Page 128 of Forgotten Desires

Iwatch her go down, running as fast as I can to get to her, and just barely catch her head before it hits the marble floor.

“Brynn!” I yell, trying to get her to wake up, but her eyes don’t move. “Celeste! Cliff!” I scream for help and Cliff is at my side first. “Call 9-1-1!” He pulls his phone out, but I can’t wait for help. The closest hospital is two blocks away. “I’ll take her. I’ll get her there faster.”

“Crew?” Cliff calls my name.

I pull her into my arms, cradling her like a baby, and Cliff steadies me when I’m on my feet. “I’m going to the hospital with her. She needs help.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Get my phone on the table,” I tell him, and he runs to grab it. “Call the nanny and let her know what’s happened!”

We get on the elevator, and I swear, I curse every fucking floor that we pass. I should’ve bought a first-floor unit. I could’ve already been there.

I curse everything. The sun. The moon. The fact that she had this surgery. Her father. Most of all myself. I should’ve told her everything. I should’ve told her before I got Layla. The day I saw her, married her, made love to her, I should’ve done so many damn things differently.

My whole life, I’ve messed things up with Brynlee and I’ll never forgive myself.

The elevator door opens and I move through the streets, carrying her in my arms as Cliff moves people out of the way.

It’s two blocks, but it feels like eternity. I start to talk to her. “Wake up, Bee. Wake up. Come on, baby, I need you.”

“The nanny is bringing Layla home and she’ll stay with her. The ER is aware we’re coming and they’re calling her surgeon to come as well,” Cliff says as he’s on the phone. “They’re ready for her with a trauma team. Do you want me to take her for a minute?”

“No!” I move faster, somehow finding the strength to keep going.

The hospital comes into view and sure enough, there’s a team of doctors and nurses outside of the entrance. As I get closer, they bring the stretcher to me, and I place her down. She’s still not awake.

“What happened?” the doctor asks.

I fill him in on how we were talking, she was pale, and struggling to walk. I relive the entire moment of her calling my name, or trying to, but then her body just collapsing. Every detail plays in a loop as we rush into the trauma room, my hand wrapped around her cold one.

“Mr. Knight,” the doctor calls my name and I look up. “You need to let us work on your wife.”

My eyes go to her, so still, and my heart aches. “I can’t leave her.”

“You have to. We have to do our job.”

“Come on, Crew,” Cliff says, pulling me back out of the room.

People move in and out of her room, while I stand here, my hand over my mouth as the reality that I could lose her hits me.

Tears fall down my face as fear like I’ve never known takes hold. She’s everything to me and I don’t want to go back to a life without her. I can’t. Not now that I’ve had months of this. Waking up with her wrapped around me, going to sleep with her in my arms, the laughs, the way her eyes brighten when something makes her happy.

I need that.

I need her.

Cliff places his hand on my shoulder. “I called Kimberly, she’s on her way. I think you should call her brothers.”

I nod. “Call the company I used for the helicopter in Pennsylvania, get them to Sugarloaf to pick them up. It’s the fastest way.”

He walks to the side to call them, and I dial Asher’s number.

“Hey, Crew.”

“Asher, your sister collapsed a few minutes ago. I’m sending a helicopter to you so you and your brothers can get here quickly.”

“What happened?”

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