They spun me closer to her side, and even though she was unconscious, I took her hand and kissed it. I didn’t care that everyone was looking. “You’re so amazing,” I whispered into her neck. “And I love you.”
I laid back down and they moved us both down the hall. As I passed Cricket’s family, they all touched me. Only Ellie spoke though, after she kissed my cheek.
“We’re so grateful.”
“So am I,” I told her, folding the letter in her hand.
Inside the operating room, the anesthesiologist introduced himself and described what he was going to do, but my pulse rang so loudly in my ears that I didn’t hear him.
“Count down for me,” he said.
“One hundred,” I started. Cricket’s face. “Ninety-nine.” Cricket’s smile. “Ninety-eight,” I slurred. Cricket’s kiss…
“Spencer?” someone, a man, asked me. “Can you hear me?”
I felt someone, a nurse perhaps, rearrange some tubing. I winced when I tried to open my eyes, so I closed them again.
“Spencer? Can you respond to us, please?”
I attempted to open my mouth, but I couldn’t find the energy or the desire, so I decided I didn’t care and welcomed the black again.
“Spencer?” my sister asked.
I sluggishly opened my eyes and saw her face. She looked so tired.
“How is she?” I rasped. She looked up at Jonah. “How is she?” I repeated.
“How are you feeling?” she ignored me.
I opened my eyes farther and cringed when I tried to sit up a little. “Answer me.”
Tears fell down her face. “Spencer,” she said cautiously.
“Why are you crying?” I asked her. “Why is she crying?” I asked Jonah, terror-stricken.
“Calm down,” Jonah said, trying to make me lay back down. “You’re recovering.”
o;But this news can’t wait.” He beamed, delighted in the horror he was causing the room.
“Can’t you see what we’re dealing with right now?” I asked him. I changed tactics. “Please, whatever it is you have, just give it to me on my own. These people have too much on their plates right now. Here,” I said, walking toward the door, “let’s step outside.”
“I guess,” he said, “but this news concerns them too. Well,” he said, a sinister laugh escaping his lips, “it really only involves them.”
“What-what? Why? My dad’s business is with me, not with them.”
“But you made it their business when you decided to live on their property.”
My breaths became labored. “What has he done?”
Without another glance my direction, he turned to Emmett. “Emmett Hunt?” he asked.
“Yes?” a baffled Emmett answered.
He handed the envelope to him and Emmett took it before I could snatch it from Dominic’s hands. “You’ve hereby been served with an eviction notice,” he told them, a blackhearted smile on his evil face.
Emmett’s and Ellie’s faces dropped.
“No!” I screamed, moving to attack Dominic.