I just stood there, trying to absorb everything she just said. I felt someone squeeze my shoulders, and I looked up into the eyes of Chace, who gave me a slight nod. Fuck. I rubbed my face; my throat felt raw. I wanted to claw my skin off. “Can I see her?”
“I’ll have a nurse bring you back in just a moment.” I nodded as the doctor walked away. I stared at the floor. I stared at the way the fluorescent lighting hit the tiles, which did nothing but bring out the stains in it. Someone cleared their throat, and I looked up.
“Whenever you’re ready.” A short petite nurse stood in my view, and I nodded. I looked back at Chace.
“I’m with you, brother,” he softly whispered as we began walking down the long corridor together. The nurse gave us a small smile before motioning toward the door. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath before walking in.
Tears immediately gathered in my eyes. She looked so small laying there. Eyes shut and pale. If I could trade places with her, I would in a heartbeat. She was my life.
Chace gripped my shoulder as he stood next to me, peering down at her. “She’s alive, Grayson, that’s all that matters.”
I nodded, unable to stop the tears that fell down. Yes, she was alive, but at what cost?
I sat by her bedside, listening to the beeping of the machine. As long as that machine beeped, then it was my favorite sound in the world, because I knew it meant she could pull through. She would pull through.
Dr. Stiles came in a short time later. “I wanted to go over her assessment with you. We’re watching her very closely. We placed her in a medically induced coma to give her body time to heal. The anesthesia also had a major effect on her blood sugars, so we’re hoping the coma will help her body stay calm long enough to prevent her from going into Diabetic Ketoacidosis. If that were to happen, her major organs would start shutting down. As you know, we retrieved all the bullet fragment from her chest. It narrowly missed her heart, but still grazed the right ventricle, and as you also know, there wasn’t an exit wound, which caused the multiple cardiac arrests.”
She cleared her throat, and I looked at her. “The blunt trauma to the abdomen is what we’re sure caused the miscarriage.”
“How far along was she?”
She looked down at her chart. “Our obstetrician confirmed about three months. Just past the first trimester.”
I stroked Emmalin’s hand. “She didn’t know. She didn’t even think she could have children,” I whispered. “Could you tell what it was?”
Dr. Stiles shook her head. “I’m sorry, no. Again, I’m sorry for your loss.” I nodded, kissing Emmalin’s hand.
“There’s one other thing, Mr. Mandrake, and I realize this is a sensitive subject, but upon her examination, it was discovered that Ms. Ross suffered severe sexual trauma assault. By the results of the examination, it looked to be before and during the duration of the miscarriage.”
I slowly stood up. My mouth had gone dry. “You’re saying she was raped?”
“Again, I realize this is a sensitive matter.”
I didn’t wait for her to finish. I stormed out the room, running full speed down the hallway, until I got to the stairwell. I flew down, heading toward the exit. And I ran. I ran until my lungs burned, because all I wanted to do was kill. So I ran until I couldn’t breathe anymore. I ran until I reached the edge of the city I called home. I ran until I couldn’t hear the screams and the sirens, anymore. Until finally I collapsed on my hands and knees, in the middle of I don’t know where, and I cried.
But I didn’t cry for me. I couldn’t cry for me. I cried for her. The person who’d gone through so much shit in life, who’d had stones thrown at her, and still stood up standing. I finally understood why she always fought me over everything. Over the stupidest shit ever, such as paying for a fucking hospital bill. She’d literally fought for everything in life and took nothing for granted. I slowly got up off the ground. My muscles burned, but I didn’t care. It was nowhere near the amount of pain she had suffered. I turned around and prepared myself to walk back to the hospital. I was shocked to see Chace standing there, leaning up against his car.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked me up and down as he stepped closer. “I figured you could use a ride. Fuck, you run fast, and I sure as hell wasn’t running after you, so I went back and got the car. You ran over 10 miles, man.”
He stepped closer and handed me a bottle of water. “You look like shit.”
“He raped her.”
Chace sighed, looking over my head, and clenched his jaw. We were both quiet. Finally, he spoke.
“Let’s get you a shower, and then back to the hospital.”
I nodded, draining the bottle of water.