Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
Mase
Six hours. Six agonising hours of waiting.
Nina wasn’t breathing when we arrived at the hospital.
What I witnessed in the ambulance isn’t something I’ll ever forget.
The way the paramedics worked on her relentlessly shook me to my core.
I’m surrounded by our families now, every one of them completely shattered as we sit in the waiting room.
Elliot drops down in the seat next to me, his hands running through his hair as he pulls at it. “I can’t take much more of this,” he mutters.
I don’t answer him, not having the words to ease the pain that’s embedded itself inside of me and probably him too.
Lucy is lying with her eyes closed on the row of waiting chairs opposite us.
She’s been the calmest of us all, eerily so.
It’s almost like she isn’t here, and I wonder as I sit watching her if there’s a way to follow her to wherever she is right now.
Megan hasn’t stopped crying since she arrived.
She’s sat with Vinny who I can barely make eye contact with.
Charlie’s on his phone out in the hallway, already in work mode and prepared to fight for our best friend.
I have no idea what Lance was thinking, and I don’t have the mental energy to process his actions right now.
Then there’s Scarlet. She sits resting her head on her hand as she stares at the ground, her eyes wild and agitated.
“I’m going to go find someone,” I snap, shrugging off Elliot’s hand when he grabs my shoulder.
“Lowell, they’re going to kick you out.”
“I can’t just sit here!” I take a deep breath, my chest tight.
Scarlet comes to stand at my side. She looks up at me with understanding in her eyes. “I’ll go check with the nurses, see what I can find out.”
“I’m coming with you,” I tell her.
She nods, her face pale, drained of its usual spark.
We leave the waiting room and make our way to the nurse’s station where they all gaze at us with pity-filled looks. “Mr Lowell, I’m sorry but there’s still no news.”
“Ah, actually.” I spin around as I hear the deep voice at my back. A man in scrubs is exiting the elevator, his lips pulled tight into a hard line. “Are you Miss Anderson’s next of kin?” he asks.
I shake my head, anger lacing my voice. “She’s my fiancée, please, just tell me.”
He clasps a hand on my shoulder and stares down at me, before nodding politely at Scarlet. “Hello.” He starts to walk me down the corridor. “Let’s talk somewhere a little more private, okay?”
I’m about ready to brawl, needing to know how and where Nina is, when Scarlet’s hand takes mine. She squeezes tight but doesn’t look up at me. Is it bad? Does she know?
We’re led into a room with a horseshoe of seats and nothing else. It’s like the waiting room we were ushered into by the nurses down the hall but smaller. None of us sit down. My entire body trembles, my stomach churning as it readies itself for what’s about to come.
“Nina is stable—”
“Fuck,” I hiss out, clearing my throat and covering my face as I drop back to the chair.
“She isn’t completely out of the woods yet.
She lost a lot of blood and will need to be monitored over the next forty-eight hours.
We aren’t sure yet as to the extent of the damage it will cause her long term, but, and it’s not a but I give out often, she is extremely strong.
I feel positive with the situation we are in at this point. ”
I stand. “I want to see her.”
“You can’t. Not yet,” Scarlet tells me sadly.
The doctor watches Scarlet for a moment, then looks at me. “Nina’s in recovery. She won’t be able to have visitors until she wakes up. And then I’d like her to have at least an hour’s rest before anyone but my team goes in.”
“I’m not waiting that long.” I shake my head. There’s no way I can go that long.
“Right now, Mr Lowell—”
“It’s Mason,” I snap.
“My only concern is for Nina. Her recovery will be very dependent on the next twelve hours, and I will not, under any circumstances, put her at risk.” He nods his head, an apology of sorts. “The minute I have more news, I will have them call down to you. You should get home and get some rest.”
Lifting my hands, I scrub at my face, completely drained from the emotions that have left me half the man I was yesterday. How can things have gone so wrong?
“Thank you,” Scarlet says, following him to the door and shutting it behind him. I watch her with my hands linked behind my head as she turns around. My eyes burn, and no matter how hard I try to stop the lump in my throat from breaking the dam, I can’t. Everything blurs.
“We were so damn close, Scar.”
“Mase.” She comes to me, wrapping me in her arms.
“I can’t do this without her.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she soothes. “It’s going to be okay.”
We go back to the waiting room where Scarlet tells the others what the doctor said. “We should go home, get some rest and be ready for their call.” Scarlet looks to me, knowing I won’t leave. “Or at least take it in turns.”
I shake my head and then go to stand at the window. It’s as if everything is at a standstill. The world outside and everything inside of me. Nothing is right, and it’s all I can think about. I just need everything to be okay.
“Mase, you’re going to stay?”
I look down at Megan as she slides a hand around my bicep. She looks as ruined as I feel. “Yeah.”
“I’m going to check in with Maggie and John, make sure Ellis is alright. Is there anything you need from home?”
My eyes burn at the mention of Ellis’s name.
Jesus, why can’t I get a handle on my emotions.
I rub at my eyes. “No, thank you, though.” I want to tell her to give him a kiss from me, to tell him Mummy will be home soon, but I don’t trust myself to voice it.
I pull Megan into my side and tell her everything I can in my embrace, hoping she will go hold my son until his mummy can.
“She’ll be okay, Mase. I can feel it in my bones.”
I nod, squeezing her shoulder and catching Charlie’s eye behind her.
Charlie Aldridge has to be one of the strongest men I’ve ever met.
He is sensitive, intuitive yet can stand here and take control; he doesn’t have room for the emotions that I know will be killing him inside.
Instead, he acts as a pillar holding up the dark that threatens to fall on us.
Today would have been so much different without him.
“I’ll drive the girls back,” he tells me, his voice strong. “Call me if anything changes.”
“Yeah.”
He pulls me into a hug and then guides Megan out of the room. Elliot is crouched down in front of Lucy who is still lying across the seats.
“I’m going to go home and shower,” Scarlet tells me. She has Elliot’s jumper thrown over her, but I know she has blood on her top beneath it. A mixture of Nina’s and Joey’s. “Unless you want me to stay?”
“No, you go Scar. Is Vinny driving you?”
“Yeah.”
“Elliot,” I call. He looks over his shoulder at me. “I’ve got her.” I nod to Lucy.
He straightens, his eyes falling back to her. “I’m going to stay too. I’m going to get us some food. You guys need to eat.”
I roll my lips and nod my head even though he doesn’t see. I can’t think about food. I can’t imagine anything I eat staying in my stomach if I wanted to eat.
Vinny doesn’t speak as he walks by me, and I know everything that’s happened will be weighing heavy on him. He’ll blame himself for not pinning down Sarah sooner, but I already know it’s all on me. I never should have meddled.
I stand looking out the window as the room empties, quietness falling heavy when it’s just me and Lucy left. She hasn’t said more than a couple words since she turned up. I know her silence comes from a place of pain. She’s hurting, needing something only her best friend can give her.
Like Elliot, I crouch down in front of her, waiting. I place a hand on the side of her face and her icy blue eyes drift open and land on mine. I give her a small smile, telling her I get it. I feel the same.
She lifts her neck from the seat and I slide in under her, letting her rest her head on my thigh.
“I’ve sat in so many waiting rooms impatient for the doctor to come back so he can tell us what’s wrong with her.
” She sniggers under her breath, her tears seeping through my jeans.
“Always ready to go get ice cream with Mum or have her come home to us for the weekend.” I sit quiet as her voice struggles to fill the room.
“She’s the best person I know, Mason. How does this happen to someone so good?
There are so many bad people in this world. Why her?”
“I don’t have the answers. I wish I did, but I don’t,” I say in a pained daze, imagining Nina as a child.
“She would know. She always has the answers.”
My head drops back to the wall, my eyes drifting closed.
Wake up, Angel.
“Mase.”
I jolt awake, my eyes flicking open to find Elliot standing in front of me.
A nurse is hovering at his side, smiling softly at me.
I sit up in a rush, my neck jolting in pain from the unnatural way I’d been sitting.
I remember Lucy on my lap and slow my movements, grasping her upper arm to steady myself.
“What is it?” I rush out. My heart is pounding. Adrenaline has my eyes flicking wildly between them.
“It’s Nina.” A grin stretches wide across his face. “She’s awake.”
“You said she was awake!” I whisper-shout at Elliot as we stand outside of Nina’s hospital room. The doctor arrived at the same time we did and the nurse informed us all that Nina had gone back to sleep. They’re in her room now, doing an assessment on her.
“She was! I spoke to her,” Elliot says.
“What?” I snap. “What did she say?!”
“She told me I was beautiful,” he tells me proudly, a smirk on his face.
“Fuck off!”
“Straight up. She said, ‘You’re so beautiful, Ell.’ Then I ran to get you.”
Fuck! I just need to see her. “Why won’t they let me see her?!”
Lucy gives me a hopeful look. “It won’t be long now. Try and stay calm.”