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“No, wait.” I grab his shoulder to stop my only source of information from disappearing. “She’s my wife.”
His eyes widen. “Your wife?”
Oh wow, that was not the word I expected to pop out of my mouth. Fiancée. That’s a word that would have gotten me information. Probably. Okay, it doesn’t matter. Ivy will understand. We’ll set things straight later. Right now I just need to know, “How is my wife, doctor?”
“Uh…” He blinks and picks up the conversation so he must buy it. “I’m actually here for another patient. But if you’ll give me a few minutes I’ll try to get you an update.”
“Thanks.” I can barely keep the turmoil out of my voice. All I want is to demand he find out now. To hell with anyone else.
“Rogue.” Summer’s voice hits me from way over the other side of the room as the doctor talks to an older couple with matching desperation and worry on their faces.
By the time I turn around the pint-sized redhead is throwing her arms around my waist and clinging to me like I need to be held down.
If anything I feel like I’m carrying so much weight on my chest I could suffocate. I could sink into this pain and never come up. I grab onto her like she’s a life preserver. Collapse against her as my strength fades. My voice cracks while I answer the question she hasn’t even asked. “She’s in surgery. That’s all I know. They haven’t told me anything else. One of the doctors said he’d try to get me an update.”
She reaches up and takes my face between her hands. “She’s going to be okay, Rogue. I just know it.”
Rebel and Riot are right behind her. Rebel snarls at someone over the phone while Riot engulfs me. “How’s Love? What happened?”
“I don’t even...” How am I supposed to explain to them that Ivy hurt herself? That she was in so much pain that she couldn’t deal? I don’t even know what she was thinking. I can only make assumptions based on the girl that I know. And even then… “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“You should have called,” Rebel growls as he hangs up. “Or answered your damn phone. We shouldn’t have had to hear about this from a fucking news site.”
“Jesus, it’s news already?” I turn steel-jawed at the thought that some immoral asshole figured he could get ahead by using Ivy’s pain. Of course they fucking would, under normal circumstances. I just didn’t think it would be this soon. “Those fuckers. What are they saying?”
“It’s a whole lot of conjecture at this point,” Summer says. “They know who she is. And that she was transferred here by ambulance. Then there’s the usual question of substance abuse. Other than that…”
“They’re saying you hurt her.” The lines on my twin’s forehead couldn’t be any deeper. “They’re saying you found out she was Hawthorne’s sister and decided to take it out on her. They’re saying you two got into a fight after that video with the girl, and it escalated.”
“I would never hurt her,” I say.
“I fucking know that,” Rebel snaps back.
“We know that.” Summer draws my attention back to her with a calm hand to my jaw. “We’re on your side. We’re on Ivy’s side. We’ll put out an official statement. But you need to tell me what you know.”
All three of them wait for me to say something.
“She… I don’t know… she hurt herself…” I choke on the words. I’ve never met anyone who has fought their fears and insecurities as hard as Ivy has. It doesn’t make sense that she would throw it all away like this. “And all I can come up with is that it would never have happened if I hadn’t broken up with her. Because I would have been there for her. She would have been with me. Instead of feeling like she needed to do… this.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Summer says. “You had no way of knowing she might do this.”
That’s not true. She told me about her past. She was scared it would change things between us. She told me how lonely she had been after her dad’s death. How she’d been in so much pain that she didn’t think she could cope.
Did I push her back into that darkness? I rub at my chest. These past two days have hurt more than I thought was possible. How much worse must it have been for her?
“You didn’t cause this. She was fine when I saw…” Rebel’s eyes widen as he catches himself.
“You saw her?” Grabbing him by his jacket, I bare my teeth at him. I’m shaking again, but this time it’s with the edgy, twitchy need to hurl my fist into his face. “Of course you did. Because you’re fucking T-Swift.”
His jaw bulges, but his mouth stays firmly shut. It’s almost funny that he can remain silent considering he’s the one who pushed her to keep secrets from me. The one who had no qualms about throwing her to the wolf that is her brother and keeping that information from me. He might not have held the blade but he played a part in how we ended up here tonight.
“What are you going to do, huh?” Rebel stares me down, though he at least has the decency to look guilt ridden. “You wanna punch me? You wanna take some of that anger out on me?”
Fuck yes. That’s exactly what I want to do. I want to whale on him until he is as bloody as Ivy was when I found her. My grasp on his collar tightens as I shake him. “You were the reason she was keeping secrets from me. She probably felt like she had no choice, because of you. She kept quiet and I broke up with her and now we’re here.”
“You think I wanted this to happen? Because I didn’t. I was protecting you.”
“You weren’t protecting me. You were thinking about taking Hawthorne down. Ivy is just collateral damage. Admit it.”
