Chapter Thirty-Three Max
Hell has finally broken loose.
“Emma, please! Open the door,” I say as I try the doorknob for what feels like the hundredth time. Just like all the times before, it doesn’t budge.
“Stop, Max,” Emma tells me from inside, her voice coming out weak and shaky. “Just… stop.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I pace in front of the bathroom door, seriously considering the option of kicking it down. I’m scared. I’m downright fucking terrified of what’s going on with her right now.
I’ve never seen her like this before. Josh, Ryan, and I have been right on the money the entire time. Something is definitely wrong, and I think it’s finally made her snap.
“If you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll call someone for you,” I tell her as I stop in front of the door again, straining my ears to hear anything.
All that I’ve heard for the past twenty minutes is her crying and sniffling with an occasional word here and there. Merely a door separates us, but it feels like we’re miles apart, and I can’t get to her to help her.
“I can call Ethan and Andrew,” I offer.
“No!” Emma shouts.
I frown, figuring that I shouldn’t even mention her parents if that’s her reaction to her brothers. But if she won’t talk to me, I have to find someone she’ll talk to. I need some help.
“I’m still here, Em. I’m here when you need me,” I say through the door before stepping away where she can’t hear me. I move to the entrance of the hallway, still keeping an eye on the bathroom door as I pull out my phone to call Josh.
He and Ryan should be at the office wrapping up a strategy meeting right about now. This is way more important than work, though.
“Hello?” Josh answers on the second ring. He’s always been good about answering his phone.
“Is Ryan there?” I ask him as my eyes flicker back to the bathroom door.
“Yeah, why?” Josh replies.
“Put the phone on speaker. I need to talk to you guys,” I tell him, urgency pumping through me.
“What’s going on?” Ryan questions me. “Is it about Emma?”
He’s right on the money.
“I’m really worried about her. I’m trying not to freak out or anything, but she locked herself in my bathroom and won’t come out,” I tell them.
“Wait, what?” Josh blurts out as shuffling and thumping noises sound in the background.
“We need to get over there,” Ryan says.
“We were working in a coffee shop, and she started feeling unwell, so I took her back to my place because it was close by. She got sick and started crying, and I haven’t been able to get her out of the bathroom since,” I explain to them, hoping that they can help me out.
At this point, I have no idea what to do.
“I told you guys that she’s been acting weird,” Ryan says, his words riddled with frustration and concern. “She could be having a breakdown for all we know. We need to figure this out.”
“Without freaking her out,” Josh adds as more noise sounds in the background. “We don’t want to push her away.”
Hopefully, this won’t be the nail on the coffin of what we could’ve had together. But even if we lose her, I still want to know if she’s going to be okay.
“Hurry over here,” I tell them.
“Heading that way now,” Josh replies before hanging up.
I lower my phone from my ear and tuck it in my back pocket, my gaze shifting back to the door that has yet to be unlocked and opened. I’m dying to have her in my arms. Not even being able to see her is torture.
I don’t bother her until I hear a knock on my front door. Ryan and Josh pour inside the moment that I open it, and we all stand in front of the closed bathroom door, sharing concerned looks with each other.
“Emma, it’s Josh,” he says as he leans toward the door. “Could you open up? We just want to talk to you and make sure you’re okay.”
“Go away! I can’t… I can’t do this.”
Ryan tries the doorknob and curses under his breath when it doesn’t budge. “Emma, we need to make sure you’re okay. Open the door.”
“No! I’m not ready.”
A confused expression forms on my face. There’s something holding her back. Something big.
“Keep trying,” I tell Josh before grabbing Ryan’s arm and dragging him down the hallway where she can’t hear us. “You said she kind of opened up to you, right? What did she say?”
Ryan shrugs. “That she was worried about the future. What she was going to do with her life. Where she should be. But I don’t even know if that’s the truth. I think there’s something else that she’s hiding.”
“Emma, I know you haven’t been feeling well lately. Is that what’s wrong? I can take you to the hospital,” Josh offers.
“No!”
“What if it is a medical thing?” I ask Ryan, making his eyes narrow.
“Don’t. Don’t say that something is wrong with her,” Ryan tells me.
I can see right through that tough guy voice of his. He’s scared shitless and so am I. This is a possibility that we haven’t thought of yet.
“Think about it. She hasn’t been feeling well for a while now. She won’t tell us what it is, and she doesn’t even want to talk to her family about it,” I point out. “And she turned down that job opportunity. What if she knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it? Physically.”
“Enough!” Ryan snaps at me. “Are you saying she has some sort of cancer or something? That she’s going to die?”
I throw my hands up. “I don’t know! She won’t tell us anything. I have to speculate based on what I know.”
Ryan runs his hand over his face, exhaling heavily. “Maybe we should at least call Ethan. Maybe he can figure out what’s going on.”
“And how do we explain why we’re all here?” I question him.
“I don’t care at this point,” Ryan replies. “I just want to make sure that she’s okay.”
I sigh as I watch him walk back over to the door. Our secrets aren’t more important than her life, but I hope with everything I have that nothing is wrong with her. It just doesn’t seem like that from the outside, though.
“Emma, I’m calling Ethan,” Ryan tells her. “I think you’re sick, and we can’t just let you suffer in there.”
“No! Do not call Ethan!” Emma shouts, panic filling her voice.
“I don’t know what else to do!” Ryan yells back. “You’re leaving us with no choice!”
“I’m not sick!” Emma argues.
Ryan shakes his head. “I don’t believe you!”
Josh grabs Ryan’s arm and drags him back from the door. “You’re just making her upset.”
“I’m pushing her. She needs to be pushed, or we’ll never find out the truth,” Ryan hisses at him.
Josh looks over at me for support. “Tell him to back off.”
I glance at the spot under the bathroom door, able to see her shadow nearby. If Ryan keeps pushing, she might want to prove her point enough to open the door. As much as I hate upsetting her, we have to get past her comfort zone if we’re going to help her.
“Push her,” I say.
Ryan turns back to the door like he’s staring her in the eyes. “I’m five seconds away from calling Ethan. He’ll be able to tell us what’s going on.”
“Ryan, stop!” Emma shouts before throwing open the bathroom door, her red eyes brimming with tears. A few glide down her cheeks as she breathes in shakily, looking like she’s about to fall into a million pieces.
The three of us tense up, not expecting her to break so soon.
“I’m not sick,” Emma tells us in a trembling whisper.
“Then, what is it?” I ask her, my desperation coming out in my voice.
Emma closes her eyes for a moment, sending more tears rolling down her face. She takes a deep breath and looks up at us, speaking the words that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
“I’m pregnant.”