Regretting You - Colleen Hoover Page 0,28

Her name is Sierra. She has a daughter in Clara’s class. She looks at me, and then her eyes fix on Jonah.

“I think there’s been a mistake,” Jonah says.

I’m next to him at the window now, holding Elijah. I can’t feel my legs. I don’t even know how I walked from the chair to here. “Who had a wreck? Who was brought in?” I can’t stop the questions from spilling out of me. “Was it my husband or my sister?”

Sierra’s eyes dart from me to Jonah and then down to the desk in front of her. “Let me get someone who can help you, Morgan.”

Jonah grabs at his hair when she walks away. “Dammit.”

It’s not lost on me that no one seems to want to be in our presence. We’re being avoided, and that terrifies me. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news.

“They can’t both be hurt,” I whisper. “They can’t.”

“They’re not,” Jonah says. His voice is so full of confidence I almost believe him. But then he rubs his forehead and leans against the wall for support. “Who called you? What did they say?”

“The hospital. About twenty minutes ago. They specifically said Chris. There was no mention of Jenny.”

“Same, but they told me Jenny.”

Just then, Sierra reappears, this time through the doors. “You guys can come with me.”

She doesn’t take us to a hospital room. She takes us to another waiting room, farther inside the ER.

Jonah is holding Elijah now. I didn’t even notice he took him from me. Sierra tells us to have a seat, but neither of us does.

“I don’t have news on their conditions yet.”

“So, it is both of them?” Jonah asks. “Jenny and Chris?”

She nods.

“Oh my God,” I whisper. I drop my head in my hands. Two huge tears slide down my cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Morgan,” she says. “You guys can wait in here, and as soon as I know something, I’ll be back.” Sierra leaves the room and closes the door.

Jonah sits next to me.

We’ve been in the emergency room less than ten minutes, but the fact that we still don’t know anything makes it seem like hours have gone by.

“Maybe one of their cars broke down,” Jonah mutters. “That’s probably why they were together.”

I nod, but my mind can’t even process that sentence right now. I don’t know why they were together, in the same car. I don’t know why Jenny lied to us and said she was working today. I don’t even care. I just need to know that they’re okay.

Jonah straps a sleeping Elijah into his car seat, then stands and begins pacing the room. I look at the time on my cell phone. I should call someone to pick up Clara. A friend of mine. Or Lexie. I want someone to get to Clara before she finds out about the wreck from someone else.

I should call Chris’s parents.

No, I’ll wait. Make sure he’s okay first. They live in Florida. Not much they can do from there but worry unnecessarily.

Jonah calls his mother and asks if she can come pick up Elijah. Before he hangs up, I get his attention. “Would she mind going to get Clara?”

Jonah nods in understanding, then asks his mother to pick up Clara from school. He then calls the school and hands me his phone. I let them know his mom will be picking her up.

Clara has met Jonah’s mother a couple of times, but she’s going to be confused, and Jonah’s mother isn’t anyone on the pickup list for Clara. I just don’t want Clara driving up here alone. She’ll be full of worry and panic, and she hasn’t had her license all that long.

A few more minutes pass. Jonah spends it calling the police station, trying to get information about the wreck. They won’t tell him much. He asks what the model of the vehicle is that was involved. It was Jenny’s car. A Toyota Highlander. A male was driving. But that’s all they’ll tell him.

“Why was Chris driving her car?” Jonah asks. I treat it as a rhetorical question, but he mutters another. “Why did she lie about working today?”

I keep watching my phone as if Jenny or Chris is going to call me and tell me they’re fine.

“Morgan,” Jonah says.

I don’t look at him.

“Do you think . . . are they having an—”

“Don’t say it,” I spit out.

I don’t want to hear it. Or think it. It’s absurd. It’s incomprehensible.

I stand up and start to pace the portion of

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