Chapter 2 - Room 412
Ethan drove while Lucy held the envelope beneath his jacket.
At a red light, he called the hospital on speaker. A nurse confirmed Olivia Bennett was a patient but wouldn't discuss her condition.
"Her daughter is with me," he said. "We're on our way."
Lucy stared through the windshield.
"They said she might not make it through the night. I heard them."
"We'll get there."
"That's not what I asked."
He tightened his hands on the wheel.
"I know. I can't promise something I don't know."
She nodded once, as though an honest answer hurt less than a comforting lie.
At St. Anne's, a gray-haired woman hurried toward them.
"Lucy Bennett!"
Lucy folded into her arms.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Alvarez. I had to."
The neighbor held her hard, then looked over her head at Ethan's tuxedo.
"You're him."
"Apparently."
"Then you've missed enough. Come on."
Room 412 smelled like soap and warm plastic. Olivia lay propped against pillows, an oxygen tube beneath her nose. She looked thinner than the woman in his memory, but the tiny scar above her eyebrow was still there.
He'd watched her get it hanging a kitchen shelf.
For nine years, he'd imagined that face underground.
Now her chest rose.
And fell.
"Olivia."
Her eyelids moved. She looked at him, then at Lucy wearing his jacket.
"Oh, sweetheart," she whispered. "What did you do?"
"I got Dad."
Olivia closed her eyes.
A doctor asked Ethan to step aside. An infection had badly damaged one of Olivia's heart valves. Medication was supporting her while the surgical team prepared. Her condition was critical.
"Can you save her?" he asked.
"We're doing everything we can. I won't promise you more than that."
When Ethan returned to the bed, Lucy was fixing the corner of her mother's blanket.
Olivia watched his face.
"I thought you'd hate me."
"I thought you were dead."
Her fingers stopped moving.
"What?"
"Nine years ago. An accident. Victoria brought me an obituary. My father said he'd checked."
Olivia's eyes filled.
"I never knew she told you that."
Ethan laid the envelope on the bedside table.
"Is Lucy mine?"
"Yes."
The answer was quiet. Certain.
Before he could speak, his phone lit up.
A message from Victoria.
Don't let Olivia tell this story without asking what she took.
Olivia saw the screen.
May you like
Her breathing changed.
"She knows you're here," she said.
