![]() ![]() “What happened, son?” The calmness of his voice slowed the rapid racing of my heart. “ Dad!” I almost cried with relief when he answered, and the calmest part of my mind noted it was the first time I’d referred to my adoptive parent that way. Talk to me!” I pulled out my cell and called Jake. “Gabe, talk to me.” I gave him a light shake again when his eyes drifted closed and he groaned quietly. Once I had them wrapped, I looked around, trying to figure out what he’d used. The cuts weren’t deep, and I didn’t think he was in any immediate danger, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I snatched a towel from the rail, tore it in two and wrapped both his wrists. The random thought that he’d cut in the wrong way to be truly effective flashed through my mind, and then I was moving, searching the bathroom for something to wrap around it and stop the already-slowing flow of blood. I grabbed one of his arms, twisted it around, and saw the horizontal cut across his wrist. “Gabe? Gabe, wake up!” I touched his face, shook his shoulder, and his lashes flickered, then lifted. I crossed the floor and dropped to my knees beside him. The pool of blood around where his hands lay on the floor, though? That wasn’t typical. One eye was swollen shut, his lip was split and bleeding-neither were unusual to see. Gabe was on the floor, his back against the side of the tub, head slumped forward and eyes closed. The sight which greeted me would remain burned into my mind for the rest of my life. I knocked again, louder, and listened for a second before turning the handle. “Gabe?” I rapped on the door, but silence greeted me. There was a light shining under the door to the bathroom, so I headed toward that. I backed out of the room and looked along the hallway. ![]() The laptop I’d given him was open on his bed, an article on the screen-so he had to be somewhere nearby, otherwise the screensaver would have kicked in. “Gabe?” He wasn’t there when I went inside. I walked through the apartment and headed to Gabe’s room. Maybe his dad had gone to visit a neighbor, which could explain why the door was open. I leaned inside and looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. His father had never tried to touch me, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t if I walked into something. I considered calling at Harper’s to see if she’d distracted him, but then I saw the door to his apartment was slightly ajar. I got to Gabe’s apartment block without meeting up with him and climbed the stairs to his floor. Call when you meet him, and I’ll come and pick you both up.” The car can’t take the same route Gabe will. “I’ll drive you.” Jake, my new dad, stood. So, if he was on his way, I’d meet him along the path somewhere. A twenty-minute walk, if that, and I knew what route he’d take. “I’m gonna go and get him.” He didn’t live that far from us. But now it was seven, and he wasn’t here. He was supposed to have been at my place at six. Unless something stopped him, if he had somewhere to be, he was there early. “What time is it?” I asked for probably the thousandth time.Īnnabelle Hawkins, officially as of five weeks, my legal mom, sent me a smile. ![]()
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