Unexpected Gift(5)

“This is Doctor Kendra Torres. I’m calling on behalf of your brother, Brandon Lowell.”

I never experienced the exact moment when everything changes. When everything stops. My breathing. The noise. The chaos. My vision starts to blur, and my voice disappears. It is lost in the sea of the worst-case scenarios swimming around in my head.

“Molly? What is it? What’s wrong?” Kenna puts her hand on my arm, trying to snap me out of the daze.

“Hello? Ms. Lowell? Are you still there?”

I clear my throat and wipe my eyes. Maybe it isn’t as bad as I think it is. I tend to overthink. “What about Brandon? Is he okay? What happened?”

“Your brother and his wife have been in a serious car accident.”

“No. No! You’re wrong. He is fine. I just talked to him a few hours ago. Are you sure? What happened? Don’t do this. Don’t tell me this. Oh my god.” I clutch my stomach as wave after wave of pain causes intense cramps to form in my abdomen. This can’t be happening.

“I think it’s best if you come to the hospital. I’m sorry, Ms. Lowell. The injuries are very significant. You will need to prepare yourself.”

The phone slips from my hand and falls to the floor, echoing louder than any pulse of music blaring through the speaker at the club. I stand up, but my legs start to wobble left and right. As I begin to fall, I catch myself on the bar and knock over my drink. The doctor's words echo in my head. You will need to prepare yourself.

Prepare myself for what? I don’t understand. Death? Is that what she meant?

“I can’t breathe. Kenna, I can’t breathe.” I gasp for air as I stare at my best friend, tears streaming down my face.

She wraps her arms around me to keep me from falling all the way to the floor. “It’s okay. We’re going outside. Everything is going to be fine.”

“Hey, is she okay?” the bartender asks, wiping the mess of margarita off the counter.

Kenna ignores him as we stumble through the crowd. People part, creating a pathway so Kenna can help me get outside. The air hits my face, and I suck in a deep breath, opening my lungs to the point of pain. I let out a wail so loud, my throat hurts. My eyes blur from the tears cascading nonstop down my cheeks. The bouncer who had given me such a hard time earlier pushes the line from the door to make sure I have enough breathing room.

Kenna leads me away from the onlookers and their whispers. “Talk to me, Molls. What is going on?” She helps me sit on the bench in front of a coffee shop. Why a coffee shop is next door to a club is something I’ll never understand.

You will need to prepare yourself.

The words rip a fresh sob out of my chest. I hide my face in my hands as I let another wave of emotion silence me. We sit for a few minutes as I cry, and Kenna rubs soothing circles on my back. “I need to go. I need to get to Brandon.” I wipe my face on my shoulder.

“Why? Is Brandon okay? What happened? I need you to talk to me.” She grabs my shoulder to stop me, and that’s when I realize I already started walking to the car. Uh, I didn’t realize I had gotten up.

“Amelia and Brandon have been in a car accident,” I say as paralysis numbs my body.

Kenna gasps and her hardcore persona disappears. Her hands cup her mouth in shock. “Are they okay? What happened?”

I shake my head, trying to clear the fog. “I don’t know.” I lift my eyes up from the ground to look at her. “They said I needed to prepare myself.”

“Oh my god, Molly. Holy shit. Okay, we are going. Come on.” Kenna takes a tight hold of my hand and drags me toward the direction of the parked car. “It’s a few hours to the hospital, right? They don’t live nearby.”

“Right.”

“It’s going to be fine. You know that, right? It’s going to be okay. Brandon and Amelia are so strong.”

“I didn’t ask about Posie. Was Posie with them?”

“I don’t know, Molls. Everything is going to be okay, alright? We can’t think the worst. I bet they are fine.”

“They told me to prepare myself,” I mumble. I remember the conversation I had with Brandon this morning. He said he was surprising Amelia with a trip to Europe tonight. She always wanted to see Paris. The city of love. He asked me if I’d watch Posie for the two weeks they would be gone, and since I worked from home, I had said it wouldn’t be a problem. I was excited. I love my niece. I bought her a bunch of stuff already. We were going to have a princess movie marathon, while dressed as princesses, of course.

I won’t be able to do that now. Not if they are dead. “Oh god, Kenna.” Right as I open the car door, I bend over and puke in the rose bushes.

I know everything isn’t going to be okay, no matter what Kenna says. I feel it in my bones. I heard it when the doctor said I needed to prepare myself. I’m not stupid. They don’t say that unless they have already done everything they could to save someone.

“Let it all out,” Kenna croons, holding my hair out of my face as I let the stress get the best of me.

“We need to go. I need to call my parents. I don’t know if they know yet. I need to call Caden, too. He’ll want to know. Oh, and Amelia’s parents. Unless the hospital already called them, but if they knew, then they probably would have called me. Right? Yeah, they probably would have. I wonder if she is okay," I ramble. The more I speak, the less like a reality the situation feels.