Chapter 37
It was another two hours before we heard anything. Not a single person had left, and I was starting to really hate the sympathetic looks I was getting.
An hour ago, I made the decision to bring Lock here.
He knew what was going on and was losing his mind at Louise’s. Over my objections, the school had contacted his father when Louise had taken him out. I didn’t want Lock alone to deal with his father when he was terrified for his mother.
Thankfully, Alex, instead of waving Wanda around, had resigned herself to waving Phoebe’s power of attorney, which gave her full custody of Lock in this situation.
Bringing Lock here was the right decision. He’d run to me the second he’d entered the room. I’d hugged him while he cried. I couldn’t promise him Phoebe was going to make it. Lying to him felt wrong, and right now I was a person he trusted.
Scarlette showed up within minutes, huffing and puffing, like she’d run the whole way here.
She’d taken one look at Lock, hugged him, telling him she knew what would make him feel better, and then declared food was necessary.
All bad situations needed food, as far as my sister was concerned.
And only the kind with lots and lots of sugar.
At one point, a nurse came to the door. Alex and I snuck out to talk to her, leaving Lock in the care of everyone else there. Louise had just returned from the café with an armful of food with all the sugar Scarlette proclaimed was necessary, and some heartier food to balance it out.
“I can’t tell you much.” The nurse looked grave. “She was shot twice. They’re still operating on her. They’ve called in a specialist from Atlanta, and he just got here.”
“Will she live?” Alex grabbed my arm to steady herself.
The nurse gave us a pitying look, which said more than her words. “I can’t say. All I can tell you is they’re still working on her...”
“You need to eat.” Wade handed me a sandwich.
I didn’t want to eat.
I was watching the son of the woman I loved, and I did love her.
I’d known it for a while and was waiting to tell her.
I didn’t want to tell her when she was still afraid to go public with us.
I knew her. I knew she’d feel guilty and then feel like she had to agree to tell Mom about us.
As much as I wanted that, I loved her too damn much to put that on her. So, I waited.
Now, I was sick to my soul knowing I’d waited too long.
Adding to our misery, we’d learned the hard way Amber-Rae had gone full-on crackers and had called the media, outing Phoebe. No one had expected the reporter, with their cameraman in tow, coming into the waiting room asking questions.
Alex had finally gotten to use Wanda.
Being the great-niece of the Edith Devereaux, something she’d proudly proclaimed when they demanded her arrest for smashing the camera and chasing them with the bat, kept her from being arrested. As long as she replaced the camera.
Dad called from Canada. He was trying to get a flight back, but winter had hit up there and it would be a couple of days.
He hadn’t been surprised finding out “officially” about Phoebe and me.
All he’d said was “It’s about damned time.
” Then told me to listen to my mother. I didn’t have to forgive her.
I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive her. But I needed to hear her out. Trust him.
So I did.
I didn’t forgive her. I couldn’t. Not yet, anyway.
She admitted she’d lost control of herself and agreed she needed to get help.
I wasn’t sure if she’d go to jail or not, but I didn’t want to see my mom locked up.
I knew her past with Harris and Mindy played a part here, along with my hiding my relationship with Phoebe.
I didn’t exactly blame her either for jumping to conclusions after finding those letters, all of it fueled by my secrecy.
When I’d written those notes, I’d been graphic as hell. I loved watching Phoebe read them, her cheeks turning my favorite shade of pink. Sometimes she’d sink her teeth into her bottom lip, a sensual smile on her face.
I’d never expected Mom to find them in Jesse’s room.
I had to ask myself how I would have responded if I’d found something like that in Lock’s room at eighteen. I’d started thinking like a father, like Lock’s father or the father I wanted to be to him, and knew I’d have lost my shit, too.
I was going to be Lock’s father. Or at least as close to it as he’d let me, whether Phoebe lived or not. Lock was mine now.
“On your feet!” Alex whispered, nudging my arm.
Coming down the hall were two men dressed in hospital scrubs along with the nurse who’d spoken to us earlier.
Quietly, we got up, making our way as calmly as possible to the door, not wanting to alert Lock.
My feet felt like lead with every step I took when I saw their grim faces.
Closing the waiting room door behind us, the nurse introduced us.
“Her son is in there,” Alex said at the doctor’s questioning look.”
“I understand,” the doctor with the round face and bushy eyebrows, Doctor Wolstencroft, acknowledged.
“How is she?” I forced the words out.
“She’s alive,” the nurse assured us, earning a look of censure from the doctors.
I thought I was going to pass out. I grabbed for Alex, needing her to steady me this time. She’s alive. She’s alive.
“She’s alive, for now,” Doctor Wolstencroft said. “As you know, Ms. Lebonaire was shot twice. One bullet entered her lower abdomen and lodged in her uterus. I’m sorry to say we had to perform an emergency hysterectomy.” He gave me a sympathetic look.
“We already have a son.”
Alex gave me the first genuine smile I’d seen from her all day.
“The second bullet,”—Doctor Morgan took over— “entered her back, punctured her lung, traversed her chest cavity, cut right along the right ventricle of her heart, and lodged in the breastbone.”
“She was shot in the heart?” Alex looked sick.
“In layman’s terms, yes. She was lucky. The bullet lodging in her breastbone put enough pressure on the heart to keep her from bleeding out, allowing her to get to the hospital.
It was rather ironic. The bullet that nearly killed her was also the bullet that helped save her life.
” Doctor Morgan shook his head as if he couldn’t make sense of it.
“So she’ll live?” Alex held my hand tightly.
“We don’t know. The damage to her heart was extensive combined with the collapsed lung and other internal injuries.
She’s alive right now. We’re taking her to the Cardiac I.C.U.
, where she can be monitored around the clock.
There was also some swelling in her brain from a head injury.
We’re going to keep her in a medically induced coma for several days.
It will help the swelling but will also give her a lower load on her heart, giving it a better chance to start healing. ”
We both just looked at him.
“If she makes it through the next twenty-four hours, I’d say we have every reason to be optimistic. She coded twice—”
I sucked in a breath. No…
“—she came back both times. I’ve seen a lot of gunshot wounds like this. They’re catastrophic. She shouldn’t be alive now. I’d say she’s a fighter, and that will make all the difference.”
He didn’t need to say no one had survived this type of injury before.
“I want to see her!” Alex and I blurted out at the same time.
It was too much. I needed to see her. I needed to tell her, even if she couldn’t hear me. I was done waiting.
“She’s only allowed one visitor in the C.I.C.U. and usually not until she’s conscious. However, I understand that you’re her best friend.” Alex nodded vigorously. “And you’re her—”
“Fiancé.” It wasn’t a lie. I was marrying her as soon as I saw her.
“—then we can allow you five minutes. No one else, though.”
“Lock needs to see her,” I argued. He needed to see his mother as much as I did.
Doctor Wolstencroft shook his head. “We can’t allow that. He’s exposed to too many germs in school, and an infection is dangerous. As it is, you two will have to be gowned and scrubbed and won’t be allowed to touch her.”
“He needs to see her.” I wasn’t backing down. “Can’t he just look in? From the doorway maybe?”
In the end, Lock would be allowed to see Phoebe from the observation room. Only after Alex and I saw her first. No matter how much we desperately needed the reassurance of seeing her for ourselves, we agreed we needed to see her so we could support Lock when he finally did.
“I know it looks scary,” Nurse Autumn said.
“She’s really doing very well.” She led us into the room that was silent and yet not.
Air hissed as it pushed through a tube into a mask over Phoebe’s face.
A machine beeped softly by her bed. There were tubes everywhere.
I watched the yellow line jump on the monitor, afraid if I looked at her, she wouldn’t be there.
That yellow line was her heartbeat.
“You can’t touch her,” the nurse reminded us. “I promise we aren’t trying to be assholes. It really is for her protection.”
“We understand.” Alex was subdued.
“You have five minutes,” Nurse Autumn warned and then left us with Phoebe.
I couldn’t look away from the jumping yellow line.
“You’re going to be fine. Do you hear me?
” Alex leaned over Phoebe, not paralyzed the way I was.
“You’re going to live, Phoebe. While you’re sleeping, I promise Wanda and I are going to take care of everything here.
Do you remember in high school when I was in that car accident, and you made a nuisance of yourself?
Sneaking into the hospital? Baking for me?
God, you were annoying. I couldn’t understand why the girl I’d been picking on was being so nice to me. ”
That was news to me. I snapped out of my paralysis and rounded on Alex. “You bullied her?”
She waved a hand at me. “I’m busy here.” She snickered. “Men, right? As I was saying, you chose me then. I know everyone thinks I’m the strong one, the tough one. That isn’t true, is it? You’ve always been strong. You were kind when others were mean. You kept me sane and out of prison—”
That didn’t surprise me.
“—you kept getting up when someone knocked you down. You fight quietly and with grace, when others can’t. Now you need to fight for you. Fight for me. Fight for Lock. Fight for Ty. You chose me first, but I will choose you always, even if I have to do twenty-five to life for you.”
Finally, Alex stood. Tears glistened in her eyes, and I finally was able to do it. I looked at Phoebe.
“I’ll give you two a minute.” She left quietly.
I took her in. They say people look small in their hospital bed, and it’s true.
I would never be able to describe how she looked because all I saw was my whole world with her lashes brushing her cheek and her pale skin I knew felt like silk.
I saw the smile she gave when she was happy.
I heard her laughter ringing in my ears.
I saw the way her skin flushed when I touched her.
“I love you.” I couldn’t keep it inside anymore. “I love you so damned much. From the first moment I saw you, I knew deep down that you were mine. You are the reason I know there is a God because he gave me heaven the day he gave me you.”
I moved as close to her as I dared.
“I, Tyler Marcus Brockmann, take you, Phoebe Jennifer Lebonaire, as my wife. I vow to love you, encourage you, and honor who you are every day of my life. I promise to love Lock as my son and raise him knowing how amazing his mother is every day. I swear I’ll keep Alex out of prison…
er, I’ll try. I’ll help her get to France, if necessary.
I vow to drive you insane and leave you love notes that make you smile.
I’ll help you work out every plot detail whenever you get stuck.
I vow to let you dream and promise to make the world a safe place when you’re ready to return from those amazing worlds in your head.
Most of all, I vow to be yours. Completely.
For this life and the next, and the next, and the next. I exist because you do.”
I had to stop and catch my breath. There were tears streaming down my face as I married her with only God as our witness. A legal wedding wouldn’t be more binding than the vows I’d just made.
“That is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.” A chocking sob had me turning.
Well, God and Nurse Autumn were our witnesses.
“I really want to touch her. Can I just hold her hand?” I knew I was asking a lot. I just needed to feel her, to have her feel me.
Nurse Autumn waffled and then grabbed a bottle of antiseptic from one of the trays in the room. “Only for a second, and you need to put more of this on.”
I held my hand out anxiously.
When I was ready, I gently lifted her hand. I circled her ring finger. “When you’re awake, I’m putting my ring here.” I savored the feeling of her small hand in mine. Silently, I vowed it wouldn’t be the last time.