Page 78 of Letters to Molly (Maysen Jar 2)

I nearly fell off my chair. No. No, this wasn’t happening. We’d had the worst today. Hadn’t we? This could not get worse. We couldn’t lose Finn.

I took a deep breath, then another. I threw the broken band away and let my hair fall. I wouldn’t tempt fate by trying to put it up again. Then I distracted my thoughts from the worst by studying the people in the room.

Gerry and each of the other foremen from Alcott had come to the hospital, a slew of crew members filtering in after them. Bridget was here too, sitting across from the kids and me, drinking her coffee and grimacing after each sip.

“You don’t need to stay.” It was the nicest way I’d come up with in the last five hours to tell her to leave.

She met my gaze, her own narrowing. “Yes, I do.”

“Why?”

She wasn’t family. She wasn’t a friend here. She was Finn’s employee and I hated her. I hated her blond pixie cut. I hated how she wore tank tops that fit her toned body perfectly. I hated that she made a men’s style of work pant look cute. I was woman enough to admit there’d been jealousy there at one point. She was this tiny ball of muscle with a cute face and a bright smile, and she was at Finn’s side every single day.

But that wasn’t why I hated her. I hated her because she thought it wa

s her duty to judge me. Bridget thought she was above me, better. That despite being on the outside, she knew more about my marriage than me. I hated that Finn had told her about my one-night stand. I hated that he’d trusted her with that information, and she’d used it against me.

The last time I’d been to Alcott, right before the divorce, she’d called me a whore to my face.

I hadn’t seen Bridget since then. She looked exactly the same, though with a few more fine lines on her face. Working in the sun all the time was taking its toll.

“I’m staying. Finn is important to me,” she snapped. “So are his kids.”

My kids.

I clamped my mouth shut and went back to staring at the wall. Nothing good would come from me fighting with Bridget today. Not when I had more important things to worry about.

Like how I was going to survive if Finn didn’t. Or how I was going to keep our children afloat if their father died.

My stomach rolled, saliva filled my mouth, and I swallowed hard, forcing myself not to puke. I had to be strong. For Kali and Max, I couldn’t give in to the dread and doubt that was slowly taking over.

Why was this surgery taking so long? Was it because the doctors were struggling to fix him?

Don’t take him. Please.

The three of us were on a small loveseat. Normally, there’d barely be enough room for Kali, Max and me to fit. But since they were both lying on my lap, their bodies squished to mine as tightly as they could, there was room to spare.

Please don’t take him.

I hadn’t had a chance to pray for Jamie. He’d been stolen from us before we’d had the chance. But for Finn, I prayed. I’d been praying for hours. Praying for a miracle.

“Can I get you anything, Molly?” one of Finn’s employees asked. He was the guy who’d been standing next to the kids. He’d come to the hospital after we’d left, along with a bunch of other guys and the foremen.

“I’m sorry. What is your name?”

“Jeff, ma’am.”

“No, thank you, Jeff.”

Kali had told me after we’d arrived at the hospital that the three calls I’d missed had been from her. Jeff had let her use his phone.

He pointed to the kids, mouthing, “Anything for them?”

I shook my head.

Kali and Max both had their eyes closed. Max was asleep. The emotional stress from the day had worn him down completely. Kali wasn’t though. She looked like she was asleep, but every few minutes, her body tensed.

Each time, I held her closer.