Bold Bella (Book 4)

Chapter 16:

I walked through the apartment door to see all the lights on which was weird because it was like one a.m. in the morning and two April had just gotten home from a twenty four hour sleep she should’ve been sleeping already.

            “Where the hell have you been?” April demanded popping out of nowhere.

            “I was at the park.”

            “And what your phone wasn’t working? Why the hell were you in the park for?”

            “What’s going on April?”

            “Dad’s dying.”

            “What?” I asked immediately. Dad couldn’t be dying we saw him less than two weeks ago. He was fine.

            “Mum, dad and Nate got in a car accident in New York. They don’t think dad’s gonna make it,” she said and tears were starting to spill down her face.

            “Stop messing with me. This can’t be happening! Dad can’t be dying! We were meant to be going to Edinburgh for Oly’s birthday next week.”

            “Bella, we’re going to New York. I’ve packed you a suitcase now lets go. Our jet leaves as soon as we get to the airport. Of course we already could’ve been in the air if you just answered your damn phone.”

            “I just wanted to be a kid,” I whispered with tears spilling down my own face.

            “You’re not a kid anymore, Bella. Time to grow up,” April said as she left the apartment with her suitcase. I grabbed mine and followed her footsteps. I turned off the light and locked the door.

April drove us to the airport and we were silent with worry the whole ride. When we got to the airport we went straight to the Silverview private hangar where the company jet was waiting for us. We gave our suitcases to the people that put the luggage on the bottom of the plane – I never really knew what they were called – and we climbed up the stairs.

It was the most morbid seven and a half hours of my life. April and I didn’t speak the whole time but we were both awake from worry the whole time. The air had never been thicker between us, it felt like we were in separate bubbles and it was a shame because it was times like this when we should’ve been in the same bubble like we usually were. We were always together. April and Bella against the world. That’s just how it was with us but on that plane I couldn’t have felt further away from her.

When we landed in New York we grabbed our bags and headed straight for a cab, which smelt of cigarettes. April told the slightly overweight cab driver which hospital we needed to get to and we were on our way but of course we were getting stuck in the unbearable New York traffic and my leg started bouncing because we were so close but yet still so far from dad.

I sneaked a glance at April who was on the other side of the back seat. All I could see was her caramel coloured hair acting as a wall around her face so I couldn’t see it, especially since her head was angled towards the window.

            “April?” I asked quietly but she didn’t respond. I waited for a moment with small hope that she’d talk to me but she didn’t so I mimicked her position and looked out the window at the New York skyscrapers and thought about dad.

I was wondering, as a doctor, what injuries he had, what meds he was on and what surgeries had been performed on him. As a daughter I was wondering what he’d look like and if he’d be conscious. I was wondering if I’d get to speak to him when we got there and I was wondering how this even happened. Then I started panicking slightly. What if he didn’t make it? What if my sweet, old dad ceased to exist? Would mum do something drastic like Dave did? What if mum got too depressed too quickly and committed suicide? Dad couldn’t die, he just couldn’t. He’s what held the family together. He was the glue. He solved every fight. My dad with his greying hair and caramel eyes. He couldn’t not exist. It was bizarre. If anyone could survive an accident it was dad. He just had too. Important people don’t just die.