Page 99 of The Light to My Darkness (The Light to My Darkness 1)

"I'll try, Mr. Hunter."

Another car honked at us as William cut them off.

"Was Penny asking for me?" I didn't really want to know the answer. Even if she hadn't been asking for me, I knew she needed me. I let her down.

William didn't respond as he slammed on the brakes, unable to avoid the stopped cars.

"Was she asking for me?" I repeated.

"She asked Rob to take care of her family. She kept saying she was scared."

I shook my head and unbuckled my seatbelt. She was thinking about me even though she was in pain. She was selfless. She was perfect. God, she had to be okay.

"It's three miles away, Mr. Hunter."

I ignored him as I pushed opened the door. I slammed it closed and started running. Normally the summer heat in the middle of the day would bother me. Running in a suit would bother me. But all I could feel was my heart. It fucking hurt. I let her down. She needed me and I wasn't there. Please be okay, baby.

***

I pushed through the doors of the hospital, gasping for air. "Penny Hunter!" I said before I even approached the front desk. "Penny Hunter," I said a little louder as I ran over to the woman who looked bored out of her mind. Again, I found it jarring that the whole world wasn't in pain like me. Everyone should have been breaking. Everyone. Yet no one seemed to understand the extent of what was happening.

"Penny Hunter," the woman said as she typed the name into her computer. "Third floor. She's still in surgery."

"What happened?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, sir. Are you related to the patient?"

"I'm her husband."

"Okay, great. If you could just sign in and we'll give you a wristband."

I didn't have time for this nonsense. My wife was in surgery. She had just said that. Didn't she realize how ridiculous her request was after what she had just told me? I ran over to the elevators and slammed my fist against the arrow pointing up.

"You need a wristband, sir!" she called after me.

Fuck you. I ignored her. When the doors didn't immediately open, I looked around for the staircase. I sprinted over to it and took the stairs two at a time. I burst through the door and into a waiting room. Familiar faces turned toward me. My father. Daphne. But Rob didn't look up. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees. Daphne was rubbing his back.

"Is she okay?" I asked. But I knew she wasn't. By the way they were looking at me, I just knew the love of my life was dying. I could feel my body turning cold. It was like I could feel her pain. And the weight of it was unbearable.

Mascara was smudged under Daphne's eyes, tears dried on her cheeks. She pressed her lips together, unable to answer me. But I could read her expression pretty clearly. It was one of loss. Insufferable loss. The kind of loss that I knew would kill me.

God, Penny. Someone fucking say something!

Rob shook his head as he slowly looked up at me. "I don't know. They won't tell us anything. All I know is tha

t they said they were trying to deliver the baby. But that was half an hour ago. We haven't heard anything else."

The baby. I looked down at his dress shirt and pants. He was covered in blood. My wife's blood. I didn't care about the baby. Why were they talking about the baby? It didn't matter. I wanted to know how my wife was. "I didn't ask about the baby, I asked about her. Someone fucking say something!" I was losing it. The side of my face started twitching with agitation. A feeling I hadn't experienced since meeting Penny. A nervous tick that made me aware of just how quickly I was losing control. A feeling I used to numb.

"Why don't you sit down," Daphne said. "I'll go talk to the nurse at the front desk again."

I shook my head and stepped back from them. Why weren't they telling me? God, how bad was it?

"Son, take a seat," my dad said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure the doctor will be out in a moment. We just have to wait. We've told you everything we know."

Fuck that. "I need to know if she's okay."

"She's not okay," Rob said. "She died in my arms and you weren't there. She stopped breathing. They're not saying anything because they're trying to deliver the baby before it dies too. Because her body is no longer supporting it."

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