I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Maddison chuckled. “Someonehas to be the voice of reason.”
“Oh, Maddy, thank you for being just that. I’m finding my grounding again.” I shook my head. “Becoming someone else was too stressful.”
“You’re welcome. You do the same for me all the time.” She grinned. “So, no more arguments?”
I shrugged. “Oh, who knows? Relationships always have their bumps, don’t they?”
“That’s good enough, I guess.”
When she left, I changed and got ready for bed. I was exhausted but happy. Anton was back in my life, and the aching in my chest had ceased.
I woke up in the middle of the night, my mouth dry. I gulped water from the bottle by my bed. It didn’t take long for me to fall back asleep. Then, I jerked awake a second time, my stomachtight and churning, and a wave of nausea hit me like a punch to the gut. I tossed back the covers and walked into the bathroom, clutching my abdomen. I opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed a bottle of pain relievers. Swallowing two pills, I prayed they would work quickly. Another wave of pain and nausea hit me, and I practically had to crawl back to the bed.
I drank more water and lay in the darkness of my room, trying to go back to sleep despite my discomfort. My chest was tight, making it difficult to breathe.
Suddenly, the acidic taste of bile at the back of my throat had me running back to the bathroom. After emptying my stomach, I slumped onto the floor, feeling completely drained. My eyes fluttered closed, and I leaned my head against the wall. I just needed to rest for a minute, and then, I could stand up and go back to bed.
Eating that tofu was obviously a mistake.
Somehow, I fell asleep slumped against the wall, only realizing this when another bout of surging nausea forced me to lean over the toilet again. My hurls echoed through the tiny apartment. I started shivering. The bathroom tile felt like ice against my skin. I didn’t have the strength to stand or even call Maddison for help.
The bathroom light felt too bright, filling the room with such ferocity that I lifted my hand to cover my eyes. I heard a noise floating to me from the doorway and dropped my hand. Maddison stood there, her hair a wild mess.
“Celia, what’s wrong?” Her voice was sleepy and worried. She was at my side in an instant. “Oh my, Celia! What’s the matter with your face?”
I groaned, forcing a few words out of my sore, achy throat. Tears spilled down my cheeks. “I feel like I’m dying.”
Chapter twenty-six
Anton
After dropping Celia at her apartment, I returned to mine and retreated to my study. I’d brought a few documents home from the office that needed a thorough review. Recent events in my personal life had put me behind at work.
A little after 2 AM, I set the case file aside and turned off the lights. The growling in my stomach pulled me toward the kitchen for a light snack. I poured myself a glass of orange juice and was chewing on a granola bar when my phone began to vibrate. I groaned. Who could be calling at this hour? I hurried into the living room, to grab it. Dreading these late-night calls that inevitably brought bad news.
It was an unknown number, which slightly eased my anxiety.
I tapped the button to accept the call. “Anton Waltons.”
“Anton, this is Maddison. I’m at the hospital with Celia,” she said frantically. “She’s really sick, and I didn’t know what to do, so I called an ambulance.”
The all-too-familiar feeling of helplessness invaded my psyche, a near-constant companion in recent months due to my father’s poor health. It squeezed my airways shut, making it difficult to breathe. But I couldn’t allow fear to paralyze me.
“Maddison, are you alright? What hospital?” I said, grabbing my keys and heading out the door.
“Don’t worry about me. We’re at General Hospital.”
“I’m on my way.”
Even at nearly 3 AM, the streets of New York weren’t as empty as one might think. I yelled at slow drivers and growled when red lights seemed to take forever to turn green.
How was Celia doing?
Maybe it was just a fever. I said, to calm my racing mind. The last thing I needed was to get into an accident because I was panicking.
Finally, while parking in the hospital visitors’ lot, I prayed that Celia was okay. A voice at the back of my head kept reminding me that if it were nothing serious, Maddison wouldn’t have called an ambulance.
