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“Hey. Hey. Hang on.” Riot grabs me by the back of my jacket and tries to drag me back.
Summer inserts herself between me and my twin. Brave woman. Both hands pressed into my chest, she pushes at me. “We’re not going to do this now. Emotions are running high. Ivy wouldn’t want you getting yourself kicked out of the freaking hospital. She’ll want you here when she wakes up. She’ll need you.”
I go slack. Ivy is my only priority.
“You good, bro?” Riot asks.
I shrug him off and snarl at Rebel. “We’re not done with this.”
“I know,” he says.
“If she isn’t okay, I will never forgive you.” It’s not a threat. It’s a promise that I plan to keep with every cell in my body.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep, pained breath. He’s aware I can hold a grudge. That I mean it. He’s subdued when he speaks. “I know.”
“Is there anything you need?” Summer says. “While we’re waiting?”
“Uh, yeah.” I’m exhausted. Running on adrenaline and fumes. “Caffeine would be good.”
“Mr. Maddox?”
“Yes.” I turn my back on my brother to talk to the approaching doctor. He’s the same doctor that had ordered me to stay out when they took Ivy into the operating room. His expression is unreadable. My world grows fuzzy around the edges. “Ivy? Is she okay?”
“Your wife is out of surgery. It went as well as we could have hoped for,” he says, and I almost stumble as the tension leaves my body.
“Wi—” Summer squeals, probably courtesy of Rebel finding an inventive way to stop her from asking the question that must be on all their minds.
Riot squeezes my shoulder. “Thank God.”
“So she’s going to be okay.” Rebel’s voice grows lighter.
“She’ll most likely have some nerve damage,” Doc adds. “Her physical recovery will take some time. And she’ll need physiotherapy to regain full use of her wrists and hands. As for the rest… we’ve taken blood, requested a toxicology report. We won’t get those results back for twenty-four hours.”
I nod intently, but none of it matters. So what if we’ll have work to do to get back to some version of normal. As long as she’s alive.
“I want to see her.” I won’t be truly relieved until I rest my eyes on her.
“That’s not how this works,” the doctor says. “As soon as she wakes up from surgery she’ll be assessed by a psychiatrist and admitted to psyche and then you’ll have to wait seventy-two hours.”
I clamp a hand on the man’s shoulder and lean in. “I want to see her before she goes to psyche. What do you need from me to make that happen?”
Chapter Three
Ivy
Thatwasthemostintense sleep of my life. I blink a couple times as I open my eyes, getting used to the light in the room. I never sleep in the dark. I can’t stand not being able to see where I am.
But I… I don’t recognize this room. Or this bed that I’m lying in, with a sheet tucked up to my chin. It’s not my bed. A machine beeps somewhere close by. Where am I? H-how did I get here?
“Thank God, you’re awake.”
I jump at the unexpected voice. My heart starts beating so fast it feels like it could fly straight out of my chest. The man sitting next to the bed… he is beautiful. I must be dreaming. “Oh my God, you’re cute.”
“It’s okay now.” He brushes my hair away from my face with careful hands and an uncertain smile. Both tremble with every move he makes. “You’re okay. You’re going to be fine. You’ll see.”
“I know I am. Have you seen your face? It’s, like, so pretty. Wow.”
“Ivy, baby, do you know where you are?”
