Three Hundred Miles Too Late

Aaron drove overnight from the next city. When he saw how pale and exhausted I looked, he asked me directly, "Evan Tully, are you really going to marry someone like this?"

My first instinct was to defend her.

Then I realized I could not come up with even one decent reason.

That night, Vanessa finally arrived at the county hospital.

She did not go upstairs to see my mother first.

Instead, she called me from downstairs, sounding tired.

"Come down. I don't want to be surrounded by your relatives and interrogated."

When I went down, she handed me a bank card.

"The PIN is your birthday. Stop making a scene. I'll explain things with Caleb."

Before I could say anything, my phone automatically pushed Caleb's latest post onto the screen.

He had posted a photo of himself sitting in the ER infusion room.

A needle was taped to the back of his hand, and he looked fragile and pitiful.

The caption read: "Why do some people blame everything on me the moment they get angry?"

I looked at that post and suddenly understood why Vanessa refused to go upstairs.

She was not afraid of my relatives questioning her.

She was afraid I would force her to admit, in front of my mother, exactly where she had been and what she had done.

But I still brought her upstairs.

Because after my mother woke up, the first thing she asked was still, in a trembling voice, "Has Vanessa come?"

In the hospital room, Vanessa behaved perfectly.

She tucked in my mother's blanket, promised to contact the best specialists in Graybridge immediately, and said the wedding would proceed as planned so my mother could focus on recovering.

A small light finally appeared in my mother's cloudy eyes.

Her trembling hand placed my hand into Vanessa's.

"Evan has been sensible since he was little. He never says anything even when he's hurt.

"Vanessa, you must love him well from now on."

My eyes burned instantly.

In front of my mother, Vanessa tightened her grip on my hand and nodded solemnly.

But the moment we left the room, she let go.

Frowning, she asked in an icy voice, "Satisfied now?

"You had to make me act out that whole scene for your mother before you felt better?"

Those words landed like a hard slap.

They shattered the fragile warmth I had just felt in that hospital room.

At that moment, Caleb called.

As soon as Vanessa answered, his breathless sobbing came through the line.

"Vanessa... I think I'm allergic to the fever medicine... I feel awful all over... I'm alone..."

Vanessa's face changed instantly.

She turned to leave.

I held onto her arm with all my strength, my voice shaking.

"My mother may not make it through tonight. The doctor just talked to me."

Vanessa yanked her arm away.

She used so much force that I stumbled and hit the wall.

"Didn't the doctor say she was stable for now?

"Evan Tully, Caleb is the one in real trouble!"

I chased her to the hospital entrance. At some point, heavy rain had begun pouring outside.

Before Vanessa got into the car, she looked back at me.

Rain soaked her hair, and her eyes were full of disappointment and exhaustion.

"Evan, don't keep using your mother to force me to choose. It is exhausting."

Her taillights soon vanished into the rain.

My phone rang.

It was my mother's attending doctor, his voice urgent.

"Evan Tully! Hurry! Come back to the room! Your mother..."

My mother died at 1:03 a.m.

Until the end, she kept looking toward the door, as if still waiting for the daughter-in-law who had promised to come home with me.

I held her hand as it slowly turned cold and whispered over and over by her ear, "I'm here. I'm right here."

But she could no longer hear me.

Near dawn, Vanessa finally sent me a message.

"Caleb is stable. I stayed with him all night. How is your mother?"

I looked at that line for a long, long time.

Then calmly took off the engagement ring on my hand and placed it in the drawer beside my mother's bed.

The next second, a nurse came in and handed me an old envelope my mother had left behind.

"Your mother gave this to me while she was still lucid. She said to let you read it only when you were alone."