“It is a tragedy.” Mom lowers her head. “She was slightly older than you.”
I would never discount nor downplay the death of anyone but failed to understand why everyone is still watching me like I’m a broken baby bird. This is sad news, and I can only imagine Will must be devastated to have learned this.
“Are Will and Nikki in Orlando for the funeral?”
“Not quite,” Dad answers, then clears his throat. “Amelia, I’m going to say something which will upset you. The woman was pregnant. They saved the baby.”
“This is getting worse by the minute,” I almost cry, pressing my hand to my chest. “The poor baby.”
“Will has a son.”
My father’s words are a thousand knives into my already wounded heart. This is not possible. Indeed, some joke though their expression is anything but humorous. My face draws back while I rub my forehead and shake my head.
“Will has a son?” I repeat with a quivering voice. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s all we know at this stage,” Ava interrupts. “Millie, I’m so sorry.”
A cold sensation expands in my core making everything turn weak. Then, the unanswered questions come to the forefront of my mind, quickly trumped by the worry over Will’s mental being right now.
“I need to go see him,” I mumble, then push my chair out. “Where exactly is he?”
“Amelia, I don’t think it’s a good idea that you see him. From what Nikki says, he is very distraught right now,” Dad informs me.
“And you don’t think he needs his family?” I argue back, my tone high-pitched and panicked. “I will not allow him to go through this alone.”
“He is not alone. He has Nikki,” Ava gently reminds me.
My anger becomes a beast of its own, springing to life and unstoppable with its force.
“Will needs more than just Nikki! I repeat—I will not let him go through this alone.”
Dad nods as I pace the area trying to figure out how I can quickly get to Orlando, not for one minute worrying about anything else besides Will. My head is jumbled, unable to process the simple things like booking a plane ticket or even remembering how to drive to the airport.
“Amelia, I’ll organize the car and private jet. You can leave now.”
Mom places her hand on my shoulder. “I’m coming with you. You’re right, Will needs his family, and I can’t sit here, knowing he is in pain.”
Down the long hall, at the end of the row, Will is sitting on the plastic chair with his head buried inside his hands. His shoulders have fallen, resembling an angel with clipped wings. Unable to fly or soar, broken with no life left in him.
The sterile walls and smell of disinfectant are all around me. There is nothing warm, nor welcoming, about being in the hospital, almost designed to numb all senses to prepare you for the worst.
We found Nikki in the foyer. Mom chose to stay with her, making sure she is okay. Nikki appeared to be in damage control, on her phone trying to sort out the legalities of this matter. I didn’t want to stick around to ask questions. My head was not in it, desperate to find Will to comfort him.
With every step toward him, my chest grows tight from the mere sight of him. I desperately wish I could take all his pain away, kiss him better and tell him it’ll be all right. But the truth is, I don’t know if it will be okay. This is a life-changing moment for him, and I can’t even fathom what he is going through right now.
I take a seat beside him without saying a word. Across the hall is the neo-natal intensive care unit.
“It should have been me,” he mumbles into his hands.
“Please don’t say that. It shouldn’t have been anyone, okay?”
“But why her?”
The questions of life no one will ever be able to answer. Why did Andy’s father, Elijah, die of cancer? Why did our neighbor of almost twenty years pass away from a brain aneurysm? We o
ften ponder the “why,” though we will never know the real answer as to why anyone is taken away from us so soon.
“I don’t know, Will. No one will ever know.”