Page 734 of Not Over You

“Yes, my name is Olivia Lewis. Dr. Williams called me about my daughter and said she’d been in an accident. Can we please see her?”

She rifled through some files in front of her. “What’s the patient’s name?”

“Piper; Piper Andrews.”

The nurse continued to go through the files until she found Piper’s. A sticky note was on the outside, and the nurse quickly skimmed it before grabbing the phone. “I’ll let Dr. Williams know you’re here. There was something she needed to discuss with you before you can see your daughter.”

I furrowed my brows, confused. “What exactly?”

The nurse was already talking on the phone, so my question went unanswered. I looked up at Lincoln, seeking answers I knew he didn’t have. He gave me a sad smile and draped an arm around my shoulders, holding me close.

When the nurse got off the phone, she directed her attention back to us. “Dr. Williams will be right out. Please have a seat.”

Lincoln led me to the closest set of chairs, and we sat down. A few minutes passed before a middle-aged black woman in a doctor’s coat entered the lobby and went up to the nurses’ station. She spoke briefly with the nurse, who pointed in our direction.

The doctor turned around and approached us with a smile. “Miss Lewis? Mr. Bennett?”

Lincoln and I stood, and we each shook the woman’s hand. “I’m Dr. Williams. We spoke on the phone earlier. Please come with me to my office.”

We followed Dr. Williams through a maze of hallways before she entered a small office. Lincoln pulled a chair out for me before taking the seat next to mine as Dr. Williams sat on the opposite side of the desk.

Dr. Williams opened a file on her desk. “We haven’t had a situation like this here in Morehead City before, so I’m sorry if things seem a little unorganized.”

I furrowed my brow, worry eating away at me. “What do you mean? Is something wrong with Piper?”

“She has a broken arm, a fractured collarbone, and a few cuts and bruises, but other than that, no. Her adoptive parents, on the other hand, were both critically injured.”

I grabbed Lincoln’s hand and squeezed. Tim and Emily had become like a second family to us. “Are they going to be okay?” Lincoln questioned.

The doctor swallowed deeply, then sighed. “Unfortunately, Mrs. Andrews was killed on impact. We were able to get Mr. Andrews here, but we couldn’t contain the internal bleeding, and we lost him a couple of hours ago.”

I brought my hand up to my mouth, stifling a sob. “Oh my God.”

We sat in silence for several minutes, trying to process the information. A few tears trickled down my cheeks as the Andrews’ death sank in. Just a few weeks before, we had made plans for a barbecue. I regretted leaving and not following through with our plans.

Lincoln cleared his throat. “What does this mean for Piper? What happens to her?”

The doctor pulled some papers from the file and set them on top. “That’s what I wanted to speak to you about. Normally, if both a child’s parents die, they would go with the next of kin. However, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews have no extended family. Both sets of parents are deceased, and they have no other relatives.”

My brows furrowed. “So what does that mean?”

“Well, normally the child would go to social services to be placed in a foster home until they found an adoptive family for the child.”

My heart dropped. Piper was going to be taken from us again, and we’d probably never see her again. Tears clouded my vision as I took a deep breath to keep my composure.

Lincoln narrowed his eyes, frowning. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“As I said, we’ve never had a situation like this before. We’ve been talking with social services about your case, and it looks like you might be able to regain custody of Piper due to the circumstances. We need to review the adoption paperwork to see if there are any clauses for or against the matter.”

I blinked several times in disbelief as Lincoln asked, “We can have our daughter back?”

Dr. Williams smiled. “Well, there is a substantial amount of paperwork involved, and approval from the court is needed, but we believe so.”

I looked over at Lincoln, who smiled broadly. Even under the dire circumstances, I couldn’t help but smile with him. We might be able to get our daughter back.

My smile faded as reality smacked me in the face. Piper was probably going to be devastated by the loss of her adoptive parents. Lincoln and I had a lot to discuss given the way things had ended the last time I saw him. And Tim and Emily were dead.

I had just seen them the weekend before when I visited Piper, which made it harder to believe they were gone.

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