“Stay in the house. Everything’s going to be all right.”
The ambulance and police cars showed up, sirens blaring, but the noise did nothing to rouse Grace. I sat with her until the paramedics pushed me away, but the whole time I was right there, telling her I loved her and that she wasn’t alone.
When they loaded her into the ambulance, I wanted so badly to go with them, but knew I had to stay with the kids. I watched the ambulance pull away and then ran to the house to comfort my children, who were standing at the door, watching the scene unfold with tears in their eyes.
I managed to calm them down, but explained that we had to go to the hospital to be with Grace. Neither one of them argued and they practically ran to the car, ready to go and make sure she was all right.
We sat in the waiting room—waiting being the operative word. We’d been waiting for almost two hours with no updates. My mom came to the hospital even though she still wasn’t feeling well, but my dad was in no condition. He kept calling, asking for updates, and I heard my mother whispering to him about how terrible I looked, how worried I was, and how upset the children were. My mother offered to take them back to my house to wait, but both Ruby and Jax refused—they wanted to see Grace.
Detectives hovered around us, trying to blend in with the noise and commotion of the emergency room, but looked out of place. They’d questioned the kids and myself, but none of us really had much to say. I explained what had happened at the bar, that perhaps the same man had been the one in the white car, but the weight of uselessness was heavy. I had nothing to offer them. Only Grace would be able to tell them exactly what had happened.
Every time the doors that led back to the emergency room opened, my eyes darted there and hope rushed through me, but no one had come for me yet. I’d asked the nurse working at the admin desk for information a hundred times, but she wouldn’t tell me anything because Grace and I weren’t family.
I wanted to scream at her that Grace was a part of me; that just because we didn’t have the same last name yet didn’t mean she wasn’t everything to me, but I managed to keep my cool and take a seat. It didn’t stop me from asking every ten minutes though.
Finally, the doors opened and a nurse I hadn’t seen yet called out, “Devon Roberts?”
I stood immediately and walked toward her. “I’m Devon Roberts,” I said urgently. “Is she okay?”
“Come with me” was all she said, and she turned around, heading back into the emergency room.
I grunted in frustration, but followed. We turned down a few different hallways and at each door we passed my eyes looked in, searching for Grace. Eventually, the nurse stopped at an open door and motioned for me to go in first.
When I walked in, all I saw was Grace lying in a hospital bed, an IV hooked up to her arm and a monitor beeping next to her bed. She had dark circles under her eyes, but she was breathing and her heart was beating. That was all I could ask for. Walking to the side of her bed, I picked up the hand that wasn’t hooked up to anything and kissed her palm. At the touch of my lips, her eyelids began to flutter and slowly open.
“Grace?” I asked gently.
“She’ll probably still be a little groggy, but she’s okay,” the nurse said, typing something into the computer next to Grace’s bed.
“Grace, baby?” I said again, smoothing her hair out of her face. Her eyes opened again and I’d never seen a blue I liked more than the color of them right then.
“Hey,” she whispered after she’d blinked a few times.
“Hey,” I said back to her, kissing her hand again. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay.” Her voice was quiet and I got the impression it was because she was weak and not because she was trying to keep the volume down. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“You scared me,” I whispered against her skin.
“I’m sorry. I was scared too.”
“What happened?” I watched as her eyes closed and she took a breath, then she swallowed, and looked up at me.
“I thought a car was following us home. I watched it make all the same turns as me, but when I pulled in the driveway, it kept going. But after we all got out, it came back,” she said, her voice shaking. “I told the kids to lock themselves in the house. Are they okay?” Her voice filled with panic and she winced as she tried to sit up, practically climbing out of the bed with worry.
“They’re fine, I promise. They’re worried about you, but they aren’t hurt.”
“I was so scared.” She cried in earnest and nothing was going to stop me from crawling up beside her and holding her as she did. “I was so afraid something would happen to Ruby and Jax, and I don’t know what I’d do.”
I tried my best to soothe her, but I knew exactly why she was upset and knew how petrifying it could be to think about bad things happening to children, especially children you loved liked Grace loved my kids.