Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
RYDER
“Jayson!” Elizabeth screams.
With one hand wrapped around his neck, Jay bodily lifts Daniel up against the door. He releases a snarl like a rabid dog.
“What baby? When did Liz have a baby?” Julien shouts, hands fisted in his hair.
“Call security!” the nurse yells and runs out of the room.
Daniel tries to wheeze out words, but Jay keeps increasing the pressure around his neck.
“You sick fuck! What did you do?”
“Jayson, stop!”
I’m trying hard to hold Elizabeth back when she rips the IV from her arm and scrambles out of the bed. There’s no telling what Jayson is capable of right now.
“What baby?” Julien demands, getting up in Daniel’s face, not caring that Jay is about to strangle the man.
“Daniel! Answer him!” Elizabeth curls her hand around my wrist. “Ryder, let go.”
When I do, she rushes to Jay’s side.
“Jayson,” she quietly says.
With a menacing grunt, Jay suddenly releases Daniel. He drops to his feet and folds over in a fit of coughing.
The hallway outside the room fills with hospital staff. They stand around in various states of shock and confusion. Two police officers suddenly appear and push their way through.
“Everything’s fine,” Daniel rasps, holding his hand up to stop them from entering the room.
“But sir?—”
“I said we’re good. Stand out in the hall if you need to,” Daniel tells them, then picks up his broken phone off the floor and shuts the door.
The room is deathly silent.
Daniel limps over to the chair next to the window. He drags his hands through his hair and pulls at it before smoothing it down.
“I’m so sorry, Elizabeth. We were going to tell you.”
She wipes away the tears that won’t stop coming. “Did I have a baby?”
He nods yes, his tears joining hers.
“Where is it?” Jay says, his voice raw and pained.
Daniel mournfully shakes his head. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
Elizabeth’s breath hitches, her head shaking wildly from side to side.
I jump when she screams, “Where’s my baby?”
“She didn’t make it, honey.”
Elizabeth’s legs give out, but I catch her and sit her down in the chair.
“She?” Jay cries. He falls to his knees in front of Elizabeth and grabs her fisted hands. “We had a daughter,” Jay whispers brokenly.
Of course, Jay was the father if Elizabeth was pregnant before her attack. Jesus fucking Christ.
Wait. Something doesn’t add up.
“How could Elizabeth have a baby she knew nothing about? She was only in a coma for two months.”
Julien hasn’t said a word, but I can feel the anger rolling off him. He goes to his haunches next to Jay and rests his head on his brother’s shoulder.
“We found out you were three months pregnant when we brought you home. The baby…the doctors weren’t sure if the baby would make it. The trauma you endured. The baby died six weeks after you arrived in Seattle.”
Elizabeth makes a strangled, mewling noise, her cries breaking my fucking heart. I feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do to comfort her or Jay.
“You developed an infection, and the baby died. They had to perform an emergency C-section.”
“Where is she?”
“There was legal stuff we had to do so we could bury her. We named her Elizabeth Ann after you and your mom. She’s buried in Seattle. We made sure she had a proper burial. We make sure fresh flowers are placed on her grave every week.” Daniel’s pleading eyes meet Elizabeth’s anguished ones. “I promise you, Elizabeth, I swear on my life that we were going to tell you when the time was right. You had suffered so much already. You lost your memory. Then you came here, wanting a fresh start. It was never the right time.”
She buries her face in her hands, her body racked with sobs. I do the only thing I can think of. I wrap my arms around her.
“You had over a year to tell me,” she rasps.
“We would never intentionally hurt you. We didn’t want to add to your burden until you were strong enough.”
“Get out. I can’t even look at you. I need you to leave. Please just go.”
Daniel hesitates at the door before opening it. “Drew and I love you. You’re like a daughter to us. I hope that one day you’ll understand and be able to forgive us.”
The two officers are still standing outside, and Daniel motions for them to follow. We don’t hear what’s said because Julien slams the door closed, presses his back to it, and slides down to the floor, his blanched face etched with grief.
Jay buries his head in Elizabeth’s lap. “We had a daughter. Just like I dreamed we would.”
“Did you know…did you know I was pregnant?”
Jay’s desolate eyes find her ravaged face. “I didn’t know. If I did…”
Elizabeth looks at me with the kind of agony that shatters something inside me.
“I want to go home.”
Their sobs pierce the silence, and I feel utterly helpless, like a bystander to a pain of unimaginable loss too deep for words, and I can’t do a damn thing to stop it.
The tears come, and I let them. There’s no holding back the flood of sorrow in this moment.