Chapter 21: The Second Page

Renzo's POV

I rode in the ambulance with my father's hand in mine.

It was the first time I had held it since I was nine.

The paramedics cut his shirt open and put wires on his chest, and he looked at me over the mask.

"Don't let her in," he said.

"Who?"

"Your mother."

I nodded, and he closed his eyes.

At the hospital they took him through double doors.

I was left in a hallway with a plastic chair and a vending machine.

I did not sit.

Casey came in with my sister twenty minutes later, her coat open and her face white.

She did not say anything.

She put her arms around my waist from the front and pressed her cheek against my chest.

I held her harder than I should have, because she was carrying a child.

"He's alive," I said into her hair. "They're working."

"I know. I'm here."

Over her shoulder I saw the elevator open.

Adele came down the hall with her sapphire still at her throat and two of her cousins behind her.

Her eyes went to Casey in my arms, and her mouth thinned.

"I'm his wife," she said. "I'll see my husband."

"No," I said.

"Renzo."

"He told me to keep you out."

"He is delirious."

"He was clear."

She stood in front of me, small and straight.

For one moment I was nine again, and she was holding my chin to inspect my face.

"I carried you," she said, softly. "I fed you with my own body."

"I know, Mama."

"Then step aside."

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