Cora listens to Olivia’s heartbeat for several minutes before pulling away with misty eyes. She places her stethoscope back around her neck, folding her hands in her lap and staring down at them.
“We were finally getting our lives together,” she confesses sadly, her voice a raspy whisper. “I got a great job in a different state, and we were able to move away from the awful apartment we were in.”
She sniffs, wiping at a lone tear that rolls down her cheek.
“We moved all the way from Florida to Louisiana, thinking we were going to have a fresh start,” she continues, clearly vulnerable talking about her daughter. “It was just me and her. I started a great job, and she was in a good school, and not even a month in, she was walking home when a driver swerved off the road and struck her.”
Tears streak down her face, and I glance over at Olivia to see silent tears running down her own cheeks too.
“Lexi was such a good kid,” Cora declares through her tears.
Lexi.
That name makes my stomach lurch, my mind drifting to Lexi from my childhood and then to what Cora said, my heart dropping.
Lexi. Shitty apartment. Florida. Nurse.My mind homes in on those facts.There’s no way, I think. There’s no way there could be any connection. This has to be one of those freak coincidences, right?
My hands begin to shake, and I can’t bite back the question haunting my mind. “Cora, what was Lexi’s last name?”
She looks at me skeptically, wondering why I would ask such a question. “Sampson,” she says slowly. “Why?”
My chest tightens and I suddenly feel like I’m going to throw up.
“Lexi . . . you guys lived on the third floor of the Watson apartment complex,” I state, voice shaking. “I lived below you. Lexi and I were friends. She used to see me sitting out on the steps all the time when my mom and her boyfriend were fighting. She helped save my life.Youhelped save my life,” I inform her, remembering her and Lexi rushing me to the hospital after Lexi found me the night Benny pushed me down the stairs.
Cora’s teary eyes widen in realization and disbelief. “You . . . you’re that little boy,” she realizes.
Tears prick my eyes, and I feel like I’m lost in an alternate universe.
My mind races a million miles a minute, trying to digest everything.
Lexi’s dead, I realize, my heart cracking. I haven’t seen her since I was placed in foster care, but I always hoped to find her again one day to thank her for saving my life.
My eyes drift over to Olivia, who’s got a hand covering her mouth, absorbing the new revelation.
Not only did Lexi save my life, but she saved Olivia’s too.
Just when I thought I knew Olivia’s story, I realize I didn’t know everything after all.
From the moment I set eyes on Olivia, I knew there was something special about her. Something that beckoned me closer, to take a second look. She hid her original secret from me so well that I completely missed it. Then once she told me, I thought I had her all figured out, but it turns out there’s so much more to her story than we both thought.
My heart is racing with so many emotions it feels like it’s going to burst.
My eyes drift from Olivia’s face down to her chest, staring at her in awe. Just when I thought I couldn’t love her and her sweet heart more, she surprises me yet again. As a kid, Lexi was one of the few people to actually care about me, show me kindness, and knowing she’s connected to Olivia feels oddly fitting.
Emotionally raw, we all stare at each other in disbelief and silent understanding of our unbelievable connection.
“Thank you,” I whisper, my words directed to Cora.
Not only did she give up her daughter to save others’ lives, but she also took care of Olivia. She stuck by her side all these years. She sat by her hospital bedside when no one else did, only after sitting with me at mine a couple of years prior. Cora is an angel in disguise, and I can’t thank her enough.
A whole new flood of appreciation for this woman rushes through me, and I’m forever indebted to her for all she’s done. Without her—without Lexi—the love of my life wouldn’t be sitting here with me right now. I probably wouldn’t even be sitting here right now.
In the end, it’s amazing how small the world really is, how things can turn out.
>> <<
The first day of the spring semester I’m woken up by Chase loudly stumbling into our room, dropping his bags on the floor before rifling through his desk, throwing things around and rushing back out the door to his first class.
