Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
I’m anxious to see Zara. I know how she’s feeling about this party but she was so insistent on going through with it. She didn’t want to upset her parents by telling them she didn’t want a big party.
I also haven’t heard from her since she snapped a picture of herself getting her hair done. She said she couldn’t wait for the night to end and to disappear with me. I really hope I can bring her some kind of comfort while she has to be surrounded by all these people.
I arrived with my parents, and my eyes instantly scan the ballroom. Yes, the McKinleys have their own ballroom in their house. She’s not here. I’d notice Zara anywhere. Especially in the little pink sparkly dress she picked to wear tonight.
I find Mrs McKinley and make my way towards her. She smiles at me with a knowing look. “Ares, I’m glad you could make it,” she greets.
“Wouldn’t miss it. Where’s Zara?” I ask, scanning the room again.
“She hasn’t come down yet. She should be down soon, though,” she says.
I pull out my phone and find a missed message on my screen. It’s from Zara.
Zara:
I’m sorry.
My stomach drops. “Fuck,” I curse before I’m running out of the room.
“Ares, what’s going on?” I hear Mrs McKinley calling after me but I don’t stop. I can’t. I need to find her. This isn’t happening. Why didn’t I get here earlier?
Fuck. I take the stairs two at a time, not caring that everyone is looking at me as I barge past them. I can hear my dad and Mr McKinley closing in behind me, calling out my name, but I’m not stopping. I can’t. I need to get to her.
What the fuck has she done?
Reaching her bedroom door, I push it open. “Zara!” My voice is loud, but I don’t get any response.
I make my way through her living room, and then I find her. On her bed. Lifeless.
“No!” I scream as I run over to her. Climbing on top of the bed, I pick up her head between my hands. “Zara, wake up!” I gently slap her face and her eyes open briefly. “What did you do?”
I look around the room, and that’s when I see them, the pills spilled out on the ground.
“No, no, no. Zara, don’t do this!” I cry out.
“What the hell…? Zara?” Mr McKinley stops at the foot of the bed.
I stand and pick her up, ignoring her father and looking directly at mine. “We need to get her to the hospital now,” I tell him.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait. What’s going on? What did you do to her?” Dominic tries to stop me.
“She’s fucking overdosing on whatever those pills on the ground are. Move. I need to get her to a hospital!” I yell at him.
Zara’s body is limp, but I can see her chest rising and falling. She’s still breathing.
“What? Why would she do that?” Dominic looks at his daughter. “I’ll take her.” When he tries to pull her from my arms, I pull back. No one is taking her from me.
“Let’s go.” I step around Dominic and my dad and run down the stairs, outside the house and towards my parents’ car. By the time I get there, my Uncle Marcel is holding the back door open for me.
I slide in, followed by Dominic. He glares at me. “I’m not going to tell you again to hand my daughter over to me, Ares.”
I glare right back at him. And then look down at Zara. “Please wake up. You can’t do this. Please, P, wake up,” I whisper as I hold her head close to my chest. I’m not letting her go. She’s mine.
Uncle Marcel is in the front passenger seat and my dad is driving, breaking every traffic rule to get us to the hospital as fast as possible.
“Ares, is she breathing?” my uncle asks.
“Yes,” I say.
“Good. That’s good,” he tells me.
“It’s not good. How many fucking pills did she take?” I ask aloud, knowing no one here has the answer.
“I don’t know, but she’s going to be okay. We’re almost there.”
“What were they?” I look at her father.
“What?”
“The pills. What were they and why the fuck did she have them?”
“They’re sleeping pills. They were prescribed a few months back when she couldn’t sleep.”
“And you left her with a full bottle of pills?” I scream.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he fires back.
“Because she’s fucking depressed. If you’d open your eyes and actually look at her every once in a while, you’d see that.”
“No, she’s not. If Zara were having problems, she’d tell me,” Mr McKinley insists.
“Really?” I raise a brow. I’m so fucking angry. At everyone in her life who didn’t notice how bad her depression was.
When the car pulls up to the emergency room door, I run in, right up to the triage nurse.
“She needs a doctor now. She’s overdosing on sleeping pills,” I rush out.
The nurse presses a button and points to the double doors next to her station. “Bring her through.”
I’m met with a bed and instructed to lay Zara down. I do, and then there are a bunch of people in hospital scrubs surrounding her.
“Are you family?” the nurse asks.
“I’m her father,” Dominic says, standing right beside me. “He’s not family.” He doesn’t look at me.
“Yet,” I say loud enough for him to hear it.
Zara, you better fucking make it through this. You can’t leave me.
“Family only. You can sit in the waiting room.” The nurse steps in front of me.
“I’m not leaving her,” I reply.
“Ares, come on. Let the doctors do their job.” My dad grabs my shoulders and pulls me back. “If you want her to come out of this, you need to let them work.”
“I can’t leave her,” I tell him.
“I know. And you’re not. You’re just waiting out here until she wakes up.”
I follow my dad and uncle out to the waiting area and sit down.
My head drops into my hands. I can’t believe this is happening.
This was supposed to be a happy day for her.
It should have been a celebration of her becoming an adult.
What the hell went wrong? Why didn’t I get there earlier? I could have stopped this.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I call Dr Finn. She gave Zara her mobile number, and I copied it down.
“Hello?”
“Dr Finn, it’s Ares.” My voice cracks. “It’s Zara. Katie,” I correct.
“I know who she is, Ares. What happened?”
“She took some pills. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. When I found her, she’d taken sleeping pills.”
“Where are you now?”
“Melbourne General. They won’t let me back to be with her, but you’re her doctor, right? You could get to her?”
“I can. I’ll be there as fast as I can. You did good getting her to the hospital, Ares. This isn’t your fault,” Dr Finn says.
“I should have been there earlier. I knew she wasn’t happy about having a party. I should have insisted she cancelled it,” I ramble on.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The line cuts off and I stare at my phone. A tear falls onto the screen. I don’t remember the last time I’ve cried. But right now, I can’t hold it in. I’m scared. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life.
I promised Zara we’d get through this together, and I failed her. I promised I’d always be there to pick her up when she was down, and I wasn’t there. Why didn’t she call me? Why would she do this to us?
“Oh, honey, she’s going to be okay.” My mum kneels down in front of me.
“I wasn’t there, Mum. I promised her I’d always be there to help her and I wasn’t.” Tears are falling like rivers down my cheeks. I look up and see Lucy, Zara’s mother, being directed through the double doors I got kicked out of. “They won’t let me back there with her.”
“We just have to wait and let the doctors do their job. She’s going to be okay. You got her here in time, Ares. You did help her,” Mum says.
I shake my head. “I should have been there.”