Hope's Peak (Harper and Lane #1)(61)

“Thanks, Albie.”

“I’m so sorry about Stu,” he says. His eyes are rimmed with red, glassy with tears. “I can’t believe it.”

The paramedics wheel Harper’s gurney into the back of the ambulance, jostling her slightly in the process.

“Talk soon,” Harper calls to him.

Albie blows her a kiss. Ida elects to travel with her, sitting next to the gurney. The paramedics shut the doors, and the ambulance heads for the hospital, siren wailing.

“You okay, sugar?”

Harper looks at her. “I guess. I can’t stop thinking of Stu, though.”

“I know,” Ida says, taking her hand and squeezing it. “But it’ll all make sense tomorrow. And it’ll get easier. That hurt you’re feelin’ right now? You’ll get used to it. I did.”

“Thank you. Through this whole thing, you’ve been great.”

Ida smiles. There are tears in her eyes. “Don’t mention it. Had to be done.”

“Hey,” Harper says in a hushed voice. “What did you see? When you made the connection with him.”

Ida considers telling her, but rethinks it. “Let me tell you in a couple of days, when you’re on the mend . . .”

“No, really. I need to know, Ida. What did you see at the end? When he was dying?”

Ida’s gaze burns into her as she speaks. “The darkness smothered him like a blanket. I guess he was only darkness all along anyway. That’s what he became in the end.”

“You saw it?”

Ida nods slowly. “Saw him sink into the black, saw it take him and make him disappear. For people like that, I like to think death is a dark corridor . . . and there ain’t no light at the end of it for ’em. Only silence.”

The breath seems to catch in Harper’s throat and she starts to sob. “And Stu?”

“No, no, no!” Ida smiles, patting her hand. “Trust me, sugar, that boy is surrounded by sunlight. He did good. And maybe I shouldn’t tell you this . . .”

Harper frowns. “Tell me what?”

Ida lets go of her hand and reaches over, resting her open palm where Harper’s stomach is. “Tell you about the part of him that grows inside you.”

Realization dawns on Harper’s face.

Ida nods. “You know what I mean.”

Harper shakes her head. “I don’t believe it . . .”

“Well,” Ida says, sitting back and folding her arms. “You better start.”

Harper doesn’t say anything for a long time. The ambulance bounces on the rough backstreets of Hope’s Peak. After the silence has stretched out, and what Ida has told her has sunk in, Harper speaks up. “What will you do now?”

Ida smiles. Her eyes shine. “Sugar, I’m gonna do what I should’ve done a long time ago. Start living.”