Do you have the information or not?
Gavin
Yeah, I got it. I’m emailing it over now. Just don’t overreact, Atlas.
That made my stomach sink to my feet. If he was telling me this before I even saw the files, then it must be bad.Gavin has never warned me like this before. I download the zip file and start undoing the encryption right away. Each second feels like an hour as I watch the loading bar go from zero percent to one hundred. The images on my screen are like a punch to the gut.
She looks so broken and tiny in that hospital bed. Her eye is swollen with several deep purple bruises on her face, her leg is in a cast, and her arm is in a splint. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat knowing I could’ve stopped all of this from happening. I dig deeper into the medical files. They mention her blood alcohol level could’ve been the only reason she survived the crash.
Each file I click through only makes it worse.
Several x-rays, each showing a different broken bone. Fractured ribs and arm, a hair line fracture in her orbital bone. It seems like her leg got the worse of it. Her ankle had to be reconstructed with surgery, as well as a broken fibula. The next image I see is a copy of her CT scan. It shows slight swelling and a brain bleed. My poor girl, she didn’t deserve to go through all this trauma.
I keep flipping through more medical files. There are pages mentioning the doctors deciding to put her in a medically induced coma until they got the bleeding and swelling under control. The more I read, the more my guilt built. I pushed her away and caused this. She doesn’t remember me because I wasn’t man enough to love her like she needed me to.
I read every single page Gavin sent over. I stop when I come to a page mentioning possible amnesia. From what I read, she woke up from the coma not remembering the wreck or anything related to arriving at the hospital. The doctor notes that they thought it was best not to tell her all the details in case the memory loss was her body’s way of protecting her from reliving it.
The doctor also stated based on his evaluation compared to the MRI and CAT scans, it doesn’t seem like there’s any physical reason for her not to remember and that the patient mentioned missing six months to a year’s worth of memories. That the memories could come back on their own or not at all. It also stated that telling her what happened could trigger a panic attack or psychotic break.
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
What the hell am I supposed to do? I don’t want to make this worse for her. That doesn’t leave me much choice. I can’t live without her so I’ll earn her back the hard way.
Chapter 15
Emily
Trevor left this morning so I can finally stop worrying about trying to ditch him. I still haven’t talked to Atlas much, so when my text notification goes off, I expect it to be Brooke from work or Trevor complaining about something. When I see Atlas’ name on my phone, I freeze. Is this where he tells me to leave him alone? I take a deep breath and open the text thread anyway.
Atlas
What do I have to say to convince you to go out with me again?
After all the surface-level bullshit that was few and far between, this is the first thing he says to me? What is hisangle?
Emily
Nothing. I’m not interested.
Atlas
Anything you want, I’ll make it happen.
Emily
You would have to chase me in
the woods and catch me first.
Atlas
Done.
Emily
What? I was joking. I didn’t think you’d agree to it. I literally said the first thing I thought you would say no to.
Atlas
