“What happened? Is my sister okay?” I cried.
I could tell that Tate was a little uncomfortable by the way he kept looking at me, but once he saw that I could care less about anything other than my sister, he seemed to loosen up.
“It’s not good. How far along is your sister in her pregnancy?”
“Almost eight months… why, what happened?” I asked again. Looking past him in front of the shop, I happened to look down and saw a puddle of blood. “I keep asking, and you ain’t tellin’ me what happened to my sister!” I screamed.
“Ava, baby, you gotta calm down,” Kevin soothed.
“She was stabbed in the stomach and chest cavity,” Tate said with a very solemn look on his face. By the way he was looking at me, I could tell that it wasn’t good. Instantly, I got weak in the knees.
Kevin had to catch me as I stumbled almost falling to my face. “I wanna see her! Can I see my sister?”
“We really need to get going and get her to the hospital A.S.A.P.,” Tate responded.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, breaking down crying again. “That crazy bitch Monica did this shit! I can’t believe she stabbed my pregnant sister!” I continued to cry.
“I’ll let the police cruiser that’s going to escort us to the hospital let you follow us.”
“Come on, Ava, let’s go get in the truck so they can leave. They need to get Dawn to the hospital right away. Come on so we can follow them,” Kevin said, taking me by the hand, leading me to his truck.
One of the police officers wanted me to stay behind to answer questions because he overheard me say that I was on the phone when it happened, accusing Monica of doing the stabbing. But I refused. As much as I wanted to help them get that bitch, I needed to get to the hospital. I told them that I would answer all questions after I got to the hospital. Opening the passenger’s side door for me then shutting it after I got in, Kevin jumped in the driver’s seat then quickly pulled behind the ambulance. As we followed them to the hospital, he called Troy on his Bluetooth.
I zoned out as I heard Kevin tell Troy that Monica stabbed Dawn. While he was on the phone with Troy, they both wanted me to tell them what I heard while I was on the phone with Dawn. I told them I heard Monica confront Dawn when she got out of her car then tussling and screaming before Monica said, “Now what, bitch! Now what!”
Her voice kept repeating itself, over and over again in my head. “Now what, bitch! Now what!” I knew at that point my sister was seriously injured because she wasn’t even responding, and that wasn’t like her.
As we pulled up to the hospital, I prayed to God that she and the baby were both going to make it and be okay. My heart couldn’t take losing either one of them. Dawn was all I had family wise. There was no way I could picture my life withouther in it. After parking, we ran into the emergency room and announced who we were. Not even five minutes later, Troy came barging through the door looking like the Tasmanian devil.
“Where is she!” he roared.
Kevin tried to calm him down, but it was to no avail. But when Troy noticed me, he gave me a hug then started to calm down a little. Kevin explained to him what we knew so far, and he asked me to repeat to him what I heard over the phone again. As we were talking, two police officers pulled us into a private family room inside the waiting area. They let the nurse know where we were in case the doctors that were working on Dawn came looking for us with an update.
While we were in the room, I went over everything I heard including the part when Dawn yelled out Monica’s name more than once, and Monica responded to it. What was also going to help confirm my story was Dawn had CCTV cameras that actually worked at her shop. There was a camera that was pointing directly at her and Monica during the attack. Thank God for that! Without the security footage, it would have been my word against Monica’s. The video matched my story to a tee.
Once Troy provided the office with a couple more pictures of Monica, he told them that they had better find her before he did. I could tell by the look on his face and tone of his voice that he was serious. The officers left with the promise of having more than enough evidence to arrest her while the three of us impatiently waited for an update on Dawn.
As we sat inside the room in silence there was a small knock on the door. I felt like my heart stopped, skipping a few beats before starting back up again. When Kevin opened the door, it was Tate.
Stepping into the room, the tension was high. Especially once Kevin and Troy recognized him as the guy that was with Justin the night he and Kevin got into a brawl.
Clearing his throat, Tate spoke first, “I get that it’s a bit awkward. I’m not here to start any trouble. I just wanted you to know that we provided the highest level of care to your sister while she was en route to the hospital. I felt I owed you the respect to come and personally tell you that although her situation is very serious, she has a great chance of pulling through. It was a blessing that we got to her when we did, and that is all because of you. You saved your sister’s life today, Ava. Thank God you were on the phone with her when the attack took place.”
Standing there looking at Tate, I couldn’t do anything but respect him for giving me an update. That was something he didn’t have to do.
“Thanks, Tate. I appreciate that,” I responded.
“For your sake, you better hope nothing happens to my girl, boy!” Troy snapped, looking at Tate like he was the scum of the earth.
“Calm down, T, this isn’t the place for all of that. We gotta be chill,” Kevin interjected, “Unless you wanna get put out this motherfucker, you know you can’t act the fool up in here. If you get put out of here, how you gon’ be here for Dawn?” Kevin reasoned as Troy mean=mugged Tate.
“I’ll be sure to remind the nurse to send the doctor to this family room once they are out of surgery. Take care, Ava,” Tate said then turned to leave.
“The nerve of that motherfucker!” Troy spat. “That’s ol’ boy that’s with your ex dude! He better pray to God that nothing happens to Dawn. Talkin’ about they provided her with the highest quality of care. Why the fuck wouldn’t he have? He gave his word, so she better be straight!” Troy snapped.
Grabbing his phone from his back pocket, he answered then went off again. “What the fuck did you do? What the hell where you thinking, Monica?” he continued to snap.
I could hear Monica yelling into the phone, but it was hard to make out what she was saying clearly.
