Page 1 of A Kind Wedding: Christian & Charleigh

CHAPTER1

Christian

Jackson stared at me momentarily and then looked inside the room from the doorway. I stood up, lowered my head, and placed my hand on his shoulder. As tears filled our eyes, we walked into the room together and stared at Celeste’s lifeless body.

“No. No, no, no.” Charleigh ran into the room and over to her.

I gripped her from behind and held her tight as she cried.

“This is fucked up!” Jackson loudly voiced. “God, Celeste, I’m so sorry.” He walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder. “How the hell are we going to tell our family? And what about Nora?”

“I’ll make the call,” I said. “Charleigh told me that Georgia is here.”

“She’s in the middle of a C-section. I’ll go up and wait for her to finish,” Jackson said.

“I’ll go and call the family from my office. Come on, babe.” My grip around Charleigh tightened as we left the room.

The hardest part of being a doctor was telling a patient’s family that their loved one didn’t make it. And each time, it didn’t get any easier. But this was different. This was my own family that I had to tell. When we reached my office, I led Charleigh to the couch and grabbed my iPad. Taking a long, deep breath, I did a group Facetime chat with Nathan, Conner, and my cousins.

“What’s up, bro?” Conner’s smiling face appeared on the screen.

Once everyone answered, I stared at them momentarily.

“Christian, what’s wrong?” Shaun asked.

“There’s been an accident, and you all need to come to Cedars immediately.”

“What kind of accident?” Nathan sternly asked.

“Celeste and her boyfriend were on their way home from the airport when a semi-truck hit them.” Tears swelled in my eyes. “Neither one of them made it.”

“Jesus Christ,” Sam said. “We’re on our way.”

I ended the call, set my iPad down, and hooked my arm around Charleigh.

“I feel so horrible, Christian.”

“I know, babe.” I tightened my grip around her as I pressed my lips against her forehead. “I have to make one more dreaded call.”

“Do you have Kathryn’s number?” she asked.

“Yeah. Celeste gave it to all of us in case of an emergency.” I sighed as I pulled my phone from my pocket.

“Hello,” Kathryn answered.

“Kathryn, it’s Dr. Christian Kind.”

“Christian, how are you?”

“Kathryn, Celeste was in a serious automobile accident and—”

“And what, Christian?” I could hear the panic in her voice.

“I’m so sorry.” Tears filled my eyes.

“Oh, God. No!” She cried. “My husband and I are on our way.”

Charleigh and I headed down to the lobby to wait for the family. Sam, Stefan, Shaun, Sebastian, Conner, and Nathan walked in at the same time.

---