Page 117 of Until Then

“Oh, God. The kids.” His horror-filled eyes meet mine. A low “fuck” leaves him, and then he takes off around the corner.

I follow him to the den, where Amanda sits in the position I left her in and Jackson is staring dejectedly up at the ceiling from where he’s lying on the floor.

My stomach aches for them.

“My dad’s dead, isn’t he?” Jackson asks without looking away from the ceiling. “It’s okay”—he turns his head and zeroes in on Derrick—“you can be honest.”

“I don’t know, kid.” Derrick sits on the floor beside him and Jackson scurries into his lap. “I truly don’t know.”

Amanda bites her lip, tears falling silently down her cheeks. Sitting beside her, I wrap my arms around her. I expect her to push me away. She barely knows me, after all. Instead, she practically collapses into my arms.

These poor kids.

Maura rushes into the room. “They won’t let me go with him,” she practically shouts. “Why the fuck won’t they let me go with my husband?” She turns around in a circle, her hands flailing. “I need my keys. And my ID.” She pats herself down. “I have to… I have to follow them.”

Derrick gently lifts Jackson and ushers him to the couch on my other side, then turns and clasps Maura’s shoulders to still her. “I’ll drive you and the kids to the hospital. Take a breath.”

She obeys, and as she inhales, her legs give out, and she collapses against him.

“Izzy, can you get my keys?”

I give both kids a gentle squeeze, then ease off the cushion and approach Derrick, who’s still holding most of Maura’s weight. I shove my hand in his pocket, feeling for the keys. Once I’ve extracted them, I instruct the kids to follow me.

I have a feeling Maura needs a moment.

The ambulance is gone, the chaos has stopped. Now the house is eerily quiet.

The kids get in the back seat, and Amanda wraps her arms around her little brother. He cries softly, looking out the window.

I hop in the driver’s side and crank the engine. It’s another minute, maybe two, before Maura and Derrick come out.

The desolate look on her face feels like a kick to my gut.

Derrick helps her into the back and makes sure all three are wearing seat belts before hopping in beside me.

“You’ll have to tell me where to go. I’m not sure where the hospital is.”

Derrick nods, his eyes sunken and dark.

With a deep breath in, I give his knee a squeeze. Then I put the truck in reverse, wishing I could hug him and tell him it’ll all be okay. But we don’t know that, and no one in this truck needs false promises.

Ten minutes later, I pull the truck up to the emergency room entrance.

“I’ll park the truck. Go on.”

Derrick blinks at me for a moment, hesitant, but eventually nods. He needs to be with them right now, and there’s a good chance it’ll take me a while to park this monstrosity of a truck in any way that won’t get me a ticket or a good keying.

Once I’ve parked in a way I think won’t cause trouble, I take a moment to catch my breath. It feels selfish, the need to do that when Maura’s world, her kids’ world is potentially blowing up, but I need a moment to recover from the whiplash of this evening so I can be available to them and to Derrick in any way they need.

Everything was going so well until it wasn’t.

Ten more seconds.

That’s all I give myself to wallow before I get out of the truck and head for the entrance.

It takes me a moment to get my bearings when I step inside. Once I do, I head left, following the signs that readEmergency Room.

When I get to the first corner, I find Derrick pacing back and forth in front of the help desk.

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