Beautiful Lies (Breaking Belles #2) - Alta Hensley Page 0,61

way away from me and crossed her arms over her chest. She dropped her gaze to the floor, her hair falling and shielding her features from me. Still, I heard her murmur, “It’s bad.”

Goddammit, why did everyone keep saying that but not giving me any more details?

But just then, a nurse came out. I hurried over. “I’m the oldest sister of Reba Collins. Please, I need to know her condition. What’s happening with her? Is there a doctor I can speak to about her condition?”

A look of sympathy passed over the woman’s face. “I’ll get Dr. Reynard for you. Just one moment.”

I nodded and let her continue on her way. She gave some papers to another person in the waiting room then disappeared back behind the door. I paced and bit at my fingernails for the next ten minutes until a middle-aged woman emerged.

I hurried over to her. “Dr. Reynard?” I asked hopefully. “I’m Reba’s oldest sister.”

She gave a soft, kindly smile. “She was asking for you earlier, but she’s asleep now.”

Ten thousandth gut punch. She’d been in pain, so sick, and asking for me—and I wasn’t there. I’d been out trying to catch a hail-Mary pass and failing spectacularly.

“How is she?”

Dr. Reynard’s face clouded. “Not so good. She’s in the final stages of renal failure. Getting another UTI put stress on her renal system that it just couldn’t handle.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked sharply. Then I winced. “Shit, I’m sorry.” Then realized I’d just cussed again. “I’m sorry. So, does she finally get moved to the front of the list? Can she get a transplant?”

And then came The Look.

The same fucking look I’d seen on a hundred doctors’ faces—first when my mom was dying and then later when Reba was a teenager and we found out she had the same kidney disease Mama finally died of.

The Look that said, oh so sorry, the doctor felt bad, but there was Nothing They Could Do.

I started shaking my head. “No,” I said. I took the doctor’s forearm and steered us away from my sisters, to the corner of the room. “No. My sister deserves that kidney. She deserves to be at the front of the list. Tanya didn’t tell me much, but she told me Reba collapsed. She f— She freaking collapsed. My mom died of this. I cannot go tell those girls over there that they’re going to lose their sister, too. Don’t you dare make me go tell them that. You’re a doctor. Fix my sister!”

Dr. Reynard looked at me more compassionately than most doctors bothered with. And I got it, I really did. She was working a night shift in a regional hospital in Nowheresfuck, Georgia. Still, still. If she wouldn’t help me, who the fuck would?

“It’s still possible the antibiotics will kick in and she’ll recover from the UTI, and I’ll do everything I can to see if I can bump up her priority status on the list, but there are very strict guidelines and simply so many people in need, plus so few donors—”

I turned away from her, sick to death of the words I’d heard a thousand times before.

Just in time to see Sully running into the waiting room, his heavy footfalls echoing even as he came to a stop, looking around.

His eyes landed on me about three point two seconds after I’d seen him.

He’d come.

He’d left the Oleander and risked everything he’d stayed for, whatever the hell had kept him there enduring all that he hated, he’d left it all.

For me.

I fled across the room and flung myself into his arms.

22

Portia

They wouldn’t let me in to see Reba all night. All excruciating night long I had to wait to see my beautiful baby sister.

The only way I survived it was Sully.

Once he had me in his arms, he didn’t let go. He kept hold of me in some way, even if it was grasping my hand in his while I haltingly introduced him to Tanya and LeAnn. They were curious—Tanya looked outright suspicious of him in his fancy tux the Elders had given him—good Lord, had that only been earlier tonight when he’d tromped so confidently down those stairs naked by my side? It felt like a lifetime ago.

So yeah, Tanya all but glared at him all night as he stayed by my side. LeAnn looked at him like he was a knight in shining armor come to save us. She’d watched too much old school Disney growing up—completely all my

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