Page 141 of Lush

“We’re here with her, Reese,” Noelle said firmly. My attention was so focused on Laurene that I didn’t even notice she and Serena had been hovering near the bed.

“It’s okay,” Serena told me. “We’re not leaving her side.”

I leaned forward, placing a kiss on Laurene’s lips. “I love you.”

The thought that those might have been my last words to her felt like a cruel twist of fate.

“I love you too.”

She sighed, leaning back.

“I’ll be back soon.” There was no response, just the steady sound of her breathing. I kissed her forehead once again, giving me the strength to step away, even though every instinct screamed at me to stay by her side.

Erik led me to Jennie’s room, and I paused for a moment outside the door, my hand hovering over the handle. With a deep breath, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The hospital bed swallowed Jennie, her body motionless and disturbingly still beneath the thin white sheet. Her head was wrapped tightly in a bloodstained bandage, with only a few stray locks of hair poking out. The oxygen mask covering her face fogged faintly with each shallow breath, and IV lines snaked from her arms, taped to bruised skin that looked too pale.

Mom sat slumped in the chair beside her, her hands knotted together. She turned to me and her eyes were bloodshot, swollen, and rimmed with deep shadows. David, Jennie’s husband, was on the other side, staring at his wife.

Nina stood behind her, arms crossed over her chest as though holding herself together. Her lip trembled, her face a pale mask of anguish.

I hugged my mom. “It’s okay.”

“I can’t…I can’t lose her.Not again,” she wailed, grabbing on to me as I approached.

I swallowed hard, my throat burning, as I pulled her into me, holding on like we were both drowning.

“We need her to wake up. She has to pull through.” Her voice was a whisper filled with despair. “My little girl… My little girl.”

I froze, seeing her flat belly.

Panic began rising like bile. “Where’s the baby?”

“They had to do an emergency C-section,” David said shakily. “But the baby is okay. She’s alive.”

“She?” The word stumbled out of me, disbelief and shock colliding in my chest. “It’s a girl?”

David nodded, but the world felt like it tilted as a flood of emotions crashed over me—joy, terror, relief, and a fierce, unfamiliar protectiveness that rooted me to the spot. A niece. She was here. She wasalive.

“Where is she? What’s her name?” I asked.

“She’s in the NICU. We haven’t named her yet.” His voice was thick with emotion. “I want Jennie to be part of that.”

He didn’t have to said the rest.If she wakes up.

“Can I see her?”

David’s hand rested on my shoulder as he led me through the sterile hallways of the hospital, his silence heavy with exhaustion and unspoken fears. When we stopped in front of the NICU window, my breath caught. There she was—a tiny, fragile figure swaddled in a blanket, dwarfed by the machines and tubes surrounding her.

“She’s a fighter. Like Jennie,” David said softly, tears spilling from his eyes and down his face.

I stepped closer, my heart pounding as I leaned toward the glass.

“Hey there, sweetheart,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “I’m your uncle Reese.”

Saying the words felt like stepping into a dream I hadn’t known I needed. My hand hovered over the glass, my fingers brushing against the barrier as if I could somehow protect her through it.

Her tiny fingers twitched, just the faintest movement, but it sent a rush of warmth through my chest. Tears stung the backs of my eyes as I swallowed hard.

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