Chapter 13
The news hit the hallway like a physical shockwave. Elena dropped the iron key, the sharp metallic clatter echoing off the high ceiling as she stared at Clara in absolute horror.
“Cardiac arrest?” Elena repeated, her voice pitching upward in sheer panic. “We need to get to the hospital right now. Where is Mom?”
“She’s already in the ambulance,” Clara cried out, tears streaming freely down her cheeks as she grabbed Elena by the arm. “They took him to Mercy General. Come on, we have to go!”
Elena turned toward the front door, but stopped dead in her tracks when she realized her car keys were still sitting on the kitchen counter inside the house that legally no longer belonged to them.
Before she could panic further, a set of silver car keys flew through the air, caught neatly out of mid-air by Thomas, who stepped past them toward the front entrance.
“Take my car,” Thomas said, his voice entirely devoid of the hostility he had carried just moments before. “It’s parked right in the driveway. It’s faster than your sedan.”
Clara glared at Thomas, her grief momentarily overshadowed by fierce distrust. “We don’t need your charity, and we certainly don’t need your car—”
“Stop it, Clara!” Elena shouted, cutting her sister off with a sharp authority that made Clara flinch. She turned back to Thomas, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Thank you.”
“Go,” Thomas urged, pushing the front door open for them. “I’ll meet you at the hospital. There’s something I need to bring with me that belongs to your father anyway.”
Elena didn’t waste another second. She grabbed Clara’s hand, and together they sprinted out the front door, down the steps, and across the lawn toward Thomas’s sleek black sedan idling in the driveway.
As Elena slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door, she looked up through the windshield and saw Thomas standing on the porch, holding the old family photograph he had turned over earlier, his expression unreadable in the gray autumn light.
May you like
Elena threw the car into reverse, tires crunching loudly against the gravel as she backed out onto the street, her foot pressing hard on the gas pedal.
The digital dashboard clock blinked brightly at them, flashing the time as 11:45 AM—leaving exactly fifteen minutes before the official twenty-four-hour extension Thomas had granted them expired entirely.
