Ethan Whitmore
My whole world came to a pause when Ace called to tell me Ava and Savannah were in a car wreck.
Stuck in traffic, I was ten minutes away from her parents house when he hit me up.
When he said Ava had to be transported to the hospital by helicopter, I knew shit was serious.
When I pulled up to the scene, the fire fighters had to use the jaws of life to pull her and Savannah out.
Thankfully, Savannah was taken by ambulance with a few cuts and bruises.
The car was so mangled, it was by the grace of God that she even made it out okay.
As we got deeper into the conversation, I learned that Rob was behind it.
Aja heard everything that was said because Ava secretly had her on the phone without his knowledge.
She said all she could hear was Savannah crying while Rob and Ava argued.
Had I been on my way when I was supposed to, none of this shit would’ve happened.
Aja kept telling me it wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t help but take part of the blame.
Caught up, dealing with Carla’s stupid ass put a delay in my timing.
For the past seven days, I had been going back and forth to the hospital every day.
The majority of my time was spent at Ava’s bedside, hoping and praying that she’d wake up.
The doctors said there was still brain activity, which was good.
Her vitals were doing well, but it was her legs that sustained the most damage.
So far she’s had two surgeries. The doctors said it could take up to a year for her to fully heal or even walk again by herself.
They said it was a miracle that she survived such trauma.
I was thankful that she did. Mentally, I wasn’t in a position to take another major loss.
Every day, I would come in and talk to her.
Whether she could actually hear me or not, I constantly told her how much I loved her.
I’d play her favorite songs and read those freaky ass hood books she loved so much on .
Aside from me, her parents were present every day, and so were Ace and Aja.
It was kind of hard to hear Ava’s mom explain to Savannah what was going on with her.
I brought Zoie with me one time to spend a few hours. Julia, Duke, Stephanie, and Preston would show their faces every other day to check in. Julia would bring her flowers, and Stephanie would arrange them around the hospital room as if they were on display for a showcase.
For the last few hours, I had been posted up at Big Momma’s house.
Ava’s mother had spent the night with her.
She insisted that I go home and get some rest. I did, and I also went to pick up my princess, so we could spend a little time together.
Big Momma had cooked for us, and now I was sitting with her while she watched Law some she could answer and others she couldn’t.
Since Ava had been in a coma, her mother hadn’t been eating or getting any sleep.
Shit, that went for all of us. But her father told us he was going to get his wife home to rest for a bit before coming back to sit with Ava.
I told him I would stay with her until they got back so she wouldn’t be alone.
Aja said she would come back later as well because she had both Savannah and Dakota outside in the car with her homegirl.
“I’ll kick it with y'all for a minute,” Ace said to me.
He walked into the room ahead of me and stood on one side of Ava’s bed.
She was awake with her head still wrapped in a bandage.
Most of the cords she had hooked to her had been removed, including the tube in her throat.
She carefully watched us both as we stood at her bedside, then her focus remained solely on me.
“So…what do my lab results say?” She asked weakly.
“I uh, I don’t know yet. We’re still waiting for them.” I watched her carefully.
“Do you need to check me again for something?”
“Oh shit,” Ace laughed. “Nigga, I think she thinks you’re the doctor.”
Ava looked at Ace then back at me with confusion.
“You’re not my doctor? Ace, who is this?” she asked, but her eyes stayed on mine.
“The nigga you fuckin.” He mumbled.
“Wait a minute,” she closed her eyes. “Where’s Rob?”
I gave Ace a quick glance before focusing back on her. All he could do was shake his head.
“That nigga is dead.”
She broke our gaze to look at Ace.
“What?” She asked in disbelief.
“You really don’t remember what happened?” he asked.
Her eyes slowly darted around the room. She sat quietly as if she was trying to remember.
“I want to hold my baby.” She ignored his question. “Where’s my baby?”
“She’s good,” Ace answered.
Tears formed in her eyes, then they slowly ran down her cheeks.
“Tell me what happened?” she asked.
“That nigga was trying to kill you. That’s what happened. Listen, we just need you to get better. Don’t even think about him.”
Ace was lying about Rob bitch ass being dead.
We heard from the police that he was alive and most likely well because he was able to flee from the hospital.
That was the smartest thing that muthafucka could’ve done.
I wasn’t worried though, it was only a matter of time before I caught up with him.
I should’ve killed him when I had the chance.
That was my biggest regret. At the moment, my main focus was Ava until she got better.
That muthafucka, his days were numbered.
The room got quiet, and I watched Ava look around, taking in all the flowers and balloons. Then her eyes landed right back on me.
“Who is this?” she asked Ace again.
“My boy EJ.”
“Ethan,” I corrected him.
She never called me EJ, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“My bad. This my nigga Ethan.”
She just stared at me.
“Why is he here?”
“The same reason everybody else has been coming up here. He's making sure you’re good.”
The room fell silent for a moment.