Chapter 27
27
Fear kept her quiet. He had answered all of her questions the best he could, but he didn’t have much more information than she did. All she really knew was that the woman who owned the hospital had called him, saying Aubrey had been hurt and was in surgery.
Ayla was going to have to wait until they got to the hospital for more details about what exactly had happened to her sister.
Ayla hated waiting. She had waited on better times her entire life, it seemed. Waited to be back with Aubrey when they’d been split up as little kids, waited to be given back to her mom whenever the courts thought her mom could be their mom again, waiting on word whether her mom was even alive, when she’d been eleven.
Waiting in that stupid basement to die two weeks before she’d turned eleven.
She was seriously trying not to have a total meltdown here. She just wasn’t going to do that. She just wasn’t.
She’d spent so many hours, so many nights crying and waiting to be with her sister again. To get out of that stupid place they’d just warehoused her because she hadn’t mattered.
Ayla hated waiting. And she hated being afraid.
She just wanted to know that her sister really was okay.
That was all.
He parked the truck. “Stay there. I’ll come help you out.”
His voice was so calm, so… strong. Ayla pulled in a breath. He had been told Aubrey would be okay, and the last thing she thought he would do was lie. He just wouldn’t. “I’m sorry. I’m starting to freak out a little here, I think.”
“It’s okay to freak out when you’re afraid for someone you love. That’s a lesson I’ve learned long ago.”
She thought about his words while he rounded the front of the truck.
Then he was lifting her down. And she was crying. His arms went around her and he just held her. And promised her that it would be okay.
No matter what. It was going to be okay.
And… the part of her that believed life would never truly be okay actually started to believe him.
They just waited. Then, Dr. Alvaro was there. The man, not the woman. He was big, and tall, and beautiful, and Aubrey respected him a great deal. He came right to Ayla. He explained to her what had happened to her sister, and why. Then he’d apologized for not keeping Aubrey safe. Ayla hadn’t known what to say, so she had just nodded and looked at him.
Then, not even half an hour later, they let her—and Guthrie, no one was shaking him, that was for sure—back there to sit with her sister.
Aubrey was so still, so quiet. Ayla just sat there and cried some more.
Until Guthrie wiped her cheeks. “She’ll be okay. I promise. I’m not ever going to let anything or anyone hurt her again.”
“Are you in love with my sister?”
“I love your sister more than I have ever loved a woman in my life. Nothing will ever change that. And when she wakes, I’m going to be right here to tell her that.”