Chapter 2: The Name on the Screen
PART 2 ⬇️
Sloan sat down slowly, still holding Willa against her chest.
The baby had gone quiet again, but Sloan's hands were still trembling.
"She stopped breathing," Sloan said.
"Twice.
In the first week."
I couldn't speak.
"The doctors called it an episode.
They ran tests.
They said she may need monitoring for the next several months, maybe longer." Her voice cracked on the last word.
"I was alone both times, Vincent.
I was the one who called the ambulance.
I was the one sitting in that hospital hallway at two in the morning not knowing if she was going to be okay."
I sat down across from her because my legs stopped working.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.
Sloan looked at me with something past anger.
"Because I didn't know if you would come.
And I couldn't survive you not coming."
That sentence broke something in me that I don't think will ever fully close again.
Then her phone buzzed on the counter.
She glanced at it and froze.
I saw the name on the screen before she turned it over.
It wasn't Jenna.
It was a name I recognized.
Someone from my own life.
Someone who had no reason to be contacting Sloan at all.
"Who is that?" I asked quietly.
Sloan didn't answer.
She just pulled Willa closer and looked at the window like she was calculating how fast she could leave.
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What Vincent found out next changed everything he thought he knew.
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