Page 105 of Untethered Heart
“Sorry to interrupt. I believe there was another person in the car with Gage. Isabelle Asher? Do you know if she was admitted to this ward as well?”
“Not as one of my patients, I’m afraid. You’re best to go back down to reception and inquire, but unless you’re family, you won’t get too much information.”
“Thank you. I’ll see what I can find out anyway.”
He nods and takes off while I run over to the elevator bank. I’m only waiting a few minutes at reception before I can ask about Isabelle, but they have no record of her being admitted.
When I get back up to the trauma ward, everyone is coming back into the waiting area. Caleb rushes over when he sees me.
“Anything?”
I shake my head. “They don’t have her on record. I left my handbag in the car. Can you try phoning her?”
Caleb scrambles to check his pockets, his face deflates when they turn up empty. “I must have left my phone in your car.”
“I’ll try her,” says Beth, and she puts her phone on loudspeaker while it connects.
“Beth! Are you at the hospital?” Isabelle’s voice is frantic as it fills the waiting room.
“Izzy, it’s alright! We’re all here now.” Caleb steps closer to Beth, speaking into her phone. I stand beside him, rubbing a hand up and down his back.
His hand comes around my shoulder, pulling me against his chest and tucking my head under his chin. Beth covers her eyes as her face crumbles, and Mason steps into her, tucking her under his arm.
“I’m still stuck at the scene. He was taken in an ambulance. They wouldn’t tell me how bad he was, and they only just let me go back to the car to find my phone.”
“He’s getting a cast on his leg, and then he’s going back to Gram’s house. But he’s going to be fine. How are you?”
“I’m sorry, OG.”
I snuggle into Caleb’s chest. “It’s not your fault, Izzy,” he says. “Send me your pin location and Lex and I will come get you, okay?” Caleb speaks calmly into the phone.
“Can I talk to him?” Isabelle stutters out the words.
“We’ve just been kicked out of the room. I’ll have Grams ask him to call you when he gets home, okay?”
“Okay.”
“We’ll see you soon.”
Beth hangs up, turning into Mason and wrapping her arms around his middle, just as Thomas and Matilda stand beside them, engulfing them both in their arms.
Caleb looks down at me, hands framing my face as he brings his lips to mine. I hold him tight, giving him the comfort he needs.
“We’ll go help Iz sort out Gage’s car and then take her home before going back to Grams’s. Is that okay?”
I nod. “Whatever you need.”
“I can handle anything, as long as I have you.”
Chapter fifty
The last few days are starting to catch up with me. Every night, we’ve gone to my grandparents’ house to see Gage. The grumpy bastard just scowls and grunts at anything we ask. Unless Grams, Mum, or Tiny are in the room.
As predicted, he hates being there, hates being seen as an inconvenience to anyone. The upside for the rest of us, however, is that Grams has never spent so much time in the kitchen. Every afternoon, there are cakes, brownies, slices, or cookies on offer. On the nights Lex isn’t at Hallucinogens, she goes to help at The Wayside. Mason tries to help as well, but he mostly just lets Keeley do her job as head bartender. He told Gage to promote her to assistant manager since she was handling everything fine. My brother struggles to let go of control, but truthfully, I think he was relieved to hear that the bar was managing just fine without him.
Isabelle has been just as quiet since the accident. She has a few bruises and scratches, but nothing that couldn’t be treated by the paramedics. That hasn’t stopped me from checking in on her several times a day to the point where she finally yelled at me to leave her alone.
It’s hard, though. Isabelle is someone I’m closest to outside of my family. She feels like a sister to me. I’m worried by the absence of her normally upbeat disposition, but she’s determinedto put everything behind her. Including the reason she was with my brother that night to begin with.
