“We’re here for our granddaughter,” her father responded without delay.
“You can’t be serious,” Nikki returned, stepping even farther in front of the young woman.
“What’s going on?” her niece asked from behind her, her voice filled with curiosity.
“Amy, sweetheart, we’re your grandparents. We’re here to take you back to Seattle with us to be a family, to live the life you deserved all along.” Her mother tried to look over her shoulder at Amy as she spoke, a welcoming smile on her lips.
Nikki scoffed. “Are you serious?” Automatically, her arms came up to fold over her chest. “After all these years and after all you did to Trish and me, why do you think you deserve to just come waltz into her life as if you aren’t the reason she grew up away from this family?” she asked pointedly.
Silence ensued. Nikki was certain the erratic beating of her heart could be heard unaided.
“Why do you think you have a say in her life?” Her father spoke this time. Stewart’s deep blue eyes narrowed at her. “She’s not your daughter. I seem to recall that you can’t have children, and Trish didn’t agree to give her to you.”
Nikki’s blunt nails somehow found a way to dig deeply into the flesh of her arms as the force of her father’s words almost bowled her over. All the pain from twenty-one years ago seeped into her like water filling a dam. Stewart and Sophia stalked toward her, and before she could process what was happening, they pulled Amy out from behind her and toward them. Finally shaking out of her daze, she reached for her niece’s free arm and held it firmly, halting them from pulling her farther.
“No,” she said firmly. “You are not talking to her.”
Her father’s eyes blazed with anger as his face reddened, but just as before, everything changed without warning, and instead of Stewart, it was Jake holding on to Amy.
“Let go,” he said in a threatening voice to Amy.
“No,” Nikki spoke firmly.
“All right,” he said as if he was giving up, but then a sinister smile turned up his lips and his crazed eyes made him look like one of the monsters from a horror movie. “If I can’t have her, no one can.” He reached his free hand into his pocket.
Nikki braced herself to fight for her niece but became distracted by the sniffling sounds coming from behind her. She took her eyes off Jake to look back at her sister. She was still pretty banged up, and she was also attached to the machines that had been keeping her alive. Still, she was sitting up in the hospital bed, and countless sobs shook her frame.
“Please. Don’t let them take away my baby.”
Nikki woke up with a start. She propped herself up by her elbows and looked around the semi-dark room in confusion. She pulled herself farther up in bed until her back rested against the headboard. That had been an intense and frightening dream. She could still feel her heart racing in her chest. She turned her head to the side and noticed that the digital clock read 2:32 a.m.
After a good two minutes of calming herself, she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and stood. She needed to go check on Amy.
When she made it to the door at the end of the hall, she noticed light streaming from under it. “Amy, are you awake?” She knocked.
There was some rustling before the door swung open to reveal Amy with dark circles under her eyes.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I am,” Amy replied, with the faintest of movement of her lips upward.
Nikki wasn’t convinced. Amy moved aside and allowed her to enter the room before closing the door with a soft thud. She walked over to her bed and sat, folding her legs under her.
Nikki stood for a little while, studying her before she took a seat on the bed.
“What’s wrong?” she finally asked, turning her head to look at Amy.
Amy’s shoulders went up to her ears before settling back in their normal position. “I can’t sleep,” she said, turning her head to give Nikki a sheepish look before facing forward once more.
Nikki swiveled her upper half and rested her palm flat on the bed to balance herself as she faced Amy fully. She canvassed the younger woman’s side profile, noting her furrowed brow and folded lips. A deep seat of concern made her chest heavy. “Is it because of Jake?”
Amy shook her head in a swift no. Nikki waited. After prolonged silence, Amy breathed in deeply and slowly released it, her shoulders being directed by the rise and fall of her chest.
“I keep having this feeling that none of this will last…that probably none of it is even real,” she confessed, making wide gestures with her arms before they fell by her side. “It’s like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, for all of this to finally disappear, and then I’ll wake up and realize that this was all just a dream.”
Nikki wanted to rush in to reassure her that her feelings weren’t true. She wanted to make her understand that it all would last, but she also knew Amy had more to say, so she remained silent.
Amy released another deep sigh, her shoulders sagging like one beaten down.
