Free Secrets [5] Echoes: Part One by A.M Hudson Page B

words heart and attack .
    I sat up, shoving everything in my lap to the floor, reading the letter then almost too fast to comprehend.
     
    Dear Ara and David,
    I’ve been trying so hard to reach you. Calls, text, and I’ve had no response, so I’m afraid this letter comes with bad news. Your dad had a heart attack last night. He’s in hospital. He’s stable. But that keeps changing. Sam’s here, but we’d really like it if you could come.
     
    The page shook so savagely I could hardly make out the date on the top, but it was clearly sent over three weeks ago.
    “No. No, no, no,” I muttered, falling to my knees above the pile of mail. My hands pushed envelopes and packages aside quickly, sorting through until I found one dated two days after the first letter. I ripped it open, tearing the paper inside a little.
     
    Dear Ara and David,
    Where are you? No one has been able to reach you or Mike or even Emily. I sent six emails, but they all said the same thing: invalid address.
     
    I checked the email address she’d written down under that and, sure enough, she missed a digit. She must have been using her own email account to send them because, if she’d gone into Dad’s, she could have simply replied to an email I’d sent.
     
    Did you change your number? she wrote. Please call. Dad is okay. He made it through, but they’re keeping him in hospital for a while. He woke up last night for a few minutes and begged me not to worry you—told me he’d be okay. But I think you should come. The doctor said there’s a very high chance he could have another heart attack, Ara. I’m worried. I’ll never forgive myself if he dies and you don’t get to say goodbye.
     
    My chest rose and fell in panic, the sobbing echoing so loudly through the room that Blade left his guard post and came in. “Ara? What is it?”
    I handed him the letters as I ripped open the next, my fingers weak and moving slowly.
    Dear Ara, Dad is okay. He’s home now, the next one said, and I burst into tears again, offering the letter to Blade.
    “ He’s on strict bed-rest, but we think you should come home anyway. It’s been so long since we’ve seen you, ” he read aloud. “ Please. Just come home. I know it will make Dad so happy to see you both again. He misses you terribly, Ara .” Blade stopped reading and passed back the letter, sitting down on the floor beside me, his long, thin arms wrapping me up in a tight embrace.
    “Why hasn’t she called?” I cried.
    “Have you called her?”
    “I can’t get through. I just figured everything was okay, you know—I …” I bit my knuckle. “I’ve gone four weeks without speaking to them before. I just didn’t think anything of it.”
    “It’s not your fault.” Blade rubbed firm circles over my back. “Why not give her a call now?”
    I nodded, reaching in to my back pocket to get my phone. But when I dialled the number and put it to my ear, it went to message bank.
    “What is it?” Blade asked.
    “She’s not answering.”
    “Try Sam,” he suggested.
    My face dropped. “I didn’t think of that.”
    “That’s what you’ve got me for.” He grinned.
    Sam’s phone rang only once before he picked up. “Ara!”
    “Sam. Is Dad okay? I only just got the letters. I’ve been trying to call, but Vicki’s phone goes straight to—”
    “I know,” he cut in. “It got stolen at the Cardiologist’s office a few weeks ago. She has a new number.”
    “Why didn’t you send it to me?”
    “I did! I sent it to David.”
    “He’s been away on business! His phone’s been off for three weeks.”
    “Why would his phone be off?” he yelled back.
    “Because he was in—” I stopped just before saying Paris, then going on to say he didn’t have International Roaming. But that would sound weird considering we supposedly lived in Paris. “Okay,” I said quietly, simmering down a bit. “I don’t wanna argue, Sam. Just … is Dad okay?”
    “He’s—he sleeps all the time,