She stood, staring at her naked body in the foggy mirror, condensation dripping down it’s full length making reality feel more like a horror movie that she belonged in. It’d been months since her injuries had healed, but a hot shower made everything vibrant against her pale skin, making her feel like she was one of Tim Burton’s masterpieces in the Nightmare Before Christmas.
“Or The Corpse Bride,” Faye muttered to herself, sighing as she slapped her towel against her leg, watching her thigh shudder at the sudden impact. She cringed. “It’s going to take forever to lose all this weight.”
Her throat was thickening and she could feel depression’s dark, slender fingers reaching out to her when suddenly she was pulled back from the edge by the faint sounds of her cell phone ringing. She looked to the bathroom counter, but it was bare except for hair products and blow dryer. She looked behind her at the toilet, but her clothes sat on top of the closed lid. Frowning she crouched down moving slowly with her good ear turned towards the sound. She kicked Freeman’s pajama bottoms she stole out of the way and heard a thud as the sweats smacked against the side of the bathtub.
Grabbing the hem of the jammies, she reached into one of the pockets and pulled out her cell phone. “Awesome, that’s all I need is to wash my cell phone.” Shaking her head she turned the phone over, dropping the pants back onto the ground in a pile and looked at the screen. She smiled and slid the icon over to answer the phone. “Braylie!! I’ve missed you. How are you doing?”
She listened to her best friend prattle on as she finished drying herself off, placing her on hold so she could quickly dress herself and then continued their conversation as she walked back to Freeman’s bedroom. She plopped down on the bed, laughing at something Braylie had said. “Oh, I know! It’s the worst, right? I remember when I was pregnant with So-”
She was cut off by the sounds of someone walking around downstairs. “Uh, Braylie. I’m going to call you back. I think Freeman’s home early.”
She listened to her friend some more, snickering. “I love you, too! Bye!”
She tossed her phone onto the bed and walked to the top of the stairs, peering down. Natural light filtered through the glass in the front door, spilling onto the hardwood floors and the first three steps going up to the second floor. She promised Freeman she wouldn’t go downstairs when he carried her back upstairs after they saw the girls off with Maria, who took them to her house or out on what she called ‘little field trips’ whenever she was giving them their daily lessons as the girls were still on home studies, and had made sure she had plenty of snacks in her nightstand drawer. He’d even packed her a lunch in one of the girls’ lunch pals.
She sighed quietly to herself, before gripping the railing firmly with two hands and took it one step at a time. She had to start doing things on her own. She couldn’t expect Freeman to take her up and down the stairs forever, though she enjoyed the physical contact with him, it bothered her to rely so much on him for things. She missed her independence. She could do this. She was just past the middle of the stairs when she had to pause to catch herself. Her legs were shaking, but she knew it was from the adrenaline. She was pretty pumped and felt like she was doing something very daring. It excited her greatly.
She opened her mouth to call out to Freeman, wanting him to see her, but decided to play it cool. She continued down the last few steps until she felt warm wood under her feet. She bit her lip to suppress a giggle that tried to escape at her newest triumph. She did it and couldn’t wait to tell Braylie. She knew her sister would be happy for her, but Jaymie was a worry wart and would want her to call her doctor and Mads would be pissed she went against Freeman’s ‘orders.’
Faye rolled her eyes as she turned and headed towards the sounds coming from the kitchen. She was peering over the couch as she continued walking taking notice that Bishop wasn’t in the house, forgetting momentarily that Freeman had said he was taking them in to the groomer’s and so she’d be on her own today. As she was rounding what the girls called the Breakfast Bar, she stopped dead in her tracks. A scream was climbing up her throat as she stood frozen, staring at the back of an unfamiliar male.
“Are you...are you all here for Faye Ross?” Everyone in the room nodded. Besides Jaymie, Christian, Freeman, and Braylie, Madlaina and Benji sat across from Jaymie with Emily sitting beside them. Emily had her boyfriend, or maybe just a friend, Gabe, with her. Jaymie had only met him a couple of times.
The doctor shook his head slightly, surprised. “Who is immediate family?” Jaymie, Madlaina, and Freeman raised their hands, and Freeman motioned for Braylie to as well.
“Er, alright, come with me.” He held the door open and they all stood, filing one after another into the hallway. “We’ll be right in here.” He pointed to a room that housed a few couches, a couple of tables, a coffee machine, and another TV. Jaymie was almost positive no one on this floor ever watched the TVs.
“Sit down, please. My name is Doctor Raegan, you can call me Chris though, if you’d like.” No one said anything, so he pressed on. “I was the head surgeon for Miss Ross.” He sat down in an available chair, putting the file he had been holding on his lap.
“First things first, she’s stable.” There was a collective sigh of relief in the room. Jaymie felt some of the heavy weight that had been sitting on her chest lift. Dr. Raegan smiled at them all before continuing. “She is not out of the woods yet, however. I was told her heart stopped a few times on the ride over here. It stopped again, once, while we were operating.”
A bolt of fear shot through Jaymie. Again? How many times could a heart be restarted before it became incapable of doing so any longer?
“We were, however, to revive her and keep it steady for the rest of the operation. Now, about her injuries.” He opened the folder in front of him and stood, walking to the other side of the room and turning on the light for the x-ray photo viewer. He stuck a few images up on the ledge and pointed to the first one.
“This is Miss Ross’s skull. If you look down here,” He pointed to an area of the photo that seemed to reflect the front of the brain. “She had multiple fractures around her brow bones and in the front part of her skull. We had to go in and re-align bones to make sure they will heal properly. We were not able to get to down here, because these bones are in her face. However, the fractures here are smaller, and will most likely repair themselves.” Everyone’s faces had blanched as they looked at the images of Faye’s fractured skull.
“Because of these fractures, her brain sustained a bit of trauma…” He moved over to the next x-ray. “Here, here, and here. There is swelling.” Madlaina, who was sitting next to Jaymie, let out a whimper and covered her mouth, closing her eyes tightly. The doctor gave her a sympathetic look before moving on. “Because of that swelling, we have put her in a medically induced coma, and will monitor her progress to see when we can lift that. The coma,” He said, slightly louder, because Madlaina had begun to cry harder, “Will allow her body to heal and keep her out of pain.” Jaymie exchanged a look with Freeman. Both of them were thinking the same thing- how long?
“Um…” Dr. Raegan cleared his throat. “If and when she wakes up-”
“If?” Freeman’s voice was slightly higher than usual.
“Well, yes. She has sustained multiple life-threatening injuries, Mr…?”
“Rodriguez.” Freeman swallowed. “Fiance.”
“Yes, Mr. Rodriguez, like I was saying, the brain swelling and bleeding are life threatening. We managed to stop the bleeding, but it’s completely up to Faye now. Her body will either heal or...it won’t.” The finality in his words caused Jaymie to suck in a breath. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
“As I was saying, if and when,” He emphasized when, mostly for their behalf, Jaymie assumed, “She wakes up, we don’t know what sort of state she might be in. It’s impossible to tell with brain injuries what exactly could be affected, because of how complex the brain is. She will most likely have some amnesia, but to what degree we are uncertain. She could have trouble speaking, walking, seeing, hearing. She might have short term memory loss. She might have a completely different personality.” Freeman groaned, leaning forward and placing his head in the palms of his hands. Braylie absentmindedly put her hand on Freeman’s back, but her eyes were glazed over, staring at nothing.
“Again, we will not know anything until she wakes up, however. For now, it’s about monitoring the swelling and seeing how well the rest of her injuries are.” He pressed his lips together, and Jaymie was suddenly overcome with the feeling that there was something he was not telling them.
“Is that all, Dr. Raegan?”
“Y...yes, that’s all, for now. Updates will come in as they become available. As for this immediate moment, they are getting Faye ready and set up in her room. You will be able to see her shortly. I do warn, however, there are numerous tubes, bandages, monitors, and the like currently attached to her. Most of the blood has been cleaned off, but she has deep cuts and a large amount of bruising forming already. She may not look like the Faye you know.”
Freeman sniffed audibly. Madlaina had her eyes closed tightly and was shaking her head back and forth. Braylie had her head in her hands and was shaking. Jaymie stood, wiping her clammy hands on her PJ bottoms and extending one to the doctor.
“Thank you so much for the update, Dr. Raegan. We appreciate it.”
He took her hand and looked at her with a genuinely sympathetic smile.
“It’s my job to keep your loved one in the best state I can manage. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask any member of the staff here. We will do what we can.” Jaymie nodded, her eyes misting over again.
Freeman took her hand and squeezed it as they walked back to the waiting room to tell every one else the news.
Faye stood pursing her lips together before nodding her head. “Ok, I’ll bite. I need to get my shoes and my cell phone.”
“They in Freeman’s room? I can get them for you. You probably shouldn’t have walked down the stairs on your own anyways.”
“Not you, too.” She groaned. “I know my limits, people!”
“I was just saying it probably wasn’t a good idea, not that it wasn’t bitchin’ that you did it!” He winked as he strode up the stairs taking three at a time.
When he came back downstairs he was actually using her cell phone. “Great, we’ll see you in a few then. Ok, bye, B!” He handed Faye the phone and bent down to help her slip on her flats.
“Uh, who were you talking to?”
“Braylie? She’s been calling you non-stop since you hung up the phone with her. Said you sounded weird. She’s got kids, right? It’s probably that motherly, seventh sense.”
“You mean sixth sense?”
“Uh no.. not unless she sees dead people.” He laughed, standing up, his face losing all its humor it held before. “Fuck, does she?”
“No.”
“Oh, ok good. I was going to have to uninvite her to our lunch date.”
“Um, can I see your credentials?” She blushed.
“Took you long enough.” He pulled out a leather bill fold, placing it in her hands. “Really should of been your first question. It’s ok, my rugged good looks usually throws the ladies off.”
“You are full of yourself.” Faye snorted as she checked over his badge and his ID. “My sister’s a detective.”
“Yea, I know. I actually work with her from time to time. She loves me, too. Don’t tell Benji though.”
“Right.” She choked back a laugh. “Freeman’s going to be very pissed.”
Julian shrugged. “Make him work for it.”
Faye shook her head, grabbing her phone from his hand and stuffing it in her pocket as she walked past him to his car that was parked in her driveway. “You really make yourself at home, don’t you?”
Julian laughed as he locked her front door, guiding her to his passenger side of his truck. “Freeman said the same thing to me when I first met him, too. Weird.”
“Yea, weird.” She agreed, shaking her head and laughing as she climbed into the cab of his truck.
Jaymie watched, without interest, as the happy dancing flower on the receptionist’s desk waved back and forth, dancing a little dance that felt horribly out of place in the yellow lighting of the waiting room.
Around her, members of the Ross and Rodriguez families sat, wearing expressions identical to her own- worry, sadness, guilt. They all felt the same things- if they had reached out sooner, would this have happened?
She leaned forward in her seat, pressing her palms to her eyes to prevent herself from crying for the millionth time since she had gotten the phone call.
“Jaymie…” Madlaina had sounded strained, tired, exhausted, and like she was about to cry herself. Jaymie, who had been cleaning up after dinner, sighed deeply. Madlaina had evidently found out about what Freeman was doing, despite Freeman’s attempts to keep them from her.
“Mads, I wanted to-”
“Jaymie, Faye is….” Mads broke down, then. Jaymie stood, rooted to the spot, feeling her world start to spin around her.
“Faye is what, Mads?!” The hysteria in her voice had caught Christian’s attention, who had been sitting on the couch watching the highlight reel from the baseball game. He turned to look at her in concern. Madlaina only continued to cry.
“Madlaina! Tell me right now! What’s going on with Faye?”
“She’s in the hospital, Jaymie!” Mads gasped out. “Fr-freeman got a c-call from Sophie. He had t-to go g-get her and...and…” She dissolved into tears again. There was a fumbling with the phone. Jaymie’s heart beat out of her chest. What was going on?
“Jaymie?”
“Benji, please, what’s going on with my baby sister?” Christian had come up to her, looking at her in alarm. Jaymie put the phone on speaker and held it out so Christian could hear.
“Jaymie, maybe you should come to the hospital…”
“TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON.” Jaymie yelled into the phone. Christian put his hand on her shoulder. The kids were just upstairs, playing.
“Oh, Jaymie…” Benji sighed. “Freeman got a call from Sophia. She told him Eli was hurting Faye.” Jaymie’s stomach dropped.
“What do you mean he was hurting her?”
“Freeman went over there, and...and he saw Eli standing over Faye, she was bloody and unconscious.”
“Oh my GOD!” Jaymie wailed, her knees buckling beneath her. Christian caught her, putting her up on a stool. His face was white as a ghost.
“She was still breathing, she’s alive, Freeman got there just in time and called the ambulance. He also got Sophia.”
“Is..?” Jaymie couldn’t finish the sentence. She handed the phone to Christian and turned away, sobbing.
“Sophia is just fine. She’s being checked over now, but she didn’t have any blood or bruises on her.”
“Where is Faye now?” Christian asked. Benji hesitated on the other line, clearly unsure if he should tell them when both Madlaina and Jaymie were in the state they were. He sighed.
“She’s in surgery. She had...multiple contusions and was losing a lot of blood. She went in about a half hour ago.” Jaymie cried harder.
“Fuck.” Christian whispered. He placed a hand on Jaymie’s back. Jaymie straightened and turned back around.
“What hospital. What floor.”
“Simvita General Hospital, 8th floor.” Benji replied curtly. “We’re on our way there now. Freeman and Sophia rode with Faye in the ambulance.”
“She was alive, though?” Jaymie asked tentatively.
“....yes.” The pause didn’t go unnoticed.
“Benji!?”
“Look, get to the hospital, we’ll tell you everything when you get here.” He had hung up without saying goodbye to avoid any more questions.
Jaymie had since learned Faye’s heart stopped multiple times in the ambulance. The thought terrified her. What if it stopped on the operating table, and they were unable to bring her back?
What if she never got to tell her little sister goodbye? What if Faye died, not knowing that Jaymie regretted ever letting Faye cut contact with her? She looked over at Sophia, who had been discharged almost as soon as they had arrived. Her cheeks were tear stained, she was curled up in Freeman’s lap, sleeping soundly. What if Sophia had to grow up without her mother? Jaymie knew exactly what it was like to lose a parent, but she hadn’t been as young as Sophia was.
Would Faye follow in their parents footsteps, and leave her daughter at such a young age?
Freeman scanned the room, then caught her eye. He gave her a half smile that didn’t go anywhere near his eyes. Jaymie couldn’t imagine walking in on the scene he did, but was entirely grateful that his quick thinking and quick actions possibly saved her sister's life. She closed her eyes again, imagining the last time she physically saw her sister. It was right before they had moved to the new place, Faye had come over with Sophia, looking tired and emotionally drained. They had stayed the night, Sophia had woken up screaming, and Jaymie had credited it due to the kidnapping incident.
The door opening made all of them jump in the otherwise still room, and all pairs of eyes looked up towards the newcomers.
Braylie and Oona had arrived, both looking as if they too, had been crying. Oona, without saying a word, walked over to Sophia and scooped her up.
“Oona?” Sophia said sleepily, in her tiny voice.
“Yes, Princess Sophie, I’m here.” Her voice was strained with the effort of her holding back tears. “I’m going to take you to Aunt Jaymie’s house, okay? Uncle Tyler is there right now with Avery, Adelynn, Noah, and Amora.” Sophia’s eyes widened.
“Amora is there?”
“She is, baby.” Freeman stood, wiping his palms on his jeans. “Abuela took her there just a little while ago.” He walked over and kissed the top of Sophia’s head, smoothing back her hair. Jaymie could see his eyes misting up.
“I miss Abuela.” Sophia whispered.
“You’ll see her soon, baby. For now, go see sissy and your cousins, okay?”
“Where are you going, daddy?” Freeman smiled at her.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here, to make sure mommy is okay.”
“Mommy is hurt.” Sophia whispered again, frowning. Freeman nodded.
“But you helped save her, bug. She’ll be okay.” His voice cracked audibly at the last word. He kissed her forehead one more time, nodding to Oona afterwards.
“Thank you.” She nodded, turning and walking out of the room with Sophia, whispering to her quietly. Braylie stayed behind.
After another hour of waiting, the door leading back to the patient ward opened. A tall doctor stood there, holding the door open.
“What about Lilac?” Oona asked. She was laying on her stomach across where the coffee table used to be. Now that Braylie’s parents were in the know on their engagement it was time to start planning their wedding and Oona was taking over with a vengeance. She’s never seen her throw herself into something like this aside from when she’s volunteering at the Pet Shelters.
“I don’t know,” Braylie sighed. “We have a year to plan it.”
“Why are you waiting a year?”
“There are invitations to send out. Caterer’s to call, taste testing, hiring staff. Mom is supposed to help with it, but she’s not coming to the states until..” Braylie reached into her pocket to take out her phone and pull up her calendar. “September.”
“Why so long?” Oona buried her face in the magazine. “I miss them already.”
“I have no idea,” she sighed as she started to put her cell phone back into her pocket just as it started vibrating in her hand.
“What about pastels? Or maybe a soft blue, like the sky in spring?”
“I don’t think the color of the sky differs from season to season, Oona.” She smiled down at her little sister, looking at her phone to see the caller ID read ‘Private Number.’
“Wonder who this could be.”
Oona shrugged, flipping through the pages of bridal magazines filled with wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, drawing a red star with her sharpie on the ones she liked and the ones she thought Braylie would look good in. “Just let your voicemail pick it up, B. I need your opinion on this strapless dress for the bridesmaids.”
Holding the phone in her hand, she leaned over Oona to look down at the dress she was eyeballing. “No way. Faye’s boobs would fall out of that dress.” She shook her head as she pressed talk and put the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”
“But she’s your maid of honor!” Oona said under her breath. “She wouldn’t be wearing this dress and it would make my boobs look awesome!”
Braylie rolled her eyes as the sound of a woman’s voice filled her ear. She had a nasally voice, the kind that if you listened to for too long might put you to sleep or make you want to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. “Hi, may I please speak with a Miss Braylie Bartolini, please?”
“May I ask who’s calling?” She asked, as she looked at Oona holding up the magazine pointing to a wedding dress that was in a mermaid type fashion, she shook her head making a gagging face which rewarded her with a silent giggle from her little sister who then proceeded to draw a mustache on the woman’s face in the picture.
“My name is Rachel, I’m a receptionist at the Desert Palms Hospital, I’m calling because Braylie is listed as an emergency conta-” Cutting her off, Braylie turned away from Oona as goosebumps covered her entire body. She heard a slight ringing in her ears and cold sweat started to form across her brow.
“What’s wrong? Is it Sophia?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m only allowed to discuss this with Braylie Barto-”
“This is Braylie, now tell me what’s wrong! Is it my God Daughter, is she hurt?”
“Noo, I’m calling to inform you that Faye has been admitted to our ICU and is in need of emergency surgery. We need you to come down and sign some papers authoriz-”
Not bothering to let her finish the sentence, “Wait, emergency surgery? What’s going on? Why would Faye need surgery. What happened?”
“What?” Madlaina let her hands drop to her sides. “You filed for custody of Sophia? When?”
“A week after seeing them in the grocery store and finding out that she was being mentally and emotionally abused by Eli. Though there is no evidence saying he physically abused her, I felt it was only a matter of time before he subdued or even killed Faye and would go after Sophia. I was protecting her, Madlaina. I… Maybe I went about it wrong, maybe I should have told you what I was doing, but I just felt that the less people knew about it the more people Faye could feel like were there for her when it was over.”
Madlaina was frowning at him, but didn’t say a word. Not even Emily spoke. It was Benji who finally broke the silence, “You were still trying to protect both of them.”
“Protect BOTH of them?!” Madlaina scoffed. “You are fucking kidding me. Faye losing her daughter would have killed her!”
“You told them both yourself the night they came to us and Freeman asked your permission, YOUR permission as in Faye agreed to this, to claim Sophia as his own. He has loved, cared for and devoted everything to that little girl. She is, and always will be HIS daughter. Regardless of them deciding to keep Faye’s last name or not. He has legal rights to Sophia and he wasn’t allowed those for obvious reasons, Madlaina. Not to mention, he was in fact protecting both of them when he filed for custody.”
“How?” Her eyebrows shot up, she turned her body towards him, effectively breaking physical contact with him as he crossed her arms in front of her.
“What is your sister’s worst quality.” Benji didn’t so much ask, but implied. Everyone who knew the sisters knew that Faye was, so to speak, the weaker of the three when it came to certain things.
Madlaina stared up at him, her stance faltering slightly. “Her opinion of her own self worth.”
“Shut up, Jaymie.” Mads glared at her. “You knew this whole time and didn’t even say anything to me! You didn’t even try to stop your husband and this traitor!”
“I never should have left her, Oona. I should have stayed, or demanded she and Sophia go with us. Oh my God!” Braylie started sobbing, her knees were shaking.
“You don’t… Braylie, you wouldn’t have been able to prevent this from happening.”
“I could have been there with her!”
“And you could be the one in the hospital. Now stop, because you can’t help her now if you’re like this. Come on, we need to go get Sophia.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s at the hospital. Freeman doesn’t want her to be surrounded by all of this so I’m dropping you off with him and taking Sophie to get Amora from his parents house.”
“Wait.. Freeman’s there?” Braylie asked, sounding confused. Oona nodded her head, a small smile played on her lips.
“Why?”
“You can ask him that yourself if you get your ass in the car!”
Braylie let Oona drag her out of the house and even let her buckle her into the passenger seat. She ran back to the front door, locked it from the inside and shut it before running back to the car and getting into the drivers side of the vehicle. Her phone started ringing as she put the car in reverse after buckling her own seatbelt. “Crap, it’s Logan.” As she heard the Pokemon Theme Ringtone playing. She took it out of her pocket and placed it in Braylie’s cell phone dock, hitting her bluetooth button. Immediately the car filled with background noise of what sounded like Jack and Ashlynn, Logan’s parents, yelling in the background.
“I told them, Oona. I-I’m sorry. I know you wanted to keep it to ourselves until after I graduated, but he just made me so mad!”
“It’s ok, Logan.” Her facial features softened as she cocked her head to the side. “Do you need to get out of there?”
“I don’t think I have much of a choice. Dad’s threatening to kick me out of the house. My Mom is trying to convince him otherwise, but it’s not looking good and frankly I don’t want to be here.”
She nodded her head as she listened to his voice and the sounds in the background. “Ok, but there’s been an accident. We’re headed to the Desert Palms Hospital. Faye’s hurt and I have to get Sophia.”
“Fuck,” he replied, under his breath. She could almost see him running his fingers through his hair, moving it to the side out of his eyes. “Is she ok?!”
“We’re not sure, we haven’t seen her. Freeman called and.. We just, we’re headed there now. You’re on speaker phone.”
“Ok, I’ll meet you there.”
“Ok, could you call Tyler for me? I left Braylie’s phone in the house and I’m about to be driving.”
“Sure, yea, I can do that.”
“Thanks, babe. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Drive safe, ok? I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
“I will and ok!”
“You said crap.” Braylie was staring at her sister with her eyebrows raised.
“I did.”
“I can’t believe you actually said crap.” Then she started laughing hysterically. In between snorts she added, “And ASS! You said Ass and CRAP!”
“I think you’ve lost it, B.” Oona said, giggling as she pulled out of the driveway. “Get it out of your system before we get to the hospital. You’ll need to be 100% if you’re going to be any help to anyone.”
Braylie snorted, “You said crap!” She sighed and rested her head against the headrest of the passenger seat. She stared at the ceiling as she felt tears pricking at her eyelids. “If she dies…”
“SHE WON’T DIE! Don’t you dare even think that, Braylie!! Faye is not going to die!”
They sat in silence as they drove through the city towards the freeway that would take them out of town to where Freeman lived. The only sounds were air swishing around the car as they drove, the sound of the tires as they crossed lanes into the fast lane and the sounds of Braylie sobbing apologies to her best friend that she wasn’t sure would ever be able to forgive her.
“My apologies, Ma’am, We’re not allowed to give details out over the phone..” Rachel paused before continuing. Braylie imagined her looking around to make sure no one was near to hear her before she spoke the next words. “I only know what they tell me and that is that Miss Ross needs to have emergency surgery. There is internal bleeding and bleeding on the brain.”
“Um,” Braylie swallowed, but her throat still felt closed off and dry. “I-uh..” She couldn’t breath. Internal bleeding. Bleeding on the brain. She had flashbacks to when her Mom and Dad were waiting for her when she got off the school bus and told her that Faye and her parents had been in a car accident and that Faye was in a coma and might not ever wake up. “Was there a car accident, I mean.. You would have been told, right? Why she’s there?”
There was silence on the other end and then a muffled sigh, “All I know is that an officer responded to a scene of domestic violence, ma’am and that there was an arrest made and Miss Ross arrived here along with a gentlemen by ambulance. She was unconscious and coded a couple times.”
“Coded? You mean.. You’re saying she died?” Braylie’s hand flew to her throat. “Oh Dear Lord. He hit her, didn’t he? He beat her up and that’s why… that’s why she’s there?”
“I’m sorry Ma’am, that’s all I know?”
“No, you know more. Tell me! TELL ME NOW, DAMN IT!” She screamed into the phone, tears streaming down her face. “That bastard beat her to the point where she fucking died! Oh my God, oh my God, Sophia. Is Sophia there? Did he hit her, too?!”
“I’m sorry, Ma’am, really that is all I know.” Rachel said into the phone. “We need you to come down to the hospital to sign some papers and in case she doesn’t make it, Miss Ross is listed as an organ donor.”
“Braylie, what’s wrong?” Oona was standing in front of her where she leaned against the side of the sofa. She reached out and took the phone from her sister's hand. “Hello? Who is this?”
Oona’s mouth dropped open and her eyes were wide, she spoke in a hushed tone as she asked the receptionist about what had happened to Faye. She pulled the phone away from her cheek as the other line indicated someone was calling. “Is there a Freeman Rodriguez at the hospital?” Oona breathed into the phone. “Good, call him to the front. He’s authorized to sign for the papers. We’ll be there in two hours.”
Oona switched over. “Freeman? It’s Oona. We just got a call from a receptionist. We’ll be on our way as soon as I get Braylie in the car.”
She was quiet as she listened to whatever Freeman was telling her. “Yes, absolutely. I will. No problem.”
Oona ran out of the room and came back with a sparkly pink duffel bag that had all of Sophia’s clothes in it that Faye left here for emergency reasons and grabbed Braylie’s purse. She ran out the front door, not bothering to close it behind her and threw the duffel into the back seat and Braylie’s purse onto the floor in front of the passenger seat. She leaned in and started the car before pulling the trunk latch to pop it open. She ran to the back, grabbed Sophia’s booster seat she and Braylie bought after Faye and Sophie had been staying with them for a week and buckled it into the back before she ran back into the house and grabbed Braylie by the arm. “Braylie, we got to go! Freeman needs us. Faye needs us.”
