Page 156 of Please Save Me

“They’re fine.” Her voice was soft and soothing, which was the polar opposite of the panicked steps thundering down the stairs.

My head snapped back to see Lucian running down the steps with Jasper and Juniper on either hip.

“You two. Coats and shoes. Let’s go.” He barked his orders, but the lack of context left me confused.

He placed the kids on the floor as soon as he could before rushing them to the line of shoes by the door. Lucian was pale and shaking as he did his best to calmly coax the twins into their rain boots. But he wasn’t as kind with Sophia and me.

“What are you two, deaf?” he snarled. “Get your fucking shoes on. We. Need. To. Go.Now!”

Behind the anger in Lucian’s words was a slight quiver that caused my blood to run cold. That feeling only worsened when he looked up. Tears rimmed his eyes, and he looked like he was one moment away from losing his mind.

“Lucian, what’s going on?” Sophia asked as she slowly approached him.

His chest heaved as he slipped a pale pink coat onto Juniper’s body. Sophia instantly grabbed the matching green coat for Jasper. But while she was helpful, fear had me frozen.

“Cameron. We. Need. To. Fucking. Go,” he repeated, a stray tear escaping him.

I shook my head slowly as a lump the size of Texas formed in my throat. I had a feeling I knew what this was about, but I didn’t want to be right. “Where do we need to go?”

The first of many sobs broke through Lucian as he zipped Juniper up. He looked up at me, his lips rapidly parting and shutting, like he couldn’t physically get the words out.

“Luce, where do we need to go?” My voice broke.

A torrent of emotions played across his face—fear, helplessness, and a pain so raw it was contagious.

“The hospital, you dumbass.” The desperation in his voice took the edge off his words.

Sophia’s breathing stilled as she clutched onto Jasper like he was a stuffed animal. “Lucian… What happened?”

He closed his eyes, like it’d be easier to say if he didn’t have to look at us. “My sister called me. There was an accident and…”

Lucian’s lips continued to move, but all I heard was TV static as the room closed in around me. I’d done everything in my power to keep Mason safe from Dale, and yet, it felt like the past was painfullycloseto repeating.

Due to the weather, we decided to take Lucian’s Jeep, but I was the one who drove. I needed something to focus on, something other than the fact thatMason, Sebastian, and Rosie could all be dead. That wasn’t officially confirmed, but I couldn’t think of a single reason they wouldn’t call someone in the house instead of involving Leona in this mess.

Lucian said something about Mason being out of it and calling his sister on instinct–something about her being the closest thing to a mom Mason had–but it just didn’t make sense.

The tires crunched on the freshly fallen snow and ice, and the Jeep’s headlights sliced through the darkness. The tension in the car led to a deathly silence, only broken by the occasional sniffle from the kids or Lucian doing his best to comfort them. Despite all his shortcomings, hewasa good dad. Something I’d never really get the chance to be.

As we got closer to the hospital, a blue SUV wrapped around a pine tree caught my eye. Instantly, I knew it was Seb’s. No one else in Hartwood drove anything like it. My stomach churned, and I prayed to a God I wasn’t sure I believed in anymore.

I did my best to stay focused on the road, but a sick feeling formed in my stomach. Sophia reached over, placing a hand on my thigh, silently reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. It had to be.

When we reached Hartwood General, Lucian was out of the car before we fully parked, leaving Sophia and me to get the twins out of their car seats. He disappeared into the whiteout of snow, and we did our best to keep up with him. From there, everything was a blur; life happened far too fast for me to take note ofanything. All I knew was we talked to someone, who led us somewhere and to someone else who’d take us down another corridor. Eventually, we came upon Leona. I was a little shocked to see her here considering Hartwood was a good two hours, if not more, from Portland.

She was seated in the waiting room, dressed in pajamas just as the rest of us were, hers just didn’t have turkeys. Her dark eyes were rimmed in red as she stood to greet us.

Lucian reached her first, wrapping his arms around her before the two conversed in Spanish, and I really didn’t like being left out of this specificconversation. After a moment, she shrugged her brother off and beckoned me closer with one finger.

“Come on Cameron, we need to take a walk, just us,” she explained.

But that didn’t bode well with Sophia.

“What? No! We’re all here, we’re all worried,” she pleaded.

Leona’s corkscrew curls bounced as she shook her head. “They’re only allowing two visitors right now, and Cameron goes first.”

Why did I go first? What happened? Who died?

---