AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Susan pats my knee. “She would be dead right now if it wasn’t for you, Cam. You saved her life. She is alive, she is breathing, and help is on the way.”
Clenching my teeth, I groan, and tears continue to stream down my face. Sirens wail in the distance, growing louder by the minute, and I do my best to calm my uneven breathing.
Lying down next to my Little Dove, I kiss her forehead and whisper, “I love you so much. Don’t leave me, Little Dove. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”
She is so strong and resilient. And funny. And beautiful. And everything I was scared of in life. I was scared to love because love was a constant risk of pain. But I didn’t stand a chance when she kissed me. I was already too far gone. Maybe deep down, I loved her even then.
The door opens, and cops and EMTs file in and begin asking a bunch of questions, all of which Susan answers for me. Telling them how Morgan’s ex showed up, how he must’ve fallen through the ice, too, and how he either never got out or ran for it.
They load Morgan onto a gurney and wheel her to the ambulance.
I follow them out, and a cop stops me.
“Sir, we’re going to need to speak with you. Can you tell us what happened here?”
Looking down at his worried stare, I say, “Ask me at the hospital or afterward. I’ll tell you everything. But my only concern right now is her.”
He nods. “We will meet you there.”
I hop into the ambulance, the doors are shut, and we pull away to the hospital.
I have felt fear a lot of times in my life. Every time I came home, every time my dad was mad, every time I made a mistake and knew what punishment was coming. When I came home and found my mom. I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t stop that monster from taking her life. But I could put him away by facing those fears and telling the cops everything he had done. By showing them my scars and fresh wounds and the whips he kept in the house. By being on display at the trial for the jury to see and feel pity for.
Fear has never felt as painful as the thought of losing her.
“Can you sit up for me?” the EMT asks, and I oblige. “I’m going to check you over. What happened to your head?”
“I got hit. I don’t know what hit me. I was out for a few minutes, I think,” I tell him as he shines a light in my eyes. “Can we do this later? Focus on her.”
“We can do this now or when we get to the hospital,” he states.
“Make it fast,” I tell her, grabbing Morgan’s hand.
He finishes looking me over and says I might have a concussion, and he gives me the rundown on concussion aftercare. I don’t remember a single word. I can’t think of anything other than Morgan.
I wish I could give her my warmth and give her the air in my lungs. I wish I could’ve taken Trey down. I hope he is lying dead in that water. If he’s alive and out there somewhere, I will hunt him down.
When we get to the hospital and they rush her inside, and I drag myself away from her and walk to the waiting room.
The cops walk in shortly after I take a seat in the waiting room, coming over to me immediately. They ask my name and my statement of what happened. I tell them everything. How Trey stalked her and broke into the library, knocked me out, clearly tried to kidnap her, and that I don’t know what happened after that. That I came to and found her and rushed her to Susan’s.
“We found three sets of footprints on the ice, but only two leading to the hole on the ice. With a thermal drone, we detected an abnormality in the water and will do a proper search of the water as soon as possible. What do you know about this ex? Name?” the cop asks.
That’s my girl. She did it. She won. Pride bursts across my skin like fireworks of happiness.
He’s dead and never coming back.
“I only know his first name. It’s Trey. I’m sorry. But her best friend might his last name. Chloe…” shit, what’s her last name? “Du-“
“Chloe DuPont?” the cops asks, clearly knowing exactly who Chloe is.
“Yeah. I don’t know his name. But I know he used to hurt her really bad, but she ended up getting away. She came here and was safe for a while. But he found her again,” I tell them as a mix of rage and relief floods me that this is finally over for her.
One of them steps away and makes a phone call out of earshot.
“We will need to get her statement as soon as she wakes up.” He hands me his card. “Call us when that happens.”
“You got it,” I tell him before he walks over to the other cop.
