Page 2 of Someone to Remember
“Thank you.” It takes two tries to get the door open, and when I get out, I feel unsteady on my feet. For a second, I fear I might topple over onto my pregnant belly.
Until I see Will’s smiling, handsome face, and he tells me not to worry about anything because he’s fine and he’ll take care of me and the kids the way he always has, nothing will be okay. I’ve come to rely on him, which is entirely his fault. He’s made himself essential to me and my children, and the thought of even a day without him at the center of our lives is unfathomable. I rush toward the reception desk in the crowded emergency department.
“Be right with you.”
It takes all the self-control I can find not to start shrieking for someone to tell me where my husband is.
After several tense minutes pass, I say, “Please… My husband was brought in by ambulance. William Lonergan. I need to know… to see him. Please.”
“Taylor!”
I spin around to see Will’s foreman and friend, Bryan, coming toward me. “Come with me. The doctor promised an update as soon as possible.”
Bryan puts his arm around me and leads me to a room where two of Will’s employees are waiting. Their pale, shocked expressions add to my anxiety.
“Wh-what happened?”
“He fell off scaffolding.”
Bryan helps me into a chair when the legs under me would’ve collapsed.
“How far?”
“About fifty feet.”
“Oh my God.” I want to ask why he wasn’t attached to safety gear, but I can’t get the question past my fear.
“Taylor…”
I look up at him, terrified by the way he says my name. The single word is laced with agony.
“Sweetheart… I don’t think he’s going to make it. It’s possible… Well, I think he broke his neck.”
“No.” I can’t.Please, God. No.
I’m not sure what happened after that, but when I come to, I’m in a bed connected to monitors with an IV in my hand. The echo of the baby’s heartbeat is a steady cadence.
I have no idea what’s going on until I see Bryan pacing at the foot of my bed, his face wet with tears. And then I remember. Will. Fell fifty feet off scaffolding. Might’ve broken his neck. Is probably dead.
My Will. The man who stepped into my life—and my kids’ lives—after we lost Greg and made everything better for us… Oh my God, the baby. Our little boy is due in a month.
“Bryan.”
He stops pacing and turns to me. His devastated expression says everything I don’t want to hear.
I dissolve into heartbroken sobs. “No.”
Bryan comes to my bedside and takes my hand. “I’m so sorry, Taylor. They think he died on impact and didn’t suffer.”
I shake my head as tears spill down my cheeks.This cannot be happening.How will I ever tell my kids? They barely remember the man who fathered them, and they adore Will. He became their daddy one skinned knee and tea party at a time.
“Is there someone I can call for you?”
If I tell people, then it becomes real.
My beautiful Will is dead.
“I want to see him.”
