Chapter 73. It’s Going to Be Okay

2024

Amelia’s POV

The last time I had felt like this, I was standing outside an emergency room with my mother, waiting for news that would change everything. It had been half an hour since they rushed him in. Half an hour since my father had just…slumped over in the living room, his face slack, his body unresponsive. I remembered the way my mother had held my hand so tightly I lost feeling in my fingers, the way I had focused on the ticking of the clock above the double doors because if I looked at her, I would fall apart.

And then the doctor had come out, his face carefully composed, and I had already known before he even said the words.

I’m sorry.

It was a heart attack, they said. There was nothing anyone could have done.

Now, as I paced the sterile hospital hallway, my chest tightening with every step, I couldn’t shake the same feeling creeping up on me. The air felt too thick like it was closing in around me, and no matter how ma