Chapter 34
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
Bow
The call came while I was in bed, my eyes itchy, red. I didn’t even need to see them to know they were.
I’d been crying so much, and I wanted my boyfriends. I wanted Bru and Wells and their arms around me.
I wanted something else too, and I didn’t know that until I realized how long I’d been hugging myself. I had no idea I’d been pregnant, but, in hindsight, there’d been signs. I’d been nauseous a lot. Food hadn’t tasted the best lately, but I hadn’t thought much of that.
I just hadn’t thought.
I’d been so stupid, and it was a relief seeing Wells’s face on my phone screen. His FaceTime call came in the wee hours of the night at the hospital.
The call woke my parents up from where they’d been sleeping on the couch.
“We’ll give you some time, honey,” Mom said, taking my dad with her. “We’ll get some coffee.”
I knew they were the reason why Bru and Wells hadn’t come back yet. The guys wanted me to have time with my parents. My mom and dad had been freaking out when they got here. My parents didn’t know about the pregnancy. They just knew I was alive and okay.
I wasn’t okay.
I knew that right away, because as soon as my parents left and I stared into Wells’s lovely face on my phone screen, I burst into tears. His hair was swept back, messy, and Bru was beside him.
They were both so handsome.
They were like lights in my darkness. Wells Ambrose had somehow become my light again. I had my archer back as well as my rock in the storm, Bru.
“Baby,” Wells said, and my heart moved, stirred. He obviously saw my tears. He winced like something hurt him, and I glanced away.
“Look at me, Bow.”
I came back with Wells’s words. I swallowed. “Where are you?”
I wanted them here and wherever they were at it was dark like they were outside. Had they left the hospital?
“Not far away,” Wells said, and Bru nodded.
Bru edged more into the phone screen. “We’re about to do something, but we want your guidance.”
“What happens will ultimately be up to you,” Wells stated, and when he faced Bru, Bru nodded again. Wells’s expression was tense, serious. “You deserve to have a say.”
A say about what?
Wells’s nostrils flared. “We have Patrick Donovan.”
My heart thudded.
It stopped.
No sooner had it ceased its beat than it revved up again at jackrabbit speed. Sloane called me that, little rabbit, because I moved at a mile a minute sometimes.
Sloane had been at the hospital earlier too. In fact, all my friends and family had been here at one point before they ultimately left so that I could have time with my parents.
Sloane held me when she finally saw me though, and I cried. I was so happy she was okay. She barely even had to be looked at by hospital staff. She had not one bump or bruise from the accident.
I saved her from him.
Wells’s breathing picked up. His big chest rose and fell rapidly, and when Bru’s jaw clenched, I knew it was because of me, my reaction. What Wells had said froze me where I sat.
Bru looked at Wells. “This is too much. Maybe we should have waited.”
They were trying to protect me, both of them, and I had a feeling my brother and his friends were there too. Wells had asked if it was okay to tell them about the pregnancy, and there was nothing any of the guys did without each other.
Bru’s expression went serious. “We shouldn’t have surprised her with this—”
“I want to see him,” I said, and both guys’ eyes darted toward me.
“You deserve a say.”
Wells’s words were clear for me now. He and Bru had Professor Donovan, and I had a say on what ultimately happened from there. I had a choice.
They gave me a choice.
I realized now that I didn’t have one back then. Professor Donovan had convinced me that he was my friend, and our relationship started innocently enough. I went to him for extra credit, and he expressed interest in my work. He gave me care.
He gave me attention.
Soon our meetings weren’t just about the work.
He started talking to me as a friend and one thing led to another.
Soon, we weren’t just meeting at his office but his house.
He convinced me he was my friend, and I told him too many things.
I told him everything about my life and my pain.
I told him about Wells, and Professor Donovan already knew a bit about the manipulation because everyone knew what happened in the world of Legacy.
I actually thought he was my friend, and he convinced me that I wanted to have sex.
I hadn’t wanted to have sex.
I knew that as soon as it was over, and he held me. I felt so dirty, used, but I didn’t want to believe he did things to me that I didn’t want. I didn’t want to feel weak and lied to myself for a while after the fact. I convinced myself what happened was on my terms and what I wanted.
But it hadn’t been.
“I want to see him,” I said again, and, even though my voice threatened to shake, I steadied it.
The guys nodded and the camera view passed Thatcher, Ares, and Dorian before it ultimately found Professor Donovan. He was on the ground in a robe like he’d left from his house quickly.
I swallowed. He was older than my parents, but I hadn’t thought about that when he’d been kind to me. Hindsight told me now he only let me know what I wanted to hear. He used me. And he tried to kill me.
“Come back to me, Bow. It’ll be different this time.”
Some of Professor Donovan’s final texts had been after we had sex. They slowed down significantly after I started being seen with Wells more. I hung out with Wells in public places I knew Professor Donovan frequented.
“Just let go.”
Professor Donovan had kept saying that during sex. He saw how painful it was for me, awkward. As soon as we started, I wanted to stop, but he convinced me to keep going. He didn’t stop even though I clearly hadn’t wanted to continue.
They had Professor Donovan gagged, and, when he saw me, he tried to speak around the fabric in his mouth. He was trying to use his voice, which I realized now was his most powerful weapon. The gift of persuasion he used to make me do things I didn’t want with him.
I clutched my stomach again. I felt empty, hollow. My lips pressed together. “We were pregnant. You and me… We were pregnant, and I lost it.”
Professor Donovan stopped trying to talk around his gag. In fact, he bit down on it, and his eyes widened. His head shook, and I realized I was happy now for the gag. He’d done all the talking now up to this point, the manipulation, but he wasn’t now.
My voice was a powerful weapon too.
“I lost it because of you. You tried to kill me,” I said, and he winced. I nodded. “You tried to kill me and my friend and you murdered our baby.”
The camera tilted then to Wells, who looked broken. His jaw was clenched tight, and Bru was still beside him. Bru’s expression was just as tense. His nostrils flared, but when I mouthed to both guys that I was okay, the camera tilted back.
I sat up in my bed. I held my waist for strength. I was giving my child a voice too. Theirs was also taken, stolen. I swallowed. “I want you to hunt him down. I want you to chase him and break him down like he did me.”
Again, hindsight was something else. Professor Donovan’s manipulation came so easily to him. It was so easy for him to get to me, find me. He knew how to find weak and vulnerable girls.
But I wasn’t weak anymore. He hadn’t broken me, but he would break.
He would break.
Right away, Professor Donovan started pleading through his gag. His voice was muffled, strained, and I was so happy I wouldn’t have to hear it again. The camera left him, and I was happy for that too.
“We love you,” Bru said before the call ended abruptly.
I didn’t wonder why he said that on behalf of both him and Wells because I saw what Wells was doing in the background.
Wells’s attention had been on Professor Donovan.
Wells had gathered my professor to his feet and even took the gag off him.
He unbound his arms too, and I heard Wells say one word to my professor before the call cut off.
He told him to run.