Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tabitha
STEVE STANDS UP AND EXITS the table to go answer the door. When he shouts for Hank half a minute later, Beth decides to follow behind her father to investigate. I stay with the babies, knowing they’ll fill me in when they return.
Beth cries hysterically, loud enough to cause the hair on my arms to stand straight up, and goose bumps to bubble across my skin. Instantly I jump up and rush toward the door, after placing the child in my arms safely in the playpen. I enter to find everyone standing in the entryway. Steve is holding Beth up as she sobs in his arms. Hank comes toward me and wraps me in his arms, and then I spot Deputy Marsh standing in the doorway. I know by the look on his face that I’m not going to like what he has to say.
“Ma’am, it’s Officer Kane.” It’s then I know that Brandon isn’t running late anymore. He’s not coming. I stumble back into my father-in-law’s arms, forcing him to hold me up as my knees go weak.
Brandon had to be airlifted by helicopter and rushed to the hospital. Hank and I drop everything and rush to the hospital. I run into the emergency room like my life depends on it, because it does. Brandon is my whole world. I need him, like I need to breathe.
Beth and Steve meet us there, after calling a sitter to watch over the kids. I head up to the reception desk, asking for Brandon. The nurse takes her sweet time typing in his information. I’m close to climbing over the desk and slamming my fist in her face. The clueless idiot doesn’t seem fazed that my husband’s life is hanging in the balance, and she’s the only thing keeping me from him. I revisit considering punching the bitch, when I hear a voice behind me.
“Are you Mrs. Kane?” And it’s like an answer from God.
I turn away from the nurse who was seconds away from getting her face smashed in, to find a very short balding man in blue scrubs standing behind us. I run up to him like a madwoman, but he surprisingly doesn’t flinch when I invade his personal space, desperate for answers.
“Yes! That’s me. Any news on my husband?”
He holds his hands up and nods. A sternly sympathetic look crosses his face before he shakes his head. I decide that I may hate him even more than the moron nurse, because I know. He’s about to tell me something I don’t want to hear.
Taking his time, he struggles to tell me what he came to tell me.
“Just tell me,” I whisper, as tears cascade down my cheeks.
I hold onto hope that I’m completely wrong, but I’m also giving up at the same time.
“I am so sorry, ma’am, but there was nothing else we could do. He flatlined on the way here, and they made several attempts to revive him, but his injuries were too extensive. He was gone before he arrived.” He apologizes. “I’m really sorry for your loss.” He nods once then turns and walks away.
I hate his words.
I’m sorry for your loss.
Is that supposed to magically make me feel better?
It doesn’t.
I’m angry.
I’m devastated.
I collapse into Hank’s arms. He walks me over to a bench in the corner, and we sit down. He holds me, and I hold him. We cry together. When Beth and Steve arrive, this is how they find us.
I just lost the man I love, again.
How am I going to tell my kids that Daddy isn’t coming home? How can I be strong for Mattie and Logan, when I don’t know how to be strong for myself? I feel completely and utterly lost. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, or how I’m going to do it.
Brandon’s always been the one to save me.