Chapter 106
Everything inside me freezes. For a moment, it’s like the world just stops. My lungs forget how to work. The room fades.
Fuck. I shouldn’t be affected. That news shouldn’t be hitting me like a damn truck, but it does. It’s like someone’s taken a blade to my chest and twisted it, shredding whatever’s left of my heart at the thought of her being seriously hurt.
“I–I need to go,” Lilly stammers, her voice distant and hollow. It’s like she’s here but not really–her body in the room, her mind miles away.
Uncle Gabriel is on his feet before anyone else, pulling her into his arms. “You’re not driving like this, sweetheart.” His tone is calm, but I can hear the crack beneath it.
The news didn’t just rattle Lilly; it hit all of us. Dad and Uncle Gabe try to mask it, but I can see it clear as day in their eyes. Panic. Fear. They’ve always said Sierra’s like a daughter to them, and right now, they look like two fathers who just heard one of their own kids was in an accident.
Before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m standing. “I’ll drive p>
The words fall from my mouth, cold and robotic, like they’re not even mine.
Three sets of eyes swing my way. Dad, Uncle Gabe, and Lilly, each one silently asking the same question: are you serious?
Damn it. I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t feel this way. But I do. Something’s clawing its way up from inside me, something fierce and uncontrollable. I need to know she’s okay. I have to know she’s okay.
Dad’s voice cuts through the silence. “Are you sure p>
He sounds cautious and uncertain, and I don’t blame him. Sierra and I have never exactly gotten along. So why would I care enough to drive them? Why would I care at all?
I don’t have the answer. So, I just shrug, trying to look unaffected while my heart hammers so loud I can barely think.
“Fine,” Lilly snaps, grabbing her purse. But the tremor in her voice gives her away. Beneath the anger, there’s a raw fear she’s desperately trying to bury.
Within minutes, we’re on the road. The tension in the car is suffocating. Dad and Uncle Gabe are busy making calls, voices low but urgent, while Lilly sits silently in the back seat, her hands twisting in her lap, worry etched deep across her face.
“Which hospital is she at?” Uncle Gabe finally asks.
It takes Lilly a few seconds to even realize he’s talking to her.
“Aunt Ivy said she’s at St. Monica,” she murmurs, her voice trembling.
It’s only after Uncle Gabe asks the question that I realize I didn’t even know where I was going. The only thing I thought about was getting to her.
Uncle Gabe immediately speaks into his phone again. “You heard that? Reach out to our contacts. I want the best care, the best doctors… everything p>
He hangs up, and a few minutes later, Dad does the same.
“Did she tell you how Sterra is?” Dad asks gently.
Lilly turns toward him, her eyes glistening with tears I’ve never seen her hold back before, “No. She said she’d just gotten the call and was on her way to the hospital.” Her voice cracks.
Tears spill down her cheeks despite her best effort to blink them away.
“Come here, sweetheart,” Uncle Gabe murmurs, pulling her into his arms again.
“What if something bad happens?” she chokes out. “What if she’s seriously hurt? What–what if she di-” She can’t even finish the sentence, but she doesn’t have to. We all know what she’s thinking.
What if she dies?
My grip tightens on the steering wheel until my knuckles ache. My jaw locks, and I stare at the road, but all I can see is Sierra,
My heart constricts as an unfamiliar pain takes root.
Why do I feel like this? Why does that thought alone make it hard to breathe? Why does it feel like my chest is caving in?
“Don’t think like that,” Uncle Gabe says firmly, though his voice trembles just enough to betray his fear. “She’s going to be okay p>
“We won’t let anything happen to her,” Dad adds, and there’s steel in his voice. The kind that says he’d move heaven and earth if he had to.
I stay quiet, lost in my own thoughts, trying to make sense of the storm tearing through me.
Sierra is the last person I should be feeling like this toward. Yes, it’s unfortunate that she got into an accident, but … fuck. It shouldn’t be affecting me this much. And yet it is.
The silence in the car stretches. The only sound is the steady hum of the engine, and my heart pounding so violently it feels like it’s echoing off the dashboard.
“You’re driving like a grandma,” Lilly snaps suddenly, her voice raw. “If you can’t drive any faster, then give me the fucking wheel p>
I glance at her through the rearview mirror. The tears are gone, but the fear is still there.
“No one touches my car,” I say, my tone flat. “You know this p>
“Then drive faster p>
“And risk us getting into an accident too?” I shoot back.
Her brows pinch together, and she opens her mouth, probably to say something snippy, but Uncle Gabe cuts her off.
“He’s right, honey,” he says gently. “We won’t be any help to Si if we end up in the hospital rooms next to her p>