Chapter 25 #2
Once I lowered them onto the bed, I spoke again.
“Thank you, Chloe. Thank you for giving me the chance to feel it, to experience love like I never had before you. I hope you know what you mean to me, how lucky I feel that you came into my life and shared yours with me. And I will never forget you, never find another. I hope you can move on from this, heal, and find happiness again.”
Standing, I leaned over the bed, framed her beautiful face in my hands, and kissed the top of her head. Then I touched my lips to her mouth before resting my forehead against hers. “I love you, Chloe Cunningham. And not a day will pass that I don’t think of you.”
After I kissed her lips once more, I stood and turned to walk away. But Mia was standing there.
“Are you leaving her?”
“Mia—”
“You’re leaving her? Why? Why would you give her up?”
I shook my head, moving toward the exit. “You don’t understand. I’m… I’m the reason she’s even here.”
Mia moved toward me. “So, you don’t love her?”
“This isn’t about that. I… I can’t spend every moment of every day wondering if the choices I made twelve years ago are going to affect her.”
She stepped closer. “Did she know?”
I took a step back, moving out into the hall. “What?”
“Did Chloe know what came along with loving you? Did she know about your past?”
“Of course.”
“And she didn’t care. She thought you were worth it anyway, didn’t she?”
Moving down the hall, I said, “I don’t think Chloe ever thought this was a possibility. And trust me, if I thought it was, I never would’ve started things with her.”
“But you did,” Mia said, barely two steps behind me.
I’d spoken with all of Chloe’s friends and family in the instances I’d been around them, but Mia was the one who’d been the quietest. It seemed she’d been storing it up for the right moment.
I was so caught off guard by it; I wasn’t sure what to say. I just kept moving, heading back to the waiting room, so I could make my way to the exit. And I wasn’t thinking clearly about anything.
Mia kept at me. “You made a choice and started things with her. You made her happy, and now you’re walking away.”
“Mia, I’m doing this for her,” I said, pushing through the door into the waiting room. “I’m doing it to make sure she’s safe.”
“You’re doing it for yourself, Hawk,” she clipped. “My sister deserves better than this from you. You think this isn’t about love. It’s all this is about. Chloe loves you. She threw herself in front of bullets for you. And the second things get tough, you’re walking out on her?”
“What’s going on?”
I blinked at the sound of a new voice and suddenly realized Chloe’s family and friends had heard. Kingston was approaching us.
Before I could respond, Mia said, “Hawk’s leaving her.”
“You heading home to change?”
“No, Kingston. He’s leaving her. When she’s going to need him the most, he’s walking out on her.”
Several gasps filled the air as Kingston looked like he’d been sucker punched. “What?”
“Hawk?” Zane called, moving toward me.
My eyes met his stare.
“What are you doing?”
Breathing fast and heavy, feeling the panic rise, I explained, “I never meant for this to happen.”
“Nobody thinks that you did.”
I blinked and jerked back. “You know I’m responsible.”
“No, you’re not.”
“If it weren’t for me, that man never would’ve shown up in her shop today.”
“So, why are you leaving?”
“To keep her safe. To make sure nothing like this ever happens to her again.”
“It won’t.”
Shaking my head, I countered, “You can’t know that.”
“Just as you can’t know that it will,” he fired back.
“What I do know is that the man who shot my daughter was arrested an hour ago. When her uncle, the owner of Cunningham Security, found out what happened, he immediately pulled up the footage from the shop, and he was working with the police to track the man who did this to her. That’s who I was talking to on the phone earlier.
They got him, Hawk. This guy is never going to have the chance to hurt her or you again. ”
An overwhelming sense of relief washed over me to know there was one less person out there who’d be a threat to Chloe. The simple fact remained that a large part of the town didn’t care for me, and there was no telling if someone else might come after her again.
“Next time, it could be someone else,” I reasoned. “I… I can’t risk her like that.”
“You know…” Mia began. “Those bullets tore through her body today, and she survived. If you walk out on her, I can promise you one thing, Hawk. That is going to kill her.”
My heart thundered. I’d promised Chloe I’d never leave her. And now I was prepared to break my promise. Mia was right. The bullets didn’t kill her, but me leaving her would.
“Excuse me?”
A nurse had popped her head into the waiting room.
“Yes?” Mia asked.
“Chloe’s awake. She’s asking for… Hawk?”
“Okay, thank you,” Kingston replied.
As the nurse stepped back and closed the door, everyone’s eyes fell on me. It was Mia who asked, “What’s it going to be, Hawk?”
I lifted my hand and ran it through my hair.
She was asking for me. She wanted me. And I was ready to walk out on her.
Zane said, “You need to decide what you’re going to do. I think my daughter has made it clear that she loves you. That she’s willing to do anything for you. The questions remain, though. Do you love her? Are you willing to do anything for her?”
With those two questions, there was only one thing for me to do.