She jerks her gaze to mine before blinking back more wetness and nodding. “He’s been under so much pressure lately.”
Ever since he took over Hawthorne Industries, he’s been putting in longer hours, skipping meals or grabbing fast food. And trying to find a way out of this mess…
It’s all taken a toll.
Austin jumps to his feet, pacing in front of the bench with a long-legged stride. “Why won’t they tell us what’s going on?” He swings around, prowling ten feet before spinning in a tight half circle. “Is it so damn hard to give us an update?” He stops and glares at the desk on the other side of the room. “This is complete bullshit.”
“Language,” Mom murmurs, but her words lack conviction. It’s more of a reflex than anything else. A tiny bit of normalcy in a world of chaos.
“Sorry,” Austin mutters before drawing himself up to his full height. “I’m going to check with the nurse at the desk. I’ll be back in a minute.”
My brother doesn’t stalk more than three steps when an older man in scrubs pushes out through an oversized metal door. He stops at the desk and speaks briefly with the woman before she glances in our direction. My mouth goes bone-dry as I scour his face for clues. Every step that brings him closer makes my heart pound faster until each beat becomes agonizing. My hand rises to rub gently at the spot.
“Mrs. Hawthorne?” His light blue gaze strays first to Austin and then to me before settling on our mother.
She rises unsteadily to her feet, hands clutched together in front of her until the knuckles turn white. “Is Griffin all right?” Her tongue darts out to smudge her lips. “Are we able to see him now?”
Emotion flickers in his eyes, but it’s there and gone before I can decipher what it means. A pit blooms at the bottom of my belly as my nerves stretch to the breaking point. Any moment, they’ll snap.
He gestures to a room off to the side that had until now, gone unnoticed. “I’d like to speak with you in private.”
Any color filling her face drains away as she jerks her head into a tight nod.
“Mom?” I say, popping to my feet, “should we come with you?”
Fear pools in her bloodshot eyes as they dart to me. “Let me speak with the doctor alone.”
My teeth sink into my lower lip until the metallic taste of blood fills my mouth. The need to reach out and stop her from leaving thrums through me as if that has the potential to alter the outcome. Or, at the very least, prolong the inevitable.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realize we’re standing at the precipice. Once she crosses it, nothing will ever be the same. There’s no going back. I want to keep her with us for as long as possible.
My brother takes a step toward her. “Mom—”
“Austin, please,” she whispers, voice cracking on his name. “Let me figure out what’s going on. Then we’ll talk.”
His wide shoulders slump under the heaviness of the moment. It feels bone-crushing in its intensity.
“Yeah, fine,” he mumbles.
Silently we watch as the doctor leads Mom to the private room before holding open the door. Once she walks past, he shutters them away. I don’t realize there’s a thin sliver of window until Mom is standing in front of it. My breath gets trapped in my lungs. Even though I can’t see the doctor, I know her gaze is pinned to him. She jerks her head and continues staring. From this distance, I see fresh tears well in her eyes. Within moments, she buries her face in both hands.
No.
No.
No.
This can’t be happening.
Austin slips an arm around my shoulders before hauling me close. “He’ll be fine, Summer. He has to be.”
As desperate as I am to believe my brother, somehow, I know he’s wrong. Once again, our lives are about to change and there’s nothing we can do to stop it from happening.
Chapter Thirteen
Cardiac arrest.
The official cause of Dad’s death.
It’s been six days since he passed away.
Six.
The last image I have of my father is when the paramedics loaded him into the back of the ambulance. He was still breathing when they arrived at the hospital and rushed him into the emergency room. That’s where his heart stopped. They spent twenty minutes trying to resuscitate him but weren’t able to bring him back.
Stretched out on my bed, I stare blindly at the ceiling, unable to comprehend his death. How can he be gone? My mind spins. It’s almost impossible to fathom how we got to this place. Six months ago, I’d never heard of this shit town. Our lives had been in Chicago. And Dad had been fine.
Alive.
And now…
He’s not.
And I’m trapped in a nightmare.
One I can’t wake from.