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“Nico?” I said as I lifted the cell back to my ear, and prayed he was still there. I felt better to have his voice with me.
“I’m here, sweetheart. I’ll be with you in a few minutes. How’s Willow?”
“In pain and cold. How could I let this happen?” My teeth were chattering, and my body was trembling from the mix of adrenaline and the cold.
“Don’t do that, Maddie. None of this is on you. You got her out. She’s going to be okay,” he told me.
I buried my face into Willow’s hair and silently cried as I fell apart. How had I made such a huge fucking mess of not only my life, but my daughters and my unborn child’s too? I was so stupid!
I panicked when headlights lit up the park from the road a few minutes later, sure it would be Edward coming after us, but Nico was quick to call out to me, assuring me it was him as he ran towards us.
“Hey cutie,” Nico greeted Willow as he crouched down before us and caught her attention. “You gonna come and get in my nice warm car?” he offered.
“I gots a bad owie, Nic Nic,” she told him as she tried to show him her arm then flinched and cried out in pain.
“Keep it nice and still, okay, princess? We’ll get you to the doctor and they can fix it up for you in a fancy cast.”
“And mommy too? Daddy hurted her and she’s sad,” Willow told him as she looked up at me where I was fighting to keep it together.
“And mommy too. I’m going to take care of both of you, okay?”
“Promise?” Willow pushed.
“I promise, cutie,” Nico agreed.
“Good,” Willow sniffled.
“Can you stand, sweetheart?” Nico asked as he carefully took Willow from me and cradled her against his chest in one arm.
“Yeah,” I assured him. “I’m okay.” He offered a hand, which I gratefully accepted and I was relieved when he pulled me to my feet and tucked me against his side, helping me across the park and to his car.
Once Willow and I were buckled into the back seat together, Nico jumped up front and started for the city.
“I’m bringing you to the private clinic, okay Maddie? I figure no one will think to look for you there,” Nico said as he made eye contact with me in the rear view mirror. I understood what he wasn’t saying for Willow’s sake. Edward or his father were likely to come looking for us when they realized we were gone, and the private clinic Milite favored, on the other side of the city, would buy us a little time.
“Thank you,” I whispered. I had no idea how I was going to pay for the treatment we both needed, but that could be a concern for another day. “Can you…will you make sure my next paycheck doesn’t get paid to my account, Nico. I…I’m going to need that money,” I admitted.
“You don’t have access to your bank account?” Nico asked, clearly shocked.
“No,” I shook my head tiredly. “I don’t have anything.”
“It’s going to be okay, Maddie. We’ll take care of you both. You’re not going back to him,” Nico told me firmly.
I didn’t say anything else as we drove through the city. My mind was overrun by the image of Edward throwing our daughter into that wall, playing over and over again. I hated myself so damned much for allowing it to happen. It was all my fault, no matter what anyone told me. If I’d just have found the guts to leave the bastard this would never have happened. I would never ever forgive myself for this.
I couldn’t stop my thoughts from straying to Hunter too. Seeing him that night was messing with my mind. ‘What if’ scenarios were playing in my head. What if they hadn’t have abandoned me? What if I’d gone to live with them when I turned eighteen? What if I still had them in my corner as I did for the time that I knew them? What if they had loved and cared for me all of these years? What if I hadn’t been so very alone in the world? Maybe I’d never have met Edward at all.
But they did abandon me. They broke me, and because of how messed up and alone I had felt as a result, I had made some seriously fucked up life choices along the way. It had to stop. I had to get it together. I was a mother, with a daughter who needed me and another baby on the way. I had to stop fucking up and get this shit right. I would not subject my children to a childhood as messed up as my own. It couldn’t happen that way.
CHAPTER 3
MADDIE
Three hours later, Willow was finally asleep, tucked up with Mr. Roar in a bed beside me, in a private room at the clinic Nico had brought us to.
Her arm was broken, but the doctor had been able to reset the bones without surgery and place a plaster cast around it which she would need to keep on for the next six weeks. Nico had been great at staying with her and entertaining her to keep her distracted as she was treated.
Meanwhile I had been for an ultrasound to check the baby was still doing okay, and had my own arm encased in a brace. It wasn’t broken – just a nasty sprain, thankfully. Otherwise I just had some bruising around my ribs and down my back. It was painful, but the doctor had assured me it would heal with some rest and icing. I had cried when the on call obstetrician assured me the baby was still doing just fine inside of me, so relieved to hear it.
