Hanna tried not to look too out of sorts when she returned to the table, thinking of the small pink plus sign she’d seen come to life on the window of the pregnancy test. It would forever be burned in her mind. It wasn’t something she could unseen, it wasn’t something she could make go away. It was real, it was happening. This was going to be something she was dealing with between that moment and the next eighteen years. She was kidding herself, this was the rest of her life. Kids didn’t just magically go away when they became adults.
She was going to be a mother. She would be a mother until the day she died and her child cried and laid her to rest and told everyone about how their mother brought them into existence from such a fucked up situation. She hadn’t slept with anyone in a year. There was one explanation for the positive sign on the pregnancy test. Originally she had gotten the test to check. They hadn’t used a condom and she wasn’t on the pill. It was a precaution, just to tell herself she was being responsible.
But now it had turned into something incredibly, painfully real. She felt like throwing up and thought of all the months ahead she would be feeling like this. Morning sickness and a belly she couldn’t hide. She had a small amount of time to figure out what to do about this, how to handle it. Finding out life was growing inside you was supposed to be a moment of joy and happiness and excitement, not fear and anxiety and panic.
The men there with her were talking but it felt like she was in a bubble or looking at them from underwater. It was muffled and silent. She saw their mouths moving, saw them talking, but had nothing she wanted to contribute. Nothing she could truly comprehend. She was in another universe, she was in a place where she was a mother and, whether he knew it or not, Roarke was a father and they would forever be joined by that fact and--
“Hanna,” James said sharply and her attention pulled back. They had somehow popped the bubble.
“Yes? What?” she said, quickly trying to get back into the conversation. She felt Roarke’s eyes lingering on her a little too long but she didn’t dare meet his.
“We have a plan,” Roarke said, a little softer. “We want to run it by you.”
“You finally learned how to play nice with each other,” she said sardonically.
“We learned to play to achieve an end we both want,” James said. “We’re going to stage an accident.”
It already sounded like an awful plan, but she didn’t say anything. She’d let them finish. So far the deceit wasn’t working for anyone. It was only going to snowball into something worse, she was sure. But she stayed silent.
“Amber, whether she likes it or not, is going to get into a motorcycle accident,” Roarke said. “We’ll use some old bike from the shop, bang it up a bit. James will make sure it gets on the news.”
“I’m sure Amber will be thrilled about this.”
“She snuck behind our backs and made this worse for everyone, now she has to play by our rules.”
Hanna nodded and stayed silent, sensing his agitation. They’d come to a tentative truce but that was about it. She wasn’t going to disturb the half peace by poking holes in this plan already.
“I’ve got a contact at the hospital, we’ll get Amber a room, make sure it gets out which hospital she’s in. And when Isabelle comes to visit, we’ll nab her,” Roarke said like it was the simplest thing in the world.
“Why would the news report on this?” Hanna asked, going down the list of possible faults in her head.
“Because she’s the oldest sister of the Pharaohs’ president,” James said. “That makes her news. Especially if we spruce up the story with a little bit of violence, some Pharaohs getting upset that their fearless leader’s sister is wounded. Maybe they tag some graffiti points and light a few dumpsters on fire. At that point we wouldn’t even need to feed the media. They’d do the job for us.”
“Okay, but what makes you think Isabelle will show up to the hospital room?”
“She will,” Roarke said with finality.
Hanna had no choice but to believe him with a tone like that. He was staring daggers into space like he could see her there. Perhaps she did hold the affection for Amber that Roarke seemed to think she did. She would show to see her sister, to make sure she was safe and alive and okay. But was her affection going to outweigh her intelligence? As far as Hanna was concerned, this plan seemed a little too obvious. Isabelle had already proven she has a cunning mind and thinks a little too closely to a snake. She might be able to smell something like this. But perhaps her fear that it might be true, that Amber might be hurt or dying and she wasn’t there to comfort her sister, perhaps that fear would win out.
“Well, I don’t think we’d all agree 100% on any plan,” Hanna said. “So this seems to be the best we’ve got.”
“Alright. We’ll meet tomorrow. Get the moving parts ready.”
As they parted, Hanna felt James eyeing her and she refused to look back at him. She had enough on her mind, she didn’t need to try and convince her uncle he was crazy for thinking she had gone and done exactly what she did. Especially now that the extent of the consequences had just increased in a way she couldn’t imagine.
***
They pulled out a bike that belonged to a member that skipped town several years ago. As per Pharoah rules, they trashed it beyond recognition. That proved to be a fortuitous move since it would keep anyone from identifying the bike and giving them away. Just to be safe, however, Roarke painted in colors that Amber had used on her own bike. He was trying to close as many of the holes as possible. Hanna did have a point, this plan was shaky, at best. But he was going to make as sturdy as possible.
He wasn’t going to admit that he was running out of options, he was going to let anyone know he was just a little bit nervous, maybe even scared. He wasn’t going to be weak, not when Rick was watching him like a hawk and Hanna’s police contact was giving him the evil eye at every opportunity. This was the best way to prove what he was capable of and it was going to work, it had to work.
So late that night he and James dragged the motorcycle wreckage onto the street. They’d contacted Roarke’s surgeon friend at the hospital.
“Can you trust him?” James asked.
“He’s sewn me up more times than I can count,” Roarke said. “If I can’t trust him, then I’ve been doing something very wrong.”
“Alright.”
James was reluctant to give any praise or any indication that he was agreeing with this. Hanna claimed he was a dirty cop but he seemed to be incredibly attached to his own honor. He was doing the dirty cop thing all wrong with how righteous his face constantly looked when he was talking or glaring at Roarke.
“He’ll responsd in the ambulance, we’ll ride to the hospital, and then park it in the hospital room,” Roarke said. “I’ll give you the signal to leak us when we’re situated. But some people might have already put in anonymous tips by then.”
James nodded stiffly and that was the end of them talking.
Amber had, predictably, not been happy about any parts of the plan. But Roarke didn’t particularly care at the moment what sort of opinion she had to give on the matter. She had betrayed her family, as far as he was concerned. He knew she did what she did out of concern for Elizabeth but she’d ruined any chance they had of getting an upper hand in this labyrinth. She’d chosen the sibling who turned against them all, and that was something he was not going to forgive easily.
So she stood there, arms crossed, ready for the ambulance to show up. The plan was to have it all take place early in the morning, the world was asleep and unable to poke any holes in the plot. James would claim to be a first responder and call, in turn, their contacts at the hospital. The ambulance would come and silently drop them off at the hospital. It would all be on record but attracted as minimal attention as possible.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Roarke said.
And then it was in motion. James taped off the wreckage of the motorcycle and took pictures like any crime scene. Amber and Roarke got into the back of the ambulance and took off several minutes before other police officers showed up and wondered why the ambulance's lights and siren were off.
They didn’t talk during the bumpy ride over. Amber was unhappy and Roarke was practically seething. Between the two of them they couldn’t seem to really formulate even a little bit of civility. At this point he was far past trying. So they rocked and moved with the bumps in the road, hearing only the sounds of the devices in the ambulance move as well. They didn’t have radios in emergency vehicles, not any that weren’t for communication, anyway.
They got to the hospital and got out with just as much stoicism.
“We’re going to room D on the third floor,” the ambulance driver said. “Someone should be waiting there.”
“Should,” Amber echoed with haughtiness.
“Shut it,” Roarke ordered.
They marched into the hospital. The sun was rising now. They didn’t make eye contact as they moved through the hospital and towards their destination on the third floor. When they got there, they shut the door behind them and turned on the news, flipping through channels and waiting. They finally found the story featuring them on Channel 6. A reporter was in front of the staged wreckage, reporting Amber’s name, her condition being critical, and her position as Roarke’s sister.
It was all vague enough information that it would draw anyone in, especially someone who cared about her. Roarke stepped over to the window and saw that a gaggle of reporters had swarmed outside the hospital and made a home in the parking lot, waiting to get the scoop.
“It’s like you’re a fucking senator or some shit,” Roarke mumbled. He hadn’t expected quite so much press but the more the merrier, as far as he was concerned.
The door opened several times over the course of an hour. It was members of the gang, coming in to offer status updates. None of them were the face that Roarke was hoping to see. Until he finally saw the one he was after.
“Amber?” called a familiar, small quiet voice.
But when Roarke saw her there was nothing about her that was small and quiet. He saw a cunning woman hiding in that newly adult body. He saw a snake wearing their mother’s face and their father’s physique. He saw someone who had pretended to love him, pretended to be the good in the world. He snapped.
He dove for her, trying to get his arms around her in a hold to keep her down. She panicked. She yelled out. It was happening so fast and in a way that Roarke couldn’t seem to control. He’d gotten sloppy at the end. It was unravelling now as Isabelle, open only for a moment, was closing fast. Their window was gone and she was slipping through their fingers just as quick.
He lost his cool, and then they lost everything.
***
Isabelle was gone. She got out, just like James had warned she might and Amber had insisted she would. She’d managed to land a knock to his gut while he tried to hold her down and get the cuffs James had given him on her. She let out a scream, and several nurses rushed in to the sight of him with his sister in a headlock, her struggling to fight free, and then taking off in hysterics while he chased after her.
By the time he got to the ground floor, having lost her, security was already right behind him and he just kept running straight out the door. He didn’t stop running until he thought his heart was going to burst right out of his chest and his lungs were just going to explode. He didn’t know where to run, where they wouldn’t immediately think to look. His apartment was off limits. The bar would be too. They’d have cops ready and waiting at Robert’s house and Amber’s apartment if he tried that. He had no idea where Hanna lived. He was beyond being up the creek without a paddle, he was about to be adrift in the ocean in nothing but a rowboat.
He made a split decision, turning left at Main Street and using what energy he had left to sprint down the sidewalk, pushing people out of the way as he did so. In the distance there were sirens, they could be for anyone, but if he didn’t operate under the assumption they were for him, coming for him, then he’d never get to a safe zone in time.
He saw his salvation and burst the door open, locking it behind him