Chapter 17
“What the hell happened?” Sophie screams, barreling into the ED.
“I don’t know!” Noah’s voice cracks, tears welling in his eyes.
“I brought her back to your place after she tried to walk home from Liam’s.
She looked… really bad. She screamed for us, and by the time we got there, she was out” Noah swallowed hard.
“I tried to wake her up, and I called an ambulance. Soph… she was gray.”
“Henry, where is Isabel?” Sophie shouts, sprinting down the ED hall.
“They’re running imaging to see what’s going on. No one’s said much, except she’s not pregnant. We just… we need to calm down,” he replies, his voice trembling.
“Liv should be here any second. And Liam? Sophie mutters, her panic barely contained.
“Straight to voicemail”.
Henry pulls Sophie into a hug. “What the hell was said that made Isabel start walking fifteen miles home?”
Sophie buries her face in his shoulder, shaking her head. “I don’t know… but it has to be bad.”
Noah dragged his hands down his face and sank against the wall, sliding to the floor as guilt crushed his chest. Deep down, he knew this was probably all his fault.
“Noah, you need to get some sleep, honey. Go to the waiting room. I’ll call you the second there’s any update,” Sophie says, squatting down so she’s eye level with him.
“Soph… nothing can happen to her,” Noah whispers. Tears slid silently down his cheek. “I don’t think I can live without her.”
“I know, baby,” Sophie murmurs, pulling him into her arms. “You two will work this out. You always do. Just… give her time.”
She holds him there, tight enough that he can’t see the fear written all over her face, because she’s terrified too.
Noah walks out to the waiting room and finds a quiet corner. Just as he’s about to doze off, Liv bursts through the door.
“Noah, where is she?” Olivia’s voice cuts through the waiting room, sharp and panicked.
“Olivia, calm down! We’re in a hospital,” Noah snaps, but his hands are shaking. “She’s getting tested. Henry and Sophie are with her. They’ll tell us the second they know anything!”
“You look like hell, dude,” Olivia hisses, scanning him like she’s checking if he’s holding it together. Then she glances around the room, eyes narrowing. “Where the hell is Liam?!”
Noah swallows hard. His throat feels tight. “He… he’s not answering. I–”
“Not answering? Not answering?!” Olivia cuts him off, her voice rising. “He needs to be here now!”
The fluorescent lights hum above them. Every second drags. Every silence makes the fear claw harder at Noah’s chest.
Noah pulls out his phone and puts it on speaker so she can hear that it goes straight to voicemail. Sydney does the same thing.
“Well, what about Cori or Bob?” Olivia snaps. “It’s Isabel, Noah – come on, use your head!”
Noah fumbles for his phone, his hands shaking as he dials.
“Hey, Cori… I know, nobody wants to talk to me,” he blurts, voice tight with panic.
“It’s Isabel – she’s in the ED. I tried calling Liam, but it goes straight to voicemail.
Will you tell him? Whether he comes or not…
that’s up to him. I don’t know how their conversation ended, but he needs to know. ”
He pinches the bridge of his nose, staring at the floor, every second stretching like hours as he waits for a response.
Cori says something and then they hang up.
“She said she’d tell him. Now what he does is up to him” Noah mumbles so nobody hears. “ Do you think I should call Oliver? I know things are weird between the two of them right now, so I’m not sure what to do”.
“Yeah, I will just shoot him a quick text, you know how he’s super busy at this time of year”.
Just then Sophie and Henry come out of the ED to the waiting room, as Noah and Olivia walk to them all with worried looks on their faces.
“What’s going on?” Olivia asks, grabbing Sophie’s hand like she needs something solid to hold onto.
“Her appendix burst,” Henry says, his face grim. “They rushed her into surgery to clean out her abdomen. They’re hoping to avoid peritonitis, but they won’t know until they get in there. She’s very sick right now… it’s just a waiting game.”
The words hit like a punch, and the room feels suddenly too small.
Just then, the ED door opens. Cori steps through.
“Cori?” Noah blurts, springing from his chair, surprise-and a flicker of hope-written across his face.
“Yeah, hi, I’m Liam’s mom. How is she?” Cori asks breathlessly.
“She’s in surgery, she is very sick. Where is Liam? I thought he would be with you” Noah asks through his teeth.
“Noah, not now” Sophie barks glaring at him, “I’m Sophie, Isabel’s mom. It’s nice to meet you. I just wish it were different circumstances” offering her hand to Cori.
“Isabel is a lovely girl. You guys raised her well. You should be very proud” Cori gushes, “I absolutely adore her”.
They all sat in the OR waiting room, anxiously waiting for any news about Isabel.
What was supposed to be a straightforward one hour procedure stretched into two. The infection had spread, and Isabel had developed peritonitis. The surgeons left a drain in place to continuously remove the infected fluid, and she was started on strong IV antibiotics to fight it.
By the third hour, Cori was still in the waiting room, but Liam was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey, Cori… can I talk to you for a minute?” Noah asked, his voice low and tense.
“Sure,” she replied, already sensing this conversation could get heated. “Let’s go by the elevators.”
They walked away, the hum of the hospital around them doing nothing to soothe the tension building between them.
“Where exactly is Liam?” Noah whispered, his voice tight with barely contained anger.
“Noah… I don’t know,” Cori said, her voice rising with frustration.
“He took off after you guys left and turned off his phone. I don’t know where he is, and I know he should be here.
I’m angry as hell at him too. You didn’t hear what he said to her – he would never be able to live with himself if those were the last words she heard from him. ”
Noah’s jaw twitched. “What did he say, Cori?”
“They were fighting… about you, again,” she said, tears starting to pool in her eyes. “‘Why does he get the best version of you, and I get this?’” Her voice cracked. “As if who she is… isn’t good enough for him. And yet – he’s lucky she wants to be with him.”
She wiped at her cheeks, flushed and trembling. “I’m so fucking mad at him for saying that to her. And he’s my own kid… my own family. How could he be so stupid and cruel?”
“Son of a bitch,” Noah muttered through gritted teeth.
“I know,” Cori said, exhaling shakily. “And now I don’t know where he went. I’m trying my best to be here for Isabel’s family – because I love that kid like she’s my own – all while trying to figure out where the hell my own went.”
The words barely left her mouth when the elevator doors slid open.
Sydney and Liam stepped out.
Time seemed to freeze.
“Where the hell have you been?!” Noah and Cori shouted in unison, their voices sharp with fear and fury.
“I… I went out to clear my head,” Liam said, frantic, stumbling over his words. “I came home and Sydney told me where you were… and offered to drive me. Is she okay?”
“She’s really sick,” Cori muttered, forcing herself to stay composed, though her hands shook.
“How sick?” Liam’s voice cracked, panic creeping in.
“She had surgery,” Noah said, his glare pinning Liam to the spot. “She’s on IV antibiotics and has a drain to remove the infection. Right now, we’re just waiting for her to wake up.”
The weight of the words hung heavy in the air. Liam’s face drained of color, and for the first time, the gravity of what he’d done – and the danger Isabel had faced – hit him like a punch to the gut.
“You do not need to be here,” Cori snapped, her eyes locking onto Sydney with a glare sharp enough to cut glass.
“But I–” Sydney began, reaching for Noah’s hand, her voice faltering under the weight of the room.
Cori’s glare hardened, stopping her mid-motion, the unspoken message clear.
“Just go” Noah moves his hand away while turning and walking away “We don’t need you here. Definitely not Sophie and Henry. Not today. Thank you for coming, but please before anybody else sees you, leave”.
“ Come on, I’ll take you home,” Cori says gently, putting her arm around Sydney.
Noah stops and turns around, “Thank you for coming Cori. I will keep you updated”.
“Thank you, Noah”.
The elevator doors closed, leaving just Noah and Liam in the stark silence of the waiting area.
“You could’ve been nicer to her,” Liam said, his jaw twitching with barely contained anger.
“No,” Noah shot back, his voice low but deadly, each word striking like a hammer. “You do not get to say that to me after what you said to Isabel. Isabel is not a broken person. You do not deserve half the strength, half the heart that she has. You don’t get this version of her.”
Noah’s chest heaved. “Yes, you got the version I broke… but she’s stronger now, better than before, because she found that strength herself, despite everything I did. I can’t believe you even said that to her. If those had been the last words you ever said to her… would you have been happy?”
He stepped closer, eyes blazing with disgust. “You’re lucky we found her. Luckily she wasn’t lying on the side of the road somewhere. Because if I hadn’t picked her up… that’s where we’d be. Instead of here, in a hospital.”
Noah turned sharply and walked away, leaving Liam frozen, guilt and shame tangled on his face.
Liam stood in the silence, Noah’s words still ringing in his ears. He knew he had been wrong – what if those had been the last words he ever said to her? How could he ever live with himself, knowing he’d left her broken?
A dark resolve settled over him. He would never let anyone hurt her again, not Noah, not anyone. She would be his, completely, forever. But first, he had to deal with the loose ends in his life. Only then could he claim what he believed was his