Page 12 of Hope and Country

“I’m here, okay?” Robbie whispered, his voice tender. “We’ll be fine. No matter what. I’ll watch over you. Make sure you’re safe. You’ll never be alone. You’re all I have left.”

I inhaled, fighting the fresh batch of tears pooling in my eyes.

Right now, I was desperate to hear those words.

“Thanks.”

We didn’t say anything for the next hour.

At seven the next morning, the doctor came to see us. I was lying on a row of hospital chairs, my head propped on my brother’s lap as he played with my hair, while I fell in and out of sleep.

The entire time, he repeated we’d be all right. And I really wanted to believe him.

But deep down, something told me nothing would be okay if my mom died.

“I’m sorry, but your father passed a couple of minutes ago. There was nothing we could do. He had a perforated lung, and his spinal cord was crushed.”

Robbie straightened and pushed me into a sitting position next to him. I held to his hand like a lifeline as the doctor delivered the news.

We both bobbed our heads as he kept talking. But I registered nothing. Not a word. All my thoughts drifted to my mother. Would she still be alive at the end of the day? I couldn’t lose her. I needed her. She was my hero. Heroes didn’t die in a car crash. With a moose. They fought back. They fought for their lives. They survived.

Harry had been hitting her for years. And my sperm donor did before him. And she had always survived those attacks. She was a fighter. Stronger than any of us. If someone could go through a deadly car crash, it was her.

After everything she suffered in so many years, she deserved her own happy ending. Her happily-ever-after. True love. A hero to deliver her from her hell.

Robbie’s arm draped around my shoulders. His voice brought me back.

“What about Karen? Did she pull through the surgery?”

The doctor’s voice reached my ears this time. “It’s too early to tell. She’s stable now but in a comma. We should know more in the next few hours. I hope. Hang on, kids. We’re doing our best.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Don’t be,” Robbie barked. “He was a wife-beater. The guy earned everything happening to him tonight.”

The doctor’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.

“We’ll keep you informed as soon as we know more.”

“Can we see her?” I asked, my voice shaky and barely audible.

“Not right now. Give her some time. She’s in ICU. She needs a lot of rest and care. We’ll come to get you as soon as possible.”

I held my breath for a beat, trying to calm the nausea swirling in my empty stomach.

“Please, mom. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave us. We need ya. And you’re free now,” I muttered to myself, hoping any saint, god, or divinity up there could hear my prayer and save my mother from her deadly fate.

5

DEVON

Present

“Let go, Robbie. You’re hurting me.” My stepbrother pushed me inside the elevator car, clamping his fingers on my upper arm, sure to leave a bruise, his stare burning my skin. Robbie and I used to be close. Brother and sister. Best friends. Not quite. Not anymore.

Something happened in his life and made him like this. Hard and violent. Heartless and furious. Like his father.

Did Krista divorce him three years ago because he hit her too?

How would I know? Once the papers were signed, she moved out of state, and nobody had seen her since.