Chapter 42 Rosalie
Chapter 42
Rosalie
The startling noise causes a commotion, and their eyes land on a figure at the foot of the stairs. It’s her mother. Rosalie jumps up, scratching the stool on the floor. Cassidy’s lying motionless, her white dress swirled around her like frosting. Rosalie reaches her side and drops beside her. Her hands shake, and she can’t even manage to count to calm herself.
“Mom! Mom!” she shouts while Leo comes up beside her, warning her not to move her, something about the angle of her head and neck. “We need to do something!” she’s screaming. Penny’s dialing 911 while Rosalie leans over Cassidy, her voice soft and whimpering. “Please don’t do this to me.”
Penny makes her way over when Leo shouts, “I don’t feel a pulse.”
The couple exchange nervous looks as they begin CPR. They take turns. First Penny, then Leo. They count breaths and compressions in sync as though they’ve done this before. Rosalie sits motionless, her heart screaming inside her chest. How could this happen? Renée is across the room, arms down by her sides, her face laden with regret. Jean-Paul goes to Rosalie, and her tear-streaked eyes gaze up at him. He places a hand on her shoulder and draws her to his side. “I’m here for you.”
She’s waited a long time for someone to offer those words, and she sinks into his embrace. Her body trembles as she sobs uncontrollably. She tries counting along with Leo and Penny as the paramedics rush through the door. There’s a scramble in the kitchen; Simone wipes down spills and crumbs. Lucy and Henry stand apart from one another, lost in thought. A door slams upstairs.
The EMTs load Cassidy onto a stretcher, and as she’s carried out, she takes the air in the room with her. Penny threads an arm through Rosalie’s, offering to take her to the hospital. Jean-Paul and Renée step back, dazed and upset. And before Penny and Rosalie are out the door, Renée approaches with Cassidy’s bag. “Penny.”
Penny spins around.
“You’re going to need this.”
Rosalie rides shotgun in Leo’s rented Mustang as Penny drives to the hospital.
It’s one thing to be angry with your mother 90 percent of the time, but it’s another to be on the precipice of losing her. That’s when the 10 percent kicks in, and the dislike begins to diminish. Suddenly, Rosalie can’t recall cleaning up her mother’s messes, the embarrassment she feels at her neglect, or how Cassidy despises the color of her hair and lipstick.
Penny adjusts the radio and tries to convince her that everything’s going to be okay, but Rosalie asks her how she knows that. Too often, people offer sentiments and platitudes without knowing the outcome.
“I don’t know,” Penny says. “But it’s worth mentioning.”
Penny’s trying to be nice, and Rosalie should go easy on her, but she doesn’t feel like talking, so she just nods at whatever else Penny’s saying and hopes she’ll get the hint. She simply wants to hang her head out the window and rewind the last few weeks. Go back. Agree to go to the Sonoran Desert. Maybe deactivate her Ancestry account.
“We’re here.” Penny pulls into a parking spot near the emergency room entrance. Rosalie wants to snap at her, tell her that the brightly lit building’s huge Watauga Medical Center sign is a giveaway, but she commends herself for her self-control. Then she spots her mother’s purse in Penny’s lap, and their eyes meet.
Rosalie’s not stupid. She knows what they’ll find in her mother’s bag. Most people carry lipstick or breath mints. Cassidy Banks carries a pharmacy of pills. “They’re going to need her insurance card,” Penny offers.
They both know she’s being kind.
They move quickly through the parking lot and hospital doors. Penny takes charge, which is a relief to Rosalie, and they learn her mother is in triage.
“Can I see her?”
A man in green scrubs approaches. “The doctors are with her right now. It’s best for you to wait out here. We’ll find you when we know more.”
Rosalie’s desperate, her voice wobbly. “I’m her daughter.”
The man repeats himself, and Penny ushers her toward a dingy sofa in a corner, where they sit without talking. Rosalie can’t shake the feeling that this is her fault—that somehow she’s being punished for deceiving Cassidy, for going behind her back and finding her father.