"It doesn't matter what it is. You'll make it come true."
***
I take a shortcut through the Emergency Room after spending more than three hours on the seventh floor of the hospital. I shared the elevator ride down with two doctors and a nurse who talked in low whispers about a patient that will be moved to hospice care tomorrow.
We might not have the same jobs, but I know all about death. I've had to watch people crumble when they've heard the news that their cat didn't make it. I've listened to the wails of children after being told that their dog would never come back home.
Death is a part of medicine. It's a sad but integral part of the cycle of life, and I'm strong enough to handle it. I know I am.
The elevator dings our arrival on the first floor and when the doors swing open the mad rush of the ER is what greets us.
Both doctors head straight for the r
eception desk. I have no idea if they are ER physicians or not. What I do know is that every single person who works in this building plays a pivotal role in patient care. It doesn't matter if it's the head of cardiology or the people who work tirelessly in the kitchen. They all are essential to the well-being of those who come here for help.
I scan the area. The noise and frenetic energy don't overwhelm me. I take comfort in the knowledge that there are trained professionals who will do their best to help everyone here.
I take a step forward while I dig in my purse for my phone to order an Uber to pick me up.
John offered to call his driver to take me home, but I insisted on finding my own way. When he rushed off for an emergency consultation in the ER, I stayed back and spoke to a surgeon for ten minutes until he too, had to run to help someone who needed him.
"Adley?" A familiar male voice pulls my gaze to the left.
I search the faces of the people standing near the reception desk. Every one of them is looking for an answer to an urgent question.
"Over here." The voice calls again and I shift my focus more to the right and when I do my eyes land right on him.
"Kade?" I say his name as I move toward him, brushing past a woman with dark hair who is rushing in with a child in her arms.
"What are you doing…" I start to ask what he's doing in the ER at eleven o'clock at night, but my words get caught in my throat when I look past where he's standing to see the face of Crew's sister, his mother and his older brother, Curtis. I've met Lark before but I recognize the others from the photographs in Crew's apartment.
"Kade." I reach for him once I'm close enough. "Where's Crew?"
He points to a corridor that I know leads to a series of exam rooms. "There. He's down there."
I steady Kade's shaking hand in my own. I draw a deep breath because whatever it is, Crew is strong. "What's happened?"
"You don't know?" He scans my face looking for an answer to a question I'm not aware of. I don't know why any of the Benton family is here.
I crane my neck to look down the corridor but it's just a steady stream of medical personnel going in and out of cubicles. "No. What happened to Crew?"
I bite the corner of my lip suddenly overcome with a rush of emotions. He can't be hurt. I can't breathe if he's hurt. I need him. I care about him so much.
I think I love him.
"It's our dad." His voice breaks as he buries his face in his hands. "He had a heart attack. It doesn't look good."
Chapter 38
Crew
I stand in the exam room with my hands in the pockets of my pants staring at the frail man on the stretcher. He's hooked up to machines that monitor his heart, oxygen is being pumped into his nose, and his gray eyes look sunken and cloudy.
"You came," he whispers when he finally notices me standing at the foot of the stretcher.
I came as soon as my sister, Lark, called me. I was having dinner by myself at an Italian place a block from my apartment. I was staring at my phone. The temptation to call Bill was pressing.
I've held off asking him where he took Adley the other day when he picked her up outside her apartment. I wanted to know tonight, but just as I was about to make the call, Lark called me in a panic.