Epilogue
Rina
Two weeks later…
Arlo and I are getting ready for family dinner when my phone rings. When I see Willow’s name, I don’t hesitate to answer.
“What’s up, sis?”
“I need help.” Her panicked tone sets me on edge, and I make eye contact with Arlo, who furrows his eyebrows as I set the phone on speakerphone.
“Arlo’s here. What’s going on?”
“Lennox went for a hike and fell on one of the harder trails. He called me, downplaying everything, but Rina, his leg is definitely fucked,” she whispers.
“What the fuck?”
“Where are you guys?” Arlo says at the same time.
Willow tells us the trail they’re on, and I look at Arlo with concern. He matches my gaze. Both of us know the trail that Lennox was hiking is too advanced for someone who hasn’t gotten a ton of physical activity while healing and had really deep cuts on his legs.
“We’ll be right there, Will. Is it bad enough that we need to take him to Rosedale?” Arlo asks.
“I think taking him to Doc Grant first is a good idea. I don’t know what actually happened, so maybe he can at least give us an idea first and tell us we need to go to Rosedale,” Willow says quietly.
“We’re headed out now. I’ll text Ledger and let him know family dinner is on pause.”
Arlo takes over the conversation while I slip on some hiking boots and a hoodie before we head out to the truck.
It takes us ten minutes to reach where they both are, and when we walk up to them, Lennox looks too pale.
Arlo jumps in with his first aid knowledge and has Lennox answer some basic questions while I pull Willow to the side.
“What the fuck was he thinking?” I hiss.
“I don’t know. I think we need to have a family discussion about how to help him because he knows better than to come out on this trail when he hasn’t done more than hike to the falls. And it’s fucking freezing today. It’s like he doesn’t care what happens to him.”
“Can y’all help me get him up? We’re going to hobble to the truck,” Arlo calls out to us. It’s a damn good thing we’re only five minutes from the trailhead because there’s no way we’d be able to get Lennox to the truck otherwise. We’d have to call in search and rescue, which he would have fucking hated.
It takes all three of us to get him up and to the truck. The whole time, Lennox doesn’t say a word. He’s pale and a little green, so I know he’s in pain, but even prompted questions get no reply.
When we finally reach the doctor’s office, everyone in the family is there to meet us. Arlo gets Lennox set up in the room before coming out to the small waiting room with the rest of us.
“We’ve got to do something for him,” Ledger says.
“We told him we’d give him space to figure it out,” Willow says weakly.
“That was before he messed his fucking leg because he tried a trail he wasn’t in shape for!” I throw my hands up.
“Marina…” Arlo warns.
“No. Are we going to just let him be self-destructive? Hide away in his cabin until he’s no longer someone we recognize? We have to help him.”
Ledger drops into one of the visitor chairs and puts his head in his hands. Ainsley sits next to him, running her hand along his back.
“Have we failed him? Should we have done more after everything happened?” Ledger asks.
“We didn’t fail him. We were giving him the space to figure out how to heal. Now, we need to step in because the path he’s going down is … scary,” Oakley murmurs.
