“I could try,” she said, laughing.
We were quiet for a moment, the situation heavily weighing on us. If they wanted to run more tests, then something was wrong. I felt this deeply.
“Are the kids at school?”
“Yeah,” she said quietly.
“Do they know you’re here?”
She shook her head. “Cutter has a game tonight.”
I looked at my watch and saw the time. He was probably on his way home from school.
“How long do you have to stay?”
“They said overnight.”
“Okay.”
Overnight.I wasn’t a doctor, but even I knew that staying overnight for tests was rarely a good sign.
I held her tighter as my mind shifted back and forth from saving her to protecting her kids. The only family Miri and the kids had was me and mine. Her family had kicked her out of the house when they found out she was pregnant at seventeen.
“I’m going to call my mom and have her drive up,” I told Miri. “This way I can be with you, and she can help with Cutter and Nova.”
Miri nodded against my chest. I felt her tears wet my shirt.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Miri. I’ll make sure of it.”
Reluctantly, I had to leave Miri at the hospital. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but she needed me to get Nova off the bus, or the driver wouldn’t let her off, and they’d start calling Miri, asking where she was.
We agreed I wouldn’t tell the kids their mother was in the hospital, at least for tonight. The ruse would be that Miri had an out-of-town client she had to help with their books. I told her it was unlikely the kids would buy the lousy excuse, but since it was the middle of January, Miri felt they would, since tax season was right around the corner.
While I sat in the car and waited, I pressed my mother’s name on my phone and waited for the video chat to connect. Before my mom came on the screen, my emotions got the best of me.
“What’s wrong and why are you in the car?”
“I’m at Miri’s,” I managed to squeeze out as my throat seized. “She’s sick, Mom. I don’t know how sick but sick enough they’re keeping her overnight in the hospital and ...” I couldn’t bring myself to say theCword. Deep down, I figured if I never had to say it, then it wouldn’t come true. I wouldn’t be putting it out there in the universe for it to be real.
I glanced out the window, at the snow-covered yard, and took a deep shuddering breath. “Mom.”
“I’ll be up tomorrow,” she said without hesitation.
I nodded, unable to find my voice as tears streamed down my face. My reflection in the camera had me wiping angrily at my cheeks, removing my streaked and smeared makeup before the kids saw me.
“I love you, Mom.”
“And I love you. Whatever this is with Miriam, we’ll make sure she’s taken care of.”
We hung up, and those final words from my mom lingered in my mind. My parents were one of a kind and had the biggest hearts. From the time Miri was seventeen, my parents had made sure she knew they always had her back.
The rumble of the yellow school bus, caked with mud from the road, caught my attention as it pulled up in front of the dirt driveway.I got out and walked briskly to the edge of the driveway, waving to the driver. She opened the door cautiously.
“Who are you?” She was blunt, which I appreciated. I wouldn’t want any kid getting off the bus with a stranger.
“I’m Nova Vaughn’s aunt,” I told her as I tried to look in the bus for Nova. “I’m on the pickup list.” The driver turned slightly as Nova approached. Her face lit up when she saw me.
“Stay there, Nova. I need to call this in.”
