Chapter 27
The cab skidded to a stop in front of the
miney
27%
The first thing I noticed was that Coline’s car was missing from the driveway. She had parked it beside yesterday. It would still be there unless she left the house, which she never did without calling me–unless something important came up.
Trying hard to keep calm, I made my way to the door while dragging my suitcase behind me. My heart raced inside my chest as I lifted my hand to knock but no one came to open it for me.
“Calm down, Lily,” Trepeated the words in my head like a mantra while I opened the door with the key in my trembling fingers.
The house was silent when I entered. Aside from that, it was empty too. The color faded from my face as I ran up the stairs, desperately calling Mom’s name and Celine’s. There was no response, and I felt as though I’d been robbed of breath when I opened Mom’s room and saw she wasn’t there either.
Despite the panicky tears, I pulled myself together and dialed Celine’s number. The ringing went on, but she wasn’t answering my calls. My fear escalated, and this time I could barely breathe at all, thinking something awful had happened to Mom,
Turning my fists into balls, I suppressed the tears and kept them at bay. But try as I might, I couldn’t hold them back any longer and burst into tears while I sent Celine a message to call me if she was available.
I was dead worried, and waiting for her reply was torturing me further.
Norvously pacing the living room with my arms crossed beneath my chest, I threw the telephone a worried glance before my gaze shifted to the phone in my hand. Until now, Celine hadn’t called yet. But soon, I trusted my instinct that she would.
Celine was the type to call me when an emergency happened. I knew there was a valid reason she hadn’t called yet.
Assuring myself that Celine would call once she was available, I waited patiently. True enough, the telephone rang a few minutes later. The sound made me jump to my feet and pulled my thoughts back to reality. Skittering across the plush carpet, I grabbed the phone with my icy hand. “H–hello?” I said shaklly, in a barely audible whisper..
“It’s me,” said a familiar voice on the other line.
“Celine!” I gasped in recognition. My fingers tightened on the telephone until my knuckles turned white. “How’s Mom?” I asked, unable to conceal the tremor in my voice. Feeling my weak legs would collapse soon, I slumped onto the old Victorian sofa, holding my breath while I waited for her reply. I’d never been terrified in my life the way I was now.
“Your mom is fine now,” Celine replied, and I let go of the breath I wasn’t aware I was holding as she broke the good news. “She’s asleep on the bed now,” she added. Relief washed over me, and I wiped the tears from the fidges of my eyes.
“Did she pass out again?” I asked because it had been happening once in a while now, after Mom was discharged from the hospital a month ago. The doctor had informed us it was due to her weakening system.
Taking a deep, long breath, she replied, “Yes”
swallowed the lump in my throat as I fought back the urge to burst into tears.
“I’m glad I was inside her room when she tried to get up from the bed and collapsed on the floor, I warned her not to overexert herself, but she’s stubborn and won’t listen. This time, she tried to go to the bathroom on her own, and she passed out. I caught her in time before she landed on the floor, Celine explained, her voice strained as she did so. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was fighting the urge to cry, too.
“Will she be alright?” The words barely emerged from my lips. Painfully, I closed my eyes.
“I can’t answer that, Lily. Only God knows if she will. We can only pray for her condition to be okay,” she told me. This time, I heard a sniff on the other line. I felt like crying too, but I didn’t want to make the situation worse. Instead, I filled my chest with air and expelled it in a sigh. I repeated the process until my emotions were under control before I broke the silence with a question. Did you forget to bring your phone with you when you left?” It sounded like a stupid question, but it was the first thing that came to my mind, sold it out loud. I wanted to divert the conversation to a less depressing topic.
“I did,” Celine replied after a pause. She founded a bit embarrassed as she added, “I panicked and forgot to take it from the drawer, in fact, in my haste, wore the wrong pair of slippers.”
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Chapter 27
8 May
“What?” Egasped, trying to contain the laughter that threatened to erupt from my lips.
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“Well, at least I haven’t gone to the hospital in bare feet,” she added, and I could almost imagine her cheeks turning tomato red as she said the words. “Anyway, I borrowed your mom’s slippers. She won’t be needing them for a while,” Celine added with a soft chuckle.
“Don’t worry,
I’ll be there in an hour. I’ll watch over Main so you can go hante and change your slippers if necessary, and your clothes too.”
Before hanging up, I asked Celine what hospital Mom was admitted to. She told me the address, then our call ended. I lowered the telephone and got on my feet.
Upstairs in my room, I took a quick bath and changed into a comfortable lavender jumpsuit, which was the first thing I grabbed from my closet. Í sat down in front of the vanity and dried my hair using the hairdryer before securing it into a ponytail on top of my head.
Surveying myself in the mirror, I noticed my face was a little pale, I applied lipstick thinly on my lips and rubbed them together to spread the color evenly. When I was finished, I put on my favorito flat sandals, grabbed my shoulder bag, and was ready to go.
With the car keys in my hand, I opened the door only to drop my jaw in shock when I noticed the man looming over my doorstep. It was none other than Grey Bradford, my husband,
