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“Hey, you hear back from Lu? Everything go smooth with Mer picking her up?” JP asked as he laid down on his hotel bed.

“No… no,” I answered distractedly, rubbing my jaw. I checked my phone all through our team dinner, waiting to hear from her, but I kept dismissing my worry, thinking they were busy having a fun night together.

Now that we were back in the privacy of our room, I sat on the edge of my bed and called up Lucy.

“Dad?” she answered in a groggy voice.

I checked the time. It was still only 7pm, way too early for her to be sleeping. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well and that’s why Mer hadn’t called?

“You feeling okay, honey?” I asked.

“I thought you said Mer was coming to get me,” she said in a sleepy voice.

The whole room spun around me. My free hand grasped the edge of the bed to steady myself. “She didn’t come get you?”

JP’s head swung my way.

“No. I'm at Grandma Catherine's. I locked myself in my room and went to bed so I didn’t have to talk to her.”

My heart pounded violently in my chest. “Can I call you back, baby? I’ll call Mer and ask what happened.” This didn’t make sense. Mer would never just ditch out on Lucy like that. Panic seized my chest, making it hard to breathe.

“Okay,” she said softly before hanging up.

I immediately dialed Mer’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. I called back again and again while terror wrapped around my heart.

“What’s going on?” Kappy asked, walking into our room.

I shook my head at him and kept calling Mer’s number while JP quickly filled him in.

With his jaw set in determination, Kappy pulled out his phone. After a second, he said, “Piper? Where’s Mer?”

“Put it on speaker,” I demanded.

Piper’s voice filled the room. “Uh, okay, hello to you, too? She was going to get Lucy.”

Kappy’s worried eyes flew up to mine.

My knees felt like they’d been taken out. I had no clue what the fuck was going on, but a sense of doom filled my chest.

Kappy pinched the bridge of his nose. “She never picked up Lucy. Could you go to her place and check on her?”

“What? That’s… weird. Yeah, I’ll head over there now. I’ll call you ba-”

“Can you stay on the phone?” I cut her off. “Please,” my voice cracked. I closed my eyes to avoid looking at my best friends. I couldn’t take their worried glances. I just needed to hear Piper, to feel like I had a connection back to Chicago, back to my girls.

“It’s probably fine, don’t jump ahead of yourself. Maybe something came up,” JP reasoned.

I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but I also knew he was wrong.

Pacing the small room, I couldn’t stop intrusive thoughts from bombarding my brain with the worst what-if scenarios.

We listened to Piper call out random goodbyes and when her car door finally slammed shut, I took a deep breath. Mer only lived five minutes from the rink. I just had to hang on for five more minutes.

Piper gasped. Tension filled the room as we waited for her to explain what was going on. “Sorry, some asshole just cut me off,” she finally said.

Breathing out a sigh, I rolled my shoulders.

“Focus, P,” Kappy said calmly.

After a couple minutes of silence, I couldn't take it anymore. “What’s going on, Piper? Where are you?”

“Just turning on… Oh my God.” Her voice wavered.

My heart jackknifed in my chest.

“What?” Kappy demanded. “You can’t say that right now, you have to explain what’s–”

“Oh my God.” The sound of her crying filled the line and my knees buckled. “That’s…” her breath hitched, “That’s her car,” she cried. “Mer’s car.”