with, but if Jonah doesn’t know about it, I don’t think him confiscating my phone and reading my texts would be good for their relationship.
I’ll call her at lunch and force her to tell me. Even if it involves Jonah, I want to know.
CHAPTER FIVE
MORGAN
I once heard someone say we’re all just one phone call away from our knees.
It’s the absolute truth. My voice comes out in a shaky whisper when I ask, “Is he okay?”
I wait for the nurse on the other end of the line to tell me that Chris will be fine. But all I get is a long stretch of silence. It feels like someone is wringing my spine like a wet towel. I want to double over from the pain, but the pain isn’t physical. It’s an intangible anguish that feels terminal.
“I don’t know details,” the nurse says. “All I know is that he was brought in a few moments ago, so try to get here as soon as possible.”
I choke out an okay before ending the call, but I’m almost positive she would have given me more information if the news were better.
If the news were better, Chris would have called me himself.
I’m holding Elijah. I was holding him when the phone rang, and now I’m clutching him even tighter, still on my knees. For at least a minute, I’m frozen on my living room floor. But then Elijah yawns, and it snaps me back into a grim reality.
I call Jenny first, but her phone goes to voice mail. It’s her first day back to work. She won’t have her phone on her until her lunch break. But word will spread fast at the hospital, and she’ll find out soon enough.
I start to call Jonah next so that he can come get Elijah, but I don’t even have his phone number saved in my phone. I rush to the sheet of paper Jenny left me this morning and enter the number she wrote down to reach him. It goes straight to voice mail. He’s in class.
I’ll call the school to get in touch with him soon, but every second I spend trying to contact someone is a second longer it’s going to take me to get to the hospital. I strap Elijah into his car seat, grab his diaper bag and my keys, and leave.
The trip to the hospital is a blur. I spend it whispering prayers and gripping the steering wheel and stealing glances at my phone resting in the passenger seat, waiting for Jenny to call me back.
I don’t call Clara at school yet. I need to know that Chris is okay before I worry her.
If they haven’t already notified Jenny that Chris was in a wreck, I’ll have them page her when I get inside. She can take Elijah then.
For now, he’s with me, so I take his diaper bag and his car seat and run toward the entrance. I’m faster than the automatic sliding doors of the emergency room. I’m forced to pause my sprint for a couple of seconds so they can open wide enough for me to enter. As soon as I’m inside, I go straight to the nurse’s desk. It’s a nurse I don’t recognize. I used to know almost everyone in this hospital because I thought it made Chris look good for me to know everyone at his office parties, but they come and go so often, I don’t even try to keep up anymore.
“Where’s my husband?” The words tumble out in a panic. Her eyes are sympathetic.
“Who is your husband?”
“Chris.” I gasp for air. “Chris Grant. He works here, and he was just brought in.”
Her expression changes when I say his name. “Let me get someone who can help you. I just got on shift.”
“Can you page my sister? She works here too. Jenny Davidson.”
The nurse nods but rushes away from the window without paging Jenny.
I set Elijah’s car seat on the closest chair. I try Jenny again and then Jonah’s cell phone again, but they both go straight to voice mail.
I don’t have time to wait on the nurse to figure out her shit. I call the hospital and ask for Labor and Delivery. They connect me after the most excruciating thirty seconds of hold time in my life.
“Labor and Delivery, how may I direct your call?”
“I need to speak to Jenny Davidson. One of your nurses. It’s an emergency.”
“Hold, please.”
Elijah starts to cry, so I put my phone on speaker and set it