After the Thanksgiving weekend was over, we returned to Cape Hill, and I moved into Royce’s room. Or our room. Thankfully, Macalister continued to make himself scarce, or at least the impending offer for Ascension and the end-of-the-year reports kept him too busy.
Or perhaps he was avoiding me. Either way, I was glad.
The week before winter finals, I was in my Porsche, driving to Boston for my first wedding dress fitting with Donna Willow, when my phone rang. My mother’s number flashed on the center console, and I clicked the button on my steering wheel.
“Are you running late?” I asked. She was supposed to meet me at the salon.
“No. I’m taking Emily to the emergency room.” Her panicked voice cracked through the car speakers. “Baby isn’t moving.”
My sister had decided she didn’t want to know the sex of her baby until birth. She wanted it to be a happy surprise, she’d said, so we all used the term of endearment. Her child wasn’t a ‘the,’ they were Baby. I’d hated it at first, but it had grown on me, bringing a smile to my face. But now cold fingers slipped inside my body and squeezed my heart.
“Which hospital? Port Cove?” My hands trembled as I navigated onto the shoulder of the highway and put on my hazards. I’d turn around if her answer was yes.
“Mass General.”
Okay, that was good. I wanted my sister in the best possible hands. “Right. I’ll meet you there.” I checked traffic and was able to pull back onto the road. “How is she doing?”
“She’s scared, Marist. We all are.”
I did my best to sound calm and even. “It’s going to be okay.”
“How can you know that?”
My bottom lip quivered, but I held it together as I echoed what my fiancé had said to me before. “Because Royce has more money than God, and he’ll make it so.”
It was a tense, stressful drive to the hospital, and when I called to tell him what was going on, I was shocked to learn Royce already knew. My mother had called him first, before me. I was her sister and best friend, and he was her—what? Soon to be brother-in-law?
I took a page out of my mother’s passive aggressive playbook and got several digs in while we were placed in a room and waited for Emily’s doctor to arrive.
“I understand you’re hurt,” my mother said, “but I was panicking and didn’t know what to do. Emily’s doctor was out of town, and . . .” She sighed. “The Hales have a lot more power to throw around than we do. So, yes. I called Royce first, but I did it because I knew he’d help get my daughter what she needed.”
Her face softened as she stared at my sister, who looked uncomfortable and frightened as she lay in her hospital bed. They’d strapped a monitor to her belly, and she was fixated on the screen of the machine, even as we had no idea what it meant. Once it had started running, it was like everything else in the room ceased to exist.
My mother’s hand was cold with fear when she grabbed mine and squeezed. “He’s been so good to Emily.” Her voice dropped low, only for me. “Has he been good to you?”
She peered at me and, with everything happening, it must have given her focus on what was truly important because she actually saw me. Her thoughtful eyes begged for my honesty.
“Because if he hasn’t, you leave him. I’m serious, Marist. I know you worry about us, but you shouldn’t. We’ll be fine.” Her grip tightened, like she wanted to put extra emphasis on what she was saying. “I’m sorry if I made you think otherwise, but I want you to know the only thing that’s ever mattered to me is you girls and your happiness.”
I already knew it was true, but it was good to hear it again and reinforce it. My parents had given my sister and me the best of everything, including their love. The most important thing had been free; I just wished they hadn’t gone underwater to give us everything else.
But it was done. The only pathway was forward now.
“Yes, he’s good to me.” I squeezed her back. “I love him. Like, really. Somehow, it worked out.”
Her smile was full of relief. “Good, thank God. I’m happy for you both.” Her gaze left mine and drifted to her other daughter. “It makes things . . . easier.”
“It does,” I said.
My marriage would bring enormous privilege to my family, but she’d never know that falling in love with Royce or becoming a Hale had been anything but easy.
It wasn’t long after that when Emily jolted in her bed and new concern streaked across her face. “I think my water just broke.”
Everyone was up out of their chairs. She wasn’t due for another three weeks.