“All right, Bridget. I’ll see you soon. And don’t worry, okay? She’s going to be fine.”
And I cross my fingers behind my back.
Bridget arrives, her face tearstained, hands worrying the handle of her bag. She latches onto my arm, eyes swimming. “My Sadie! My lovely girl. What’s happening?” she chokes out.
“We don’t know anything yet, Mrs. Turner. We’re still waiting to hear from the doctor.”
“Bridget.”
“Okay, Bridget. She’s still being operated on. We haven’t heard from the doctor. Come and sit down. Can I buy you a coffee?”
She blows out a long breath and sinks into a chair next to me. “All you do is make coffee for me.”
I’ve made it for her once. My lips curl up. “Elixir of the Gods,” I say, and she gives me a funny look.
“You sound like my Sadie.” Her face goes pained. “She’s the light of my life,” she says as she stares across the stone floor of the waiting area. “I can’tlose her. What would I do?” Her hands shake and she presses them down on her knees.
I can’t lose her either, but I can’t say that to her mom right now, can I?
“She’s an amazing person.”
She turns her head and examines my face, nodding. “Shouldna brought that jerk into her life.”
“Yeah, well. Sometimes we just do the best we can in the circumstances.”
“Mrs. Turner?” A voice says next to us, and I look up to find an officer standing there.
“Are you …” He glances down at his notebook. “Sadie Turner’s mother?”
“Damn right I am,” her mom says with a scowl, “and I want to tell you all about the asshole that stabbed her.”
While Bridget is talking to the police, waving her hands and using a lot of curse words, a surgeon appears with a set of notes in his hand and calls out, “Sadie Turner!” Bridget and I shoot toward him, and she gets there first, coming to a halt in front of him with her palms pressed to her face.
“Sadie’s lung has collapsed, and we need to remove the air from her pleural cavity.” Sadie’s mom’s hand shoots out and grips my arm in a deathlike grip.
“We’ve placed a chest tube to address that,” the doctor continues. “She’ll have to be in the hospital until we’re confident it’s resolved, likely one to three days. She’s being monitored in recovery right now, and then she’ll be transferred to a regular room.”
“She’s okay?” Bridget says, pressing her hands back to her cheeks.
“She’s come through the operation successfully,” the doctor says, looking at her over his glasses.
“And we can see her?” she says.
He nods. “Yes, of course.”
“She’s not in any danger?” Bridget adds, wringing her hands. “She’s my only daughter.”
“We’re very confident that how we’re treating Sadie will be effective, and we don’t often see any adverse health effects from a procedure like this. There can be complications, but I have no reason to suspect we’ll see them in her case. She’ll be monitored closely over the next few days. Would you like to see her now?”
Bridget’s hand curls through mine as she nods, and the surgeon gestures us forward. We follow him down a brightly lit corridor.
When I see Sadie in her hospital bed, her eyes are closed and my whole heart tries to thump right out of my chest. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt. Like all the muscle tissue and blood vessels are being crushed under a steam roller. I want to swoop her up, take her home, and keep her safe forever.
God, I love her.
Shit.
Iloveher.
