Inside, an A&E receptionist directed me to a corridor at the back of the department. Even though it was a different hospital, it was so much like the route I’d taken with my mother’s body to the mortuary. Same grubby white walls, blue floors. Same pictures on the walls. It even smelled the same.
My heart, seized by fear since the moment I’d realised Luke wasn’t safe, thuddedlike a spiked bowling ball. Pain lanced my chest with each slap of my tatty Vans on the vinyl floor and the damaged teenager I’d once been turned and ran all the way home.
But the masochist in me kept going. If the worst had happened, I needed to see it.
Another reception desk came into view, but I barrelled into the back of someone before I reached it.
“Rebecca!” Somehow, she wasthe last person I expected to see.
She caught me as I stumbled, saving us both from crashing to the floor. “You’re here,” she said. “I was just coming out front to meet you.”
“Why?” I gasped out. “Is he dead?”
“Who?”
“Luke. Is he dead?”
“God, no. He’s okay, Mia. Didn’t they tell you in the police car?”
He’s okay.Relief washed over me like a drug, and I swayed on my feet,even though the words didn’t truly sink in. “I haven’t been in a police car.”
My voice sounded far away. Rebecca stared like she wasn’t sure whether to shake me or hug me. “How did you get here, love?”
“I drove.”
She muttered something under her breath and tightened her grip on my arm. “I told them to bring you in, get you off the road so we could ensure you were safe, but that doesn’tmatter now. Let me take you to Luke, then we’ll have a chat, okay?”
I nodded, my brain already checked out of the conversation and fixated on Luke. I let Rebecca tug me along the corridor, ignoring her until she came to what I needed to know.
“He’s in pretty good shape, considering,” she said. “He got hit hard, but landing on the grass probably saved him.”
“What?”
Rebecca stopped,glanced around, then pulled me into the doorway of a storeroom. “You do know what’s happened, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know anything.”
Rebecca scowled as if she wanted to kill someone, but I was too far gone to worry that it might’ve been me. She shook her head slightly and her grip on me softened. “Mia, Luke was hit by a car this afternoon. It drove into him at speed andthrew him across a car park. Like I said, he landed on the grass and broke a couple of ribs. He also hit his head, which left him unconscious for a while, which is why it took some time for the call to reach me.”
Unconscious. Broken.Each word hit me like a punch to the gut. “I don’t understand.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Rebecca said. “But I’ve seen him, I’ve spoken to him. He reallyis okay, just anxious to see you. Let me take you to him, all right? We’ll sort the rest out later.”
The rest.A different strain of dread rippled through me, but getting to Luke overrode it. Steeling myself, I painted more fake calm on my face and followed Rebecca out of the doorway and to the end of the corridor. Round the corner, police and nurses milled about. We pushed through them toa side room door where Rebecca let me go, squeezing my arm before she stepped away, evaporating instantly from my limited circle of awareness.
I pressed on without her and pushed the door open, drawn to Luke like a fragmented moth to a flickering flame.
He was sitting on the edge of a bed, arm wrapped around himself, face tight with pain as he glared fiercely at his mother, but his expressionchanged when he saw me. Darkness melted and he smiled, his strong shoulders sagging with a relief I felt in the deepest part of me. “Mia.”
I rushed to him and threw my arms gently around his neck. “Luke, baby. I’m here.”
