Page 83 of Unfolding Ethan

“Do you think those girls told Mrs. Inez about us?” Ethan asked, fumbling with his bag strap because they had asked us to bring our backpacks with us. Which was really weird if they were going to give us detention.Oh, no, what if they suspend us both?

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I don’t know, E. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”

It all changed when I noticed the grim expression on Mrs. Inez’s face. She told me to sit down and my heart dropped. I knew something was wrong.Verywrong.

“What is it?” I asked, a bit too harshly when she kept staring at the papers in front of her.

“Your father called,” she started and looked at me, clearing her throat. “He asked you to go to the hospital. Both of you.”

“Why?” I asked, ignoring the shuffle of Ethan’s footsteps behind me. I knew he was already pulling out his car keys, but I wanted to know what was wrong.

She looked between me and Ethan with a sad smile. “Kiara, I am not sure, but your father said it’s an emergency and—”

“Kiara”—Ethan squeezed my shoulder—“let’s go.”

I couldn’t handle it in the end.

Twenty

Stay

Kiara

By the time Ethan pulled up at the hospital, my hands were shaking. He asked me if I could walk or talk. I shook myself and scrambled out of the car, clutching his hand in mine to stop it from shaking. He didn’t mind.

The front receptionist knew I was Dr. Vijay Sharma’s daughter, giving me the room number and when she asked about Ethan, I said he was family. We rushed to the room number 203 and my heart dropped in my stomach.

My mom was on the bed, various IVs and pipes attached to her frail pale body, her eyes closed as she breathed slowly from the mask propped on her face, covering her nose and mouth. Ethan held my hand tightly and I knew he wanted to assure me, but he himself was shocked.

“What happened?” I asked my father, who was talking to a doctor, looking worried.

He turned to me and sighed in relief when he saw Ethan too. He pulled me in a hug. He smelled like medicines and the mild scent of Mom’s sandalwood. “Your mom was having chest pains for a while, and when I asked her to show it to the doctor this morning,” he paused and took a deep breath, “she had a heart attack.”

My heartbeat pounded in my mind and I bit my bottom lip when it started to waver. She was having chest pains and she didn’t seem concerned enough to tell us about it.

“Is she okay?” I asked, my voice small.

He looked grim and I knew the answer. I shook my head, backing away from him and stepping closer to Mom’s bed. Dad rambled how they had taken the ECG, blood tests, chest X-ray, Cardiac CT, and even MRI. I didn’t understand a thing. I was too shocked to see my beautiful mother on a hospital bed in the dull scrubs. Her golden skin had turned ashen and she looked pale.

I gently held her palm and talked to her, urging her to open her eyes and greet me. But she didn’t want to listen to me. My brother, Karan, rushed in and almost started a commotion when he realized Dad knew about her chest pains but didn’t tell us. Ethan stayed with me even though I hadn’t spoken a word since my talk with dad. I squeezed his arm which was wrapped around me. I didn’t want him to leave.

I didn’t move away from her until the doctor came to check up on her. I clutched Ethan’s hand, hiding my face in his chest when he pulled his arm around me. He didn’t say anything, and I was thankful for that. My silent tears streamed down my face when the doctor mentioned that they were trying their best, but her heart attack was critical, and she needed emergency care.

The next morning, I woke up with a start as the beeping on mom’s heart monitor started ringing. Nurses and doctors rushed in and we were told to stay outside. I clenched my palms in a fist, fighting off the burning tears of impending loom. My lungs were aching and there was thickness in my throat. I didn’t want her to leave me.She is my mom.

Warmth enveloped my cold hands and I peeled my eyes open to see Ethan’s hands cocooning them. “I’m here, Bella,” he whispered and placed his lips on my temple. The heat of his body radiating to me, enough to stop me from shivering. I didn’t know I was shivering.

My heart dropped in my stomach when I saw my father without his white coat, fighting off tears. His dark eyes were glistening with tears and I knew whatever it was, it was bad.Nonono.

“What happened, Dad?” I managed to mutter.

He looked at me and slowly shook his head as a tear slid down his cheek. I bit down on my bottom lip as a sob heaved out of me and covered myself in my arms. Ethan was there with me, so was my brother and my father, but I could only taste the salt of my tears and feel the hollowness inside me.

The worst part of hearing your father, the rock of our family, cry as we said our final goodbyes to mom. My brother was hugging her waist and sobbing on her lap wanting nothing but to feel her hand run through his hair again. I clutched her hand, feeling the callouses of her fingers for one last time and my heart broke at the thought.

On September fifth, my mom took her last breath in the hospital bed. Only silent tears escaped my eyes when I held her hand for the last time. I didn’t want to leave her hand, but Ethan made me, telling me that she needed to go away. I knew he had cried too, but how could I tell him that I didn’t want her to leave?

I wanted her to stay.

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