Page 2 of We Will Rise

“Hey buddy,” I murmur, holding his small body against my chest. “You’re okay.”

“Mama.” He points as another wail escapes his throat. If you’d told me four years ago that a tiny human would have the power to break my heart with a single sound, I would have laughed in your face. But somehow that’s where we are now. “She’s sick.”

“I know, bud. I’m going to check on her, but I need you to go out into the living room. Can you do that for me?”

“I watch TV?”

“Yeah, Bishop. You can watch TV.”

I carefully put him on his feet, and a little sniffle almost makes me pull him straight back into my arms, but I have to check on Kayla, and I can’t do that while he’s in here.

He eyes his mom for a moment, indecision crossing his green eyes, but the idea of the television has distracted him momentarily.

He takes off out of the room, his bare feet hitting the linoleum floor as he rushes out to find the remote. Hopefully Kayla left it somewhere easy to reach or he’ll be back here in a few minutes.

I drop to my knees beside her, my eyes moving over her body looking for injuries. She’s in her usual home outfit: a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. It’s been warm out the last few weeks, so she hasn’t been bothering with a sweatshirt.

But that’s when I notice the arm covered by the corner of the comforter.

The tourniquet is still wrapped around her arm, and a needle lays next to her hand.

My stomach rolls as I stare at her for a moment, frozen in place. Fate can’t be this cruel. Can it?

I shake myself off and ignore how heavily my heart beats in my chest.

“Kayla?” I say quietly, my voice shaking ever so slightly as I reach for the wrist closest to me to check her pulse.

But as soon as my fingers wrap around her tiny wrist, I realize just how cold she is first, and then that her heart isn’t beating.

Panic slams into me as I drag her against me. “Kayla? I need you to wake up for me.” I keep my voice as even as I can, but it breaks beneath the emotions battering into me.

Her entire body is ice cold as it presses to mine, and my stomach rolls with something akin to dread, but I can’t let myself accept that she’s gone. I won’t.

She wouldn’t leave me like this.

She wouldn’t leave Bishop.

I shake her limp body, hating how light she feels in my hands. When did she lose so much weight? Wouldn’t I have noticed her not eating? But then again, I’m barely home, and when I am, I try to spend all my time with Bishop.

When he was born, I promised myself I wouldn’t be a deadbeat dad like my father was to Caleb and me, but instead I’ve been a bad partner.

A rough sob escapes my throat. “Kayla, please.” I choke as I lower my ear to her chest, but all I hear is silence as I press my cheek to her cold flesh.

She’s gone, and it’s all my fault.

If I’d just been home more.

If I’d just made sure she was taking care of herself.

If I’d just done things differently, maybe she’d still be here to watch our son grow up.

The thought of Bishop has me shooting a look at the wide-open bedroom door.

Somehow I have to tell our little boy that his mother is gone and she’s never coming back.

CHAPTER ONE

CREW

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