I could barely feel my right leg; I could barely think straight against the throbbing pain in my ankle.
I was moving… No, I wasbeingmoved. Rushed, more like. There were noises around me, coming from every other direction. My head was hurting, and my throat was dry.
I felt a rush of warmth on my left hand, and then, all-too-familiar calluses brushed my skin. Those fingers I knew so well gripped mine.
“Rina…” I heard his voice, the ache and fear in it. “Rina…”
I tried to open my eyes, but failed, and then his touch was gone, and I felt so fucking empty without it.
I felt like I was drifting, gravitating.
And maybe I was, because I have no idea what was happening, or what happened next.
There was slumber, and there was pain. I chose the former and let it pull me under.
48. He Makes Her Happy
Someone placed a firm hand on my shoulder and shook me a little.
My eyelids fluttered seconds after I sensed the touch, and I yawned before opening my eyes and rubbing my hands over my face.
“Incoming,” Taron whispered a warning in my ear.
My attention went to the waiting room’s entrance, and I let go of a long breath when I saw Miguel and the others making their way over to me.
The few people in the room looked on in silence as Daniel and the crew all but crowded the otherwise vacant area.
“Where is she?” Miguel demanded.
I stood, feeling a little out of it despite the coffee Taron had forced me to drink a few minutes ago, and said to Miguel, “In the OR.”
He paled. “She’swhere?”
“Excuse me, sir,” the guy at the reception desk cut in. “Could you please keep it down a bit. You’re in a hospital.”
Miguel glared at him, then turned his icy gaze to me. “She’s beingoperated?”
I clenched my jaw and glanced at the others behind him. Daniel, Cruz, Ash, Dave, Remi, and Simran – they wereall present, and all six of them looked exactly how I felt: heartbroken and terrified.
“I’m talking toyou, boy,” Miguel hissed.
Paul and Greg walked into the room with steaming cups of coffee in their hands, but when they saw Miguel and the others, they muttered something about getting more coffee for everyone before heading back to the cafeteria downstairs.
I looked at Miguel, and felt my anger stir. “Yes, she’s being operated,” I finally said to him. “She broke a bone, so they had to perform an ORIF in order to mend it.”
“With whose consent?” he asked.
“Her own,” I told him curtly. “She signed the consent form a few minutes before they took her to the OR.”
A nurse had come in and given me a copy of it, signed by Rina and the surgeon who’d be performing the surgery on her, and had told me that Rina’s vitals were looking great, and that she was set to be out of the OR in under two hours.
“Bullshit,” Miguel hissed, then shoved me. “Liar!” His eyes shone with unshed tears as he stared me down.
I stumbled, but Taron caught me before I could fall.
“Miguel!” Daniel pulled him back. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Miguel pointed a finger at me. “He’s the reason things have gone downhill since the last few months.” He made to shove me again, but DanielandCruz held him back. “He’s the reason my Carina is hurt!”
