Chapter 3
THREE
ivy
The sudden, loud chime of my phone on the night table beside my bed jolted me out of sleep. While the call woke me, it took a minute to register that my phone was ringing.
My eyes scanned the ceiling as the chiming continued—until it stopped. Less than a second later, the device started chiming again.
Something about the call coming in twice had me sitting up instantly, reaching for my phone and answering before even checking who it was.
Before I could say anything, Leo spoke.
“Ivy.”
I moved the phone away from my ear and glanced at the screen, searching for the time. It was two in the morning. No good calls came in at two in the morning.
Aside from that, it was the way my friend said my name—slowly, weighted with something my tired brain couldn’t quite decipher. But I knew it wasn’t good.
“Leo?”
“There’s been an accident,” he revealed.
“Huh?”
“I’m… I’m at Brooklyn Bay Medical Center.”
I blinked erratically, the words not fully registering. “What? Are you okay?”
“It’s Kenni and Rell, man,” he said low, inhaling a deep breath after.
My heart felt like it stopped in my chest. My stomach knotted less than a second later.
“Kendra and Tyrell?”
“To Kendra and Tyrell,” I’d said in front of my best friend and her husband, holding up a glass of mimosa. “May your mommy and daddy years be your best years yet.”
Everyone cheered behind me, making me smile even wider as I raised my glass along with the rest. I grinned behind the rim as I took a sip.
Kendra’s baby shower had been a hit. Everything went as planned and without a hitch, just the way I liked it. Making sure we got the cake ahead of time and checking on the hall before the shower began had been excellent planning and execution. I was starting off this godmother gig pretty well.
“Okay, girl,” Kendra said as she waddled up to me, pulling me into a tight hug. I held her just as tightly back, leaving enough room between us for her belly. “You did that!”
I tossed my head back in a laugh. “Did you like it?”
“Liked it?” Kendra grinned. “This is the best baby shower I’ve ever attended—and I’ve been to too many.”
I giggled. “This was my first one, so I was a little worried—”
“You did great.” She nodded. “You worry too much.”
“Worry too much, work too much, avoid men too much,” I listed, recalling all the things she’d always told me. “Did I get them all?”
She kissed her teeth. “I’m not even getting into it with you.”
I snickered.
“Ready, baby?” Tyrell, Kendra’s husband and Leo’s best friend, said as he approached. He wrapped his arm around her, resting his hand on her belly. “We want to get on the road ahead of traffic.”
I glanced out the window at the view of New York City through the thick pane glass. Flurries were starting to fall, resembling sprinkles of sugar drifting from the sky.
I pointed toward the window. “Y’all sure you want to drive all the way upstate today? It looks like it’s starting to snow, and the newscasters have been saying this is going to be a big storm.”
Tyrell tightened his arm around Kendra. “I tried to tell her, but she insists on this damn baby moon.”
I looked at her and shook my head.
“And whatever my big baby wants, she gets,” he added with a smile.
I sighed, glancing out the window again, my brows furrowing the longer I watched the flurries.
“We’ll be fine,” Kendra offered. “There you go worrying again over nothing.”
I rolled my eyes, turning back to face them.
“This baby will be here in two weeks,” she reminded. “I want to enjoy as much of my free time as I can. I need this baby moon with my man.”
Tyrell leaned forward to press a kiss to Kendra’s cheek.
These two had been annoyingly cute from the start of their relationship in college. Almost made me want one of those “things”—but I knew better. I worked a lot, but at least my work yielded results that made my life better. Dating, on the other hand… I couldn’t say the same.
“Speaking of the baby being here in two weeks,” Leo said, approaching us from behind me, “can we get a name now?”
Kendra and Tyrell looked at each other before laughing.
“For real,” I added, folding my arms. “Why do the godparents have to wait like everyone else to find out their godchild’s name?”
“Because we want it to be a surprise, so hush,” Kendra stated. “And no more about it. In two weeks, you’ll not only find out if it’s a boy or girl, but you’ll also find out the name in due time. Patience people.”
I was in my car and headed to the medical center in no time.
I didn’t bother getting presentable—no makeup, none of it.
I didn’t do any of the things I insisted on doing when preparing to face the world.
I still had my bonnet on my head, throwing on a white tee and jeans beneath my cold-weather coat.
All I could think about was getting out of my apartment as fast as I could and to the medical center.
Kendra and Tyrell. What the hell happened?
Waiting at every red light was torture. My heart wouldn’t stop racing, replaying the last time I saw my best friend and her husband. The big, bright smiles they both wore. How Tyrell couldn’t keep his hand off her belly.
“The baby,” I whispered to myself.
The driver behind me honked their horn, and my eyes shot up to the traffic light—it had changed from red to green.
I exhaled as I stepped on the gas, resuming my drive.
The cold night was unforgiving. The flurries from earlier, once light and harmless, now fell rapidly, sticking to the asphalt and sidewalks. I could barely see through it.
“Are they okay?” I asked Leo over the phone.
“Just get here, Ivy, please,” he replied. “I don’t want to do this over the phone.”
Although Leo refused to tell me more, I felt like I already knew the answer to my question. My hands could barely steady on the steering wheel, gripping the leather to keep my whole body from shaking with pure anxiety.
Tears streamed down my face by the time I arrived at the medical center’s parking lot.
Leo wasn’t his usual playful self over the phone. I’d never heard him sound so serious—and something else. There was something in his voice that told me everything I needed to know, though part of me refused to accept it.
Out of my car and in front of the medical center’s doors, I spotted Leo through the turnstile glass, his head in his hands.
My heart sank immediately. Any confidence I had that everything would be fine sank with it, deep into the pit of my stomach.
“Leo,” I said the moment I stepped inside.
And the second he lifted his face, I felt a pang in my stomach.
The food I had eaten earlier in the night pushed up quickly.
I slapped my hand to my mouth, forcing the bile down and trying to catch the scream—then the cry—that boomed out of me anyway, just like the tears in my eyes.
The shaking in my hands returned, and with nothing to grip for comfort, my whole body started trembling violently. I couldn’t stop it, no matter how much I wanted to.
Hands, then arms, engulfed me. That was the only thing I could feel in that moment.
Leo had wrapped his arms around me, guiding my face into his chest and holding it there with gentle tension.
“You gotta calm down, Ivy,” he whispered against me.
“Please tell me they’re fine, LV,” I whispered back. “Please just tell me that.”
He didn’t say anything in response, but I felt the motion of his head moving from side to side, indicating his answer was no.
That made my legs lose what little strength they had left. He caught me, holding me up.
* * *
“What the hell happened?” I asked in a whisper, seated across from him.
The doctors and nurses had been kind enough to let Leo and me sit in one of their meeting rooms in the medical center’s lobby.
After I’d became inconsolable in the main entrance, likely worrying everyone at that hour, they offered us somewhere private where I could collect myself.
After a few more minutes of bawling my eyes out when Leo confirmed Kendra and Tyrell were gone, my investigative mind kicked in. I needed the information.
“There was a pile-up on the I-87,” Leo rasped before clearing his throat. “It’s all over the news.”
I blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears in my eyes.
Leo inhaled deeply. “Kendra and Tyrell were on their way upstate. A driver lost control of their car. The police said the driver hit ice beneath the snow, spun out, and lost control. Kendra and Tyrell were right behind them, and…”
He cleared his throat. “Other cars started slowing down, but it was too late. The others… they started losing control too. Kendra and Tyrell’s car got hit a couple of times.
” Leo shook his head, gesturing behind him with his hand.
“Their car got hit from the back, the side. They said they had to use the jaws of life to pry it open because… Kendra and Tyrell were trapped inside.”
“Oh my God.” I pressed my fingers to my eyes.
“It took a minute for emergency vehicles to get to them because of the snow and the pile-up.”
I started crying again, unable to hold it in.
“Come on, Ivy, please,” Leo said softly, his tone unlike any I’d ever heard him use with me. “Please don’t do that right now.”
I forced myself to sniff my tears back.
“I know I’m asking for a lot, but I need you to be strong right now,” he added. “Please.”
I lifted my eyes to his and saw his emotions all over his face, though not a single tear escaped.
He’d lost a friend too. One he’d known for longer than I’d known Kendra. Leo and Tyrell had a brotherhood that was enviable, a bond that went deeper than friendship. They genuinely loved each other like brothers.
I reached across the table and took his hand, holding it tightly as I nodded and dropped my head to gather myself.
Then my head popped up again, and I damn near jumped out of my seat when the thought occurred.
“What happened to the baby?” I was out of my seat a second later. “Oh God, what happened to the baby?”