Page 37 of Is Anyone Listening?
At seven, my phone buzzed. Tessa was finally checking in.
But when I looked at the text, my heart sank. It was barely readable, the letters jumbled, and autocorrect had clearly failed: I'm back. U didnt answr ur door. Coming downstairs
My stomach tightened. What the hell was wrong with Tessa? Was she drunk?
I texted back: I'm in the dining room.
No response.
I set down my wine glass and got to my feet. Before I could move, I heard a crash and a long, piercing scream that brought the dining room to silence. I ran through the living room and into the reception area.
And there at the bottom of the stairs was Tessa, crumpled in a heap, her leg bent at a horrible angle.
"Tessa!" I dropped to my knees beside her as Ellen came down a back hallway.
Tessa was conscious, but her face was twisted in pain. Blood trickled from a cut on her forehead. And her leg—oh God, her leg. I could see bone through the torn fabric of her jeans.
"Oh, my God," Ellen said, pulling out her phone. "I'm calling 911."
"Don't move," I said to Tessa, putting my hand on her shoulder. "Help will be here soon."
"What happened?" Ray asked as he came into the lobby along with the other guests, who were all now crowding around.
"I don't know," Ellen said, looking at me.
"I wasn't with her," I said. "I was in the dining room. I heard her scream. I guess she fell down the stairs."
Tessa was making agonizing, raw sounds of pain, her eyes squeezed shut, but the smell of alcohol on her breath was very strong.
Ellen crouched down but didn't touch her. "The ambulance will be here soon. Try to stay still, dear."
Tessa moaned in response.
Ellen's gaze turned to me. "Is she drunk?"
"I don't know."
Ellen got up to reassure the guests that the paramedics were on their way, while I tried to comfort Tessa, who seemed completely out of it. I wanted to ask her what had happened, but she was drifting in and out of consciousness.
Thankfully, the paramedics arrived within a few minutes. They stabilized Tessa's leg and carefully moved her onto a stretcher. She was barely coherent, and the words that did come out were slurred and confused.
I grabbed my bag from my room and followed the ambulance to the Seabrook Medical Center, which was about fifteen miles away. The drive felt endless, my mind racing with images of Tessa at the bottom of those stairs, her leg bent wrong, blood on her face.
She had to be all right. She just had to be.
Chapter Ten
At the hospital, I filled out forms for Tessa, who was being prepped for surgery. She had a compound fracture in her leg, and it appeared that she also had a concussion. The nurse asked me if she'd taken anything, as she couldn't speak clearly. I said I thought she might have been drinking, but I didn't know what she had consumed.
After being sent to the waiting room, I texted Morgan, who was as shocked and scared as I was, although all we really knew at this point was that Tessa had fallen down the stairs. I had never seen her get wasted to a point where she couldn't walk or talk, but it she'd apparently done a lot of drinking with Finn.
Thinking about Finn made me angry. Why had he let her get out of his car in the condition she was in? And how had she gotten into that condition?
After an hour of worrying and being told by the nurse that it would probably be another hour or longer before Tessa was out of surgery, I called the bar and asked for Finn. He came on the line a moment later.
"Finn Kelly."
"This is Cassidy, Tessa's friend."
