“Why… do you always… try to save me?” he slurred.

I reached across to buckle him in, but didn’t answer. The truth was, I couldn’t give up on him. Family was family. As long as there was breath in his lungs, I wouldn’t give up hope that he could be saved.

But you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, an insidious voice whispered.

Suddenly headlights flashed and tires crunched as a car pulled up next to mine.

“You all right there?” a woman’s voice called.

I straightened too fast, bashing my head against the roof. I rubbed my throbbing skull and squinted. The driver was an older woman, with sad, droopy eyes, snow-white hair. A stranger.

“We’re fine,” I called out.

“You sure?” She pushed her door open and started to get out.

“We’re fine,” I snapped, sounding harsher than I’d intended. “I’m a doctor. I’ve got it.”

The woman hesitated, then climbed back in her car. “All right, if you’re sure. Bye then.”

I shut Ben’s door and hurried around to the driver’s side.

Josh was staring at me with wide eyes.

“Josh, this is your uncle Ben.”

NATE AMBLED into the emergency room, throwing waves and grins like candy from a parade float. Kia followed like a dark shadow in his wake, looking like she’d eaten a sour grape.

I watched my husband and rubbed my forehead. How did he do it? He never appeared to hurry, to worry. Only I could see the strain in his eyes, the pinch at the corners of his mouth. The toll his latest case and Josh’s illness were taking.

“Hey, babe. Thanks for calling me.” He kissed my cheek with his eyes open. He knelt and stroked a hand over Josh’s head, which was on my lap as he dozed.

I couldn’t have Nate finding out Ben was here from someone else, so I’d called him as soon as the doctors had admitted Ben, telling him my brother had called me from Target. I’d been waiting here since Cass had wheeled him into the emergency room. Before she’d come to get him, Ben had stared at me with wide, questioning eyes from where he was lying on a gurney.

“V… V…” He could barely wrap his tongue around his words, the sound pouring slow as wet asphalt from his mouth.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” I’d reassured him.

“Vvvv…!” He was getting agitated.

I pressed him down onto the gurney. “Shhh!” I hissed. I bent lower and whispered to him: “That scarf you have, was it Violeta’s?”

He nodded.

“I saw it in Gabe’s back pocket. He had it when he met me at the hospital.”

Ben’s eyes widened. My gaze darted to Cass, who was approaching.