In the Shadows

Preface

Then

This horrible morning, I woke up to Beatrice screaming her lungs out and the whole house service panicking and running around. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

I groggily walked towards my parents' room and I was about to open the French doors when someone shoved me against the wall and two paramedics came rushing out with my dad on an ambulance stretcher and Beatrice hot on his tail.

Needless to say, my heart stopped beating in my chest.

"Mum- I mean, Beatrice what's going on?" panic made my voice sound high-pitched.

"Maurice is having a heart attack" she spat "I'm going to the hospital with him"

"I'll go with you" I ran down the stairs with her.

"There's place for only one of us in the ambulance and I'm his wife so I'll go with him" she said "you can wait here"

"What?! No!" I exclaimed "I'm going to the hospital too"

Before they took him away in the ambulance I squeezed his hand, kissed his forehead and I promised him he would be okay.

I turned around and ran upstairs to throw some clothes on and grab my car keys before I rushed back down and to the hospital. The whole drive was a blur and I would get a ticket for speeding and ignoring traffic signs for sure. But it was all worthless because when I finally got to the ER, my dad had died.

I felt my body go numb and I crumbled like a broken doll in the middle of the waiting lounge. Beatrice walked past me and didn't even look my way as I bawled my eyes out. Someone took me by the armpits and sat me on a cold and hard plastic chair and then left a glass of water on the coffee table next to me.

After hours of sitting there, when my eyes had dried up and my limbs where colder than ever before I felt someone wrapped her arms in a strong embrace around my shoulders. When I looked up I saw Betsy's kind face looking back at me with pity.

"Let's go home miss Annie" she pulled me up with her "I'll drive you"

Betsy had been my nanny for as long as I could remember. When I was younger I used to call her mum because Beatrice was never a mother figure for me. She had raised me up and had been there for me through all my life, especially the hard times, like when Johnny died and now that my dad had died she would pick up my pieces and hopefully glue them together again.

"We're here Miss Annie" I opened my eyes as Betsy softly shook my shoulder so I would wake up "I'll run you a hot bath with your favourite bath bombs and scents, okay sweetie?"

I didn't answer her as she dragged me inside the house and up the stairs. I had lost my voice and my emotions were running wild inside of me. Anger, sadness, surprise, confusion, fear... everything at the same time. I still hadn't fully recovered from Johnny's death even though a few years had gone by and now my beloved father was gone too.

"The bath is ready Miss Annie" Betsy said wrapping his arms around my shoulders and taking me to the bathroom.

She undressed me like I was a doll and when my cold and numb body touched the water it felt like I was getting set on fire but it relaxed every muscle in my body.

"Do you want something to eat, sweetheart?" Betsy said as she massaged my scalp.

"Hot cocoa" I whispered.

"Okay"

Betsy took me out of the bath when the water started to get cold and dried my body and hair. Then, she put me into my cosiest pair of pyjamas and tucked me into bed.