Page 122 of Begin Again, Part 2

Eden had to snap her out of her daze, though, and get her to react promptly because every second counted.

"Give me the fucking EpiPen, Brenda!" she shrieked, oblivious to everyone around her. Her only priority was her son and getting him to breathe again. Her harsh tone seemed to do the trick. Brenda sparked out of her terror long enough to dig through the backpack, her fingers coming back with the only thing standing between life and death. Eden snatched it from her, popped it out of its tube, and leaned over Aiden.

"Breathe, baby. Breathe. Aid, baby, do it for mommy, okay?" Eden said over and over as she held him in place, pressed the pen to the fleshy part of his leg, and held it for ten seconds. Within moments, Aiden was screaming his head off as a collective sigh of relief swept through the crowd.

"I'm so sorry, I looked away for a second, and I don't know where he got the piece of chocolate from..." Brenda tried to say, but Eden didn't have time for her explanations. Her only concern was to get Aiden to the emergency room. She gathered him in her arms, her eyes clashing with a terrified Liam's as she stood up from the floor. "Get Stephen to bring the car in."

For some reason, he couldn't understand a word she said. Like Brenda, he stood frozen in place.

"Liam!" Eden shrieked at him. "We need to take Aiden to the ER right now!"

This time her terror got through to him. He jerked to life and pulled out his phone to fire instructions at his driver.

"He'll be here soon," he said as he hung up. "He's at the north entrance."

"We can't wait that long," Eden said. "You know we can't wait that long."

Cassandra jumped in to save the same day. "Edie, come with me. My car's close by."

Chapter

Thirty-Eight

SMELLS LIKE A WARNING

"Can you please slow the fuck down?" Matthew shouted in the passenger seat, sweating buckets as he held on to the grab handle for dear life.

Liam didn't even notice his palpable fear. His mind was swimming with a million questions as he raced through the streets. He knew Matthew would get a speeding ticket or two because of his reckless driving. But he didn't care. His only concern was getting to the emergency room.

"Yeah, dude, you'll get us killed if you don't chill!" Julian, grabbing on tight to Matthew's headrest, voiced his fears from the back seat.

"Can you both shut the fuck up?" Liam yelled at the brothers when he briefly lost Cassandra's Jeep. "I need to think!"

But he couldn't think. Not when his mind was swimming with questions, and raw terror still gripped his heart. Thanks to Eden's nerves of steel and her ability to remain level-headed in a crisis, his son was out of danger. But, Liam's heart was still in pieces at the revelation that Aiden almost died from an allergy he likely inherited from him. The same allergy that almost ended his relationship with Eden when he overreacted over her innocent mistake.

"He's okay, right? He was breathing when Eden took him, right?" Liam turned to Matthew for assurance, wishing he'd tell him the past fifteen minutes were a nightmare he'd soon awaken from.

"You need to calm down and keep it together," Matthew said.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Liam banged his hand on the steering wheel. "Aiden almost died, and you're telling me to calm down?"

"I think what he meant—" Julian tried to say, but Liam's phone going off in his pocket paused his mediation speech.

With one hand still on the steering wheel, Liam pulled it out and threw it on the dash. He wasn't in the mood for another lecture from James about security protocols.

"Can we talk about how awesome Eden was? I mean the way she handled that shit. She was final-boss level mode!" Julian rambled in his seat. His voice, much louder than it normally was, gave away his fear. Like Liam, he often rambled when he was scared out of his wits.

"She was. She's obviously done it before," Matthew agreed and glared at Liam. "And to think you gave her such a hard time over the cookies."

"Do you have to bring that up right now?" Liam barked and kept his eyes on the road, hooting at the car in front of him to get the hell out of the fast lane. It wasn't for pussies. When they refused to give away, he flashed his headlights and signalled before overtaking them.

"Yes, I do!" Matthew snarled right back. "I think it's relevant, don't you think? I mean, you gave her such a hard time over your allergy. The same allergy you seem to share with your son."

"I still think she deserves an award for her nerves of steel." Julian carried on singing Eden's praises.

Feeling incompetent, irrelevant, and inadequate, Liam couldn't agree more. Eden had needed him. But his fear had frozen him in place, and he'd failed her terribly at the most crucial time.

"Did you know allergies are hereditary?" Matthew asked.

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