I can’t lose him—not when we’ve only just found one another.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
OLLY
Disorientated, unfamiliar voices echo around me. It takes a moment for my mind to catch up with me. I attempt to sit up in a rush, but I can’t move. I open my eyes and a stranger’s face appears in my line of vision. I reach up to my throat.
“It’s okay, it’s just a neck brace. You’re in an ambulance,” says the paramedic.
My body is strapped into a gurney. “Molly?”
“It’s okay, your little girl is fine.”
Mine.
The paramedic continues to ask me questions until we arrive at the hospital, and I’m rushed through to triage.
Everything is foggy, and I keep forgetting where I am when my mum comes crashing through the curtain, terror written all over her face.
“Mum, I’m fine,” I say, as she rushes towards me. I try to hold back a groan.
“No, you’re in pain. Are they giving you anything?”
My dad pulls her into him. “Lily, let him speak.” But worry is etched across his face, too.
“I can’t remember, but it’s getting worse, the pain. As long as Molly is okay.”
She covers her mouth with her hand, eyes filled with tears. “Rachel told us you saved her from an oncoming car. You both could’ve been killed.”
I wince, coming over nauseous. “I couldn’t do nothing,” I reply. The image of her frozen in the middle of the road will forever haunt me.
“Of course, not.”
I didn’t know if I’d get to her, but I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I hadn’t. The pain under my ribcage increases, and I let out a hiss between my clenched teeth.
“I’m getting someone.” She pushes past my dad and flies out through the curtain. When she returns, a nurse follows close behind her.
He comes around to the other side of the bed.
“Do you have localised pain?” he asks.
I nod. “Left side, under my ribcage.”
“Okay, let me go get the doctor.”
He rushes out, and when he returns with a doctor in tow, I’m asked more questions, but the pain increases and concentrating on them is becoming increasingly difficult.
“You might have some damage to your spleen.”
I hear my mum crying. I want to assure her I’ll be fine, but everything else happens too quickly, and I’m being prepped for emergency surgery.
The room is dim when I wake. It’s unfamiliar and smells of cleaning products, and it takes me a moment to take note of where I am—the hospital, hooked up to an intravenous drip.
I’m parched. I see the jug of water to my side and attempt to reach for it.
“Olly?” Rachel rushes in and fills the cup with water. “Careful,” she says, holding it to my lips.
I take a small sip and lean back against the pillow. I stare at her face, eyes swollen and red. “Are you okay?” I ask, lifting my hand towards her.
