Chapter 70

The nurse comes back. “You have a few visitors. “

Raquel rushes into the makeshift bay, and tries to hug me as best she can while I lay on the gurney. Following close behind are Grant, and Simon, escorted by Officer, I mean, Mike

“Raquel, Grant, how did you get here? And Simon?”

“You listed me with the hospital as your emergency contact,” says Raquel. “They called me. It just happened Grant had a legal conference in LA today, and I came along to do some shopping. We weren’t far when I got the call. Oh, Niki…” Raquel starts to cry. I look for a box of tissues, but don’t see one. I let it go.

“Then I called Simon. I called Mom and Dad too. I’ll call again later and let them know I talked to you. If I call them now, we’ll never get either of them off of the phone.”

“Oh God, Mom and Dad know?”

“I had to call them Niki, after I found out. It was too serious for me to wait. I didn’t know if…”

Raquel doesn’t finish the sentence. I know what it was she didn’t know.

At the time, I didn’t know, either.