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We were alive.

“I know,” I said quietly. “Thank God everybody made it out.”

“That’s what matters,” she commented. “Houses can be repaired.”

I nodded, although the weight of everything waiting for me had already begun settling onto my shoulders.

Mrs. Henderson squeezed my arm. “Go see about your grandmother. This house ain’t going nowhere.”

That was all the permission I needed.

I thanked her, climbed into my car, and headed for the hospital.

By the time I reached the emergency department, Granny had already been moved upstairs.

That scared me at first.

I hurried to the desk expecting the worst, only to learn that they had admitted her quickly because of her pulmonary fibrosis and the amount of smoke she had inhaled. Her oxygen levels had improved after treatment, but the physician wanted to keep her overnight for monitoring rather than risk sending her home too soon.

Knowing the medical reasoning didn’t stop my heart from beating harder as I made my way upstairs.

Willow was standing outside Granny’s room when I stepped off the elevator. She had somehow acquired a pair of hospital socks, a thin blanket was wrapped around her shoulders, and her bonnet was still sitting crooked on her head. Kaidence was beside her in one of the waiting-area chairs, completely engrossed in the tablet he had risked life and limb to rescue from the fire.

The second Willow saw me, she pushed away from the wall.

My attention went through the partially open door behind her.

Granny was asleep.

An oxygen cannula rested beneath her nose, and the steady rise and fall of her chest gave me the reassurance I desperately needed. A pulse oximeter glowed on one finger, and the monitor beside her bed displayed numbers that immediately made the nurse in me assess them before the granddaughter in me could simply be grateful.

“She’s okay?” I asked quietly.

Willow nodded. “They gave her a breathing treatment, checked her lungs, did blood work, all that. The doctor said her oxygen came back up, but because of the pulmonary fibrosis, they want to watch her overnight. She finally fell asleep about twenty minutes ago.”

My shoulders dropped for what felt like the first time all night. “Thank God.”

“I know.”

I stepped closer to the doorway and watched Granny sleep for another few seconds before easing it mostly closed again.

Willow waited until we were a little farther down the hall before asking, “So, the house? How bad is it?”

I rubbed both palms down the front of my sweater. “We can’t stay there… at least not for some time.”

Her face fell immediately.

“The laundry room is gutted. Part of the kitchen burned, the electrical system is compromised, and there’s smoke damage throughout the entire house. Then there’s water everywhere from them putting the fire out,” I further explained. “They wouldn’t even let me go inside.”

Willow’s mouth parted. “At all?”

“No.”

A beat passed before Willow’s eyes widened with sudden horror.

“My purse.”

I blinked. “What purse?”