Page 45 of Lily In The Valley
“She’s just being overly cautious because of the miscarriage,” Kelly mumbled to herself. “You know how worried she’s been since she found out she’s pregnant. She’s fine, right?” Kelly looked to me for reassurance.
“We’ll see,” was all I could give her, as I ushered her into the emergency room lobby. Kelly’s feet stopped moving when she saw who was waiting.
Vanessa.
Sitting motionless in one of the gray lobby chairs near the nurses’ desk, Zay to her right. No frantic pacing. Just still. Xavier looked morose as he soothed his fiancée. Nessa was different. Her hoodie sleeves were pushed over her hands, like she didn’t know what to do with them. Her eyes—red and puffy, like she hadn’t slept. Like she’d already been crying for hours.
“Wait…Nessa?” Kelly stepped forward to her best friend. Her sister.
Vanessa didn’t speak. She stood slowly, arms loose at her sides. No smile. No relief. Just grief, raw and visible.
Kelly blinked. “You okay? Is the baby okay? Did something happen?” Her voice started to rise, panicked now. “What happened? Vanessa, you gotta say something. You’re scaring me.”
I moved beside her and gently touched her elbow. “Kelly.”
She looked back at me, confused by me calling her real name instead of the nickname I’d given so many years before. Then, Vivian appeared from the hallway behind the glass doors, dressed in sweats, like she hadn’t had time to put herself together. Her eyes weren’t red, but they were hollow. Like she’d seen too much and still had to hold it together.
Kelly’s breath caught.
“Aunt Viv?”
Vivian crossed the distance slowly. Every step deliberate, as if in negotiations with God himself. When she stopped in front of Kelly, she didn’t rush the words. “Baby…I’m so sorry. Your mama didn’t make it.”
The silence that followed was loud.
Kelly blinked once. Then again.
“No,” she said, barely above a whisper.
Not a scream.
Just a breath of disbelief.
“No. That’s not…No.”
She looked at Vanessa again, shaking her head.
“I thoughtI thought it was you. I thoughtAunt Viv, what are you talking about? Nessa, what is she saying?”
Vanessa opened her mouth, then closed it. Her jaw trembled. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
She took one stumbling step backwards. Then another.
I reached for her just before her knees hit the tile.
Her knees buckled like her body had stopped believing in gravity. I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind, lowering us both to the tiled floors.
“No. No. No,” she kept whispering, clawing at my arms like she could unhear it.
She didn’t sob. Not yet. She just trembled. Fisted my shirt in both hands and kept shaking her head like the world would listen.
“She was just here. We were just laughing. We were” she whispered. “I didn’t say goodbye.” Her voice cracked. Then the dam broke.
She screamed. One long, guttural, soul-ripping sound that tore through the lobby like a blade. The kind of wail that tore at your soul. Deep and jagged and endless. People in the waitingarea turned to look, but I blocked them out. I pressed her face into my chest and let her beat her fists against me. I didn’t say a word. Didn’t ask her to breathe. Didn’t tell her to be strong. I just held her.
Vanessa knelt beside us and reached for her again. “Kelly, I’m so sor–”
“Don’t,” Kelly wailed, burying her face in my chest. “Stop talking.”
