“She needs to be home,” Tulip began.
“The press isn’t going to leave her alone. She was the first call for help, she’s a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl. One of her friends died, and the other is in the hospital. Mi made it through the night,” CiCi added. “She’s still critical, but she made it.”
Ward let out a shaky breath. “They wouldn’t give me any information on her when I called.”
CiCi looked at him. He was a good man, she thought. A good man, good husband, good father. At the moment, he looked exhausted.
“Hwan had them put my name and Simone’s on the family list.” Because he was a good man, CiCi reached out, laid her hand over his. “You should call him.”
“I will. Yes, I’ll call him.”
Now CiCi laid a hand over her daughter’s. “Tulip, I know you need your girls, and they need you right now. I’ll stay as long as I can help. Simone won’t leave until she’s sure you’re all right, and Mi’s all right. And I imagine the police are going to need to talk to her.”
“We’ll have to make a statement to the press,” Ward added. “You’re right. They won’t leave her alone.”
“You’re right, too. But after all that, let me take her, give her a few weeks of peace and quiet. Even with the crazy of summer people on the island I can give her that—and Mi when she’s well enough. No one will bother her, or them, I’ll see to that. And Simone’s going to need someone to talk to about everything, besides us. I have a friend. He spends part of the summer on the island. He’s a therapist with offices in Portland. You can check out his credentials, Ward. You can meet him, talk to him.”
“I’d have to do all of that.”
“I know, but you’ll learn he’s very good. She’ll need to talk to someone. So will you and Natalie, baby.”
“I don’t want to talk to anyone, see anyone right now. I just want to be home, with my family.”
CiCi started to speak, but Ward shook his head in warning.
“Okay, think about this instead. After you’ve had that, a few weeks on the island might help Simone get away from all of it. Natalie, too, if she wants to come, but I know she’s had her heart set on that equestrian camp, and that’s coming up in a couple weeks. She likes spending time on the island, but Simone loves it.”
“We’ll talk about it,” Ward said. “We’re grateful, CiCi, for—”
“None of that. Family does what family needs. And right now, I think this family needs more coffee.”
As she stood, Simone came in.
Dark circles under her dazed, heavy eyes stood out stark against her pallor.
“Mi woke up. The nurse said the doctor was in with her, and her dad said—he said she asked for me. I have to go see Mi.”
“Sure you do, but you need to have some breakfast. You don’t want Mi to see you looking so pale. That won’t help her feel better, will it, Tulip?”
“Come, sit down, sweetie,” her mother urged.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Just a little bit. CiCi’s going to fix you just a little bit.”
She sat, looked at her mother’s face. The bandages, the bruises. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes.” But her eyes welled.
“Don’t cry, Mom. Please.”
“I didn’t know where you were. I hit my head, and poor Nat … It was only for a minute,” she said, “but I was confused and scared. I could hear the shooting, the screaming, and I didn’t know if you were all right, if you were safe. I know Mi needs to see you, but I need you for just a little while first.”
“I didn’t know if you and Nat … I didn’t know.” She sat next to her mother, pressed her face to Tulip’s shoulder. “When I woke up, I thought it was a bad dream. But it wasn’t.”
“We’re okay now.”
“Tish isn’t.”
Tulip stroked, rocked. “I’m going to call her aunt. I’d call her mother, but— I think I’ll call her aunt. I’ll ask if there’s anything we can do.”
“Trent’s dead, too.”
“Oh, Simone.”
“I saw on the news … I looked before I came down, and I saw the names, the pictures of who did this. They went to my school. I know them. I went to school with them. I had classes with one of them, and they killed Tish and Trent.”
“Don’t think about it right now.”
Denial, CiCi thought, like her grandmother. Close your eyes to the bad shit until you couldn’t.
CiCi watched Simone get up and go sit on the other bench to face her parents.
“They said my name in the news report. I looked outside, and there are people, reporters.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Ward told her. “I’ll take care of it.”
“It’s my name, Dad. And my voice—they played my call to the police. They had my yearbook picture. I don’t want to talk to them, not now. I need to see Mi.”
“Your dad’ll talk to them,” CiCi said briskly as she brought over a single scrambled egg, two strips of bacon, a piece of toast with butter. “And your mom’s going to help you with some makeup. My Tule always had a hand with makeup. We’re going to put your hair up under a ball cap, you’re going to put your Wayfarers on, and you and I are going out the back while your dad has them busy out front. We’re going to cut across the backyards to where I parked the car in the Jeffersons’ driveway. I called them last night to clear that. Then all we have to do is call the hospital and have them get us in a side entrance.”
“That’s a damn good plan,” Ward murmured.
“When you have to make some quick exits from hotels, motels, wherever, you learn the ropes. We’ll get you to Mi.” CiCi smoothed a hand over the tangle of Simone’s hair. “Just eat a little first.”
CHAPTER FOUR
It worked, exactly the way CiCi said it would. Though it seemed to Simone like some weird dream, like the ones she’d have when she wasn’t exactly awake or exactly asleep. Everything felt vivid and blurred at the same time, with sounds coming down some echoing tunnel.
But when CiCi guided her into ICU, Simone’s heart started beating so loud and fast inside what felt like squeezing hands. The sensation shot her straight back to the bathroom stall where she’d crouched with her dead phone and terror.
“CiCi.”
“Breathe. In through your nose, like your belly’s a balloon you’re inflating, then out through your nose, like it’s deflating. In and out,” she crooned, an arm around Simone’s waist. “That’s right. You’re all right. Mi’s going to be all right, so you’ll breathe for her. Look, there’s Nari.”
Nari, face pale with fatigue, eyes bruised from it, rose and walked to them. “Our parents are in with Mi. The doctor said they’ll put her in a step-down room soon, maybe today, because her condition’s improved.”
“She’s better?” Simone’s throat filled. “She’s really better?”
“She’s better, I promise. She looks…” Nari pressed her lips together when they trembled. “She looks very frail, but she’s better. We had to tell her about Tish. She needs to see you, Simone, very much.”
“Nari, sweetie, have you been here all night?” CiCi asked her.
“My grandparents took my brother home. I stayed with my parents. We just couldn’t leave her.”
“I’m going to get you some coffee. Or tea? A soda?”
“I’d be grateful for coffee.”
“Simone, sit with Nari. And, Nari, when your mom and dad come out, the three of you should go home and get some sleep. Simone and I’ll stay. We’re going to start taking shifts so someone’s always here. Go on and sit.”
“I don’t know if they’ll leave,” Nari said after CiCi had gone to find coffee.
“CiCi will convince them. She’s good at that.” To be brave for Mi meant starting now, Simone thought, leading Nari back to the chairs. “We’ll take turns so Mi isn’t ever alone.”
“She remembers. Some anyway, she remembers. The police talked to her this morning. The doctor only let them talk to her for a few minutes. Have you talked to the police?”
“Not today. Not yet today.”
CiCi came back with a Coke for Simone, coffee for Nari. “A lot of cream, a little sugar, right?”