Hate, actually ✔

Chapter 24

"Yes, yes, yes I do
like you. I am afraid
to write the stronger word."

- Virginia Woolf, from a
letter Vita-Sackville-West
written c. February 1927

●●●

It's Myrtle at the door. She has the house phone in her hand and someone is on the other line for Leonardo. I guess since he wasn't picking up his personal phone, whoever it is decided to try the house phone.

I walk back into the room just as Leo starts talking to the caller.

"Yes, this is he," Leonardo says into the receiver.

I can't get it out of my head, what happened a few minutes ago I mean. I have never in my life been that intimate or physically close to Leonardo for that long. It's left me shaken.

"Next of kin? But how?" Leo asks whoever is on the other line. He looks up from the ground at me and panic is written all over his face.

My stomach drops.

"What is it?" I ask frantically when he starts pacing the room. His breathing doesn't sound normal. He's panicking.

My heart is beating a mile a minute just by looking at him.

Leo blocks the receiver with his hand so he can speak to me. "Put some warm clothes on and get Myrtle to pack a bag with some of Kira's things, we're going to the hospital."

Before I can ask any questions, he goes back to his confusing conversation - confusing because I can only hear one side of it.

My mind is racing with so many different things as I put my coat and shoes on. Myrtle is already busy with packing Kira's bottles, wipes, diapers, etc.

I grab a coat for Leonardo too and we head out with a fast asleep Kira. She looks like a cocoon with all the blankets I've wrapped around her. It's freezing tonight.

Because of Leo's facial expression, I am too afraid to ask him what's wrong, but I know I have to.

"Who was on the phone?" I ask once we're on our way to wherever we're going. My voice is brittle with anxiety.

Leonardo, who is astride me in the back seat blanches as he remembers the conversation.

"St. Jude's memorial hospital. Lauren and Steve...-"

"Leonardo," I say cautiously, "Leonardo are they... are they okay? Don't tell me any bad news."

He offers to take Kira from me and I let him. He speaks after a long pause. "Sadie, the doctor isn't at all sure if they're going to make it."

My heart is beating so fast that I might throw up. "What the fuck happened...?"

Reaching out to place his hand on mine, Leonardo says, "They were involved in an accident on their way to the airport."

He looks like he's trying to be calm for my sake. I don't how the heck he's doing it.

This is not the way things are supposed to go right now. At all. I'm already crying before we reach the hospital.