Page 78 of Fighting Jacob

Snagging my cell phone off the coffee table, I log into my banking app. “$143.24,” I groan with a huff. A hundred dollars won’t cover over a year’s worth of gym membership, but it’s a start.

Just as I'm about to set down my phone, it rings, startling me. It’s Jacob. I consider letting his call go to voicemail, but I’m curious if he’s aware Hank is sleeping in his gym, so I answer it instead.

“Hello, Jacob.”

Chapter Forty

Jacob

I'd take a moment to assess the anger in Lola's tone if I had the chance. Regrettably, the last item on my agenda is starting World War III. Things aren't good for Noah. By not good, I mean I have no clue how he is. I've yet to get an update. Emily was only granted visitation twenty minutes ago, and we've been pacing the glossy tiled floors of the emergency department for hours. Some say no news is good news. I'm not that person. I hate not knowing what's going on. That's why I'm frantically updating everyone on Noah's accident. I know what it's like to be in the dark, so I won't subject anyone else to it.

With that in mind, I remember the purpose of my call. “Ah...hey, Lola. It’s Jacob.” Jesus, I sound like an idiot with half a brain. My number has been in her phone for years, so who would she think was calling? “Noah was in an accident. He’s in the Intensive Care Unit at Parkwood University Hospital.”

“What? Is he okay?” Nothing but unbridled panic now reflects in her tone.

My shoulders inch toward my ears. “I don’t know; I haven’t seen him. Em is with him now.”

My eyes stray to the door Emily walked through twenty minutes ago at the same time Lola offers up her sympathies. I'm about to tell her she has nothing to be sorry for, but Emily's pale face steals my words. She's stumbling out the double doors of the ICU, her face as white as a ghost.

“I have to go.” My voice turns gravelly and thick when I see the shock and distress on Emily’s face. “I’ll call you back as soon as I have more information.”

After slipping my phone in my pocket, I move to Emily’s side. With every step I take, I scan her grief-stricken face for signs on Noah’s condition. “Is he okay? Is he awake?”

Her throat works hard to swallow before she shakes her head. “He’s on life support.” She swallows another three times before taking a wary step forward.

“Em...?”

Before my question can leave my mouth, her eyes roll into the back of her head as her knees buckle. I catch her a mere second before she hits the light gray tiles we’ve paced nonstop the past four hours.

“Em...” I shake her shoulders, attempting to wake her. “Emily!”

When she doesn’t respond, I gather her in my arms before sprinting back to the emergency department I darted through like a maniac when I first arrived. “Help. I need help!”

A nurse with kind brown eyes cranks her neck my way. When she spots Emily flopped in my arms, she gestures for me to follow her. “What happened?”

I set Emily down on the bed in the emergency triage room before shrugging. “I don’t know; she just collapsed.”

The nurse completes a set of observations on Emily before passing her stats on to a male physician. He checks Emily’s pulse, flicks a light in her eyes, and lowers the waistband on her jeans to push on her stomach.

His somewhat carefree demeanor is nipped in the bud when his eyes lift to me. “How far along is she?”

“Far along what?” I’m not acting daft. I have no clue what he’s asking.

My jaw drops when he replies, “Pregnant. How many weeks is she?”

“I don’t know... I didn’t know she was pregnant.”

I’m not lying. Noah never said a word to me, which is shocking. I didn’t think we kept anything from each other.

“She’s dehydrated, so we’ll put her on a drip, but please note, visits to the ER can be avoided with adequate nutrition. She needs to eat and drink regularly.”

Still too stunned to speak, I accept the doctor’s disdain with a dip of my chin. Although Emily's diet isn't my responsibility, it will be until Noah wakes. I promised him I'd always look out for her when he freaked about her not answering her phone her first night at college. I'm a man who keeps his promises.

“She’ll most likely sleep for a few more hours. The first trimester is very tiring.” The nurse who aided me an hour ago finishes checking Emily’s vitals before her eyes drift to me. “Why don’t you go grab something to eat and come back in around an hour? We’ll have a better idea on how things are going by then.”

The last thing I want to do is leave Emily’s side, but I’m also dying to get an update on Noah. All Emily told me before she collapsed was that he was in a coma. I’ve not heard a thing since.

"Can I borrow that?" I nudge my head to the pen in the nurse's uniform pocket. When she hands it to me, I jot down my number on a scrap of paper. "If Emily wakes before I'm back, please call me." After standing, I hand back her pen and my number. "Even if she says not to, call me."

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