Page 6 of Never Forget
Amber was saying something about how funny it was that we all knew each other. Bryce was laughing. I was standing there with my hands at my sides, thinking about how this family now included the man who had destroyed the girl I'd loved since I was a teenager.
I had to end this. Tonight. Now.
"Amber, can we talk for a minute?"
Before she could answer, my phone rang.
I pulled it out, ready to ignore it, and saw a number I didn’t recognize. Normally I'd let it go to voicemail. But something made me answer.
"Sam Reeves?"
"Speaking."
"This is Havensworth General Hospital. We have you listed as an emergency contact for Jack Donovan."
Everything stopped. The party. The music. Amber's hand on my arm. Bryce's voice somewhere in the background.
"What happened?"
"Mr. Donovan was brought in earlier this evening. Smoke inhalation from a structure fire. He's stable, but the doctors would like you to come in."
Jack was in the hospital. Jack, who was covering my shift. Jack, who was only there because I'd asked him to be.
"I'm on my way."
I hung up. Amber was staring at me.
"Sam? What's wrong?"
"I have to go." I was already moving. "Jack's in the hospital."
"Wait, Sam?—"
I didn't wait. I pushed through the crowd. I heard Amber calling after me but I didn't stop.
The breakup would have to wait.
Everything would have to wait.
The hospital smelled like antiseptic and anxiety. I found Jack's room on the third floor.
Loretta was sitting vigil in the chair beside his bed. She'd been their mother's best friend, practically an aunt to Jack and Jamie, and when their parents died she'd helped Jack hold everything together. Now she was holding Rosie, Jack's four-year-old daughter, asleep in her arms with her thumb in her mouth, unaware that her father was hooked up to machines that beeped too loudly in the silence.
Loretta looked up when I walked in. She didn't speak, but she nodded once, a small, tired acknowledgment.Thank you for coming.
Jack looked smaller than I'd ever seen him. Pale. Wrong.
But his eyes were open, and when he saw me, he smiled.
"Hey." His voice was rough. Scratchy. "You're supposed to be at your fancy party."
"Shut up." I crossed the room and gripped his hand, probably too tight. "What happened to you?"
"House fire. I got the mother out, but her daughter was still inside." He coughed, winced. "So I went back in."
Of course he did. Jack would always go back in. It was the best thing about him and the most terrifying.
"The floor gave out right after I got her through the window. Swallowed a lot of smoke on the way down." He shrugged, like it was nothing. "Docs say I'll be fine. Just need to let my lungs recover."
