I Was the Unwanted Fifth in Their Life and Death Pact novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Call Rejected
Abigail wakes in the ICU and learns her family told the hospital to stop calling; she watches her friends cut cake, calls her brother and fiancé, and removes all four from her emergency list. Derrick texts that Heidi is crying and she should fix it.
On my third morning in the ICU, the nurse told me my brother had asked the hospital to stop calling him.
"Your family said the calls were harassment," she said, checking my IV line. "I'm sorry, honey. We stopped."
I had been unconscious for two days.
My right leg was in plaster to the hip. My ribs were taped. They had taken out my spleen.
Nobody was sitting in the chair by the bed.
Tuesday night I had driven home from the county 911 center in the rain.
A car ran a red light and hit my driver's side.
It didn't stop.
I was stuck in the wreck for most of an hour, and I did the only thing I could.
I pressed Lifeline.
Three months ago Heidi had pressed it by accident at a nail salon, and all four of us ran red lights to get to her.
On Tuesday night I pressed it four times, with blood running into my eyes.
The screen said Call Rejected every time.
I asked the nurse for my phone.
She brought me the bag with my things in it. The screen was cracked across the middle.
I opened Heidi's page first, without really knowing why.
She had posted a photo an hour ago.
Derrick, Dane and Brody were crowded around her with a cake, and she wore a gold paper crown.
Her left wrist was in a black brace I hadn't seen before.
The caption said: Twenty today! My boys never let me blow out a candle alone.
I had booked the rooftop restaurant for her party on Saturday.
I had flown in a limited-edition crown for her from overseas, and it was sitting on her head.
I called my brother.
Dane picked up on the fourth ring, and I could hear a room full of people laughing.
"Abby, we're in the middle of cake."
"Dane, I'm in the ICU. I was in a car accident on Tuesday."
"Heidi said you've been upset about the party since Sunday." His voice went flat. "Don't do this today."
"I pressed the button four times."
"Yeah, we saw. Four times, over a late shift. You can't use the alert to throw a fit because Heidi's getting a party."
"I have a cast up to my hip."
"I'll call you tomorrow."
He hung up.
I called Derrick.
He answered on the second ring, which almost made me cry.
"Abigail, what is it? Is this about Tuesday?"
"Derrick, I was hit by a car. I'm in the hospital."
"Okay. Okay, you're okay, right? You're talking." He sounded tired, not scared. "Listen, next time, give me a heads-up before you hit that button. Everybody panicked."
"Nobody came."
"We're at Heidi's thing. Can you text me?"
Behind him I heard Brody say, "First slice goes to the birthday girl."
The room clapped.
Derrick ended the call without saying goodbye.
I lay there and listened to my IV drip.
Then I opened Lifeline.
The list had four names on it: Derrick, Dane, Brody, Heidi.
I took them off one at a time.
Each one asked me, Are you sure?
I pressed yes four times.
If there was no room for me in their circle, I could at least stop standing outside it.
I put the phone face down on the blanket.
The door opened and my surgeon came in with my chart.
Dr. Nolan Kerrigan was tall and tired, with a scar through his left eyebrow.
He had operated on my leg on Wednesday, and each time he had spoken to me, not just to my chart.
"Abigail, we're moving your second surgery to tomorrow," he said. "The hospital needs an emergency contact on file. Who should I put down?"
"Nobody."
"That isn't how it works."
"Then put down nobody."
He looked at the empty chair by the bed.
He looked at my phone, face down, and said nothing about it.
"I'll sign as the attending of record," he said. "And I'll be in the room the whole time."
"You don't have to do that."
"I know."
He wrote something on the chart and left.
My phone buzzed against the blanket.
It was Derrick.
Lifeline says you removed all of us. Heidi is crying in the bathroom. Fix it before the party's over.
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