One of his hands reached out toward me, his entire arm shaking with the effort. I took it, holding his hand in mine. “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you.”
“Don’t let go.”
“Never. I’m never letting you go.” I kissed his knuckles, letting a stray tear fall down my cheek.
The door behind me creaked open, footsteps approaching the bed. “Oh, good, you’re awake.” A nurse stepped up to Elio’s other side, her smile bright and cheery. How could she look so happy when our worlds had just been ripped apart? “I’m just going to get some vitals. Is that okay, Elio?”
He looked at me, then looked back at her before nodding.
“Awesome. I’ll make it quick. But I do have a couple of policemen who were wanting to talk to you if you were awake.”
I let go of his hand. “He just woke up. Is there not another time they can do this?”
“It’s okay, honey.” God, I hated hearing him sound so tired. “I’d like to get it over with as soon as possible, honestly.”
The nurse nodded, noting down his vitals. “Sounds good. I’ll let them in.”
Sighing, I looked up at Elio’s face. There wasn’t as much blood there anymore, but he had bandages everywhere. It reminded me too much of the night he’d come home to me. I remembered cleaning and wrapping all of his wounds as they healed, terrified they’d get infected.
“I love you, Cres.”
“I love you, El. I’m so sorry.”
“There isn’t a single thing you should be sorry about, honey. Not a single thing.” He shook his head, looking around.
I stood from the chair beside his bed, grabbing the cup of water with a straw nearby. Placing it against his lips, I helped him drink it slowly. He must’ve been so thirsty.
There was a knock at the door, but they didn’t wait to come in. Two men in uniforms walked inside, letting the door close behind them.
One of them had a notepad. “I’m Officer Hans, and this is Officer Blake. We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions about tonight.”
Elio nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Tell us everything from the beginning, if you could.”
And he did. I thought seeing the aftermath was bad. No, Elio and Moon had been through fucking hell and back.
When he got to the part with Sarah’s involvement, down to her death, I had to stand up. “What do you mean? What do you mean she was helping him?”
Officer Hans stepped near me, one of his hands out. “Hold on, I know this is a lot of information, but?—”
“No, okay—tonight has been hell. I am not going to sit down, or calm down, or any of that shit. If you were in my situation, you’d be doing the same thing.”
“Honey, just sit down. Hold my hand.” Elio held his hand back out to me, beckoning me toward him. “Please.”
I huffed, but I did as he’d asked. I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t ignore him. So, I sat my ass back down and grabbed his hand, trying to focus on not crushing it from the pure fucking confusion and anger swirling in my mind.
After clearing his throat, Officer Blake spoke. “So, when Moon came in, Jude was hitting you?”
“Yeah, and Sarah was watching. Helping him. She tried to pry Moon off him, and that’s when he shoved her.”
“And Jude called her ‘baby’?”
“Yeah. I don’t know what that means, but I think she was in on it. I mean, it really seemed like it. Moon was just trying to protect me.”
I was gnashing my molars together, trying to soothe the fire rising in my gut. That fuckingbitch.Both of them. But Sarah? I thought she was our friend. I thought she was someone special. I thought we’d have a long, lasting friendship for years and years to come. She’d been there for us—through all of it.
At the diner, the night Elio had gotten her to call me, when Elio needed a ride to therapy, when he needed— “Holy fuck. Sarah was there from the beginning.”
