“I think it was a panic attack,” Linda said. “The way she gasped for breath.”
That made sense. “Has she had one before?” I asked Sarah and Jasper.
“No… I don’t think so,” Sarah replied. Jasper shook his head.
She might’ve, though. The day she called me. The day she spoke for the first time in eleven years, when her dad had taken her away with the promise of a fresh start, but Frank turned up.
She’d run, escaped their campsite, and called me to help her, saying she couldn’t do it again—it couldn’t start up again. On the phone, she’d been so breathless.
The wait for the paramedics seemed to stretch on for hours but it was only about ten minutes as there’d been an ambulance nearby after finishing another call.
They pushed through a small crowd, one of them carrying a bag. I moved back to let them work, wrapping my arm around Sarah as she sobbed. The guy who’d checked Oakley out first answered the paramedics’ questions and relayed information about her pulse.
I saw her move, her head rolling to the side, towards a paramedic who was speaking to her.
“She’s okay,” I said to Sarah.
I craned my neck and could just about see those perfect blue eyes.
“Okay, Oakley, we’re going to get you on the gurney now,” the other paramedic said.
Together, the two of them lifted her and gently placed her on the bed.
“Is she okay?” I asked, walking beside them.
“She’s doing well.”
“Then, why are you taking her to hospital?”
“She’s just taking a little longer to come around. Out of the way, please… let us through.”
We jogged behind Oakley on the gurney as the paramedicstook turnings to the exit. Sarah’s heels clicked loudly on the floor.
Outside, security was keeping reporters back. I, along with my family and hers, kept her covered by walking beside her. Those fucking vultures would print her picture on the front page, declaring the trial too much for the monster’s daughter.
They’d seen us, cameras snapping, but I didn’t think they’d be able to see Oakley from where they were being held back. Questions were fired, but they overlapped, making muddled noise, and we ignored them all.
I had nothing to say to them—nothing that could be printed, anyway.
Sarah hopped into the ambulance right after Oakley.
Fuck no.
“Can I come, too?” I asked. “Please… I won’t get in the way.”
“Sorry, only one,” the paramedic said before he slammed the doors shut, locking me out.
Just before he closed them, Oakley’s eyes found mine.
“Oakley?” I called, but she wouldn’t be able to hear me anymore.
“Come on,” Dad said, clapping my back. “We’ll follow.”
Jasper stared after the ambulance. “Let’s go,” I said, nudging his arm to snap him out of it. Now there was something I could do and that was getting to her as fast as I could.
Mum drove with Ali, Lizzie, and Mia, while I went with Dad and Jasper.
“How did she do it for so long?” Jasper asked as we raced along the road, chasing down the ambulance. “I want to kill him. She spent eleven years in the same house as him… and we had no idea.”
