Page 130 of Finding Fate

Why was he only stating the obvious? And then it hit her. The obvious. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before. She pulled her hand from Tucker’s and pressed it against her stomach. Where was the mound? Where was her baby?

She felt like she was going to be sick as she put it together. Her baby wasn’t there, wasn’t inside her anymore. She hadn’t felt her move at all since she’d woken up. How could she not have noticed? But she had. This was why she had felt so off.

She looked at Tucker, her eyes pleading and frantic, praying that he’d say Destiny was fine. That she was off in the NICU, where her mother had all the nurses watching her night and day. That she could see her as soon as she was better. Surely she wasn’t too little to save. But one look into Tucker’s distraught eyes told her what she had somehow already known.

Destiny was gone. Her baby was gone.

No. This couldn’t be right. She had to be wrong, mistaken. “No…” she said in a desperate panic, her eyes already spilling over with tears. “No, no, no, no, no, Tucker, no…”

The tears Tucker had been holding back for the past several days came rushing in. “I’m sorry,” he said just loud enough for her to hear over her own screams, his voice cracking. “Isabel, I’m so, so sorry.”

And that was that. She felt her world come crashing down around her as Tucker’s grief confirmed their personal tragedy without a doubt. She screamed for her baby, thrashing herself on the bed as she fought the weight that threatened to squash her heart, her very soul, from her body.

Her lungs screamed with pain with each jagged intake of breath she needed between shrieks. Her head pounded to the point of pure agony, but she continued. If she stopped, the pressure and overwhelming ache of her loss would surely crush her.

Tucker fumbled over her, knowing she needed to be still. She was still fragile, her injuries nowhere near healed. She’d hurt herself if she didn’t stop.

Jet rushed from the room, and moments later, nurses hurried in, pushing Tucker out of the way as they surrounded the bed. Two held Isabel down, and a third rushed to the now frantically beeping machine, grabbed one of the tubes connected to Isabel’s hand, and pressed a syringe into it.

Jet came back and put his arms around Annie, who was now standing tearful and wide-eyed near the window. She held on to Jet as they watched the nurses work over her hysterical sister, her heart breaking at what there was no way she could ever fix.

Tucker had dropped back into the chair that had been cast aside in the commotion. His tears flowed freely as he watched the love of his life cry out for their lost child, her pain so immense it killed him that he couldn’t stop it, that he had helped cause it.

Soon after the nurse emptied the syringe, Isabel’s struggles decreased, but her tears never stopped. When the nurses felt she was calm enough, they released her and stepped back out of the room.

Tucker went to her side and crawled into the bed next to her. He wrapped an arm around her, careful to avoid any major injuries. He wanted to comfort her, to tell her it would be okay, but he knew that would be a lie. Her heart was breaking as his had already done. So he just whispered he was sorry one last time and held her as they cried.

Annie hurried from the room and walked quickly down the hall to a deserted waiting area. She paced the small space back and forth only twice before Jet caught up to her. He pulled her into his arms, and she buried her face into his shoulder, her tears now full-powered sobs, his just starting to flow.

He knew they would have to go back eventually. Izzy would be out in no time, and Tucker would be in no shape to leave alone for any extended length of time, but right now, they were all where they needed to be: Tucker comforting Izzy, her pain so fresh and new, and he and Annie comforting each other. He tightened his embrace as her sobs strengthened.

Jet had held back the tears as long as he could, but what they had just witnessed was heartbreaking. It was a pain he knew no one should ever be subjected to, and he prayed with every fiber of his being that such hurt would never touch his sweet girlfriend, for he didn’t see how her sister would ever recover.

Annie’s heart was breaking, too, but she hadn’t left the room for the same reasons. No. Leaving that room pained her nearly as much as watching her sister’s tragic cries. It took every ounce of strength she had to step out. But she’d had to do it, had to support the new bond she’d realized existed only a few weeks ago.

It was a bond she knew Destiny had created between Izzy and Tucker. A type of bond she didn’t even share with Jet. A bond that she knew Izzy would need more than anything now. One that was irreversible and unbreakable, even in its creator’s death.

Isabel lay in Tucker’s arms, her tears still streaming but much less violent. She had fought hard. Her frenzied resistance was all she could do to keep the soul-crushing pressure at bay, but now, as the medicine worked its way further into her system and she slipped slowly back into unconsciousness, she felt her defeat. A piece of her heart was now lost…numb…dead.

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