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“You’ve got eight stitches,” I told her and leaned forward, grabbing her hand and pulling it back down to her side when she went to reach for them again, maybe to check to see if I was telling the truth. “Leave them alone.” I grabbed the glass of water from the table beside her bed and handed it to her.
“Thanks,” she rasped, licking her lips and raising the glass to her mouth slowly, taking a few large gulps before handing it back. “How long have you been here?” she finally questioned, the plastic hospital pillows rustling under her head as she laid back.
“Few hours,” I answered with a shrug. “Why don’t you have any emergency contacts?”
I’d found Valen’s full name so they could look her up in their system. There was a record from a couple of years ago when she’d come in for an injury, but even after the nurses had made a few phone calls, there was no sign of anyone listed as the person to call if something happened.
Not that I would have left if there had been.
She pinched her eyes closed and cursed softly. “I don’t have a lot of friends and little to no family.”
“Dad?” I questioned.
“Dead.”
“Mom?”
“Dead to me.” She laughed, her head falling to the side, so she was looking at me. “Pretty sad existence, right?”
“Sometimes it’s better to have a small circle of people around you,” I said, clasping my hands together and cracking my knuckles—a bad habit I resorted to when I was uncomfortable. “When I was younger, people looked at me differently. But as I began to work hard and climb in the business world, those same people wanted to walk back into my life like they hadn’t walked out when I was worth nothing.”
She pressed her lips together for a second, and I could practically see the cogs turning in her mind as if she was carefully choosing the words she wanted to speak.
“I, um…” she started before letting out a heavy sigh. “I had the opposite problem. I grew up with money. Then when shit hit the fan, and I lost everything… no one stepped up to help me because I didn’t have anything to offer them anymore.”
“How’d you lose everything?”
She swallowed hard, turning her gaze away from me again, directing it at the ceiling as she whispered, “I chose to fight instead of follow.”
I wasn’t sure why that simple explanation had this fury building beneath my skin. It’d taken one interaction for me to realize that this woman was worth so much fucking more than anyone had given her credit for. She had the perfect mixture of sweetness and strength—both I couldn’t help but admire, especially now I was learning about what made Valen, Valen.
“Sometimes that’s the only way,” I assured her, reaching up and pinching her chin so I could force her to turn to look at me. “When we fight, we risk losing the people around us. But if we don’t fight, we risk losing ourselves.”
She held my gaze, her eyes glassy as she took a long, deep breath.
She heard me.
My words were sinking in.
And so they should.
Because they were coming from someone who knew exactly how she was feeling, I’d been there. I knew what it was like to stand up and fight for something every other person was telling you was wrong, but we knew was right.
You have to make a decision.
And then you have to live with it.
“You know, you’ve done your civic duty by coming by the hospital with me, but you can go if you want to,” Valen urged, forcing a smile. “I’ll be fi—”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Good,” Valen’s doctor announced as she stepped through the small gap in the curtains. “Valen, I’m Dr. Holloway. It’s so good to see you awake and alert. You’ve been in and out since the ambulance brought you in.”
“I have?” Valen questioned, her brow pinched.
Dr. Holloway nodded with a gentle smile. “I’m going to have some tests done, but I suspect you have a concussion. Which is pretty lucky considering how hard you hit that table.”
“I’m burning this dress the moment I get the chance,” Valen grumbled, and I chuckled softly under my breath. “When can I go…” She paused before she could say home because it didn’t exist.
