“Is he dead?” Eve asked.
Hannah nodded. Even though she hadn’t known him, she was sad about his passing.
“I’m sorry,” Lacey said.
“Thank you. So, anyway, we were supposed to fly back the next day after the funeral when I started feeling sick. My brother took me to the doctor there. It took a while because of the problem communicating with each other until they found an interpreter, but I was finally diagnosed with sepsis.”
“What’s that?” Eve asked.
“It’s an infection of my blood, and it’s really serious.”
“Oh, God,” Sienna said. “What happened to you?”
“I died twice.”
Every woman gasped and then started sobbing and holding her. They made a tight circle together to be close to each other.
When they all finally calmed down, she wiped her eyes and continued. “I guess I came back quickly both times. I don’t know how many blood transfusions I had. They put me in a drug-induced coma for a few days to help my body heal.”
“Jesus,” Lacey said.
“It took about three months to be healthy enough to leave the hospital, and we came right home.”
“Weren’t you and Cullen together at the time?” Nia asked. “What did he say?”
“Yes, we were, but he didn’t know what was going on. They’d let me talk to him on the phone sometimes, but I was often too sick. When I could talk, my energy was so low it was hard to have a conversation. Especially trying to sound like I was okay.”
“Why didn’t you tell him? I bet he was really worried when he didn’t know why you stayed,” Kinley said.
Hannah shook her head. “I couldn’t tell him.”
“Why?” Sienna asked.
“Because he had just started his business, and it was growing. Can you imagine what would happen to it if he’d been gone three months?”
Hannah watched the girls seem to think about it for a moment.
“I wouldn’t have told Travis either. He worked so hard for his business that I wouldn’t want to be the one to destroy it,” Nia said.
The other girls agreed.
“He’s not going to see it from our point of view,” Sienna predicted.
“I won’t have to tell him now since he’s with someone else,” Hannah said and then burst into tears again. It took the group a few minutes to settle down enough to talk.
“I wouldn’t count on him going away, Hannah,” Lacey said. “He looked determined today.”
“I’m not sure about that.”
“Just be prepared if Lacey is right,” Eve said.
Hannah nodded. “Hey, I need your help with something.”
“Name it,” Sienna said.
“I want to learn to drive. Can you teach me?”
Everyone turned to Nia.