing as I fought with the need to stop him bleeding, and the knowledge that touching him while he was having a seizure was the worst idea in the world.
Footsteps ran up on me. Rae appeared and somehow got a folded coat between Jude’s thrashing head and the pavement. “Jesus Christ, call an ambulance.”
“I haven’t got a phone.”
“Fuck.” Rae shouted something over his shoulder. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’ve never seen him this bad. He hasn’t had a seizure for ages.”
“He had one in my car a few weeks ago. A sleep seizure or some shit, but it wasn’t like this.”
Rae’s gaze snapped to me. “What? Why was he in your car?”
The convulsions wracking Jude’s body began to fade. I eased him off the frigid pavement and cradled him in my arms as Rae said more words. “I love him.”
“What?”
“I love him, Rae. We need to help him.”
Rae stared. I couldn’t tell if he believed me or thought I’d lost my fucking mind. But it didn’t matter. None of it did. Not even that I loved Jude so much it hurt. In this moment, he was the one in pain, and nothing mattered except making that right.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Rae shook himself and took his hoodie off to lay over Jude. “Ambulance is coming,” he said. “We need to keep him warm and stop that bleeding.”
I looked down. Jude’s blood was all over me and he wasn’t moving anymore. His eyes were closed and his body was slack. He was completely unconscious, and real fear scraped my heart. With his pale skin and bloodied face, he seemed almost dead. I pushed his hair back. “Come on, baby. Wake up.”
But he didn’t wake up. I gripped his hands as they grew colder and colder. Called his name and told him I loved him.
But he didn’t wake up.
The ambulance crew arrived. They eased Jude out of my lap and pushed me and Rae aside. I scrambled up and stumbled towards my car. It was empty.
New panic gripped me, but Lucky caught me before I span out of control. “Cash took them inside. We’ll look after them until you get back.”
It took me a moment to compute that he was talking about my children. And even longer to realise that if I wanted to stay with Jude, I’d have to leave them behind. “I—”
Lucky put his hands on my shoulders. “Isha, it’s okay. They didn’t see a thing. Dom’s here, and they’re safe with us, I promise.”
Dom.
I glanced beyond Lucky just as my best friend rushed out onto the street, hair wet, his usual stone-faced expression coloured with confusion and worry. He met my gaze and spread his hands. I turned away and back to Lucky. “Dom has Mina’s number. Call her, she’ll come and get them.”
“Okay, mate.”
Lucky disappeared, only to be replaced by Rae. “I’ll go in the ambulance with him. Follow in your car so you can get back for the kids if you need to.”
I couldn’t figure out how I’d become incapable of making sensible decisions. The reason Dom relied on me was that I was the cool head in a crisis. Not the idiot who fell apart. I nodded blankly. “Which hospital?”
“The one up the road. Go in the house and get some spare clothes for Jude, then follow us there.”
The paramedics loaded Jude onto the ambulance. He was still out cold, face obscured by an oxygen mask, one arm dangling limply from the stretcher. He looked like someone else.
Blindly, I dashed into the house. Lucky met me in the hall with a backpack. “Rae said you’d need this.”
I didn’t have time to thank him.
