Chapter Twenty- Two
………………………….
Henri
THERE WERE A FEW MOMENTS in my life that I would always remember—even the ones I’d forgotten, thanks to selective amnesia.
The day my father first came for me.
The day my mother died.
The moment I saw Ily in that nightclub.
And the disbelief when I found her alive.
Limping down the wide-open airy corridor—so different to Victor’s rustic medieval ones—I didn’t speak to Q, and he didn’t speak to me.
He kept me upright and offered his strength while I had none, guiding me through his home.
We passed multiple doors, some closed, some cracked open. The ones partially wide, revealed a few jewels I recognised. Caishen waved as he looked up from a writing desk. Rachel gasped and raced to her threshold as we passed. Her neck looked bare without her collar. Her wrists so fragile without their heavy golden cuffs.
My heart kicked in relief. She’d survived. Her child had survived.
I didn’t know if I was happy she hadn’t lost her baby or sick that a part of Victor would live on.
Nodding at me shyly, she tucked glossy dark hair behind her ear and hugged the terrycloth dressing gown covering her bump. Dashing toward me, she pressed her cheek against my chest and hugged me. “Hi.”
Her embrace hurt.
But I returned it. “Thank you so much for shooting Larry that night. I’m in your debt.”
She shuddered. “I’m just sorry he shot you first.”
I kissed the top of her head. “I’m so glad to see you alive, Rach.”
Snuggling deeper into me, she sighed heavily. “Me too. God, Henri. We thought you were dead.”
Pulling away, I shrugged. “Not yet.”
Q looked at me sideways, studying how Rachel and I drank each other in.
What would he say if I admitted I’d slept with her?
Would he kill me if I told him I’d fired paintball guns right into her unprotected flesh? While she was pregnant?
Shooting a look at Q, she pulled away and licked her lips. Whispering to me, she said, “Come find me when you’re ready. I’ve asked to stay for a bit. At least until…” She trailed off and looked at a door further down the corridor. “You’ll be okay, Henri.”
I frowned but she stepped back into her room and closed the door.
“Friend of yours?” Q asked, urging me back into a walk.
I focused on staying upright despite my heart thumping strangely. “Rachel was Victor’s favourite. We spent most evenings together…before I fell out of favour.”
“You and Ily?”
“We were a foursome.” I winced. “We played a lot of games together.”
“Games?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t ask.”
“Did you ever…”
I slammed to a stop. “Did I ever what? Hurt Rachel?” I sucked in a breath. “Yes, I did. But completely against my control. What happened between us was—”
“Never mind.” Tugging me toward the door that Rachel had studied, he pursed his lips. “You did what you had to do to survive. I’m in no place to judge.”
Sunshine streamed through the skylights above, drenching us with heat and brightness.
So it wasn’t night, after all. Just my room that’d been dark.
Daylight rinsed away every sin and pain from the jewels as they gathered in the corridor behind us and watched.
My shredded back prickled beneath my bandages as Q let me go. Pressing the door handle, he stepped back and motioned me to go in. “You first.”
I turned to look at him. To ask what the hell was going on but then my eyes snagged on the bed. On the bright white sheets and the pool of sunshine cradling the person beneath those sheets.
I staggered for entirely new reasons.
It can’t be…
My ribcage threatened to snap apart as my heart inflated with a thousand agonising hopes.
I didn’t remember putting one foot in front of the other.
I didn’t remember how I crossed that silver-and-ivory-painted bedroom.
I didn’t remember falling to my knees beside the bed.
Or how I managed to stay alive when every part of me wanted to shatter in every direction.
But I did remember the feel of her hand.
The warmth of her fingers.
The tangible truth that she was here.
Pressing my lips to her knuckles, I couldn’t hold back the tears. “Oh, God. Thank fuck.” Bowing over her, I broke. “Ily. Christ , Ily.”
I shuddered as tears rolled down my cheeks, splashing onto her wonderful hand.
I’d never cried before her. Never felt the depths of love before her. Never suffered such exquisite pain before her.
But she was worth it.
She was worth every drop of sadness and agony. And if I had to live the rest of my life in torture, I would do it gladly. Happily. Desperately.
“Ily…” I kissed her knuckles, again and again. “ God , Ily.”
I felt faint and feeble. Feverish and frantic.
“Say something. Anything. Are you okay? How…how is this possible? I-I thought you were dead. The blood. All that blood—” A gasp stole the rest of my air, choking me. I looked up and stared at her beautiful face.
And finally saw what my hope had blanked out.
No…
Please no.
She lay as still as she had on Victor’s lawn. Her hair smooth and gathered in a loose ponytail over the pillow. Her collarless neck bound in thick bandages and her chest swaddled with yet more white protection. Thick eyelashes stenciled her cheeks, while an oxygen tube fed air into her nose.
I went ice cold as I studied her mouth. How her perfect lips spread around another tube going down her throat.
Jesus Christ.
Struggling to my feet, I collapsed beside her on the bed and cupped her cheek. The oxygen tube burned my fingers. I wanted to rip it out of her and breathe directly into her lungs. “Fuck, little nightmare.” I couldn’t catch a proper inhale. Panic crushed my ribs. “Please, mon c?ur . Please open your eyes.”
Nothing.
“I’m here. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Never again. You’re safe now. I promise. Please, Ily… please open your eyes.”
Not a twitch.
My breath turned thin and fast.
The room spun.
Fear crashed through every organ.
“Ily…c-can you hear me?”
“Those who wake from a coma say they can hear, so yes, I’d say she can.”
My gaze snapped to the left. A short slim man with grey hair and wire rimmed glasses sat in a pewter upholstered chair. The side table beside him held vials and syringes, bandages and boxes. Following my stare, he said softly, “My travelling hospital supplies.” Standing, he came toward us, his white coat pristine. “I will leave you two alone, but first, I will answer any questions you have, so you don’t hyperventilate and have to be triaged yourself.”
Trembling, I clung to Ily’s lifeless hand.
Her other one lay on the sheets, pierced with a needle and hooked up to an IV.
She looked so weak.
So tired.
Struggling to get a grip on my runaway panic, I swallowed hard. “Tell me. Tell me everything.”
The doctor shot Q a look as my brother pulled the door closed, giving us privacy. “Alright then.” Pulling out a small tablet from his white jacket pocket, he said, “She lost a lot of blood. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of a Dr Melanie Belford and the selfless donation by a Rachel Moran, I doubt she would’ve survived the helicopter flight to my surgery.” Reading the notes, he continued, “Ordinarily, we don’t allow pregnant women to donate blood due to the risk of the foetus, but she was the only one who knew her blood type and most likely the only one who had O-negative blood, which makes her a universal donor. Thanks to vein-to-vein transmission, Ms Sharma was kept alive long enough to be transported here.”
He paused and pushed up his glasses. “Do you wish me to continue?”
“Yes—” My voice broke. I cleared my throat and nodded. “Go on.”
“A bullet was lodged in her sternum.”
“Ah, Christ.” I doubled over; the room flipped upside down. My chest fissured with absolute despair.
“Easy does it.” The doctor patted my shoulder, easing me backward so I didn’t fall off the bed. “There, there.” Clucking his tongue, he added, “Perhaps we’ll go over the rest another day—”
“No.” I sat taller and braced every shaking muscle I could. “Continue.”
He eyed me but slowly nodded. “The bullet formed a small wound but didn’t shatter the bone, nor did it go any farther.”
“What?” I blinked. “How…how is that possible?”
He consulted his notes again. “I believe someone else took the full brunt of the bullet’s speed. Her condition was caused from blood loss thanks to a nasty cut on her neck, not the actual gunshot. She bled out slowly from the wound but was lucky enough not to have the jugular severed.”
Peter.
I almost fell off the bed again as I pinched the bridge of my nose and willed myself to stay conscious.
I didn’t know how, but he’d saved her. Sacrificed himself for her.
Out of all the people…
Out of all the selfless incredible acts…
I wanted to wring his neck for killing himself and hug him stupid for loving her enough to protect her.
Jesus, Paavak.
“Do you…do you know what happened to the man who saved her?”
“I’m afraid not.” He looked up. “The helicopter that came to me had the most urgent cases that could be dealt with here. The ones needing extensive surgery were flown to the hospital. I believe the helicopter you were on was designated to a colleague while another transported the deceased. I can find out—”
“No.” I held up my hand, fighting dizziness. I didn’t think I could cope hearing how Peter’s corpse had been flown without a name and thrown into a freezer waiting to be claimed. It’d killed me picturing Ily in such a place and the thought of the man who’d saved her life being discarded like an old shoe…
I swallowed hard. “Just…tell me about her. When will she wake? How soon will—”
“Mr Mercer, if I can be so bold.” Hugging his tablet, he gave me a pitying look. “Ms Sharma was legally dead for a few minutes due to her fading on the table while I sewed up the hole in her chest. She was given just enough blood to get her to me but for someone to survive an extended period of time with such a low volume of blood…it can cause unforeseen complications.”
“Unforeseen…”
“She hasn’t woken yet. She’s had two more transfusions, but it will take time and a great deal of energy for her body to recoup enough to be considered healthy. We are doing everything in our power to ensure she wakes with no permanent damage, but the fact remains, her brain was deprived of oxygen. There might be a chance that she’s—”
“No.” I shook my head. “No way. She’s smart. So fucking smart. She’ll be fine.”
He sighed and didn’t argue. “All you need to focus on now is talking to her. Tell her she’s safe. Tell her you’re waiting for her. Do whatever it takes to make her fight because we’ve done all we can. The rest is up to her.”
Bowing politely, he backed toward the door. “I’ll leave you now. I’ll send your own doctor to see you soon. I don’t believe you should be out of bed for long. But I appreciate that my patient needs someone she knows to bring her back so…I’m willing to allow you to visit for a time.”
Allow?
A surge of temper filled me.
I wouldn’t be leaving her side.
He wasn’t going to allow me to do anything.
Silently, he slipped out the door and my eyes fell on Ily.
I’d never seen someone so beautiful.
Even now.
Even with a bruise on her jaw and shadows under her eyes. Even with the weight loss from sharing a dungeon for a month and the faintest mark around her wrists where the cuffs had imprisoned her.
Taking her hand, I ran my thumb over her knuckles. “I thought I’d lost you once, little nightmare. If you think I’m going to lose you again, then you don’t know me very well.” I brought her hand to my lips and kissed her. “I won’t let you go, Ily. If you open your eyes, then we’ll exist in this world. But if you die…we’ll exist in another. Your choice, mon c?ur . Either way, you’re not leaving me again.”
Q cleared his throat behind me. “I’ll do everything in my power to ensure she survives, Henri. You have my word.”
I glowered at him. “And you won’t stop me from following her if it comes to that?”
He held my stare.
Finally, he nodded. “No, I won’t stop you because I know nothing could.” Stepping toward the open door, he rested his hand on the door frame. “Be smart and take care. You’re not worth anything to her if you don’t look after yourself. I’ll send some food up.”
He turned to go.
My shoulders slouched in gratefulness as well as exhaustion. “Q?”
He looked back, his eyebrow raised.
“ Merci beaucoup .” I placed a fist over my heart, my casted arm twinging. “For everything.”
“That’s what family’s for.” He half smiled. “I didn’t learn that lesson until I found Tess, and I think you’re only just starting to now that you’ve found Ily. Rest, brother. I’ll leave you two alone. We’ll talk again soon.”