ALEX
I sat straight upas my eyes darted around the darkened space. Beads of sweat were dripping down the back of my neck. My heart was racing. It felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest.
Over the past five years, I’d had the same recurring dream. Or I should say a version of the same scenario in a nightmare. Someone I loved was stuck somewhere and I needed to save them, but no one would tell me where they were or help me find them.
They were either drowning, in a burning building, hanging off a cliff, or some other equally perilous situation. And it always ended the same way, I’d finally find them and then they would end up falling, or drowning, or the burning house would collapse a second after I arrived.
It was usually Lexi or Mrs. G. Sometimes it was Mia, Nick, or Maddox. The worst was when it was Ash and AJ because when I woke up the nightmare wasn’t over. I was still living it. They were gone.
This time it was Mrs. G, she was stuck in a cave. I managed to find her but as soon as I reached down to pull her out, our fingertips brushed as the entire thing collapsed.
I looked down at my hand, the tips of my fingers were still tingling where our hands had touched.
It’s just a dream, I told myself.
It took me a moment to get my bearings. I was in the cabin of my private plane. Once I saw where I was, the rest came flooding back to me.
I was on a flight to Sydney. I had no clue how long I’d been asleep. I grabbed my phone to check the time at the exact moment the lights in the cabin came on and the pilot’s voice came over the intercom announcing that we’d arrived in Sydney. I switched my phone off of airplane mode and saw that I had over fifteen messages. Three of them were from numbers I didn’t recognize.
The door opened to my private suite and Mia walked in as my thumb hovered over the button to listen to the message. Without her saying a word I knew that something was wrong. All of my spidey senses were pinging.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just got off the phone with San Francisco General. Mrs. G has been admitted. They believe that she suffered a heart attack but are not ruling out a stroke.”
My chest tightened in fear. “Is she okay?”
“She is in the ICU.”
“Turn the plane around.”
“I’ll go speak to the pilot.”
“Lexi?! Where’s Lexi?”
Mia stopped and looked over her shoulder. “The nurse I spoke to said that she’s with a woman named Sadie Burke in the waiting room.”
I blinked, sure that I’d heard her wrong. “Cupcake Girl?”
“Who?” Mia looked at me like I was losing my mind. Which wasn’t a stretch. That’s what I felt like.
“Nothing.” I shook my head.
“I texted you the hospital and Sadie Burke’s number.” Mia’s chin dipped in a sharp nod, and she turned and walked out.
I tried Sadie’s number first, but it went straight to voicemail. My heart was in my throat as I called the hospital. It rang five times before a message system picked up.
“Fuck.” I didn’t want to wait to be connected. I sat there for thirty seconds listening to the prompts before disconnecting and calling Mia.
“Yes.”
“Get the hospital on the phone for me. Now.” I normally wasn’t so short with her, but I knew she wouldn’t hold it against me.
I hung up and called Sadie again. I needed to speak to my daughter. It went straight to voicemail. Again.
“Hey, it’s Sadie. If you’re getting this, best-case scenario is I forgot to charge my phone; worst case I lost it and forgot to charge it.” She let out a chuckle. “Leave a message and I’ll get back to you after I locate and or charge it. Thanks!”
There was a beep. “Cup—Sadie, this is Alex Vaughn. I was told by the nursing staff at SFGH that you had my daughter. Please call me back on this number immediately.”
