“When I heard that gun go off outside, I thought that my life had ended. I thought I was never going to see your face again, or be able to see our daughter take her first breath. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive without you here with me. I would take my life in order to go wherever you were.”
“Don’t say that.” I whimpered, shaking my head. “Don’t ever say that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“No, it’s selfish,” I cry. “Other people love you and count on you, not just me. No matter what happens to me, promise that you will never give up on life. That you will always fight to be happy. I'm not your only happiness.”
“No, you’re my bliss,” he says, smiling, but I can’t smile back. This is too serious.
“Promise me that you will never give up on life, no matter what, Asher. Promise me right now, because we have a daughter that is going to need you no matter what happens to me.” His eyes look so lost, but I won’t let him say stupid things like that. I wouldn’t be happy without him either, but I would still fight to live because I know he would want that for me. “Would you want me to follow you?” I ask quietly, knowing the answer.
“No.”
“So don’t say things like that,” I beg.
“I'm sorry, baby,” he says, pulling me into his arms. “I just don’t know what I would do.”
“You don’t have to worry about it. We’re here and we’re safe. Just promise that no matter what, you won’t leave our daughter behind if something happens to me.” I start to cry uncontrollably.
“I promise,” he finally says, and I curl into his side and fall asleep.
I'm sitting in my hospital bed waiting for my doctor to show up and discharge me after he decided to keep me for one more night. Asher went to the house to get me something to wear and to drop off Beast. I hear the door open and look up.
“November?” Chris is standing at the door of my hospital room.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, scooting back in the bed.
“I heard you were in the hospital. I wanted to check on you.”
“Who told you I was in the hospital?” He doesn’t answer, but walks into the room, shutting the door behind him. I press the call button for the nurse.
“You were supposed to come back to me,” he says, looking sad.
“You slept with my mom.” I will never forget that. Seeing them together was burned into my brain forever.
“Yes, and I'm sorry about that, but once I started to fall in love with you, I left you clues so that you would catch us.”
“What?”
“I wanted to have a clean start with you. I just didn’t know that after you caught us, you would ignore me completely.”
“I repeat: You slept with my mom. That’s not something that is easy to forget.”
“I know,” he whispers, looking at his shoes.
“The police are looking for you,” I tell him and pray that one of the nurses comes in soon.
“I didn’t know about the attack in New York. I didn’t know she was going to do that to you,” he says the words quickly.
“Okay,” I say. My pulse speeds up when he looks at me again.
“I’ve been watching her.” He looks around. “She’s been in town for a while now. I wanted to warn you. I tried to scare you into going back to New York, but instead you decided to stay here with that guy.”
“How did you try to scare me?”
“Broke into your apartment and left you notes.”
“The poetry?” I ask, just to clarify.
He nods, looking around again. “We need to leave soon.”
“No, you need to leave.”
“I can’t leave without you.”
“I think that you need help,” I say, as I see Kenton looking through the crack in the door.
“I love you. We were getting married.”
“Please just leave. I'm happy. Can’t you be happy for me?”
“Weren’t we happy?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Chris,” I say softly, “we were a lie that you and my mother cooked up. You were my first everything, and it was all a lie so you both could collect money that I didn’t even know I was going to receive.”
His eyes close like he’s in pain, his head tilts toward the ceiling. I watch out of the corner of my eye as Kenton steps into the room, gun drawn.
“I loved you though.”
“Love isn’t like that, Chris. I'm sorry. I hope you get help so that one day you will know what love is but that isn’t love.”
His eyes meet mine and I can see the sadness in them.
“I want you to put your hands on your head and turn around slowly,” Kenton says. Chris’s head swings in his direction. When he registers the gun in Chris’s hand, Kenton’s hands go to his head. Then his gaze comes back to me.
“I'm sorry.”
I nod my head and watch Kenton pull cuffs out of his pocket and attach them to Chris’s wrist.
“What the f**k?” Asher’s voice cracks through the room like thunder. He looks me over then takes a step towards Chris. Kenton blocks him.
“See to your girl,” Kenton says quietly. I can tell that he’s having a hard time not beating the crap out of someone. I think anyone would do for him right now after everything that happened yesterday. Me being in danger today is playing havoc with him.