The drive to the hospital took eleven minutes that felt like eleven hours. Aria sat rigid in the passenger seat, phone clutched so tightly in her hand that her knuckles had gone white, replaying the nurse's clipped, careful words on a loop she couldn't make stop.
Your mother's had a cardiac event. We need you here as soon as possible.
"She's strong," Adrian said, one hand briefly leaving the wheel to squeeze Aria's knee, steady despite the speed he was pushing through yellow lights. "Diane's strong. You've told me that yourself a hundred times."
"Strong doesn't stop a heart from stopping," Aria said, voice cracking. "Adrian, if something happens to her—"
"It won't." He said it with more certainty than either of them actually had, but Aria let herself hold onto it anyway, because the al
