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I don’t even have to think. “I’m her fiancé.”
“Yeah, he totally is. They’re getting married any day now.”
I want to snap at Bianca that she’s not helping, but I know her heart is in the right place.
The nurse eyes me like she’s not sure I’m telling the truth, but in the end it looks like she figures letting me through is easier than arguing with me. She’s not wrong.
“I’ll buzz you in. Go all the way down the hallway and make a right at the end. She’s in room 147. You can sit in the waiting area outside until the doctor comes to give you her status.”
Without hesitation, I push through the door and can vaguely hear Bianca go right back to arguing with the stern gatekeeper. “You know that means she’s about to be my stepmom. I should be able to see my stepmom.” I don’t have the capacity to think aboutthatat the moment, so I just follow the instructions given to me until I’m standing outside Violet’s room. The door is closed, and though I want to barge in, I take a seat like I was told so that the doctor can find me.
If I’m being completely honest with myself, I’m scared at what I’m going to find behind that door. I sit in the uncomfortable plastic chair, put my hands together and pray. I’m not sure I’ve prayed since I was a child, but if ever there was a time to start back up, it’s now.
“Dante Moreno?” I look up expecting to find the doctor but instead, there’s a man who looks vaguely familiar in front of me in slacks and a polo shirt, the front of which is covered in blood. “You’ll have to excuse the appearance. I haven’t had time to change.”
I just nod my head and wonder who he is. “Sorry, I’m Detective Carson Turner. I live next door to Bianca and Violet.”
I stand and shake his hand. So that’s where I recognize him from. I decide not to remind him he caught me sitting in my truck outside the girls’ house that one night if he doesn’t already remember. “Bianca said you saved Violet. I can’t thank you enough.”
“I’m just glad that I was there, and Bianca had the wherewithal to come get me instead of going in on her own.” If the situation wasn’t so serious, I would have laughed at that. It’s something that Bianca absolutely would do.
I sit back down and he follows me, sitting in the chair across from my own. “Can you tell me what happened? I didn’t get much out of Bianca. I only know that Violet got attacked at home.”
He pulls out a little notepad from his back pocket and reads over what are presumably his notes. “It looks like the assailant was a Tyler Crosson. Do either you or Violet know him?”
It takes a second, but the name clicks. “Yeah, he is, well was, in one of her classes at school. She’s known him for years. They went out on a couple dates a few months ago, but she ended it. She told me he was still texting her, but it was stupid stuff like asking her out to dinner when she’d already told him she wasn’t interested.”
“Actually, it looks like it was a bit more than that.” He pulls out a plastic evidence bag holding Violet’s phone and shows me a couple of texts. At first, all I can see are the specs of blood on the casing of the phone, but it isn’t long before I’m concentrating on the words on the screen. Sure, there are the harmless texts that Violet was talking about, but they’re interspersed with other, far more aggressive texts. They’re calling her names, telling her she’s a whore and a slut. Saying that she’ll be sorry for leading him on.
“She never told me.” My voice sounds strange to my own ears. Why wouldn’t she tell me this?
“Don’t beat yourself up. She probably thought it wasn’t a big deal, that he would just go away. Most of the time, they do.”
“But not this time,” I whisper.
“No, not this time. We ran his name, and it turns out Violet isn’t the only female that’s caught his eye over the past few years. He already has two restraining orders taken out on him for stalking, and at least three other women have complained directly to the university. That’s what I’ve found out in only the past hour. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out more. But it looks like Violet is the first one that he’s actually attacked.”
I don’t want to ask the next question because I’m afraid of the answer, but I need to. “Did—did he rape her?”
Carson shakes his head. “No, I don’t believe so. When I found them, she was passed out on the floor of her bedroom still fully clothed, and it looked like he was trying to wake her up. He wanted her to see what he was going to do.”
I’m both relieved and sickened at how close she came to being violated by that monster. I put my head in my hands and take a deep breath.
“I have to tell you, Mr. Moreno, you’ve got a strong girl there. It looks like she took a piece of glass and slashed the hell out of his calf and Achilles tendon even though it tore up her hand pretty good. She really slowed him down with that. It gave her enough time for Bianca to come home and run to get me.”
I thank him again, and he rises out of his chair, about to leave, when I stop him with one last question. “What happened to him?”
He shakes his head and gives a little shrug. “Once he saw me enter the room, he came running at me with a knife he’d brought with him, so I had to take the shot. He died on the way to the hospital. An officer will be by later to take a statement from Violet, but the whole thing’s pretty cut and dry. And since the assailant is deceased, she won’t have to go through a trial.”
I let out a sigh of relief, and before I can thank him again, he’s already headed back down the hallway.
I can’t stop myself from imagining what happened in that house over and over again. What if we never had that fight? I could have been with her. What if I’d gone over there earlier? He wouldn’t have had a chance to get at her. All the what-ifs won’t leave me alone.
I don’t know how long it is before I see a doctor go into Violet’s room. I literally sit on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to come out and speak to me. Just when I’m about to say fuck it and barge in there, he exits and calls out “Violet Daniels?” I look around, and there’s nobody else sitting in the hall, so I don’t know why he’s calling her name out like there’s a bunch of us here.
I get up from the chair and rush over to him. “I’m Dante Moreno, her fiancé.” Every time I say it, it feels right, and I swear that if she’s okay, I’m going to make it true.
“I’m Dr. Prinz, the head of emergency medicine here.” I shake his hand.
