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His face crumbles before he’s able to pull it back together. He peers around her to gaze over me and Shay instantly steps across blocking his view. “Please, Shay,” he begs. “Please, just let me know she’s alright and then I swear, I’ll leave, just tell me she’ll be okay.”
Shay drops her gaze, not wanting to look at her husband a second longer. She glances back over her shoulder and meets my eyes, but we’re both too emotionally exhausted for any messages to pass between us. “Physically, she’ll be fine. A week in the hospital and some TLC then she’ll be back home where she belongs. Emotionally…I don’t know. I’m assuming she’s going to be pretty traumatized for a while.”
Ben nods and the strain begins to seep out of his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispers, keeping his stare on his wife for a moment too long before turning it back on me. “I’m glad you’re alright, Sky.”
I nod, not wanting to waste precious oxygen on the man who paved the path to hell for my parents.
Seeing the pained expression on my face, Shay steps forward, demanding her husband’s attention. “I think you should go. She’s not ready for this. Neither of us are.”
Ben doesn’t take his eyes off Shay and I see the desire and longing deep in his eyes. There’s regret, self-hate, and an apology ready to fly but he holds it back, knowing it will fall on deaf ears.
Ben turns to the door with a heavy sigh but as he goes to walk away, he turns back and catches my eyes. “You’ve got to know how sorry I am,” he tells me. “I know you hate me right now, believe me, I’ve hated myself for thirteen long years, but I am here for you. Anything you need.”
With that, he steps over the threshold and disappears, leaving Shay and I in silence, both of us not even close to being ready to deal with the Ben bomb.
Shay takes a deep breath and tries to gain control of her emotions before turning back to me with a fake as fuck smile. “Fucking men,” she groans in a rare show of fiery language. “Are you alright?”
I nod. “Fine,” I lie.
She sees right through me and comes to sit back by my side, instantly scooping her hands into mine. “I’m sorry, honey. If I knew he was going to come barging in here like that, I would have tried to stop him.”
“It’s alright. You can’t be mad at the guy for caring.”
“No,” she sighs. “I guess I can’t.”
She gives me a tight smile before resting back in her chair. “You’re going to be alright,” she promises me, though it’s almost as though she’s trying to convince herself. “I don’t know how, but I just do, okay. Lucien Valentine is not going to get away with this, not on my watch. I promise you, Sky, we’re going to fix this. I don’t want you ever running scared again, not in my house.”
I squeeze her hand, silently thanking her for her support but knowing that when it comes to Lucien Valentine, there’s not a lot she can do. She’s just one woman and he’s the devil.
Wanting to focus on getting better, she calls for the doctor and the second he steps into my room, she blasts him with question upon question of how I’m supposed to recover from all of this. He checks all my vitals while he’s in here and as he walks back out with a happier Shay by my side, Blake comes tearing through, wide-eyed and panicked.
“WHAT THE FUCK, SKY? I came as soon as I heard.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I demand, grabbing Shay’s phone from beside her hand on the bed, not caring how this is going to set my throat back a few hours. I glance at the time. “It’s after three in the afternoon. Where the hell have you been? I thought something had happened to you.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, rushing into the room and hovering over the other side of my bed, tearing the blanket off me to get a good look. “What happened? Please tell me Slade was just fucking with me? You did not get shot.”
“You think I would make that shit up?” Slade demands, walking in behind Blake and meeting my eyes, making something settle within me.
“I…I…FUCK. I don’t even know what to say.”
Shay grunts. “You can start with where you were all night.”
His eyes continue traveling over my body but keep coming back to the stitched gash on my forehead and the bandages wrapped around my thigh. “I was at home,” he practically cries. “I bailed from the party early and crashed. I was exhausted from the game so I turned my phone off.”
“You’re kidding?” Shay questions, looking horrified.
Blake ignores her comments. “I’m so sorry, Sky. I swear I’ll never turn my phone off ever again.” His hands go to his temples and he instantly starts pacing up and down the length of my bed. Two strides up, two strides down. “This was Lucien, wasn’t it? He hurt you…again.”
