But when my dad says she's not doing well, I know it can only be something very, very bad.
I swallowed hard before asking.
"What happened?"
"Last week we found out that your mom's kidney failure and high blood pressure had caused an aneurysm to form in her abdomen, which needed to be operated on before it ruptured," he says, and I lose the ground beneath my feet.
"And you didn't think it was important to call me and tell me that?" I exclaim, already sounding desperate. I only notice that Logan pulled the car onto the shoulder when I see the two of them turn in the front seats to look at me with concern.
"Your mom wouldn't let me. You know how she is."
"She doesn't get to decide everything, Dad. You should have told me!"
"Ethan..." He tries to speak again, but I interrupt him.
"I've said a million times that it's not fair to leave me in the dark."
"Ethan..."
"Especially about something this serious!"
"Ethan! Listen to me, damn it!" my dad shouts this time, and I'm startled, stopping the flow of indignation. "Your momhad surgery yesterday. It was twelve hours of surgery and she... she still hasn't woken up. And they don't know if she will."
And that's how my world falls apart.
Logan
Ethan becomes a total mess. After hanging up the phone and telling us about his mom with tears already falling down his face, Charlie and I take a good hour to calm him down slightly.
Our trip back to Frosthaven turns into a desperate drive to Dover, Ethan's hometown and where I also lived for a good while. Luckily, it was a much closer destination, and we reach the hospital where his mom was admitted in less than two hours.
The player jumps out of the car before I've even turned it off, which forces us to run after him, leaving Katniss sleeping in the car with a window cracked open a bit. I'd have to come back to check on her later.
Since he'd let his dad know we were arriving, Richard meets us at the main door. I watch Ethan hug his dad in desperation, and I'm heartbroken by the pain screaming from both their eyes.
"How is she?" he asks, without even ending the hug.
"They're keeping her in a medically induced coma, so her body can fight the infection," he says, looking defeated, but trying to hold the line for Ethan's sake.
"She has an infection? You didn't tell me that!" he almost shouts, running his hands through his hair.
I feel Charlie lace her hand with mine, and we share the worry through the touch.
"I was just going to make you more worried during the trip, son."
"I don't care! I'm tired of not knowing everything! Argh!" he groans in frustration, rubbing his face. I rest a hand on his shoulder and squeeze while Charlie strokes his back. "Is there anything else you didn't tell me? And where are my brothers? Have you told them too?"
Richard looks at him, devastated, but shakes his head.
"Yes, I told them, and they're on their way too. And there's nothing else relevant, I swear. It was a high-risk surgery, like I said, but it had to be done as soon as possible, since if an aneurysm actually bursts, things get a lot worse. The aneurysm was even bigger than the scan showed, so the doctors spent double the time they'd predicted removing it. But her blood pressure has stayed high ever since, her kidneys are..." The older man pauses his explanation to sigh and also run a hand through his graying hair. "Or rather, they're barely doing any function at all, so she's hooked up to a ventilator and the damned dialysis machine. Add the infection to that and..."
Richard doesn't finish the sentence. He can't.
I swallow hard, and it hurts me to see more tears fall from Ethan's beautiful face.
He shakes his dad by the shoulders.
"You should have called me sooner! I had that right! I had the right to have seen her before..." He gets worked up in the middle of his crying, and Richard just shakes his head, in a mix of guilt and pain. "Where is she?"
