Page 9 of Raising Love
Kendra and Tyrell. What the hell happened?
Waiting at every red light was torture. My heart wouldn’t stop racing, replaying the last time I saw my best friend and her husband. The big, bright smiles they both wore. How Tyrell couldn’t keep his hand off her belly.
“The baby,” I whispered to myself.
The driver behind me honked their horn, and my eyes shot up to the traffic light—it had changed from red to green.
I exhaled as I stepped on the gas, resuming my drive.
The cold night was unforgiving. The flurries from earlier, once light and harmless, now fell rapidly, sticking to the asphalt and sidewalks. I could barely see through it.
“Are they okay?” I asked Leo over the phone.
“Just get here, Ivy, please,” he replied. “I don’t want to do this over the phone.”
Although Leo refused to tell me more, I felt like I already knew the answer to my question. My hands could barely steady on the steering wheel, gripping the leather to keep my whole body from shaking with pure anxiety.
Tears streamed down my face by the time I arrived at the medical center’s parking lot.
Leo wasn’t his usual playful self over the phone. I’d never heard him sound so serious—and something else. There was something in his voice that told me everything I needed to know, though part of me refused to accept it.
Out of my car and in front of the medical center’s doors, I spotted Leo through the turnstile glass, his head in his hands.
My heart sank immediately. Any confidence I had that everything would be fine sank with it, deep into the pit of my stomach.
“Leo,” I said the moment I stepped inside.
And the second he lifted his face, I felt a pang in my stomach.
The food I had eaten earlier in the night pushed up quickly.
I slapped my hand to my mouth, forcing the bile down and trying to catch the scream—then the cry—that boomed out of me anyway, just like the tears in my eyes.
The shaking in my hands returned, and with nothing to grip for comfort, my whole body started trembling violently. I couldn’t stop it, no matter how much I wanted to.
Hands, then arms, engulfed me. That was the only thing I could feel in that moment.
Leo had wrapped his arms around me, guiding my face into his chest and holding it there with gentle tension.
“You gotta calm down, Ivy,” he whispered against me.
“Please tell me they’re fine, LV,” I whispered back. “Please just tell me that.”
He didn’t say anything in response, but I felt the motion of his head moving from side to side, indicating his answer was no.
That made my legs lose what little strength they had left. He caught me, holding me up.
“What the hell happened?” I asked in a whisper, seated across from him.
The doctors and nurses had been kind enough to let Leo and me sit in one of their meeting rooms in the medical center’s lobby.
After I’d became inconsolable in the main entrance, likely worrying everyone at that hour, they offered us somewhere private where I could collect myself.
After a few more minutes of bawling my eyes out when Leo confirmed Kendra and Tyrell were gone, my investigative mind kicked in. I needed the information.
“There was a pile-up on the I-87,” Leo rasped before clearing his throat. “It’s all over the news.”
I blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears in my eyes.
