Page 3 of Silver Fox's Twin Babies

“About reducing the output to balance the system’s response times…”

They were waiting for an answer I wasn’t prepared to give them, and I was grateful that my phone started ringing loudly. It gave me an excuse to duck out of the meeting quickly. Something to break up the monotony of the same old, same old I’d beenliving. I held up a finger and barked out a quick, “I’ll be back. Ben, take the lead.”

Sarah looked defeated, slouching back into her seat as I strolled toward the door. I looked down at the smartphone in my hand, a prototype I was testing for research and development, a fancy new thing. It was Erin’s name and number that flashed across my screen, causing me a bit of confusion.

Erin, my brother’s wife, never called me. It wasn’t that Jacob and I were on bad terms; we weren’t. We were just busy men. I hadn’t spoken to him in a month, but only because we were busy running our own parts of this family business. So Erin’s call was shocking, and slightly concerning too.

“Erin? It’s Evan…What’s wrong?” I knew it had to be something serious for her to call me. It wasn’t like Jacob’s birthday was coming up or something.

The second hint of some dark cloud looming was the slight sniffle I heard before she said, “Evan…It’s Jake…He uh…He had a heart attack.” Erin’s choked-back sob wrenched my gut.

It felt like my body froze mid-sentence. My limbs felt numb; my mouth unable to utter a word. I turned toward the conference room and stared at the bickering happening over the table and it felt foreign, surreal. So similar to life fifteen years ago when I was approaching thirty, just got a promotion to senior developer. The call was the same—except it was my father.

“Uh, is he okay?” I asked, and the words carved out a hole in my chest that instantly flooded with a torrent of emotion I hadn’t felt in a long time.

“I don’t know,” she wailed. She was no longer trying to hold back her sobs. They gushed out of her loudly into the mic and my ear took the brunt of it. Pain made me hold my phone away from my head for a second before taking a deep breath and blinking back the dread that wanted to paralyze me. I had to be strong forher. She had no one else. Jacob was her everything. She’d moved from Washington state to follow him.

Now it fell on my shoulders to care for her, and I had to snap out of this. “I’ll be right there…Okay?” There was no way she should be driving when she was like this. “Stay there. I’ll come pick you up. We’ll go to the hospital.”

My mind conjured up worst-case scenarios: Jacob died instantly, she found him lying face down, the company would disintegrate. It was all I knew, all I’d ever known. I was shocked when I got the call from my mother that Dad had died of a heart attack. Jacob and I both knew we were at risk for heart disease. We took care of our bodies, treated them like well-honed machines, like the ones we built at Montgomery Enterprises. I didn’t know how this could happen.

“Hurry, Evan. They’re taking him to Mercy.” Erin’s hiccups of grief were the last thing I heard as I ended the call and leaned back into the conference room.

“Guys I have to go. Family emergency. Ben, finish this up. You all can leave early.” I blurted out the orders before turning to run for my office. My mind was stuck there, outside that door, reeling in the revelation that my brother had suffered a heart attack just like my father. But my body moved.

I suddenly had all this energy. I felt like I could pick up a bus and throw it. My heart raced and my hands were sweaty. I snagged my keys and jacket, and raced down to the parking garage for my car.

When I got to Erin’s she was waiting. I didn’t even get out of my car. I barely had the doors unlocked by the time she got to the passenger door, and she flopped into the seat, slamming the door shut as she huffed out, “Go…Go, Evan.”

“Did you hear anything? Have they called?” I put the car in drive and floored it. Under normal conditions, I was a very safe driver—perfect record. But today I was a maniac, weavingin and out of traffic, running red lights after safely ensuring the intersection was clear. Erin didn’t nag me once, though her hand gripped the handle above her door with white knuckles showing.

“He was breathing when they loaded him on the stretcher.” Her lip trembled but she wasn’t crying anymore. “It’s all I know. It happened at work…”

My throat constricted. This would be a media storm, and the company would definitely get publicity for it, but most likely the wrong kind. Shareholders would be up in arms demanding answers. There would be no one around to give them those answers though. Jacob was CEO. I wasn’t even next in line either. I was just head of research and development. The board would be scrambling to meet, probably today even.

“Okay,” I said, sucking in a deep breath. “One thing at a time. Let’s get to the hospital and see what the doctors are saying.” I reached over and gripped her hand, and she squeezed my fingers like life depended on it. “It’s all we can do right now. We stay positive and hope for the best.”

“Would you pray?” she asked. I wasn’t a religious man at all, wasn’t even raised to be one, but I appreciated the sentiment. I felt hopeless too. It almost made me wish there really was something bigger out there in control, something that could step in and save us.

She wept as she squeezed my hand, and I parked under the emergency department awning. I didn’t care if they towed the car; I’d pay to have it released later on. Our need to be in the hospital was greater than any thought about money. I tore off my seatbelt and swung the door open, rounding the front of the car to help Erin out. She walked on shaky feet as we breezed through the double sliding doors into the hospital.

A nurse spotted us and stood up, striding toward us with a look of concern. “Mrs. Montgomery?” she asked, and Erin nodded. Her hand covered her mouth as more sobs escaped.“Your husband was just brought in here. Can you confirm his full name and date of birth?”

Erin sobbed so hard she couldn’t speak. I put my arm around her and answered the nurse’s question for her as the nurse smiled a very bittersweet smile. “I’m afraid, Mr. Montgomery is in queue for emergency open-heart surgery.”

My legs felt weak. I could only imagine how Erin felt. Jacob was her world. To me he was just a business partner, someone I golfed with, someone I grew up with…Though, the pain in my own chest from lying to myself was beginning to make me nauseous.

“Thank you,” I told the nurse.

“You can have a seat in the waiting area through there.” She gestured to a door on our left.

Erin tucked into my chest as my arms came up around her. I led her through the waiting room door as tears filled my own eyes, but I clamped them shut and held my sister-in-law as she cried harder. Her arms pulled me hard against her trembling body as we stood there.

The very real fear that I might not speak to Jacob ever again felt so heavy I wanted to fall over. I wanted to sit down, but I forced my legs to stay straight, to be here like a pillar and comfort Erin. I didn’t like the idea of planning a funeral, not now, not ever. I hated them. I avoided them at all cost.

The last funeral I’d even been to was eight years ago, Chester Lawson. He died too young too, the way my father had. His funeral was bittersweet for me. Jacob’s best friend…He made a huge impact on my life too. It gutted me, but not as much as it destroyed his daughter, Amber.

Erin’s body shook in my embrace and I held her more tightly, but the memory of Amber Lawson and how we met that night at her father’s funeral tugged at my thoughts. I let myself have thedistraction. I couldn’t do anything for Jacob, and the only thing I could do for Erin was to be a stalwart of strength.

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