My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 639

Chapter 639

Jules screamed, “Mommy!”

She broke free from Claire and reached the stretcher before Salvatore caught her.

“No!” she sobbed so hard she could barely breathe, “Please don’t take her!”

My body still wouldn’t move. I simply watched. It felt like I had stepped outside myself. The stretcher rolled past me. Morn’s hand slipped from mine.

I didn’t even remember letting go or following them and then suddenly I was inside the ambulance with them.

The ambulance doors slammed shut behind us. I sat on the narrow bench beside the stretcher. Jules sat pressed against me, crying into my shoulder so hard her whole body shook.

I wrapped an arm around her automatically. It felt mechanical like someone else was moving my body for me.

A paramedic remained beside Mom throughout the drive. He watched the cardiac monitor without taking his eyes off it. Another checked her blood pressure again.

“Pressure’s falling.”

He adjusted the oxygen, then checked her pulse. The ambulance sped through traffic, the siren echoing around us.

I stared at Mom. Her chest rose only because the paramedic kept helping her breathe. The monitor continued its uneven rhythm. Every few seconds another alarm sounded.

The ambulance stopped beneath the emergency entrance of the Capones’ private hospital.

The rear doors opened immediately. Doctors and nurses were already waiting. Someone had called ahead. The stretcher rolled straight through the emergency doors without stopping.

A doctor walked beside it, reading the report while another examined Mom, “Transfer to resuscitation.”

“Cardiology has been paged.”.

“Notify ICU.”

The doors swung closed.

We weren’t allowed to follow.

The man removed his glasses slowly. His shoulders dropped almost imperceptibly, “We did everything we could. Her heart suffered another massive event shortly after arrival. We were able to restore circulation briefly, but her heart was simply too weak to recover,” the doctor lowered his eyes, “I’m very sorry.”

His voice became quieter but it echoed all around the hospital.

“Mrs. Hazel Capone passed away.”

The world stopped. Jules let out a scream unlike anything I had ever heard. It wasn’t crying. It was the sound of someone’s heart breaking. She collapsed into Claire’s arms, sobbing so violently she couldn’t stay on her feet.

Salvatore closed his eyes, one hand covered his mouth. His entire body seemed to fold inward, but no tears came.

I remained standing. I looked at the doctor. Then at the closed doors behind him. He was still talking, explaining something, words about paperwork, about spending time with her, about taking as much time as we needed.

I couldn’t hear any of it.

Because all I could think was, this morning, she smiled at me. She told me she loved me more than anyone in this world.

I hadn’t known…

Those would be the last words my mother would ever say to me.