Chapter 12: Taken Care Of

I had the gate open before Silvio reached the bottom of the stairs.

Tara fell against me in the doorway.

She was cold through the nightgown, and her lips had no color.

"Claire," she said. "Claire, it hurts."

"I know. Where does it hurt?"

"Low. All the way across." Her voice broke. "There's so much blood."

I put two fingers against her wrist.

Her pulse was fast but steady.

I looked at the dark marks on her legs and counted what I could see.

I made myself think like a nurse and not like her sister.

It was a lot, but it was not the worst I'd seen.

"How long?"

"An hour. Mom was asleep. I didn't know who else." She was crying too hard to say more. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't know where else to go."

"I'll drive," Silvio said.

He was already dressed, with his keys in his hand.

I looked at him over Tara's head.

He didn't ask whether he should help.

The three of us were in his car in under two minutes.

Tara lay across the back seat with her head in my lap, and I kept my hand on her cold forehead the whole way.

"Is it going to die?" she whispered.

"I don't know yet."

"I didn't do anything. I didn't lift anything."

"I know you didn't."

I was a nurse at Mercer General, and they knew my face at the doors.

The night charge nurse took one look at Tara and didn't ask a single question.

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