Chapter 93: MOMMY, PLEASE WAKE UP.
Chapter 94
Ren
I sat in the plastic chair, keeping my hand wrapped around her fingers, just listening to her breathe.
The door opened behind me and Darren walked in, looking like absolute hell. He closed the door quietly and leaned back against it.
"She’s locked up," Darren said, keeping his voice down. "I handled the paperwork myself. Official arrest, no bail. She’s in a cell at the pack station with two guards outside."
"Did she say anything?" I asked.
"She cried the whole way there," Darren said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Kept screaming that Callum lied to her. Said he swore he wasn’t going to hurt Lumi."
"She gave him the key, Darren," I said, my voice dead. "She helped sell the apartment. She set Lumi up. I don’t care what she thought was going to happen. She can tell it to a judge."
Darren didn’t argue. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and put it on the table beside the bed.
"Callum’s phone pinged twenty minutes ago," he said. "Near the old docks on the north side of the river. Tech team saw a dark SUV parked behind an old silo at Dock 14."
I looked down at the paper. Callum was sitting out there right now, thinking he’d pulled off the perfect crime.
He thought Lumi was dead in that empty house. He had no idea she was still breathing.
"How many guys are with him?" I asked, letting go of Lumi’s hand and standing up.
"Two," Darren said. "Hired security."
"No heavy teams," I said, reaching for my coat. "Just you and me. We go in quiet. But first, we need to make a stop."
Darren frowned. "A stop? Ren, the pack council is already waiting. And if Callum realizes..."
"I’m going to get Theo," I told him.
Darren stopped cold.
" You want to bring a little kid into an ICU?"
"She’s not waking up for the doctors, Darren," I said, looking back at Lumi’s pale face.
"She’s slipping. If anything in this world is going to pull her back, it’s hearing her son’s voice. He needs to talk to her." Darren stared at me for a second, then let out a slow breath.
"Okay. They’re in the safehouse as you instructed. I’ll call Priya and tell her we’re on our way."
"Tell the council to go home, too," I added, pulling my jacket on. "They can wait. And tell the guards outside this door that if anyone tries to walk in here while we’re gone, they should shoot them."
"Got it."
I turned back to the bed, leaning over to touch Lumi’s cheek. Her skin was cool, but soft.
"Hang in there," I whispered to her. "I’m going to bring our boy to you."
I walked out the door and let it shut quietly behind me.
The safehouse was a quiet, two-story building tucked behind a row of overgrown pine trees on the edge of the territory.
It was out of the way, invisible from the main road, and stripped of anything that looked like pack business.
I didn’t wait for Darren to park properly. The second the tires hit the driveway, I had my door open and was walking up the back porch steps.
Priya unlocked the heavy door before I even reached the handle. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her dark hair pulled up into a messy knot.
She looked at me, then past my shoulder at Darren, trying to read my face before she said a word.
"Is she..." Priya’s voice cracked, her hand trembling on the edge of the doorframe.
"She’s alive," I said, stepping inside. "She’s in the hospital. The doctors have her stabilized, but she hasn’t woken up."
She let out a long, shuddering breath, pressing her palm against her mouth as tears finally spilled over her lower lashes.
"Thank God. Oh, thank God. Ren, I didn’t know..."
"I know," I said gently, cutting off the panic in her voice. "It wasn’t your fault, Priya. Where’s Theo?"
"In the living room," she murmured, wiping her face with the back of her wrist.
"He’s been playing with those wooden blocks Darrell brought him. He keeps asking when his mom is coming home. I didn’t know what to tell him."
I walked down the short hallway into the sunroom.
Theo was sitting on the rug, surrounded by a mess of red and blue blocks. He was wearing his favorite faded green dinosaur sweater...the one Lumi had spent three days mending when he tore the sleeve on a playground slide.
He looked so small sitting there in the middle of the empty room, completely oblivious to the war that had ripped through his world.
When his head snapped up at the sound of my boots on the floorboards, his face lit up.
"Uncle Ren!" He scrambled up from the rug, dropping a yellow block onto the floor, and ran across the room toward me.
I dropped to one knee, catching him before he slammed into my chest. I pulled him in tight, burying my face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the scent of baby shampoo and fresh laundry.
He felt so fragile in my arms, so impossibly warm against the ice that had settled in my chest.
"Hey, buddy," I whispered, my throat tightening so hard it hurt to speak.
"Where were you?" Theo asked, pulling back slightly to look at me with his wide eyes.
"Is Mommy here? Priya said she went to work early, but her phone was off."
I looked down at his face, forcing my expression to stay calm, forcing my voice not to shake.
"Mommy’s resting right now, Theo," I said, brushing a piece of dark hair off his forehead.
"She’s at a place near the city, and she’s really tired. I came to pick you up so you can come see her." Theo’s brows pulled together, a tiny frown forming on his mouth.
"Is she sick?"
"A little bit," I said softly. "The doctors are taking care of her, but I think she needs to hear your voice. I think if you come talk to her, it’ll help her rest better. Do you want to come with me?"
He didn’t hesitate. He gave a sharp, serious nod, his small hand immediately wrapping around two of my fingers.
"Can I bring my dinosaur? Mommy likes the green one."
"Yeah," I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "Bring the green one."
He turned around, trotted back to his pile of blocks, grabbed a battered plastic toy off the floor, and ran right back to my side.
He didn’t ask any more questions. He just trusted me. He held my hand tightly as we walked back out to the driveway.
Priya stood by the front door, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.
"Ren... is it bad?"
"She’s fighting," I told her, opening the back door of the SUV and buckling Theo securely into his child seat. "Stay here with the guards until I call you."
She nodded silently, watching as I closed the door and slid into the front passenger seat next to Darren.
Neither of us spoke on the drive back to the hospital. In the rearview mirror, I watched Theo stare out the tinted window, clutching his green plastic dinosaur against his chest, his little feet swinging back and forth above the floorboards.
When we reached the hospital’s private wing, the hallway was dead silent. The two guards stationed outside Lumi’s room stood at absolute attention as we approached, their hands resting on their sidearms. They bowed their heads as I passed, but I barely acknowledged them.
I pushed the heavy door open and stepped inside.
The room smelled of sharp antiseptic and cold air. The green lines on the heart monitor flickered across the screen, echoing that hollow, steady rhythm.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Theo stopped short at the edge of the bed. His hand tightened in mine, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of the tubes, the IV lines taped to her skin, and the plastic mask resting over his mother’s nose and mouth.
"Uncle Ren?" his voice was barely a whisper, tiny and frightened.
"Why is Mommy sleeping like that?"
I lifted him up into my arms, stepping closer to the side of the mattress. I sat down in the heavy chair, placing Theo gently on my lap so he was level with her.
"She’s just very, very tired, buddy," I said, holding his small waist so he felt safe. "The machines are helping her breathe so she can rest. But she can still hear us. I promised you she could."
Theo looked at her pale face for a long, quiet moment. He reached out a trembling hand, his tiny fingers brushing against her cheek, right over her soft skin.
"Mommy?" he called out softly. "Mommy, wake up."
The monitor kept up its slow, mechanical beat. She didn’t move.
Theo leaned closer, resting his head against her arm, his small fingers wrapping around her thumb just like I had done hours before.
"I brought the dinosaur," he whispered into the quiet room, his voice shaking just a little bit.
"You said we were gonna go to the park when you finished working. I’m waiting for you, Mommy. Please wake up."
I squeezed my eyes shut, my jaw clenching so hard my teeth hurt. I held Theo tight against my chest, placing my hand over both of theirs, resting our palms together against the cold sheets.
And then, so faint I almost thought my mind was playing tricks on me, the steady rhythm on the monitor skipped.
Beep. Beep... Beep.
I snapped my eyes open.
Lumi’s hand was still limply resting under ours. But down at her side, buried beneath the white blanket, her index finger gave a single twitch against Theo’s small wrist.