London opened the screen one more time, stepped out onto the porch. Chica followed him out.

  Gingerly, Gabriel crept toward the kitchen, found the number on a list of numbers on the fridge he’d seen the day before.

  Sang volunteered to make the call, letting Gabriel guard the door. He didn’t want the old man coming back, seeing them on the phone, and make assumptions.

  Sang got Charlotte on the phone and explained quickly what happened and that they couldn’t get him to go to the hospital.

  Shortly, Sang hung up. “She said she’ll be here soon.”

  Gabriel paced the floor in the kitchen a little. It was the furthest room from the parlor so they likely wouldn’t be overheard. His heart was still racing. His skin was electrified. None of his Academy training prepared him for this. He tried to think of any excuse to let Dr. Green come in.

  He pulled out his phone. “I can’t think of a way to get Dr. Green here without it looking like we called a doctor, but there has to be something we can do.”

  “Call him and tell him what happened,” Sang said and went to the doorway of the kitchen. “He might at least know what is happening to him. Let me go tell London we made the call and that she should be on the way.”

  Gabriel dialed as Sang walked out onto the front porch. How the hell was she keeping herself together? Gabriel felt like he was ready to pass out himself, and she was here making calls and thinking more rationally than Gabriel was.

  It was Luke who answered. “What’s up, bud? We heard the shots. We’re watching. What are those two up to?”

  “Get the doc on the line,” Gabriel said in a hurry.

  It was only moments before Dr. Green spoke into the phone. “Tell me your problems, I’ll try to solve them.” There was almost a singsong tone to it.

  Gabriel nearly choked as he tried to sputter out what had just happened. It raised his anxiety again just going over it.

  “Sounds like cardiac arrest,” he said in a serious tone now.

  Gabriel blurted out. “Heart attack?” He turned quickly, covering his hand over his mouth and part of the phone, trying not to be overheard, even though he was alone in the kitchen. “Are you fucking kidding me? He needs to be in the hospital.”

  “Yes, but if he refuses to go, there’s nothing that can be done,” Dr. Green said. “Even if you brought him there, he might refuse any treatments. We can’t treat people who refuse. Not unless you bring him in unconscious. And he’s not staying unconscious long enough to bring him in, it sounds like.” He groaned into the phone. “I don’t know what to do other than try to convince him to go to the hospital. Or at least get a doctor in to see him.”

  “Can’t you show up?”

  “I could,” Dr. Green said. “But I’d be a stranger showing up asking a lot of medical questions. How fast are you going to get kicked out if he figures out you snuck in a doctor to see him? And there’s no guarantee he’ll allow me to stay in his house a second once he thinks I’m a doctor. He’d have every right to kick me out or aim that gun at me.”

  “What can we do from here?” Gabriel asked. “Is there something to cure him here? Can we feed him some aspirin? Will that help?”

  “I wish I could come see,” he said. “He needs medications and likely angioplasty or other things he might not accept. Your best bet is to keep him calm, laying down and drinking water, and just find some way to convince him. And maybe the aspirin if he hasn’t taken it yet.” He told Gabriel the dosage and a few other things to try. “It’s possible... it might be that Sang’s uncle or her grandmother could file a petition with a judge. They’d have to find the courthouse...” He groaned into the phone. “It’s Saturday... there might be someone there though. Her grandfather could still refuse treatment when he’s in the hospital, but it might at least get him in the door.”

  It was the best they could do.

  Gabriel’s heart sunk into his shoes. All it would take is some medication from the hospital and Sang’s grandfather would probably be up and running again. How long had he been hurting? Was going to the hospital worse than what he was going through?

  Was there anything they could do? They were strangers to him.

  Except Sang was his granddaughter. And he had no idea she was right here, steps away from him.

  But if it took a courthouse visit and going around his back to keep him alive, maybe they had to do just that.

  ♥♥♥

  It took Charlotte a half hour to cross town and get to the farmhouse. Her son, Sang and Gabriel were sitting in the kitchen, talking in low tones.

  Gabriel explained to London the other option. To find someone at the courthouse to get a judge’s approval to get his father into the hospital.

  London agreed to the plan. “If my mother doesn’t convince him, I’ll do my best.” He found the courthouse on the phone, and with Gabriel helping, they figured out where he should go to talk to someone.

  Gabriel stood up when Charlotte entered. She gazed at them in the kitchen and said, “Where is he?” Her face was tight with worry. She had on a long coat and her fingers gripped it to her body. There were snowflakes in her hair. It was snowing again.

  “In the front room,” London said. “Wait come talk to me for a second.”

  Charlotte went out onto the porch with her son.

  Sang folded arms on the table, laying her head to nest against her forearms. She hadn’t changed her clothes. The makeup was still not great, but at least for now everyone might be too distracted to notice.

  “Sang,” Gabriel said quietly.

  She didn’t move but she mumbled something to indicate she heard him.

  “If this doesn’t work, maybe you can tell him.”

  Sang slowly picked her head back up, seeming confused.

  “Tell him who you are,” Gabriel said. “Maybe it’ll convince him to go if you tell him.”

  She blinked her eyes rapidly and gazed across the room to the doorway. “Or it might kill him,” she said somberly.

  They quieted for a long time, the darkest of thoughts sweeping over him. It was a fifty-fifty chance of either saving or killing the old man with the shock of it.

  Could it be worse than just letting him die?

  The sound of another vehicle approaching the house caused Gabriel to stand up to check.

  Gabriel at first thought it was some of their own friends, except the car he didn’t recognize at all.

  The dog was barking. Brian was going to notice people showing up and he wasn’t going to like it.

  Gabriel went to join London on the porch, but realized he’d left in his vehicle.

  Sang came to the screen door.

  “Don’t come out here,” Gabriel said.

  “I can’t leave you alone.”

  Gabriel didn’t want trouble, but the car was different this time. It was old, gray, not the white truck like those thieves had.

  And Charlotte didn’t seem worried.

  After it parked next to Charlotte’s car, out came a man in plain khakis and a plaid shirt, and he carried an old doctor’s case with him.

  Gabriel’s heart soared. Sang seemed to drift outside, opening the door, as she stood on her tiptoes, eagerly waiting for him to come in.

  Had to be a doctor. Hell yeah. Charlotte called one in anyway.

  Chica gave the man a sniff, but stopped barking, like this was someone familiar but she hadn’t seen him in a while.

  “He’s inside?” the man asked, not seeming bothered about who these two strangers were on the porch. He was older, appeared much older than Charlotte, and he was thin, with very thin cheeks.

  Gabriel nodded slowly to him. “Yeah. In that front room. The parlor.”

  The doctor walked past him, into the house. Didn’t bother asking where the parlor was. He’d been here before. Charlotte followed him inside.

  Gabriel turned to Sang instantly. “Who is he?” he mouthed to her.

  Sang shook her head. “No idea.”

  Suddenly there was talking from the other side of the house. Gabriel and Sang tiptoed across the living room, putting their ears out toward the hallway, trying to hear.

  They weren’t being loud enough to hear every word at first, but part of what was said was obvious, her grandfather was refusing to go to the hospital, despite the doctor pleading with him.

  Gabriel inched forward, daring to get as close as the stairs. He could just barely see the doctor where he stood, though he was hoping to stay out of sight.

  “I’m pretty sure this is a heart attack,” the doctor said. “Listen, I’ll take you there myself, I just need to find out...”

  “No,” Brian said in a grumbling tone. “No, I’m not leaving. If I’m going to die, I want to die right here.”

  “You don’t have to die at all,” the doctor said.

  Charlotte spoke, “Sweetheart, will you just listen to—”

  “No!” he barked at them both. “I’m not going! You two can get out if you’re going to bully me.”

  Charlotte wept at first and then lashed out, “You’re just a stubborn... selfish...”

  The doctor raised a hand up to her, to convince her to calm down.

  She struggled, turning away and nearly coming into full view of where Gabriel was standing. She folded her arms across her body to hold herself.

  The doctor spoke calmly to the Brian, taking a step closer. “I could have you back in moments. In and out in fifteen minutes.”

  “No.”

  “If I left you some medication...”

  “No,” Brian said with equal force.

  But it wasn’t the doctor Gabriel focused on now. It was Charlotte.

  Her pained face. The stress and tears in her eyes. She cared about him a lot.

  It was hard to hear him basically giving up, ready to die, knowing that he was and like he didn’t care at all.

  As if he’d been waiting for this and didn’t have any plans on changing nature with any remedies. He simply willed it.

  “Give us a minute,” she said eventually to the doctor.

  The doctor nodded and made his way around the barricade of furniture back to the living room. He made no acknowledgement of Gabriel or of Sang who had been a step behind him. He passed them both and headed out of the living room.

  Now was his chance. Whether Charlotte convinced him or not, that was up to her. Gabriel followed the doctor outside, bursting out onto the porch after him.

  “Do you know them?” Gabriel asked as the door slammed shut behind him. He wasn’t going to waste a moment. They didn’t have much time. She could convince Sang’s grandfather any minute and they’d be gone to the hospital. “I mean, it feels like you know this family...”

  The doctor, with a worried, fretting expression on his wrinkled face, smiled at his question. “Yes. Been around this family a long time. I birthed their two babies.” He motioned to the porch. “Right here actually.”

  Gabriel’s heart soared. “Really? What about... the... granddaughter?”

  He seemed puzzled and he tilted his head. “Don’t know what you mean. Did London have a baby? Didn’t hear about that.”

  It was taking a risk, but so far, all their records turned up negative so there wasn’t any paperwork. If there was any, if he was here for the birth... “I mean with Lyric. Their daughter that died.”

  “Now, son,” the doctor said, sounding cross. “Gossip is still a sin, you know?”

  “Please,” Gabriel seethed and came closer to him. “I know about patient privilege and everything but...”

  “Then you know I can’t answer you.”

  Gabriel glared at him with a flash of anger. “Could you answer the granddaughter?” he spat out.

  The doctor stilled. “That girl in there?” he whispered.

  Gabriel didn’t answer him, he simply waited him out. He didn’t want to tell him one way or another. He didn’t want to risk the doctor saying something to Charlotte. “I just need to know,” Gabriel said. “Did her mother die before or after she was given away?”

  The doctor tightened his lips and turned away to gaze out into the horse fields, and he did so for so long that Gabriel was sure he wasn’t going to answer.

  “I just need to know—” Gabriel said.

  “After,” the doctor cut him off. “The grandbaby wasn’t here when I came to check on them, and he shoved me out the door. It was only later they called about their daughter... to try to save her.”

  Gabriel breathed slowly. “Did they ever say why? Why did they give her away?”

  The doctor shook his head. “Wish I knew. Wondered that myself since that night. I never saw her again. And they never talked about her. They barely talked about their daughter once she was gone. I couldn’t do anything for her. She didn’t want to live.” He spat out the last part. “Like daughter, like father.”

  Gabriel wasn’t sure the answer was better than not knowing, but it was something.

  Sang was given away, and then... Lyric died. And from the way everyone tiptoed around it, from what everyone said, it was confirmed as suicide.

  Was it because her father forced her to give the baby away?

  The only one who might actually know for sure was dying in the parlor.

  Find Answers

  Sang

  I lingered in the living room, close to the door, listening after Gabriel went out onto the porch after the doctor. I remained peeking through the gap in the door of the parlor.

  Too frozen in place to move one way or another, all I could do was listen.

  Charlotte lowered herself on her knees to the floor, near her husband’s now propped up feet. They had placed him in his lounge chair with the seat back and the feet up.

  “Will you please not do this?” Charlotte pleaded with him.

  “I’m not listening,” he said.

  “That’s the problem. You haven’t listened. If you had, maybe she...”

  “Don’t you start!” He arched his body like he was going to get up and jump at her if he could get enough strength.

  Charlotte leaned back but remained on the floor. It was hard to see her over the tops of all the crowded furniture. “This is what you’re trying to do, isn’t it? Die here where she died? You’ve stopped walking around the farm. Eating fudge and ham and beans for dinner. You aren’t using a gun but you might as well. You’ve given up.”

  She stopped suddenly as he paused in his effort to get up and he turned away from her, facing the window on the other side of the room. If he couldn’t get up, he would ignore her until she went away.

  “Maybe it’s my fault for moving out of here,” Charlotte said, her head bowed.

  “Maybe it is,” he said coldly. “You wanted that other house in town, away from me.”

  “Away from heartache,” she said. “Too many memories. I couldn’t live like this.”

  “And you try to forget,” he said, and turned his face again to her, but she’d stopped looking at him. His face was red with anger. “I never did. Never stopped. Everyone kept trying to take her away from me. She left me...” He trailed off.

  I swallowed, and it took everything inside of me to stop myself from gasping and screaming and crying out to them.

  She died here. My mother.

  He was dying, maybe because of guilt, or to join her.

  And what about their son? The one that was left? Did he not matter?

  Or me? It was like I was completely out of the picture.

  And his wife... she was right there, right in front of him.

  But it all didn’t matter.

  It made me wonder what drove him to this. Whatever happened to him, it drove his wife out the door, and made his son angry when they were together, bickering with each other.

  He was grieving, filled with bitterness, maybe guilt, from what happened to my mother.

  Could I do anything for this? Would I just make it worse?

  I didn’t know what to do. I froze in fear.

  But there was something Gabriel had written in his notebook, the one I’d read the night before, the words I put to his voice, and I could almost hear him singing it.

  The chances we never take, leave us in the dark.

  The choices we make, make us or make us fall apart.

  We had taken risks, as far as we dared, since we’d been here. What as one more?

  I wasn’t sure what to do yet, but soon Charlotte got up, unable to convince him, and left the room.

  She passed me in the living room after I’d changed position, pretending I’d been sitting on the couch waiting.

  “Let me know if something happens to him,” she said without looking at me.

  “Okay,” I said weakly.

  She went to join the doctor and Gabriel on the porch. She was expressing to them he was refusing.

  I slowly got up, now with permission to go look in on him, I went.

  Before I did, I went to the bathroom. Quickly, I washed my face, and took out the contacts that I’d grown accustomed to wearing for the last week.

  I dried my face, going back to the hallway. I had to be fast.

  And I stopped at the still open parlor door and hovered just in the doorway, waiting in the silence.

  I had to do it now.

  He had his head turned. Slowly, I tiptoed, as far as I dared, into the room. And made enough noise to catch his attention.

  He turned his head slowly, gazing in my direction.

  I stilled and waited.

  And slowly, his lips parted, and he mumbled, “Lyric.”

  Lyric.

  My mother’s name? I hadn’t even known...

  It had taken me this long to realize, I’d never known. I hadn’t learned it yet.

  To answer him, I shook my head. “My name is Sang,” I said.

  He gasped. “You look... just like—”

  “Lyric?” I asked quietly.

  He blinked at me. A bit of drool left the side of his mouth but he never wiped it away. He never got up from his chair. He just gazed at me.

  “Is that my mother’s name?” I asked him.

  At this, his lips opened and he moaned. Loudly.

  I jumped at this, terrified.

  Had I made the wrong decision?

  We weren’t supposed to stress him out.