Chapter 33
Lacey
“ O li? You okay?” I beat on my little brother’s door for the third time in the past twenty minutes.
I don’t trust that he didn’t go right back to bed after I woke him up an hour ago. Daniel just texted me that he’s on his way over to pick us up, and the apartment he’s renting is no more than fifteen minutes away from our place. There’s no way we’ll be ready to go by the time he pulls up. Not unless I rush these kids along.
“I’m up! Just getting dressed,” Oli says on the other side of his bedroom door, and it soothes my nerves.
Until I remember that Sierra’s still in the shower, and we’re not out of the woods just yet.
I park myself outside of the bathroom and begin pounding on the door. “You need to hurry! Daniel will be here any minute.”
God knows we don’t have time for one of Sierra’s never-ending showers.
“I’m almost done!” she shouts over the sound of the running water.
I release a sigh, admitting defeat and retreating to my bedroom to check my outfit in the mirror one more time.
You’d think I’d be used to this. This isn’t the first time I’ve lost someone I love. So then… why am I overthinking every tiny detail, from the black dress I’m wearing to the style of my hair?
Maybe it’s that I’m not wearing enough makeup. Yeah, that must be it. You can tell that I haven’t slept in days. Not since that night. Not since he bled out in front of me.
There’s something deeply traumatizing about seeing the life spill from your boyfriend’s eyes.
No, no, Lace, don’t go there. You’ve been holding it together so far. Don’t think about it.
TJ’s face flashes in front of my eyes in spite of my best efforts. I see the heartbreak in his smile. Hear the words he said to me before he faded.
“You hate driving in the rain.”
Fuck.
Fuck, I can’t.
It hurts so bad.
You can do it, Lacey. Just get through the day. Just one more day, then you can fall apart when no one’s looking.
My entire body aches from trying to hold back the tears, and I give myself a quick once-over in the mirror.
None of this feels right. I’ve thought about not going, but then again, how could I not say goodbye to the man who gave his life to save mine?
You have to go, Lacey. You can’t just bail on TJ’s funeral.
“Hey, Lace, could you give me a hand with this?” Oli’s voice carries across the house.
I need a few seconds to collect myself before I’m walking out of my room and into the kitchen, where my brother’s standing. I understand what the problem is as soon as I see him fumbling with his tie.
“Here, let me do it.” I make my way over to him and try to undo his tie, but the knot he made won’t cooperate.
“I’m so sorry, Lacey,” Oli says after a few seconds of silence.
I can’t do this. I can’t do the “I’m sorry your boyfriend died” sympathies. I got enough pitiful looks when my dad died.
I avoid making eye contact. “It’s not your fault.”
“Let’s not tell her, okay? Not yet.”
It’s as though my brain short-circuited when his voice reaches my ears.
I immediately stop wrestling with the fabric of his tie, looking up at him in confusion. “What?”
“She’s exhausted. Leave her be.”
“What? I… I don’t understand.”
“Shit, here comes the doctor” is all Oli says.
My brother’s face changes in a split second, his features twisting with panic as he grips my shoulders and begins shaking my body as if to drill some sense into me.
“Lacey, you need to wake up!” His voice is snuffed out and replaced by a soft, feminine one.
“Oli, what’s going on?”
“ Lacey, wake up !”
White lights hit me as soon as my eyes fly open. My vision falters, momentarily overwhelmed by the brightness, and I sit up straight, the nightmare I was stuck into quickly fading.
“I’m so sorry to wake you, but the doctor’s here,” a voice I recognize as my best friend’s says a moment later, and my vision returns to me, along with the memories I’d buried in a deep corner of my brain.
I’m not at home but in a hospital waiting room. I was so tired I fell asleep on Dia’s lap, which means…
TJ isn’t dead.
Thank God.
I have no idea how long I was asleep. I glance at the clock on the far wall for answers. Dia, Finn, and I have been here for six hours. Vera showed up as soon as the hospital managed to get a hold of her, and she’s been waiting with us ever since.
I manage to push to my feet and follow Vera to the man standing by the double doors leading to the operating room. Doctors have been refusing to talk to anyone but Vera and I, seeing as Finn and Dia are not family members. The only reason they agreed to talk to me is because I’m TJ’s girlfriend.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Hartman. We talked earlier in regard to Mathias Jacobs.”
Vera nods, and it becomes clear that the doctor stopped by while I was sleeping. I’m guessing she didn’t want to wake me.
God, I hope I didn’t miss anything important.
“As I mentioned before, we’ve managed to control the bleeding and stabilize your nephew. But we can’t determine just how severe the internal damage is until we investigate further. We’re going to have to do a CT scan to assess the extent of his injuries.”
“Does that mean, if there’s no internal damage, he’ll be okay?” Vera asks.
“I can’t guarantee anything, but if that’s the case, I’m confident he’ll pull through. Of course, we’d still have to keep a close eye on him afterward.”
“And if he does have internal injuries?” I ask.
“Then we’ll have to take him into surgery immediately.”
Anxiety sinks its claws into me.
“Surgery? Is it dangerous?” Vera asks.
“There are risks, but if there’s internal bleeding and organ damage, not having the surgery would be much more dangerous. It could lead to all sorts of life-threatening complications. We’ll let you know as soon as we know more.”
“Okay, thank you, Doctor,” Vera says.
The doctor gives us a polite nod and walks off. The floodgates are blown wide open from the moment he leaves my line of vision, and a wave of relief crashes into me, my shoulders releasing all tension.
“Oh, honey. Come here.” Vera wraps me into a hug, rubbing my back to bring me comfort.
I sniffle. “I’m sorry, I just had the worst dream. I thought we lost him.”
Vera squeezes me tighter. “We didn’t. You heard the doctor. He’s confident that TJ’s going to be fine.”
I dry my face with the sleeve of my shirt when we separate, the painful pit in my throat decreasing in size.
He’s going to be okay.
He has to be okay.
We rejoin Finn and Dia in the waiting room, the two of which are impatiently waiting for updates. I put them out of their misery as soon as I sit down, relaying the information over to them.
“I’m going to go get some coffee. Do you guys want some?” Vera offers a minute later.
I sniffle again. “Yes, please.”
Dia glances at Finn who shakes his head in response. “None for us, thanks.”
Dia has no idea how grateful I am for her. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if she hadn’t picked up the phone last night. I couldn’t even go with TJ in the ambulance when they took him away because I had to stay back and speak with the police. I desperately needed to talk to someone after the cops took my statement, and she took my call on the first ring.
She didn’t even hesitate once I told her what happened. The next thing I knew, she and Finn were on their way to meet me at the closest hospital.
The bright side? The cops arrested one of the dirtbags who was working with Aaron and my sister’s almost kidnappers. TJ knocked him out early on in the altercation, and Aaron and the man who stabbed TJ were in such a hurry to get away when they heard the police sirens that they left him behind.
The police are hoping he’ll rat his buddies out to save himself, hopefully pointing them in the right direction.
“Did you get in touch with Daniel?” Dia asks.
“Yes. He’s going to watch the kids until we know more.”
I called my stepdad a little after we got to the hospital, and in typical Daniel fashion, he picked up immediately. We agreed to let Oli and Sierra sleep, but he’ll be telling them everything when they wake up. As for Kelsea, Vera’s husband, Don, will be picking her up and driving her here first thing in the morning.
“We still can’t get in touch with Theo and Chance. Their phones must be on silent. That or they’re completely trashed from last night,” Dia guesses.
I scoff. “If you ask me, it’s both.”
“What about Xavier and Aveena?”
Her mouth curves into an O shape at the mention of Aveena’s name. “Oh my God, that’s right, I didn’t tell you.”
My stomach does a whole backflip. “Tell me what?”
I don’t think I could take it if she told me something happened to them. I’m having enough trouble worrying about the well-being of one person I love as it is.
“Finn reached Xavier when you were sleeping. He and Aveena got in the car as soon as he told them about TJ, but then… Vee went into labor.”
Holy shit.
“In the car?” I shriek.
Dia nods. “Don’t worry, they made it to the hospital, but I haven’t heard anything else in a few hours.”
A whirlwind of confusing emotions pulls me in every direction imaginable.
On one hand, I’m so happy for them. They’ve waited so long for this, and I can’t believe they’re finally going to get to meet their baby boy, but, on the other, I feel awful that she went into labor in the car because we pulled her out of bed in the middle of the night. But then again, she would’ve had to go to the hospital either way.
God, I can’t believe how quickly everything went to shit.
One second we were kissing good night, and the next, TJ was bleeding out on the floor.
The doctor’s words return to me.
“We’ll have to take him into surgery immediately.”
If that CT scan shows internal damage, they’re going to have to open him up.
What if he does need surgery and something bad happens?
What if I lose him the same way I lost my dad?
It’s as though Dia can read my mind because she grips my hand, that’s resting on my lap, and flashes a warm, comforting smile, bringing my spiraling to a close.
“Breathe,” she whispers.
And she’s right.
Panicking’s not going to fix anything.
Right now, all we can do is wait.