“Jona—”
“I’m sorry that you’ve been feeling this way so often. I’ll do better.” He kissed me and ran his fingers through my hair. “Did you have any plans for today?”
“No...I cleared my whole weekend for your birthday.”
He smiled. “In that case, I want to take you somewhere.” He rolled off of me and pulled me to my feet. “Come on.”
I was sitting in the backseat of the town car wearing a black blindfold over my eyes. I couldn’t see anything but darkness, and every time I attempted to take a peek, Jonathan playfully tapped my hand.
We’d been riding along for at least an hour and I was getting anxious, excited. I knew wherever he was taking me was going to be amazing.
“Mr. Statham, is this close enough?” Greg asked as the car slowed down.
“This is perfect. Thank you.” He made sure the blindfold was still tight and helped me out of the car. He grabbed my hand and we took several steps into the harsh blowing winds.
“We’re here...” he said. “Well, almost. We still have another two hours to go before we get there.”
“Another two hours? Why did we get out of the car?”
He laughed and lifted me up onto what felt like a short stack of steps. Then I felt him holding both of my hands.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
I nodded excitedly and he slowly moved the blindfold away from my eyes.
My heart dropped as soon as I saw what the “surprise” was. I tried to keep myself calm but it was no use.
His large private plane was standing a couple hundred feet away: It was a white Citation Sovereign jet—seating capacity for nine, three thousand miles of nonstop mileage, and easily worth eighteen million.
I knew that because my girls had built that particular model over and over, because they’d gushed about how it was the top of the line in executive flight travel.
I saw the pilot descending from the cabin—waving at us, and I suddenly lost the ability to breathe. I clutched the flag charms on my necklace and my knees buckled underneath me.
“Claire?” Jonathan helped me back up. “Claire, what’s wrong? Why are you shaking?” He squeezed my hand, but I snatched it away and shut my eyes.
I tried to think about something happy, something positive, but pictures started to flash through my mind, making me remember all the things I wish I could forget: The newspaper stories, the endless media coverage, the crash site photos. My twin sister’s face.
My heart was pounding fast and loud that I could hear it over Jonathan asking what the hell was going on and calling out for help.
I tried to convince myself that this was just another nightmare, another dream that I would wake up from in any second. But as I gasped for air, as I tried to head back down the steps and back into the town car, I felt my body hitting the concrete and everything went black.
I blinked my eyes open and realized I was lying in bed at home. The clock on my wall read two o’ clock and my windows were unlatched and open, letting in a warm spring breeze.
I turned my head to the right and saw Jonathan eyeing me curiously, holding an ice pack against my shoulder. I tried to give him an assured smile, but every muscle in my body felt weak.
“What happened?” I croaked.
“You had a panic attack.” He set the ice pack down and caressed my cheek. “You fainted and fell off the platform.”
“Oh...”I tried to roll over so I wouldn’t have to see the worry in his eyes, but I couldn’t feel my left foot. I looked down and saw that it was sitting on a stack of pillows, resting underneath two bags of ice.
“You sprained your ankle...You’ll need to take those every four hours.” He pointed towards the medicine on my nightstand and moved closer. “You’re scared of planes?”
I shook my head and felt tears welling in my eyes.
He slipped his hand behind my pillows and helped me to sit up. “Talk to me, Claire...”
“I’m beyond scared—I’m terrified...so terrified that I’m scared to pick up my own daughters from the airport...”
“Why?”
I sighed. I reached around my neck and felt for the two flag charms, making sure they were right where they were supposed to be.
“Have I ever told you that identical twins run in my family? It’s the strangest thing—almost every woman in my family has a set of twins... I cried the first three months after Ashley and Caroline were born because I finally knew what it felt like to be a mother, and I couldn’t fathom how my mother felt when she lost my sister.”
He held my hand and stroked my knuckles with his fingertips.