Page 109 of Broken

“No. The last thing I remember is the game.”

“Do you remember anything about after the game?” There was that hopeful tone again.

I shook my head, wincing as it sent the throbbing pounding harder against my skull. My brow pulled together in concentration, wanting to remember, not liking how Tucker was avoiding the question.

Slowly, things started to return. “I remember our parents talking about heading back to the hotel. But no.Wewere going to get some food first. With Mateo and Emma… Oh, and the coach coming up after the game. He wanted to offer Jet a scholarship.”

I looked over at him, and he gave me a proud smile and nod. I smiled, the sensation feeling strange. I picked my brain some more, searching for any memory of the accident. “I remember I left my pom poms in the stands…Zane was there.” My stomach swooped at the memory.

Tucker’s eyes dropped to the bed, making me frown but more determined to remember. “He blocked me so I couldn’t leave. He wanted to talk…I argued with him…”

I was almost there. I could feel it. “I got so mad at him, but helikedit. Hekissedme.” My nose scrunched, surprised and disgusted at the memory.

It was flooding back now, and I barreled forward, needing to know, needing the answers.

“I remember hating that I couldn’t defend myself. I was about to give up, but then you came. You pushed him off me.”

Tucker met my eyes again, but I couldn’t understand the expression he held. “You hit him and pulled me behind you, but Zane got back up. He looked so angry…”

My body ached as I shuddered at the memory of Zane’s enraged eyes, the look that had frightened me so deeply. “I fell…down all those stairs…”

My voice trailed off, remembering the look on Tucker’s face when I fell. Even now, it chilled me to my core. I looked around, but everyone was looking down now. What was I missing?

“What aren’t y’all telling me?”

No one looked up.

“Tell me,” I demanded, tired of the evasion.

“You fell really far,” Tucker started, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah, I know. I was at the top of the stands.”

“You were really hurt.”

Okay…

Why was he only stating the obvious? And then it hit me. The obvious. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before. I pulled my hand from Tucker’s and pressed it against my stomach. Where was the mound? Where was my baby?

I felt like I was going to be sick. My baby wasn’t there, wasn’t inside me anymore. I hadn’t felt her move at all since I’d wokenup. How could I not have noticed? But I had. This was why I had felt so off.

I looked at Tucker, my eyes pleading and frantic, praying he’d say our little girl was fine. That she was off in the NICU where Mom had all the nurses watching her night and day. That I could see her as soon as she was better. Surely, she wasn’t too little to save. I’d just hit the week where they could. But one look into Tucker’s distraught eyes told me what I’d somehow already known.

She was gone. My baby was gone.

No. This couldn’t be right. I had to be wrong, mistaken. “No…” I said in a desperate panic, my eyes already spilling over with tears. “No. No, no, no, Tucker, no…”

The tears Tucker had been holding back came rushing in. “I’m sorry,” he said just loud enough for me to hear over my own screams, his voice cracking. “I’m so, so sorry.”

And that was that. I felt my world come crashing down around me as Tucker’s grief confirmed our tragedy without a doubt. I screamed for my baby, thrashing myself on the bed as I fought the weight that threatened to squash my heart, my very soul, from my body.

My lungs screamed with pain with each jagged intake of breath I needed between shrieks. My head pounded to the point of pure agony, but I continued. If I stopped, the pressure and overwhelming ache of my loss would surely crush me.

ANNIE

I slapped my hands over my mouth, my heart shattering in my chest as Tucker fumbled over Izzy. She needed to be still. She was still fragile, her injuries nowhere near healed. She’d hurt herself if she didn’t stop.

Jet rushed from the room, and moments later, nurses bustled in, pushing Tucker out of the way as they surrounded the bed. Two held Izzy down, and a third rushed to the now frantically beeping machine to grab one of the tubes connected to my sister’s hand, pressing a syringe into it.

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