Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Carley
Agony.
Complete and utter agony is the only way to describe how I feel when I regain consciousness.
But I can’t remember why.
What happened? Where am I?
Slowly, I’m able to open my eyes. The bright lights are blinding and I close them again.
D.
I open my eyes once more and try to sit up, but I can’t. Searing pain coming from my left shoulder stops me immediately, and I cry out.
“Carley.” I hear someone say.
As my vision comes into focus, I see a room full of people scattered around me.
I search from left to right, taking in each of their faces.
Saylor. My mother. Daddy, Sheila, and Elias. They all look so incredibly sad.
“Carley … thank god.” My mother sighs with relief.
Where is D?
“D …” I mumble.
My head throbs with a sudden boom boom boom.
Memories appear in my mind like someone turning a flashlight on and off in quick succession.
Ren. Chair. Knife.
My heart starts pumping faster as I remember a little bit more.
D. Floor. Blood.
“D,” I say a little louder as I recall how Ren dragged him across the floor of the bedroom. A trail of blood in his wake. D told me he loved me before he…
“No,” I sob. “D, no!”
“Carley,” Saylor comes to my bedside and wraps my shaking body in her arms.
My shoulder burns with pain as she holds me tight, but I don’t care.
“He’s dead … I saw …” I can’t get the words out. “I saw …”
“Shh … It’s okay, Carley,” My father tries to comfort me, but nothing will ever be able to take away the pain of watching D die in front of me while I was powerless to help him.
“No, it’s not okay. It’s not okay. He’s gone!” I sob.
“He’s not, Carley.” Saylor gently lets me go and holds my head in place so she has my attention. “He’s not dead.”
“What?” I look around the room, and there isn’t one dry eye. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I would never lie to you. It’s me, Carley.”
And I know what she says is true. Saylor would never tell me a lie, especially not one so cruel.
“Where is he? I want to see him. I have to see him.”
“He’s downstairs in the ICU. He has a punctured lung, and he lost a lot of blood. He needed surgery to repair it.”
I need to go to him.
Throwing the covers back as best I can with one arm, I ungracefully swing my legs out of my bed and try to stand as everyone screams at me.
Big mistake.
I fall back down onto the bed.
“Carley, stop! You’re going to bust through your stitches,” I hear my mother say from across the room.
“Yes, and the nurse has to check you out, take your vitals. And there is also a police officer outside who needs to speak with you,” my father adds.
“I’m not doing or saying anything until someone takes me to see D.”
Saylor is the first to move. She marches out in the hallway, and I hear her speaking with someone. A moment later, she comes back into the room with a nurse in tow.
“Ms. Garrettson, so lovely to see you awake.”
“Take me to see Dimos Anastos, now.”
I’ve never been mean to anyone in my entire life, and I don’t like who I am right now, but until they let me see him, this is who they’re going to get.
“I’ll make you a deal,” the nurse begins. “I’ll radio for a wheelchair for your transport, and while we’re waiting on it, you let me give you a once over.”
I stare at her, breathing heavily with exasperation through narrow eyes as I consider her offer.
“Fine.”
After calling for my transport, she takes my blood pressure, which I’m sure is through the roof. Then she checks my eyes and vision before changing the dressing on my shoulder wound.
“What happened?” I ask Saylor as the nurse works.
With tears in her eyes, she tells me the story one of the officers told her and my parents.
“Thankfully, D called Officer Harrison on his way to you. When the cops got to the house, they said Ren was straddling you on the bed, shouting that if he couldn’t have you, no one could.
When he tried to stab you, the officer shot him, and he died instantly.
The force of the shot pushed him forward, which is how you got stabbed in the shoulder and not the heart. ”
“I saw the blood splatter, but I thought it was mine,” I tell them. “And D?”
“They found a very faint pulse. By the time the paramedics arrived …” she swallows nervously, “he was moments from death.”
“Okay, I’m finished here, Carley. Let me go check on that wheelchair for you,” the nurse says.
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“Oh, Carley,” my mother sobs as she comes forward. “I’m so glad you’re okay, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, you really had us worried sick there.” I want to give my father a reassuring smile, but I just can’t.
“Okay, your ride is here,” the nurse comes into the room with a wheelchair.
Once she locks it into place, she helps me down off my bed before hooking my IV to the metal pole sticking out of the back of the chair.
“Would you like me to come with you?” my mother asks.
“No,” I answer quickly. “Thank you, but I need to go alone.”
I don’t want anyone standing around, waiting for me. No one knows this yet, but once I get into D’s room, I won’t be leaving until he’s ready to leave the hospital. I’d like to see them try to remove me.
We take the elevator down one floor, then my nurse leads me into the intensive care unit. She pushes me through the hall, taking so many turns I don’t think I’ll ever be able to find my way back.
Not that I’ll need to.
“Here we are.” She knocks on the door to D’s room, and when it opens, I see the melancholy face of Eliana staring back at me. Ez is here too, and he looks just as downtrodden as I feel.
“Oh, Carley,” she leans down and hugs me gently. “I’m so sorry.”
“I need to see him,” I beg.
“Of course, come on in.”
They must know who D is because his room is the size of about five of my rooms put together. I’m wheeled in, and as she parks me next to D’s bed, I lose it. I begin sobbing all over again as I slowly climb from the wheelchair.
I walk to the side of D’s bed and collapse onto it. I grab his hand and rest my head on his chest gently.
“D, I’m so sorry,” I cry. “This is all my fault. I should have called you. But I was so scared … Please wake up, D.” I place my hand on his cheek and lay a kiss on his cold, unmoving lips. “You have to be okay. I can’t live without you.”
I stay like that until I’ve cried all of the tears I can cry.
“Why don’t you take a seat, Carley?” the nurse suggests. I had no idea she was still here. “I can take you back to your room to rest.”
“No, I’m not going anywhere. You’re welcome to wheel my bed down here, there’s more than enough room, but I’m not leaving, and there’s nothing you can do to make me.”
She exchanges a glance with both Ez and Eliana, who look at her with sympathy, but offer no assistance.
“I’ll give you some more time, but I can’t permit you to stay in this room. It’s against hospital policy.”
“We’ll see about that,” I spit at her.
Watch what happens when they try and take me from this room. Stab wound or not, they will force a side of me to come out that even I’m scared to meet. I can feel the rage simmering beneath the surface as I look at her.
My nurse looks around the room uncomfortably once more before finally leaving. When she’s gone, I call upstairs to my father and ask him and Saylor to meet me down here. I’m seated in the chair at D’s bedside when they walk through the door.
“What’s going on?” my father asks.
“Daddy, I think you know Ezra Treuth. He’s D’s best friend.”
My father looks across the room at Ez, and I watch carefully to see if there is going to be an issue. I remember what D told me a while ago about the two of them not getting along.
But I didn’t have anything to worry about.
“George,” Ez nods to my father.
“Ezra. I’m so sorry for …” he doesn’t know what to say, but he gestures toward D.
“Thank you, that means a lot.”
“You guys—Daddy, Ez, and D—are three of the most powerful and influential men in this city. Now, I’m not leaving this room until D does, and there must be something one of you can do to see to it this hospital accommodates my demand.
I want to spend the duration of my stay with the man I love.
The man, without whom I wouldn’t be here right now.
” I start to cry again. “The man who is fighting for his life because of me.”
Through my tears, I look back and forth between Ez and my father and wait for one of them to say something.
I catch Eliana’s expression as she stands just behind the two of them.
She winks and offers me a nod, giving me all the silent support that I need.
Saylor comes to my side and places her hand on my good shoulder.
“We’ll talk to someone, Carley. We’ll get it taken care of.” Ez promises.
“Thank you.”
“We’ll be back in a little while,” my father adds.
The two of them exit the room, leaving me, Eliana, and Saylor behind.
“Are you in any pain, Carley?” Saylor asks me as I turn back to face D.
As I look at him, I feel an immense amount of pain.
But it has nothing to do with my shoulder.
I’m in pain, agonizing over what happened to D.
Terrified he’s never going to wake up. That I’ll never again get to look into his striking, gray eyes.
I’m frightened I’ll never be able to feel him against me while we sleep.
I’ll never be able to taste another one of his kisses.
“Yes, the pain is immeasurable,” I answer without looking at her. “And I won’t get any relief until D opens his eyes.”
* * *
Daddy and Ez came back within the hour with good news.
Very expensive good news.
It took quite a large donation, but the CEO agreed to have a bed placed next to D’s as well as a separate staff of doctors and nurses to handle our care.
Daddy stayed for a little while longer before Sheila and Elias came looking for him.
When they left, I begged him to take my mother home when he leaves. I can’t be around her right now.
Ez and Eliana left shortly after that but told me they would be back tomorrow. I promised to call with any change in D’s status until they return.
“Can you help me with this pillow?” I ask Saylor.
She is staying the night tonight. The nurse brought her a plush chair that folds out into a bed for her to sleep on, but she’s currently laying in my bed with me.
“Sure. Can you lean forward a little, or do you need help?”
“No, I’ve got it,” I tell her as she fluffs up my pillow, helping to raise my head off the bed a little more. “That’s better, thank you.”
She lays back down and rolls onto her side so she’s facing me. When I turn my head to look at her, I see shiny, unshed tears in her eyes.
“Say …” my voice fades away as I take her hand in mine.
“I’m so sorry, Carley. This is all my fault. I should have done something sooner. I could have put a stop to all of this before it got so out of hand.”
“Saylor, he was obsessed with me before the two of you even met. From the get-go at the bar that night. Nothing you did contributed to his behavior.”
“I know, but there were … things. Things I should have picked up on but brushed them off because I thought I was crazy.”
“What do you mean?” I inquire.
“Well, there were little things, like flashes of anger I would notice in his eyes from time to time. Sometimes it was during sex, other times it would happen when I mentioned you and D. I asked him about it once, and he swore I was imagining it.”
I think back to when my mother came to the office and told me Ren seemed ragey. Saylor is lucky that he didn’t take his anger out on her. At least not seriously. I know he did when they were having sex. He was too rough not to be.
“And then there was the way he acted when we were having sex.”
“I was just thinking about that. The video he sent us of you guys was brutal, Say. Some parts you seemed to enjoy, but others …?”
“I enjoyed sex with him in the beginning. But as our relationship progressed, things got … a little scary. And then, there was …”
She stops talking and closes her eyes.
“There was what?”
“Oh, god. I’m too embarrassed to say it,” she admits, looking at me again.
“Saylor, it’s me.”
“I know, and that makes it harder.”
She’s scaring me a little bit. Finally, she covers her eyes with her hand and speaks again.
“A few days ago, he woke me up in the middle of the night because he was horny, and he wanted to roleplay. It wasn’t unlike him to do this, but this time was very different.” She stops talking and exhales loudly.
“Different how?” I encourage her to continue.
“Ren wanted me to pretend I was you.”
What?
“Are you joking?” I know she’s not. I don’t know why I asked her that.
“It was so weird, and I didn’t want to, but he got that look in his eye again. Only this time, it was more than just anger. He was terrifying, Carley.”
“Saylor, I’m so sorry any of this happened to you. Why didn’t you say anything? I would have helped you get rid of him.”
Knowing now what Ren was capable of, I’m not certain I would have been able to help Saylor get away from him. But I would have at least tried. For my best friend, I would have fought with everything I had.
“I was scared,” she whispered, as more tears roll down her face. “It took everything in my power to pretend I was okay. And I tried to be.”
“My god,” I cry. “How self-absorbed was I that I didn’t notice this going on?”
“No, he put on such a good act, Car. He even had me fooled a few times. I knew something wasn’t right yesterday when he woke me up and surprised me with breakfast and a spa day. But I wanted to believe everything was fine, so I went with it.”
To see my strong and confident best friend doubting herself so severely because of that asshole, makes me angry. I have to remind myself he’s dead to feel even the slightest bit better.
“What happened in that house, Carley?” She gives me a sorrowful look. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
I still don’t remember everything that happened, but I remember enough. I just don’t know if I can talk about it yet.
“I want to tell you, Say. But I just can’t yet.”
She brings her hand to my cheek as more tears come.
“I love you, jerk face,” she smiles as she cries harder. “And I’m so happy you’re okay.”
“I love you, back,” I tell her.
But I am far from being okay.