I smile until we stop at a door marked Maintenance Staff Only, where a campus security guard is stationed. He jabs his chin toward me in friendly recognition before tapping his key card to open the portal for us.
At once, we hurry into a big room that has us squinting against its glaring brightness. Only after my eyes adjust do I realize the effect isn’t just me and the gloomy settings to which I’ve acclimated the last few days. The building’s wide fluorescent bulbs have extra help from huge, portable surgical room lights that are slanted over half a dozen gurneys. From two of the beds, there are sounds of victims groaning in pain. Three other bays are quiet save for the somber beeps of monitoring equipment. From the sixth bay, which is closest to us, there comes the sound of…
Humming?
It’s a woman. I’m able to pick out that much.
Kara beelines toward the drapes that hide the hummer. “Kell? Hey Kell, are you—”
Mom pivots, clearly already expecting my little demon’s reaction. She halts Kara by grabbing her elbow, though her stare lays down even more authority. “Calm down,” she orders gently. “You can see her. I’ve already told her you were on the way. But we should discuss some things first.”
“Things?” Kara’s tense with attention now, anxiously searching Mom’s face. “Like what?”
“Do you have a private physician? I mean, for the family?” The hue of Mom’s gaze deepens from a summer sky to an autumn twilight, a change that always irked me as a kid. It means she is hiding deeper truths.
Kara hesitates but only for a few seconds. “Yes,” she offers quietly. “We always have.”
Mom nods, her lips tight. “I suspected as much. When her labs came back…” She releases an exasperated sigh. “Well, you probably know what I’m going to say. Her blood work alone would have taken a team of scientists to unravel given the appropriate time. Thankfully there’s been no time to speak of, and no one has grown too suspicious. It’s been beyond chaotic, so I’ve been able to keep the doctors distracted with other patients.”
“Oh, no.” Kara’s eyes widen as realization clearly hits her. No doubt she’s resolving Kell’s health emergency with whatever she knows about the Valari family’s medical secrets. “How serious are her injuries?”
“I’m afraid she’s fractured her leg. She’s stabilized, but I can’t release her to you in her current condition.”
“Fractured it? How badly? Will she need surgery?” Kara presses—at the same moment that Kell jumps the humming to outright singing.
Mom shakes her head so hard, the curls in her ponytail bounce. “I don’t believe so, but I’m not the doctor. That’s the issue. I’ve been trying to keep them away.”
“I understand. Is there any way you can try to have her released to us? I don’t want to jeopardize your license, but you’ve likely figured out most of the real story here. I can help her much more if I get her home.”
“I get that. I do.” But Mom finishes it with a heavy sigh. “It’s going to be risky but possible. I’ll do my best to make her records—I don’t know—disappear, I guess.”
I want to hug my mother all over again for the blithe humor that she’s always pulled off better than me. But Kara beats me to it, hauling Mom into the kind of effusive embrace that only women seem capable of.
“Thank you, Nancy.” Tears push in at the edges of her whispered gush. “I’m going to pay you back with that giant wine soon.”
As Mom pulls back, I’m pretty sure there’s a distinct sheen in her gaze too. There’s a warmth in my chest now, watching my mother already accept the woman I worship as a daughter of her heart.
“You’ll get no argument from me on that one,” she effuses before indicating toward the draped-off area from which an off-key pop ballad is rising. “Now can you two try to get her to hit the mute button before someone decides to thoroughly check her chart?”
I send Mom off to work her paperwork magic with a fast kiss on the cheek and a smile that threatens to break my face.
As soon as I follow Kara to Kell’s bedside, the expression vanishes.
Despite Kell’s cheeky private concert for herself, she looks painfully small and weak in the big rolling bed. She’s much paler than I’ve ever seen her. One of her legs is practically twice the diameter of its mate and suspended high thanks to a mobile traction stand. It also looks like they’re pumping her with medication and fluids through an IV line.
If Kara picks up on my concern, she hides it with shocking serenity. Her whole composure is the same way. It’s as if she purposely let all her trepidation unspool before now.
“Kell,” she murmurs. “What happened?”
Kell rocks her head back on a laugh. “It’s just a few bumps and bruises.”
While her sister’s leg is heavily wrapped, much of her exposed skin is scuffed and bruised, leading me to silently echo the question.
What the hell happened?
Kara loosens her hand from mine in order to fully envelop Kell’s. “We’re working on getting you discharged. Dr. Doug can treat you at Mom’s. But I need you to relax until we get the paperwork in order.”
Kell snorts again, taking us in with glassy eyes. “Relax?” Her voice edges on a slur. “Oh, trust me. I’m relaxed. Whatever’s in this IV drip is pretty awesome. But not as awesome as a martini. Oh, that would be sooo goood. With two blue cheese olives, please.”
“Okay. Ssshhh, now.”
Kara resettles her sister’s hand on the thin sheet covering the plastic medical mattress. The motion distracts Kell enough that I’m able to lean over and lift her blanket. Her clothes are ripped in several places and covered in a thick layer of dust.
“Kell.” I lower the blanket but raise my scrutiny, taking inventory of the continued damage up the left side of her body. “What happened? Do you remember anything?”
The question prevails in calming her again—perhaps too much. As Kell’s expression dims, Kara’s fills with complete despair.
“I…I don’t want to.” Kell laces it with a loud whine.
“Honey.” Kara whispers it like an apology, probably hoping to encourage her sister to do the same. “Please. You have to. Especially if…” Her voice halts as her breath does, and her shoulders hunch with awful tension. “Especially if this was a deliberate act.” She brushes her hand across Kell’s worried brow. “Sister?” she urges. “Was it? A deliberate act?”
Immediately that stress level invades me too. Working to put together the pieces behind whatever ordeal Kell’s survived, not once have I considered she’s been a victim of intentional violence. But perhaps Kara can already sense what I failed to suspect.
“Tell me, Kell,” she grits out. “I can feel you trying to hide it, but why?”
Kell looks up at her with strange new lucidity. “You. Know. Why,” she says with unexpected vehemence.
“No,” Kara snaps back. “I don’t know. Does this have anything to do with Arden?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Kara stiffens. “What does that mean? Wait. Are you covering for him?”