20. Lachlan
This woman’s soul has entwined itself with mine since I was sixteen years old. An eternal flame sparked to life the moment our eyes connected all those years ago. Looking at her frail body lying lifeless in this damn hospital bed is shredding my heart to pieces. I have an overwhelming urge to tell her so many things. Maybe I should have been honest years ago. But I can’t go back and change the past now. It’s too late to do that. Hope for the future is what I cling too. She was supposed to be my forever. All I can hope is that one day she’ll remember me, remember the love we shared.
The doctors promised to gradually taper off the sedation medication that keeps her unconscious. And they have started that process. I can only hope and pray that she wakes up soon. It’s already been two days. I hoped it would be sooner than that. My warm hand engulfs her much smaller one. It’s cold to the touch. Leaning forward, I press a gentle kiss to each knuckle, threading my fingers with hers.
Standing up, I tenderly wrap my arms around her neck. God, I love this woman. She’s the love of my life. “Wake up for me, Ellie. Please do this for me. Wake up,” I whisper against the sensitive skin of her ear, pleadingly. “I love you, Ellie. I love you so much. So please wake up for me, baby.” Kissing her forehead, I sit back down, linking my fingers with hers yet again. This time, I feel her fingers twitch against mine. Hope sparks to life in my veins.
“That’s it, baby. Come on, open those beautiful blue eyes for me. Let me see you, Ellie.” Her lashes flutter, but they don’t open. Her hand lightly grips mine, so I’ll take that as a win. “I’m here Ellie and I will never leave your side again. Just open your eyes for me. There’s so much we have to talk about.” She squeezes my hand again. “I’m going to press the call button for a nurse.” This is a positive sign, though.
Pressing the red button, static crackles and then a woman’s voice sounds throughout the room.
“Nurse’s station. How can I help you?”
“I think Illiana might be waking up. Could you send a doctor to check on her?”
“Yes Sir. Give me just a few minutes and I’ll send the doctor in.”
About five minutes later, the doctor comes walking in with a smile on his face. Letting her hand go, I stand next to her on the opposite side of the doctor.
“I hear Mrs. McBride is waking up.” Hearing that last name makes me cringe. Her last name was always meant to be Riley.
“It seems so. I was talking to her, and she squeezed my hand. That has to be a good thing, right?”
“That is definitely a great thing. I don’t think it’ll be much longer before she’s awake. Almost all the medication should be out of her system now. Let me listen to her heart real quick.” The doctor pulls off his stethoscope and places the ends in his ears before pressing it to her chest. He listens for a minute before removing it. “Her heart sounds very good and strong. She’s healing better than expected, considering everything she’s been through these past few days.”
“Illiana, can you wake up for me?” He grabs hold of her other hand. “How about squeezing my fingers? There you go. That’s it.” Thank God it wasn’t just in my head. She’s really doing it. “It won’t be much longer now.” Looking up at Ellie’s face, her eyelashes start to flutter. And then in an instant her eyes are open. Those blue eyes are unwaveringly staring at me. And my heart pounds in my chest, my palms sweat excessively. I’ve never been this nervous before. The look that she’s giving me has me ready to drop to my knees.
“Ellie, baby,” I whisper. My eyes burn as I try like hell to hold back the tears. My nose tingles from the sting. There’s a knot the size of Texas in my throat.
“You’re awake. Can you…”
“I remember, Lach.” She remembers. What does she remember? She must be talking about what happened, what she did.
“What do you remember, Ellie?”
“I remember everything, Lach. Oh God, I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Ellie.”
“Oh, but I do. I don’t know how I could have ever forgotten you.” Wh…what? She can’t be talking about what I think she is.
“What are you talking about?” If I thought my heart was about to beat out of my chest before, it’s doing double time now.
“I know everything, Lachlan. I remember it all. The year that we were together, that’s what I remember. And I’m so sorry that I forgot. I don’t know how I could have ever forgotten you. How could you stand to be around me all these years?” Tears trail down her cheeks and she hiccups on a sob.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I think it’s time that I give you two some space.” I forgot that the doctor was still here with us. Giving him a nod, he leaves the room.
“The only thing you have to be sorry for is trying to hurt yourself, Ellie. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you. And what about Blakely? She needs her mama.” She’s shaking now, as her sobs increase. Threading my fingers with hers, I give it a gentle squeeze to calm her down. “We came so close to losing you.”
“I didn’t mean to. At least I don’t think I did. What I found broke me. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be able to go on. And then I had these dreams while I was sleeping. My whole life flashed before my eyes, Lach. It makes no sense that I literally forgot our entire life together. How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but what I do know is I’m happy that you remember me, remember us. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I needed you to remember all the times we had together. But I never wanted to interfere with your marriage. Did I want you to be with Jaxon? Of course not. You’re the love of my life. You are the only woman that I’ve ever wanted. I see now that things had to be this way for you to find your way back to me.”
“I have some things that I need to work through, Lach. I hope you can understand that. It’s going to take time. This is all going to take some getting used to.”
“I’ll give you all the time in the world. But while I’m giving you that time, you and Blake are going to be moving in with me.”
“We can’t just move in with you,” she screeches, just about throwing herself off the bed.
“You can and you will. I won’t take no for an answer. You almost died, Ellie! There’s no way in hell I’m going to risk that again. Let’s not forget about Ben. He’s fucking crazy.” She cringes when I mention Ben, but this girl is stubborn as fuck. It will not be easy getting her to agree with me.
“Security can always be upped at my house.”
“Yeah, because security worked well the last time.” Fuck, that wasn’t the right thing to say. “What I’m saying is that I can’t protect you if I can’t see you. I need to be with you, Ellie.” There’s this primal need to make sure she’s safe. She and Blakely are my priority.
“Fine! I see your point. We will move in with you. But I want my own room. Does that work for you?” Yes, I want to scream. I will take her anyway I can get her, and this is just the start.
“I’ll give you whatever you want, Ellie. You already know that. We will start with your own room. Blakely already has a room, too. Once you get out of here, we’ll stop by your house so you can pack a few things. And if you need anything else, we will buy it. We need to keep a low profile until I know you’re safe.”
“I won’t argue with you, Lach. For once in my damn life, I promise I won’t argue. We’ll do whatever you think is best to keep me and Blake safe. Blake, oh my god, is she…is she alright?” Shit, her heart rate is going crazy.
“Calm down. Blake is fine. She’s still with your mom and Lena. They have been calling me nonstop to check on you. Blake is safe. They are taking excellent care of her. I spoke to her on the phone last night.” She visibly relaxes at my statement.
“Thank you, Lach. If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t know what I would do. I’m getting tired again. I think I need to go back to sleep for a bit.” Good thing she won’t ever have to find out.
Leaning over to kiss her on the forehead, I tell her, “Get some sleep. We can talk later. I think we still have a lot to talk about.” Ellie closes her eyes, and her breath evens out. I think the medication, along with her memories coming back, has sucked all the strength out of her.
Once I’m certain she’s deeply asleep, I step out of the room and into the hallway. Damn, the lights are bright out here. Remi had to leave late last night. He needed to go check on Ben. I haven’t heard from him since, so I’ve been a little worried. Deciding it’s best for me to call him just to make sure, I take my phone out of my jeans pocket. Pulling up his contact, I press call. It connects almost instantly.
“Hey, Lachlan. I was going to call you. How is Illiana doing?”
“She’s finally awake. Doing better than I would have imagined, honestly.”
“Listen, man. What I’m about to say is going to piss you off, but I need you to stay calm. Can you do that for me?” Just what I needed him to say right now. I guess he’s got news for me.
“I’ll stay calm, for now.” That’s all I can offer him.
“Calm for now, works. Don’t hate me, but I broke into Illiana’s house. It seemed like someone had been inside recently. I swear I could smell fresh mint and spice. But back to my point, I was able to get the condom out of her bathroom. I took hair from a brush on her countertop as well. The semen was a match for Ben and the outside of the condom was a match for Illiana. He did, in fact, rape her.”
“You know I’m going to fucking kill him, right? His death is going to be brutally painful. I’m going to fuck his world up for touching what doesn’t belong to him. He’ll be wishing for death when I’m done with him.” What a piece of shit! Who goes around raping women?
“You do what you need to do. I’ve got your back, Lachlan. Just be careful. Ben is psychotic. He won’t back down and if he feels like you’re standing in between him and Illiana, he’ll take you out.”
“I’ll keep you posted. I’m not leaving Illiana’s side while she’s in the hospital. Once she gets out, I’ll be moving her to my place. I’ll make plans then. Talk soon.” Hanging up, my body slides down the wall. He touched my girl, fucked my girl and put his marks on her. It won’t be long and he’ll have my marks on him. He will be black and blue, though. I’m going to beat his fucking ass and not feel one ounce of remorse. He deserves it. I won’t rest until I get revenge for my girl.