Page 72 of Make Your Shot
A vise-like grip tightens around my chest and neck. It feels as though there’s barely any room for air to pass through my trachea. Sweat clings to my skin as my heart beats to an erratic, unsteady rhythm. My strides lengthen, my feet carrying me directly to the front desk.
“Hello. What can I do for you?”
“My daughter is here. She was brought in from a car accident.”
According to Coach Landry, another car hit them, but only hit the front. Tella was left uninjured and they determined Mia had a concussion.
My body is operating on autopilot. I’m not so sure how I’m even standing here right now. The last time I was at this hospital was when Amelia was killed. Another car accident, except that one had a different outcome. Amelia didn’t survive. But supposedly, Tella is completely fine.
I can’t wrap my mind around it and refuse to believe it until I see her.
“May I have her name please?”
“Estella Ford,” I blurt out, my voice hoarse and thick with worry as I shift my weight. There’s movement beside me, but I don’t bother looking over. I hear Coach’s voice as he talks to the other woman at the desk, giving her Mia’s information.
Mia . . . fuck.
I’m torn between the two, desperate to know if Mia is okay, but knowing that my daughter needs me. Estella is my top priority, as she always is.
Coach Landry glances at me, worry etched in his expression. “Mia’s okay,” he tells me softly. “I have a friend in the emergency room here and he said it’s just a concussion and they don’t plan on keeping her except for observation.” He lets out a breath, grabbing my shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “They’re both okay, Ford.”
The muscle in my jaw tightens, my throat constricting with emotion as I dip my chin at him. There’s a touch of relief with his assurance, but itdoesn’t chase away the panic. It doesn’t eradicate the deep seated fear I harbor inside my heart.
“Mr. Ford, come with me please,” the woman behind the desk says, immediately severing my thought process. I step away from the desk, following her as she holds her badge up to a pad by the next set of doors. They slide open and the moment I step across the threshold, I’m transported back in time to the worst day of my entire life.
The ticks of the wall clock echo throughout the small family room. My body is rigid, my heart barely beating, my lungs hardly expanding as I dig my fingers into my thighs, gripping onto them for support. The air filling the room is cold and laced with a sterile, chemical smell.
I can still hear the phone conversation with the police officer ringing inside my mind. Tella had just fallen asleep and I was waiting for Amelia to get back from running errands. Carson came over for a beer and I can’t get the look on his face out of my head.
The way the color drained from his flesh as he heard the police officer speaking urgently to me. Amelia was in an accident. She was hit head on by a drunk driver. The other driver died on impact, but when the ambulance left the scene, Amelia was still alive. It didn’t look good but she was still alive.
I was on my feet within a fraction of a second, rushing out the door to get to her. Carson told me to go, he told me Tella would be fine with him, so I got in my car and raced here in the hope that this was all just a cruel fucking joke. A nightmare I can wake myself up from.
Because I’ve been sitting here for the last five minutes,preparing myself for the worst from the doctors. When I got here, they immediately brought me back to this room and told me that someone would come talk to me about my wife. The last five minutes have felt like a fucking eternity.
“Mr. Ford.”
My eyes slice to the door as a man in dark blue scrubs enters, pulling a surgical cap from his head. I don’t rise to my feet as I stare at him, his shoulders sagging in defeat. My heart begins to crumble inside my chest, ice settling through my veins as I know what he’s going to say before he even speaks another word.
“I’m so sorry, but we did everything we could to save her,” he says, his voice low and quiet as he comes to sit in front of me.
The floor falls out from under my feet. My surroundings fade, the noises, the smells, even the light above me no longer feels real.
“She coded in the ambulance and they were able to revive her, but she sustained significant internal damage and massive blood loss. We lost her again in the emergency room as we were getting ready to transfer to the OR and unfortunately, we were not able to get her back.”
I stare back at him, completely paralyzed and frozen in place. The edges of my vision begin to blur and I can’t form a single fucking word. The pressure on my chest is insurmountable. The loss rips my beating heart directly from my chest.
This can’t be real. She can’t be gone.
“Mr. Ford.”
I blink my eyes rapidly, turning to look at thewoman as she stares at me with concern in her eyes. “Sorry.”
“She’s down this way. We have her in one of the pediatric bays, but that was just as a formality until you were able to come get her.”
She pauses when we get to the small room toward the end of the hall.
“The nurse will be in with her discharge papers because they did look over her just to make sure she was okay. I’m happy to report that they found nothing wrong, not even a scratch.”
