Once the call was over, I hovered over Kamryn’s name for a few seconds before putting my phone in my pocket. I wanted to tell her what was happening, but I wanted to be able to hold her when I did. I was finally going to get Liv help, but I’d almost been too late. And my stomach dropped every time I remembered how last night and this morning I’d been wondering if all this had been a game to her.

Walking into the hospital, my steps quickened when I saw Liv’s parents speaking to the doctor. He eyed me warily, and my forehead creased in confusion. We’d spoken twice that morning, and he hadn’t been back out since the Reynoldses arrived. I didn’t know why he’d be talking to them and looking at me like I had no place in being there.

“What’s going on? How’s she doing?”

Mr. Reynolds’s back stiffened, and he turned to glare at me. “You disgusting piece of trash. What was this going to accomplish for you?”

“What?”

“You think throwing a childish fit and trying to make us believe you’re the only one who wants to help her would make any of us believe that our daughter would have done something so tragic?”

I shook my head slowly as I tried to comprehend what he was saying, and why his wife looked like she was about to kill me. Looking past him, I asked the doctor, “What the hell happened?”

He glanced at Liv’s parents, and her mom urged him to tell me. With a slow breath out, he squared his shoulders and looked at me. “Your wife’s toxicity report came back. There was no trace of the antidepressants, or any narcotic for that matter, in her system. We’re running tests to see why she fainted. There’s always the possibility of a seizure, that kind of thing.”

My jaw dropped and I shook my head once. “No . . . she was completely unresponsive. Her breathing was too shallow. I was with her for five minutes trying to wake her up, the EMTs couldn’t wake her up. And if she didn’t take the pills, then what did she do with them so that they were all gone and the bottle just happened to be there next to her?”

“Or what did you do with them,” Mrs. Reynolds said under her breath, and my head jerked back. “She said she was afraid of what would happen if you knew she needed them. I find it disturbing that we get her help, and she winds up in the hospital just days later.”

“This has got to be a joke,” I said, breathing hard.

Kamryn

June 16, 2015

“I THINK it needs to be Sunday every day of the week,” Kinlee blurted out.

Laughing, I dipped my spoon back into the pint of ice cream and ignored her laughing when I moaned through my next bite. “Shut up,” I grumbled.

“Oh, whatever. It’s cute!”

“Lee, it is not cute! You try moaning like this when you eat sweet stuff! Think about never being able to try something sweet when you’re out. Never being able to try flavors at the frozen yogurt shop, just having to hope you’ll like it. Think. About. It.”

Kinlee’s face morphed into a look of horror. “No fro-yo samples?!”

“Exactly.” I pointed the spoon at her.

Jace was working, so we’d spent all day at her house in our pajamas, doing nothing but eating and watching movies. I felt so sick. So fat. So lazy. And so ridiculously happy.

Putting the half-eaten pint on the coffee table, I rubbed my eyes under my glasses and sat back into the cushions on the couch. “You’re trying to kill me with sugar.”

“You found me out,” she said around one of my cookies. “Took you long enough. What’s this?” she asked, nodding her head at the TV.

“How am I supposed to know? You have the remote.”

“Well, I can’t find it. What was coming on after Harry Potter?”

I rolled my head to the side and raised an eyebrow at her. “Really? You’re really asking me this right now? There were two on in a row. How the hell am I supposed to know the answer to that?”

“Meh, whatever. It has Cameron Diaz. I like her.” Kinlee shrugged and sat back. “I don’t want to watch this,” she whispered a few moments later.

“What? Why?” I looked at her, alarmed by the tone of her voice.

“I just don’t. Can you help me look for the remote?”

I watched as she turned and shoved her hand in the side of the couch, and I glanced back at the inoffensive movie playing. “I don’t—what’s wrong with it?”

“I just don’t want to watch it, all right?!”

Jumping back from her now-shrill voice, I sat there stunned for a few seconds before nodding my head furiously. “Yeah, okay. Let’s find it.”

I helped her look for the remote while sneaking glances back at the TV. “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” I said, reading the title out loud. Why would Kinlee be so against watching this?

Looking back at her, I watched her eyes flutter shut and a deep breath left her. Her shoulders hunched forward like she was curling in on herself, and my chest ached for my friend.

“Are—are you and Jace having a baby?” Wouldn’t that be a happy thing?

She sighed sadly and opened her eyes, but didn’t look at me. She just continued staring at the back of the couch. “No.”

Glancing quickly at the movie still playing, I moved to sit on the floor next to her and grabbed her forearm. “Did you have a miscarriage, Lee?” She shook her head, and my confusion grew. “I—what happened? I don’t know what’s wrong.”