It took all my restraint to keep my hands to myself. I had spent the last couple of weeks with her, and though she had been in a coma the entire time, I felt like I knew her based on the things Waverleigh shared and spending time with her.
I shared things with Sevyn that I hadn’t told another soul, things I would have only shared with Lena: my fears, my anger, my dreams, and my wrongs.
“You might not think that you have a reason to wake up, but there are some people on this side cheering for you. Not the least of which are Waverleigh and me. Nurses Tasha, Bethany, Kayla, Vivienne, Hannah, and Monica, and Doctors Kim, Cruz, and Davenport are all cheering for you. You’ve got a team of physical therapists in place waiting for you as well. Tamara, Joel, and Elaine have all been in here on numerous occasions. They’re the ones who taught me how to do these exercises with you,” Iexplained as I pushed her left leg up toward her, using the heel of her foot.
I had curated a playlist for her with the music Waverleigh said she liked: Solemn, Jovi Noelle, and Chris Perry. It played in the background while I exercised her. I often played the playlist while I sat here beside her.
I performed those exercises on both legs for five minutes before I stopped and massaged her feet. Although only family should have been allowed up here to visit her, I knew the hospital administrator, the head nurse, Tasha, and a couple of doctors before Sevyn’s accident. They were comfortable enough to allow me in here.
I knew they thought that spending time with Sevyn might heal me from losing Lena, because most of them knew her, too, but that wasn’t why I was here. I wasn’t looking for healing, because I didn’t deserve it.
A part of me wanted to assuage my guilt for causing the accident. If Sevyn died, I would be even more devastated. It wasn’t just because that would have been a third death that I caused, but the more time I spent with her, the more attached to her I became. I was vested in seeing her survive this thing and recover whole.
The doctors were adamant that if she woke up, she would survive. In the two weeks that she had been here, she had seven surgeries, only two of which were major, including the first one when she was brought in. With each of those surgeries, she had minimal scarring and was healing from them nicely.
They just needed her to wake up to assess the extent of her mental and psychological damage. I knew this woman had a long, challenging road to recovery, but I hoped that she made it. I knew it wouldn’t be easy the moment she recalled that she lost her husband and grandmother on the same day. The doctors had brought her out of the coma one day, but I hadn’t been here.When given the devastating news about her husband, she began to seize. They eventually made the difficult decision to place her back into a coma.
The doctors worried that her memories might not be completely intact when she first woke up. When they did come back, she might experience the pain and trauma of loss all over again. That part tore me up, because I never meant to cause anyone that much pain. I simply had been devastated by my own loss, Lena and our son, and was heading home.
I hadn’t wanted to be bothered with anyone, hearing their condolences, or sharing stories about what Lena meant to them. I had only wanted to escape it all, but in the midst of my grief, I hadn’t cared about anything or anyone else, except Sevyn.
The way that I saw it, the least that I could do was stand by this woman’s side to see her through her recovery. She had no one else except for her best friend, and I had taken the one other person she had away. While I had initially planned to walk away as soon as she woke up, once I met her callous brother-in-law and saw what she had to deal with, I committed myself to sticking around a little longer. It was the least she deserved and not even part of what I owed her.
“Waverleigh tells me that you only had your grandmother and husband. Sometimes, I wish my circle was that small. Unfortunately, I’m usually surrounded by people. If not at the police department with my sisters and brothers in uniform, then definitely at home among my family.
“I’m the middle child of three. I have an older brother, Asad. He’s three years older than me, and he’s married to Varasia. They have seven children: Adam, Hana, Omar, Amina, Faiza, Aisha, and Yusuf. They range in age from eighteen to two. I used to be jealous of his relationship with her. I wanted that for myself, not as many children, though.
“Then I have my baby sister, Amani, who is five years younger than me. She’s married to Daniel, and they have Malik, Amir, and Khadijah. The twins are six, and the baby, Khadijah, is eight months.
“Now that’s just in my immediate family. I have a large group of aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family. I’m the only one who doesn’t have any kids right now. Honestly, I doubt I’ll ever have kids. Lena, that’s the girl I’ve been telling you about, she was pregnant with my son. We were going to name him Rohan Emir. Rohan means spiritual, and Emir means prince or ruler.”
I moved to the other side and massaged her foot. “We were so excited about our little one, despite the circumstances surrounding his conception. Or rather, I should say our relationship. I don't believe in cheating or affairs. In fact, women have approached me, knowing they were involved with someone else. I’ve turned them down. But it was different with Lena and me.
“We had been partners for three years, and she was as close to me as my best friend. Blake’s been my best friend since we were five, so you can imagine how that is. But she was like that to me on the force and, eventually, outside of there too. We literally trusted each other with our lives and shared everything.”
I sighed and moved up to exercise her arm. “She didn’t trust me with everything at first, although I thought she did. But then Lena started behaving out of character, being jumpy and overly sensitive about everything. She was more guarded, and it was clear that something was going on. Eventually, she could no longer hide the fact that she was in an abusive relationship.
“I became more than her confidant; I became her protector, her advisor, and eventually her lover. I wasn’t supposed to lose her and our son. They were my future. Now I have no future andno one or nothing that gives me hope but you. You’re still young enough to build a life and?—”
Sevyn’s fingers flexed in my hand, and I rested her hand on the bed to see if it was something that I did or if it was natural. When they did it again while I wasn’t touching her, and her eyelids fluttered, I immediately pressed the button for the nurse’s station.
No one answered, because they were rushing through the doors within seconds. “Officer Fullwood, please step into the hallway,” one of the nurses demanded.
“What’s going on?” I asked any one of the three nurses and two doctors that were in the room.
“She’s having a seizure, and we need to get her under control again,” Nurse Bethany explained.
I nodded and backed out of the door that she held open for me. My eyes remained glued to the window, watching as they moved expertly and quickly around her bed, working on her.
“Excuse me, what’s going on in there?”
I looked up and spotted a light brown-skinned woman who wore her hair in soft curls that framed her face. A thin nose that was the result of surgery hovered above full, pouty lips that turned down in a frown. Thick eyebrows that arched at the end highlighted long, curly eyelashes and hazel eyes.
The woman was elegantly dressed, and if the pearls at her neck and in her ears were any indication, she was a woman of class and wealth. Not only did her jewelry highlight that fact, but so did the elegant clothing and shoes she wore.
“She started seizing, and they had to work on her,” I explained, turning my gaze back to the window of the door.
“And who are you?”
