Chapter 43 - KNIGHT #2
Amelia nods and hangs Harper’s chart on the end of her bed. “Okay, doctor hat coming off for a minute,” she says. “What the fuck happened?”
“Yeah,” Izzy says. “And start from the beginning this time, because I’m still trying to figure out how that ship exploded.
Not to mention, you haven’t even told me what happened to Mae and Elias.
They’re both rocking orange, right? Which is unfortunate, because orange really isn’t your mother’s color. ”
I grin to myself, having had that same exact thought. Harper glances at her best friend, something dark flashing in her eyes. “Elias is currently reconsidering his investment in explosives. That deal kinda blew up in his face.”
“Huh?”
“Turned him into shark bait.”
“Ooh-ha-ha,” Ace chants under his breath, only to get a weird look from Diesel, who clearly has no idea who the fuck Nemo is.
“Okay,” Amelia says, trying to get everyone back on track. “I still have no idea how we got here. Start from the beginning, and this time, focus.”
“Alright,” Harper says, pointing toward the armchair beside her bed. “But you better make yourself comfortable, this could take a while.”
Just as requested, Harper starts right from the beginning, filling in Amelia with every fucked-up little detail along the way, not skipping a single moment, even the one I’m not so proud of.
As she recaps, each of us throws in our two cents, giving details that we think are important for whatever reason.
She tells her everything about her mom, going into a brief rundown of their messed-up relationship, and telling her all about the way she allowed her husband to beat her in the hopes of drawing her out after she miscarried.
“Wait. Wait. Wait,” Amelia cuts in, shaking her head as her brows furrow. “What do you mean miscarry?”
“She lost the baby,” Harper explains. “When she arrived at our place, she was bleeding, and at that point, it was touch and go. But when I went back to visit her, she confirmed that the baby was gone.”
Amelia cringes, looking torn about something. “Look, I don’t want to be that asshole who breaks doctor/patient confidentiality and have my license stripped, but your mom didn’t lose the baby.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, sitting up straighter as every eye in the room whips toward Amelia.
“She left the hospital against medical advice; however, I submitted her discharge papers myself. Mae was absolutely still pregnant when she left our care yesterday. The baby had a strong heartbeat. There was some uterine bleeding from the attack, but the pregnancy was viable. The baby was weak but stable. Mae just had to take a dose of medication for the bleeding,” Amelia explains.
“Unless something has changed in the past twenty-four hours, then that baby is still cooking.”
“Holy shit,” Harper breathes before falling into a heavy silence, clearly deep in thought.
I give her a moment to process whatever it is she needs to work through before finally nudging her arm. “You good, doll? Everything alright?”
Harper shakes her head. “I’m just . . . shocked, I guess.
If the baby was fine, then that could only mean that my mother told me she died simply because she knew I wouldn’t be able to control my emotions and would have taken the fight to Elias.
She lied about her own baby’s death just to force me into his trap,” she says.
“Who the fuck does something like that?”
“A very sick woman,” I tell her, pulling her back into my side and cradling the back of her head. “But it’s over now. She can’t hurt you where she’s going. You’re never going to have to worry about her manipulation or narcissism again. You’re free of her, doll.”
“I am,” she murmurs into the silence of the room. “But that baby. We have to petition for custody. If Mom is spending the rest of her life behind bars, then I have to fight for that baby because no one else will. I couldn’t live with myself if she slipped into the system. I—”
She starts to panic as if already terrified for the little life that’s going to come into the world, and I simply hold her, dropping a kiss to the crown of her head. “I’ll take care of it, doll,” I tell her. “If you want to petition for custody, then that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
Harper nods, staring up at me as though needing me to save her just one more time. “She can’t have any parental rights,” she tells me, fear in her eyes. “We need to protect her, Knight. We need to give her a chance at a fulfilling life. As my sister or . . . or my daughter.”
I nod, and as the terror truly sets into her stare, I take her chin, being cautious of her stitches.
I lift it until that beautiful green stare rests on mine.
“Our daughter, doll,” I tell her, making sure she truly hears me.
“Whatever it takes. That baby girl will be ours. We’ll protect her, just as fiercely as I’d protect you.
We’re in this together. Where you go, I go.
You burn, I burn. If your heart is telling you to do this, then that’s exactly what we’ll do. ”
“We fight right to the end.”
“Damn straight, we will.”