Chapter 11
Heather
“ I appreciate you driving me to the hospital,” I told Gavin after the first fifteen minutes of the drive passed in awkward silence.
Accepting help was something I’d never be able to do with a war of indecision, but he hadn’t really offered the ride like a good Samaritan would have. Nor had he told me that this was how it was going to be, that I was riding with him.
In the wake of Roarke’s shock at learning that Nevaeh was pregnant, it seemed wise to get the hell out of there. He looked furious and so confused. I bet he always held on to a low-lying assumption that she’d get knocked up sooner or later. Nevaeh hadn’t proven to make very good decisions in life and he likely had that low of an opinion of her to consider her getting pregnant from carelessly sleeping with some guy.
But with David?
I cringed as Gavin drove. It was hell to be attached to David at all, but with a kid on the way? That would be more means of him controlling her. Pity flared to the surface again, but it didn’t take hold. It couldn’t take hold now. Too many other emotions were in charge. Fear for Eric. Panic about what David was doing. Anxiety about all of it.
“Well, I didn’t want to stay for that conversation. Hell. She’s pregnant?” He ran his hand through his hair. “You knew and didn’t tell him?”
“I—” I frowned, shutting up. “It wasn’t my place to say anything.”
“Because you and Roarke are fighting or going through a little lover’s quarrel?”
I pulled my lips in and exhaled through my nose, needing to vent and count through my breaths for a moment. Already, I was getting overly defensive. “It’s not a little lover’s quarrel. I don’t need to explain myself to you. Or him. Or anyone. But David Kenning is a bad man. I do not want to expose myself to being in his presence. I don’t even want to think about him. If I could purge him from my mind, if I could rewind time and do things differently, I would.”
“All right. All right.” He held up a hand while keeping the other on the wheel. “I won’t pry. But I’m surprised you didn’t tell him that she was pregnant is all. That’s...big. That’s big and potentially bad news. Nevaeh doesn’t seem capable of taking care of herself, so it can be a matter of making sure the baby is taken care of. You get what I’m saying?”
I nodded, realizing how much of a dad he was.
“I know. And I considered that too. I wasn’t going to stay quiet about it for good. It just all happened fast. I saw the test, but I didn’t want to say anything until I knew or heard from her one hundred percent that it was hers. Then she got onto my laptop and...” I lifted then dropped my hand on my lap, unsure of what I was even trying to gesture or convey. I couldn’t tell why I was worried about trying to convince him of anything about how or why I justified my actions. “I would tell him, or someone, though. To at least see if she’d be able to get prenatal care and be healthy for the baby’s sake.” Here I thought I’d be spared an interrogation by not riding with Marty. He wanted me to speak up about David, and with how we’d found Eric, I would. I hadn’t counted on Gavin questioning me so much about not telling Roarke that Nevaeh was pregnant, but I hadn’t done anything wrong. “It wasn’t my place to tell Roarke. It’s her secret to share.”
“Yeah. I see that. But unfortunately, she keeps too many secrets.” He glanced at me a couple of times, as if hesitating to speak. “He’s not... This guy’s not going to beat her or anything, is he?”
I opened and closed my mouth, intimidated with his slight urging to speak up about my past. David wasn’t a beater, or he wasn’t with me. Not too much. He used his strength to physically constrain me but he never outright attacked me.
But that would never mean he wouldn’t raise his fists to someone else. “I can’t predict that, Gavin.”
“But you’ll talk to Marty, right?” He braked at the hospital’s entrance. “I understand that your past might be...difficult to talk about. Or however you want to describe it. And I get that. But if you know anything that could prevent someone else from getting hurt, isn’t it your responsibility to speak up about it?”
I nodded, not looking at him as I exited the truck. I didn’t need him to remind me. David would always be a boulder of obligation on my shoulders. I shouldn’t be responsible for speaking up. Nevaeh damn well could too.
Shelving all my thoughts about having to tell Marty about my past, I went to the front desk and asked for Eric’s room. He was taken to the ER, but since I was family, and due to him not being able to speak well, they permitted me to go back to his room. He wasn’t there, still being X-rayed and scanned for his injuries, so with the company of the beeps and noise of a busy hospital, I sat there and waited. And waited. Hours passed, and the nurses could only say that he was being assessed. “The doctor will come by soon.” That was the line they gave me over and over.
Stress weighed me down, compiling and accumulating with every second that ticked. I wondered if Nevaeh was being upfront with Roarke and Marty. I thought about what David was doing, preying on her. I worried about why Eric would’ve been near David’s apartment. And I—
“Hey.” Marty rapped his knuckles on the doorframe, poking his head in to face me.
I’d almost forgotten that he’d be coming here too, for answers. I assumed he would’ve lingered at that apartment building to speak with Nevaeh a little longer.
“I just spoke with the doctors and all. They’ll be wheeling him back here.”
“Oh, good.” I sat up, stiff from sitting in this chair.
“I’ve got a lead on where David might be staying, so I’m going to follow up on that.” He dipped his chin, looking at me levelly. “But I’m hoping you’ll still be willing to talk with me soon. I can tell Nevaeh will remain closed-lipped.”
“Okay.” I didn’t’ know what else to say. It wasn’t okay. None of this was.
When they wheeled Eric back moments later, I winced at the bruising on his face. He was awake, but looking drowsy.
“Hello,” the doctor greeted.
“Will he be all right?” I asked, cringing at the bandages around his head.
“Oh, I’m sure he will be. But the recovery will take a while to get over.”
“What happened?”
“The best I can tell, he fell down the stairs. His jaw was dislocated and with the extensive swelling, it seems he will be struggling to speak for a while.”
“What about his head? Was he knocked out? He seemed so sluggish.”
“We’ve scanned him and it looks like he’s suffered a mild concussion. It looks like someone hit him, and then with the marks on his body, he fell. The jaw was likely dislocated from a hit to the face”—he mimed someone punching his own face —“but he was also severely dehydrated. Checking with his primary care doctor, it seems like he’s been dealing with a persistent virus lately. I imagine that dehydration didn’t help matters.”
“Jeez.” I shook my head, worried and feeling guilty. Eric and I weren’t close, but we were family. I should’ve checked on him more. “He was already back to work and seemed to be doing better.”
“Oh, sure, sure. He was improving. He might have thought he was recovered enough to handle the stress of going back to work. Sometimes, the body needs a little longer to feel back to one hundred percent, then with this incident of a fight and fall, it’s too much for him to manage at once.”
“What about his leg?”
“He’s sprained his ankle. I’m pleased with the limited swelling, and nothing is fractured. I expect that inflammation will go down faster than the ache with his jaw.”
For a little longer, the doctor summarized Eric’s injuries and more or less erased all my fears that my cousin would suffer for long. According to him, painkillers, ice, and rest would go a long way for him feeling back to normal.
Eventually, the doctor left.
“What happened, Eric?”
He seemed to shrug, looking up at me. The bandages around his head secured his mouth shut, but I didn’t ask with the expectation he’d answer. I just had to voice my confusion out loud.
“I don’t remember,” he said through a slit in his mouth. He couldn’t talk clearly, but he wasn’t mute. “I don’t remember a damn thing.”
“Amnesia?” I hadn’t asked the doctor about that possibility.
“The doc says it’ll come back someday. But I don’t remember a damn thing.”
“You don’t remember getting a text? Or getting a ride with someone?”
He very faintly shook his head on the pillow. “Nothing.”
“You don’t remember being at that apartment building?”
“No clue. I just remember waking up and lying there. My head hurt. I couldn’t call out for help. Couldn’t stand with my ankle. And I was just so fuckin’ tired. When I think about it, it’s all fuzzy.”
I patted his arm. “Don’t. Don’t try to. Don’t force yourself.” The little we’d spoken so far had made his blood pressure go up.
He nodded faintly, grimacing. “But I want to know. I can’t stand this hazy cloud of confusion. If someone did this to me—”
“Easy,” I coaxed, patting his arm again. “Just take it easy. We’ll get the answers.”
It didn’t slip my notice how I said we would get answers. It was instinct to stand with my cousin after his fall and injuries, and that was yet another turning point in my life. Family standing with family. For me, it was the first time of experiencing this kindred sort of support. I was the one offering support, and that made me feel damned good. Like this was where I should be. Like this was where it made sense for me to stay.
Without me, Eric would have to lean on neighbors and coworkers, and I couldn’t lie and admit that it didn’t feel good to have this sense of belonging. Or this worthiness to help.
He was still agitated, though. “But who—”
I patted his arm. “Relax.”
David. That’s who. He was the common denominator to all that was going wrong in my life, and I just knew he had to be connected to Eric’s injuries.
I stayed a while yet, until he fell asleep. Twice more, I spoke with the doctor and nurses, but they couldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Todd texted to explain that he and Gavin were working together to bring me my car. It seemed like a minor detail, how I’d get home, but I appreciated that they could team up like that. It was becoming harder and harder to automatically view Burton as the enemy, that the whole town despised me. They were proof that not everyone loathed me.
Once they confirmed that my car was here, Gavin had a nurse bring me my keys.
“We’ll monitor him overnight,” she said. “And get some more fluids in him.”
“I’ll go then,” I said. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Have a good night,” she replied.
Too late for that.
As I left the hospital, texting Janelle that I’d need to take tomorrow off to help Eric settle in at home, I sighed and wondered if when this hell would end. If it would end.