"Hey, hey," Mom coos, leaning over me and blocking out some of the bright lights. "Shh."
"Mom," I whimper as tears soak my cheeks. "They?—"
My voice won't function beyond a cringy croak, so she interrupts me. "I know, V. Cassidy told me."
Cassidy...I suck in a shuddering breath as guilt slams into me. I've ignored so many of her calls.I'm horrible.
"You aren't horrible," a deep voice on my other side declares. Twisting my head, I find Felix frowning down at me with so much emotion in his eyes. "You're hurt on too many levels. No fucking way areyouthe horrible one."
"He's right," Mom murmurs, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "Violet, what happened? Did someone hurt you?"
Yes. I don't say that because I know she's asking about the physical hurts. "No..." But I also really don't want to tell them what actually happened.
"Violet." Mama narrows her eyes at me, concern still prevalent.
Glancing around the room, I cringe when I see her other three men. Roman is the one I'm worried about. You'd think Felix would be the overprotective one—nope. Roman won't let me do anything ever again if he finds out I fell down a hill. I'm beginning to think it was actually a cliff, but no way am I going to say that word.
"I tripped on my hike," I relent and watch as Roman crosses his arms. My temples are throbbing, yet the vein peeking out from his dark hair seems to pound harder than my head.
"You have a grade one sprained ankle, bruised ribs, and a multitude of cuts and bruises fromtripping?" Roman deadpans.
I cringe and shuffle on the uncomfortable hospital bed while Mom scolds Roman for his bedside manner. Before they can cause a four-way argument, I relent. "I fell down a steep hill..."
Roman curses as do the other three men in the room, but I turn to my mom. "When can I leave?"
Just as she opens her mouth to answer me, the door opens, and a female doctor walks in with a soft smile. "Hello, Ms. Bennett," the woman greets.
I'll never not love hearing people say my name like that. Blue adopted me within a few months after hearing that my biological mother,Linda, had passed away. Blue was already my mom, but when she approached me on my twenty-first birthday and asked if we could make our bond official, I saidyes please!
"Hi," I whisper, palms sweating with anxiety.How long have I been here?Confusion swamps me with the lack of knowledge I have; still, my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. I just want to go home.
The doctor's face softens, and she introduces herself. It was easy to ignore how much I hate hospitals after what happened to my mom when I was scared to tell Roman I fell down a cliff. But now, faced with the kind older woman who holds my charts in one hand, I'm scared.
"I'll submit your discharge paperwork shortly, Ms. Bennett. For the next two weeks, you will need to rest your ankle and your ribs. Compression on both, along with painkillers, will help. Ice will be your best friend as well."
She hands my mom a packet of instructions, but I'm more focused on controlling my breathing. As they discuss the importance of rest and keeping activity light, I wonder if this is a blessing or a curse.
Four
NATE
“We're getting close." My statement in the car's silence feels sharp and laced with possibility. Ellis doesn't respond or even tilt his head to look at me. He just sits there, head resting against the window, eyes hardly blinking.
Jamie's red taillights ahead of us should be my main focus, but fucking hell, Ellis is worrying me. He's barely said a word in the past three and a half hours since we got on the road.
"Ellis," I rumble, and reach a hand out to touch his thigh. He doesn't pull away from me, thank fuck, but he also doesn't seem to notice my touch. I'm not sure what would be worse, actually.
I allow him some more silence with only the low hum of the radio to fill the inside of the car. The music isn't helping to keep my racing thoughts at bay. I'm trying not to wonder what Violet is thinking. There's our betrayal and what might have happened to her before we ruined everything.
Is she okay? Hurt?
We know that she wasn't running from us at the beginning, but she is now. I just really fucking hope she's bolting with her body intact, even if we've broken her heart.
I can't stop stressing over the possibility that she was hurt while we were thinking the worst of her. God damn it, I was so mad for a few hours when I thought she was ghosting us again.
Trauma has a fucked up way of showing up at the worst times. I should have given her the benefit of the doubt and talked Ellis off the edge. Then there's the fact that I wish Ellis' issues didn't loosen his lips and shatter his filter.
Wefucked up, plain and simple.
