I turned to Hollis.
He was staring wide-eyed at my friend lying in the bed.
“Hollis?”
He ignored me.
“Hollis?”
I knew she didn’t look good, but Hollis looked like he’d seen a ghost. Maybe it was too much, asking him to come see her like this. His mom had probably been in the ICU, too.
I touched his shoulder. “Are you…okay?”
He shook his head. “What the hell is going on?”
“What are you talking about? This is my friend Bree.”
He turned and stared at me. “You mean Anna.”
Anna.
Anna?
It took several seconds to even begin to register what he was talking about.
My heart beat faster and faster as I slowly pieced this together.
He’d just called Bree…Anna.
My eyes widened. Brianna was Bree’s full name. But it couldn’t be…
Bree is Anna? Hollis’s ex, the one who’d broken his heart?
My Bree?
I took one look at his face, and there was no more questioning it.
Bree is Anna.
The room seemed to sway, and a feeling of unreality overtook my body. This made no sense, and even though there was no longer any doubt, I needed him to confirm it.
“Hollis? Bree is your ex-girlfriend, Anna?”
Unable to take his eyes off her, he nodded.
My ex-husband interjected, “What the hell is going on?”
There was no easy way to say it. “Hollis is my boyfriend. I had no idea he ever knew Bree. He’d always referred to his ex as Anna, and I don’t think of Bree as Brianna. I didn’t know anyone called her Anna.”
Bree’s father closed his eyes and began to shake his head.
Mariah’s eyes were wide. “Well…that’s quite a coincidence.”
“Only a few people called her Anna when she was younger. That’s what her grandmother called her,” Richard said. “She stopped going by it as she got older. She preferred Bree. But she was always my Anna growing up.”
Tobias gave Hollis a dirty look before announcing to Richard, “I need to get some air.”
After Tobias left, I breathed out a small sigh of relief. His presence only made a bad situation worse.
Hollis still wasn’t saying anything. The room was eerily quiet aside from the sound of the machines keeping Bree alive.
Suddenly, he walked over to her bed and pulled a chair up next to her. The rest of us watched Hollis stare down at her incredulously. He placed his hands on his head and pulled at his hair as he continued to take her in. Then, as if a switch flipped, he got up out of his seat and swiftly exited the room.
“Excuse me,” I said as I rushed after him.
Hollis escaped down the hall, finally stopping at a water bubbler. With both hands, he leaned against it, breathing in and out as if he were about to hyperventilate.
He finally looked over at me. And as our eyes met for the first time since this nightmare began, neither of us had words.
There simply were none.Chapter 40* * *HollisI finally forced the words out. “I don’t understand. Make me understand, Elodie.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand, either. I really don’t.”
“You didn’t know about this?”
Her expression went from concerned to angry. “What, you think I tricked you or something? Of course I didn’t know!”
I immediately regretted my assertion. This was so damn confusing. “I didn’t mean to imply you were being deceptive. I just don’t understand how we could not have known this. She’s your best friend.”
Elodie kept shaking her head. “She’s never once mentioned you to me, Hollis. I knew she’d experienced heartbreak several years ago. She alluded to an ex-boyfriend. Honestly, I don’t know if that was you or someone else, but I swear to you, Hollis, she never once mentioned your name or said a thing when I mentioned you, either.”
Taking a deep breath in, I tried to find my bearings. Every second we wasted out here trying to figure this mystery out, Anna was in there fighting for her life. I didn’t care how badly she’d hurt me or how jarring this revelation was—none of it mattered right now.
She’s dying.
Anna was dying.
What did matter was that Anna be surrounded by those she loved in what could be her final hours. I didn’t know whether she’d ever really loved me, but a part of me would always love her. That’s why I’d been so devastated all these years. Up until Elodie, Anna had been the love of my life.
I snapped myself out of my thoughts. “We need to get back in there.”
Elodie wiped her eyes. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
Entering that room a second time was no easier, no less shocking. Anna had always been small, but she looked exceptionally frail and fragile, though with the same beautiful face I’d always remembered. Seeing that tube down her throat physically hurt me, especially knowing it was against her wishes.
You’re so brave, Anna.
My instinct was to try to save her, to do something, but it was clear there was nothing any of us could do right now except pray. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d asked God for help. Honestly, after my mother died, I’d lost faith that anyone out there was listening to my prayers. This was the first and only time since then that I’d felt compelled to beg for mercy.