She okay?
Me
I just told Cole I didn’t fucking know.
Haruto
Eva might put up with your evasive bullshit, but I won’t. What the fuck happened?
I stared at my phone, unable to answer. How could I explain how we’d gotten here?
Me
She’s out of surgery.
That’s all I know.
Rory
When can we see her?
Me
I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything else.
Every minute of waiting stretched like an hour while I drowned in what we’d done. I kept seeing her face in that locker room, the way she’d looked at us like we were monsters.
What had we been thinking?
Exhaustion hit me hard as I waited, but I didn’t dare fall asleep—not when I was waiting for news of Eva, not when guilt racked me as hard as my determination to make this right, to apologize, to convince her to give me another chance.
I didn’t deserve one.
But she deserved everything, and I was determined to give it to her.
After what felt like hours later but was only twenty minutes. Mr. Jackson pushed back through the double doors.
I sprang to my feet, scanning his face. “How is she?”
His expression had changed. He was colder, more guarded than earlier. “She’ll recover,” he said slowly, “but she doesn’t want to see you.”
The words gutted me. “Is she really okay?” I whispered, embarrassed at how raspy my voice was, unable to hide my worry.
He studied me for a long moment. “Surgery went well. She’s awake and talking. She’ll need to stay here a few days for monitoring then take it easy for a couple weeks.”
I pulled out my phone, fingers trembling as I created a group chat.
Me
Putting everyone in one chat so I don’t have to do this fifteen times.
She’s stable, awake, spoke to her father.
She’ll stay up here a few days for monitoring then return to Yorkfield.
Doesn’t want visitors.
I don’t have any other information, so don’t ask.
