“You were quiet and pensive, too,” I point out.
“Not sweet, though, huh?” he attempts to tease. “Did you finally get over that?”
I roll my eyes. “No, you were.” I fiddle with the band on my watch. “You were and still are the sweetest guy I’ve ever met.”
He starts to smile, but it falters as the coroner’s van backs away from the curb to turn around so that the rear end is facing the apartment.
“What the hell is going on?” Ellis mumbles, slanting forward.
A police SUV blocks the view of the back end of the van so we can’t see what my uncle is doing. But eventually, he gets into the driver’s seat again and pulls away from the complex.
“What the hell did he just put in that van?” I mumble then add, “We should follow him.”
Ellis nods in agreement. Then he reaches for his seatbelt, and I do the same. Once we’re buckled in, he steers out of the back entrance and pulls around onto the road my uncle turned on. For the next few minutes, we remain quiet as we tail my uncle. He stays on the main road for a few miles before turning into the back section behind the hospital that’s attached to the doctor’s office Ellis and I were at earlier.
Ellis makes sure to keep some distance and parks in the parking lot of the hotel that’s to the side of the hospital. Then we watch as my uncle hops out, opens the back door, and pushes a stretcher with a bag on it out. The back exit door to the doctor’s office opens, and Trystan steps out along with Jason.
Jason scans the area while Trystan and his father exchange what appears to be a heated conversation.
“Is that your ex-husband?” Ellis asks, but it’s a rhetorical question. “And Trystan?”
“Yep,” I answer anyway. Every fiber, muscle, beat of my heart is screaming for me to sprint over and rip open that bag.
The impulse is so strong that I actually crack open the door.
But Ellis stops me by placing his hand on my arm. “If you go over there, all of our work will be compromised. I know it’s hard not to—trust me. But we have to play it smart.” He directs his attention back to Trystan, my uncle, and Jason.
I move my hand away from the door handle.
My uncle says something to Jason, then spins around and holds the door to the hospital open while Trystan wheels the stretcher in. My uncle returns to his van, pulls it away from the back door, and into a nearby parking space.
Jason waits for him to get out and enter the building before stepping inside himself. But right before he closes the door, he looks around the parking lot one final time. His gaze lands on Ellis' SUV, and his head cocks to the side.
“Shit,” Ellis curses. “Get down.
We both hunker down and wait it out. Jason saw me get into the SUV earlier, but it’s a relatively generic vehicle.
I hold my breath. I hold perfectly still.
“Hold still, Ava. The more you fight this, the worse it’ll get,” my father tells me before he smacks me across the face.
I scream as pain sears my face.
He slaps me again. “Stop screaming!” he shouts, his face red.
A sob wrenches from my chest, but I bite down on my lip to smother the noise. Blood fills my mouth, but I don’t move. Breathe. I’m so still it’s like I don’t even exist.
“Good,” he tells me. “Stay like this until I get back.”
And I do.
I hold perfectly still, listening to the quietness of the empty house.
Even when I hear voices.
Voices of my father and a woman. She sounds familiar, but I can’t remember why.
She also sounds frightened.
