I expect her to agree with my words and acknowledge my failure. It’s what I fucking deserve for letting her daughter almost die for me. But instead, she wraps her arms around me and gives me a tight, motherly hug.
Stunned that she could be so forgiving when I’m eaten away by remorse, I don’t move. How can she forgive me so easily? I failed her daughter. I fucking failed her.
The tears I’ve been struggling to hold back all surge into my eyes at once. Along with them, a sound that doesn’t even seem human rips out of me, half sob, half whimper. She could have died because of me. She almost did. I almost killed her.
I shatter in a way I haven’t in over twenty years. My whole body shakes uncontrollably as a mix of sorrow and guilt wrecks me. I don’t even realize when Maria Carmen comes to add her own embrace to her daughter’s. How can they forgive me? I don’t deserve it. They should kick me out of the room and demand that I never see their daughter ever again.
“Wh—what’s going on?” a small, broken voice asks.
Instantly, both women let go of me and turn to Andrea, whose face is scrunched with discomfort as she tries to sit up.
“Don’t move,pollito,” Isabella rushes to say, returning to her daughter’s side. Maria Carmen is with her, and Michael returns to the room to join them.
“Where am I?” Andrea croaks, her unfocused eyes looking around the room. I take a few steps back, bringing myself to a corner, away from her.
“You’re at the hospital, my baby,” her mom explains, passing a soothing hand over her forehead. “You were shot.”
Andrea’s confusion seems to worsen as she tries to recall what went on. “Lex… Where is he?” she asks, almost a whimper.
“I’m here,” I say, unmoving.
“Someone shot you.”
“Nonieta, you were the one who got shot,” Maria Carmen corrects her.
“But…” Andrea looks down at herself, at the bed, at her hospital gown. “Am I okay?”
“Yes, the doctors said you’ll be fine,” Michael answers. “I’ll go call someone. Let them know you’re awake.”
When Andrea tries to sit up again, her mother and abuela stop her. “Don’t move,corazón.”
“I’m thirsty.”
Earlier, the nurse left a cup and a straw on the table next to the bed, for when she’d wake up. Before I can point at it, Isabella grabs it and helps Andrea drink. “Slow,mi bebé. Take your time.”
She’s done drinking when Michael returns with a nurse. “Now that she’s awake, no more than two people in the room, please. She’ll exhaust herself otherwise,” the woman explains.
Michael and I nod, and I step toward the door to leave. “No,” Andrea protests. “I want Lex to stay.”
I look around at her family, feeling like shit for this. They should be with her, not me. They deserve it far more than I do.
“Mike and I will get coffees for everyone,” Maria Carmen offers, standing from the chair.
“The doctor has been warned,” the nurse explains once it’s only Isabella and me. “She’ll be here soon.”
She leaves us, and I let Isabella sit on the chair and grab her daughter’s hand again. “How are you feeling,pollito?”
“It doesn’t hurt as much anymore. What time is it?”
“A little after three in the morning.”
“You drove in the middle of the night for me?”
“Of course,mi corazón,” Isabella says, grazing her cheek with the back of her fingers.
“But Dad doesn’t see well at night, and—”
“Rafa drove.”
