Finally, mentally checking back into my current reality, I take a few stumbled steps toward the door and look back over my shoulder at all the women in the room who love me.
"Are one of you going to drive, or am I going to have to do this on foot?" They all sigh simultaneously, and Abbie pulls her keys from her purse. I flash her a soft smirk that says, "Thank you," just as Izzy darts past me out of the door and screams down the hall, "We need a wheelchair!"
Seconds later, a tall male nurse walks in with a wheelchair, "Bathroom, Ms. Foley?"
I shake my head.
"Home. Bring the AMA paperwork, please."
"Ms. Foley. . ."
"Just bring the papers, or she will leave without signing them at all!" Mrs. Kristen barks behind me as she helps me adjust in the wheelchair.
The nurse, whose nametag says Jayden, looks over all of us who are not backing down, and he sighs.
"I'll be right back."
I'm in the front passenger seat of Mrs. Kristen's Tahoe. Abbie is driving, and the others are piled into the back. I grab the phone from the center console and try Ander again, but there is no answer. It goes straight to voicemail.
"Fuck!" I shout as I slam the phone back down on the console, and my scream shakes throughout the SUV's energy.
Izzy reaches for it and begins speaking mere seconds later. My eyes dart to her as she speaks.
"Jett. . . any update?"
Her face drops even more as he speaks through the other line, but we cannot hear his response.
"Where are you guys now?" she asks into the receiver. She nods and looks to Abbie as she continues to speak to Jett on the phone. "Meet us at my parents' house. We will be there in five minutes or less."
Abbie wastes no time. Before Izzy can hang up the call, Abbie jerks the wheel, spinning the SUV illegally around the median in the middle of the interstate and heading back toward the Prairie in Sugarland.
"Is everyone okay?" she asks frantically, looking around at us. As the vehicle stabilizes, she gives the gas all it that it has.
"Izzy, tell me something. . . Please. Why the fuck are we going to your parent's house?" I beg.
She shakes her head, mouth agape before she covers it with her hands, and tears quickly fill her eyes.
"Izabel!" I shout, demanding answers. I can't let my mind wander for a second longer. I need to know whatever it is that she does that's eliciting this reaction from her, no matter whatitis.
"Anders truck. . . They tracked it using GPS. It's parked down the lane from your parent's old home on the prairie. We will make it there before the guys do. We are five minutes away, and they are eight minutes out."
Her voice cracks, and everything inside of me breaks. My parent's old home has been abandoned for the past three years since the family that Liam sold it to destroyed it, and it went into foreclosure.
"To be safe, we will wait for the guys at my parent's house."
"The fuck we will!" I declare. I'll be damned if I'll be that close and wait.
"It's three minutes, honey." Dessa chimes in as she rubs her hand on my shoulder, trying to reassure me.
"Three minutes he may not have!"
Just as I speak, Abbie crosses over the bridge that leads to the forgotten prairie. Sugarland isn't huge, so I've known for a while that the prairie isn't what it once was, but seeing it after clearly avoiding it for so long causes a different kind of sadness to form in my heart. Just as we take the first curve and edge toward thelane of the old home, I see Anders's truck sticking out like a neon sign on Broadway.
"Abbie, if you guys don't want to stop, that's fine, but if you don't slow this tank down and let me out, I will jump out while you're going full speed."
"V," she attempts to protest. As we inch closer, I grab the door handle, entirely meaning my threat and content with my decision.
I need to get to himnow.
