Page 110 of When Stars Fall

“She’s almost ten.” I squeeze her tiny hand. “Her birthday’s in a month. She’s gonna be ten.” Nikki’s arm circles around my waist. She kneels beside me, and I notice a tiny rip in her jeans, just on her thigh. Sirens outside the trailer grow louder.

“The Narcan!” Camila calls to Anna, who is still in the bathroom banging around.

“I can’t find it!” Anna’s panicked voice catches on the last word.

Isaac, if you’re out there: Don’t let her die. I’m not ready to let her go yet. We need her here. We need her.

Isaac?

Isaac?

Are you there?

Something builds in my chest, rising, flooding, consuming. When the paramedics burst into the trailer, a guttural sob rips out of me.

Chapter Forty-One

Wyatt

Present Day

The paramedics rush in and bark information to each other while they establish Haven’s vitals. She has vitals. Weak, but there. God, I hope my CPR didn’t hurt her.

Closing my eyes, I take a couple of deep breaths. When I open them, the female paramedic is staring at me.

“Accidental overdose,” Camila says from beside me.

I missed the question.

Ellie was forced to step back from Haven. Nikki is holding her as she cries. I want to go to her, but this is my fault. My sister brought this here.

They inject Haven with Narcan and almost immediately her eyes fly open. She sits up, bewildered.

“Mom?”

Ellie’s sharp cry of relief pierces my heart. She falls to her knees and envelops Haven in a hug, securing her tight.

“We need to get her to the hospital. She might need another dose,” the male paramedic says, packing up in a rush. “Anyone know what she got into?”

“Anna!” I shout, turning on my heel.

“Fentanyl,” Camila says. “Possibly cocaine. Maybe heroine. Anna doesn’t know. She left everything strewn around the bathroom.”

The female medic sighs, and they help Haven onto the stretcher. “We can take one of you.” She checks between me and Ellie. She recognizes us.

“Me.” Ellie clings onto Haven. “Me.”

“I’ll meet you there.” She won’t acknowledge me while she cries and grasps onto Haven. Her worst nightmare. The one thing she told me she needed above all else—keep our kids safe, and I couldn’t fucking do it.

Once they’re through the door, I follow them out of the trailer. At the ambulance, the paramedics slam the doors shut, but not before I catch a glimpse of Ellie’s face. My heart beats double, triple time when the ambulance peels off the set and onto the road that’ll take them to the hospital.

I don’t even have a damned car.

Storming into the trailer, I stare at Camila and then at Nikki. “How the fuck did this happen?”

“Haven asked to come over here to get a doll. I didn’t think anything of it. We let her go back and forth all the time before Anna. It never occurred to me Anna’d have littered the place with drugs.” Nikki’s voice trembles and her chin wobbles.

I turn to Camila. “What’s your excuse?”

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