Madness

Chapter 57

~If you are not too long, I will
wait here for you all my life.~

We spent the whole evening at the hospital in the midst of the general agitation and everything else going on. I was at Steph's side the whole time, she had stopped crying and was just staring at the floor with a blank look on her face. Steve went to get me a coffee from the machine, and I thanked him, half smiling, as we waited to hear from the doctor. The doctors spent a long time in her room before leaving. We all promptly stood up, anxious to know, my eyes quickly caught the gray color of the doctor's face, which had a grim downward look. Steph immediately noticed the funereal air around him. Without saying a word, she fell back into her chair with glassy eyes.

"What's wrong, doctor?"

"We still have to run some tests, but it seems that his heart condition has gotten worse."

"But... will she be okay?"

"It's hard to say right now, we will know in a few days after we do some more tests."

"But you say... will she be okay?"

"Lady, your grandmother's condition is... not the best."

Steph leaned her head against the wall next to her chair. She was flanked by her brother, who leaned on his sister's shoulder with a desperate look on his face. George came up to me in silence and took me aside so that his children would not be able to hear us.

"Arte, please take Steph and Steve home. I don't want them to spend the night in the hospital."

Without saying a word, I agreed and dragged them home. At the estate, Joanne was waiting for us, and as soon as she saw her stepchildren, she gave them a big hug. Steph, strangely enough, returned the hug and buried her face in her shoulder. I then walked with her to her bed and stayed with her until she fell asleep. She looked so tired. I could understand her after what she had been through that day. The next morning at breakfast everyone was silent except for Joanne who was in the midst of reassuring the guys. Throughout the day there was no sign of Douglas, the weather in San Francisco began to deteriorate, and our concern for him grew. We had several attempts at phone contact with him, but there was never an answer. We went to the hospital several times a day, but her condition did not improve. In fact, it got worse and worse, and we could not find Douglas there either, which made us even more worried. We stayed until about 3 am and when we left it was pouring rain. Steve tried to keep a moderate speed as much as possible on the waterlogged roads. There was a line of cars and a bunch of people walking around dazed just before the Golden Bridge. We watched the spectacle in amazement. The headlights of the cars illuminated the marks of wheels that had come to an abrupt stop. Policemen stopped us and tried to keep the traffic flowing. Only then did we see a black Jaguar coming from the opposite direction. A very familiar figure got out of the car, and we recognized her as she approached the two men. Lux was distraught as she drove to the exact spot where the handrail of the road had collapsed, not caring about all the water that was soaking her. The two police officers immediately stopped her and could barely hold her back as she fell into their arms and began to cry. We immediately rushed to her side and tried to calm her down, but it was at that moment that she became hysterical. She was kicking like crazy in Steve's arms and, if we hadn't pulled away, she would have surely hit us.

"Mrs. Fitzgerald, please calm down!"

"Where's my sister?"

"We haven't... found her yet, there was only her car!"

"What happened to Maat?"

Steve had a confused look on his face as he put Lux, who had calmed down a bit in the meantime, down to listen to the inspector's words. The middle-aged man took off his glasses, massaging the bridge of his nose as he looked ahead.