AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m glad to see you’re awake, Bridget.” He cleared his throat. “Your sisters are on planes on their way here.”
Maybe I should have made the same deal that he made with Stephen. Only call my family if I’m not going to expire. Maybe not even then, because they shouldn’t be dragging small children to hospitals.
Still, he kept talking. His steady eyes seemed tired, but his face remained a mask. I struggled to keep up, although my groggy head was rapidly clearing. “This is terrible timing, and I’m sorry for that, but I see no point in beating a dead horse. Aren’t you sick of hospitals? I am. Since I answered your call for help, I’ve been shot, Stephen’s been shot, and you’ve been poisoned. My business has gone to hell. I think it’s obvious that being around you is the worst possible decision I could ever make. You’re just impossible to keep secure.”
What?I managed to sit up, despite the dizziness.
“So, I took the time to re-evaluate our situation. To reconsider things. That was your idea, remember? You said I should reconsider things. I decided on the treadmill today, before the cupcake fiasco, but it did prove a point. You’re just too much for me. I can’t take one more moment of you almost getting killed. I’ve told Zeke to hire someone else and he will. You’re bad luck for me, Bridget. When I’m with you, I’m a bad security agent. Maybe you’re bad luck to everyone? I know I obsessed over you for years, so it doesn’t make sense. But it’s like, the second I correlated the data, I wasn’t able to love you anymore. Roy will stay with you until Zeke and Max get here, then he’ll go. You can forget all of this ever happened. I have to ask though, how stupid did you have to be to eat that cupcake?Whencould I have gotten it? I thought you were smart, but it turns out you might be the stupidest woman in the world. I’m sorry. I’m just…done.”
My throat hurt so much, I could barely speak. He couldn’t mean it. It had to be a dream.He’d never speak to me like this. Not ever. Not my Michael. “Michael…”
If he heard me, he made no indication. He walked from the room without a glance back.
It physically hurt to cry, but I wept. I sobbed and I wailed. I knew it would happen. I pulled my blankets to my face and I sobbed until I was dry, until the nurses had to come in and beg me to stop. Until I gagged from it. Still, I couldn’t stop. They put something in my IV, but it only made my sobs more like hiccups.
“Your sisters are almost here, so I’m going to go,” Roy whispered. “I’m so sorry, Bridget. I didn’t know he could be this cruel.”
I needed to know something. I caught Roy’s arm, pulling him closer. Michael told me how he behaved when someone he cared about was in the hospital—he didn’t go away from them for very long. “Did he leave the hospital?” I asked.
“Yes.” He nodded. “Hours ago.”
It’s really over.Whatever sliver of hope lived in me died in that moment. He told me. He always stayed near the hospital when someone he cared about was inside.
I released Roy’s arm. “He’s probably right. I am bad luck. For all of you.” When he would have spoken, I shook my head. “Just go, okay? Thank you for everything. Be safe.” Michael only wanted me when he couldn’t have me? Once I admitted I loved him, he decided I was bad luck, and he didn’t want me around. I should have expected it, and I wasn’t sure if I felt more heartbroken, disappointed, or resigned.
Roy hesitated for a moment and then turned to leave. The world seemed colder than it ever had before.
I closed my eyes. The sedative finally hit me. My sisters were almost there. I could figure out how to survive another time. For right now, I wasn’t sure I wanted to, so I would float and pretend that waking up to Michael Li leaving me was a nightmare. Not something he would ever really do.
He’d reconsidered things.I am too much. He’s right.
* * *
I proppedmy feet up on the bench nearby and watched Zeke run through his vineyards while his children shrieked and chased him. One of them toddled more than ran, but the idea was the same. Hope sat next to me, so pregnant she would soon have to return to Maine to wait out the remainder of her term. But she’d stayed with me as long as she could. Her girls were inside napping. Layla drew at the table across from Hope, creating her latest label design.
They were terrified, which I understood. Not because of some danger coming for them, but because I was so lost to them, they didn’t know how to reach me anymore. A month had passed, and I didn’t really have anything to say. They offered to find me therapists, hypnotherapists, and even some woman who would heal me by banging on a drum? I politely declined all their offers, even if the last one sort of intrigued me.
My stomach hurt all the time, and the doctors frowned when I told them. There wasn’t much we could do but watch what I ate and give it time. There wasn’t a playbook for what would happen to me, because they didn’t know exactly what poison I had ingested. Just a lot ofthey weren’t sure.
I turned to my sisters. “For the first week, I thought he’d come back.”
They both turned to me. Relief appeared on Layla’s face, but Hope was still hidden in her thoughts. It was the first time I said anything about it. They knew he left me, of course, but we never talked about what he said, because I could barely speak about it without feeling like I was choking.
But it was time to try.
“Maybe you know that feeling, Hopey.” I nodded, thinking about it. I bet she did. “Or maybe not. Michael changed your name and all that, so it wasn’t like Max could just show up, but I thought for a while he might. Like, he just had a nervous breakdown, and he’d come back when he came to his senses. He would tell me he didn’t mean it, not any of it. The next week, I assumed he wouldn’t, and that wasworse. The things he said to me—they hurt so much, because he knew just how to hurt me. I told him everything, gave him all the parts of me. But since I gave them all to him, I need new parts now.” I sniffed. “Obviously, I also need security, since someone fucking tried to kill me. Again. Can Zeke find me someone? Not that Sylvie woman, but someone to follow me around. I don’t want Michael’s people near me. Not that they would because I’m…never mind. I can’t say it yet. Can we do that?”
Hope took my hand. “You want to go back to Hong Kong?”
“No, that was hiding. I’m done with that. That girl…the one he could throw away? She’s fucking gone. It’s time to figure out who I am without him, which will be hard, because he’s been part of my life since I was a teenager.” I took a long breath, but it didn’t wobble and I didn’t break down in sobs. “I’m going back to New York. I ran from there because of Dad and because I hated being the girl next door. That’s where I’m going. Tomorrow.”
15
“Ithink this will suit nicely for what you want to do,” Zeke said, giving his approval as we walked around the space I planned to rent. Not that I’d asked him for his opinion—Layla had—but I hadn’t objected to his input. My father only managed to get as far as he did because of Zeke, who remained a smart businessman with an eye for things that would sell.
I wanted women to come through my door and feel comfortable talking to me about money. Well, me and whoever else I would eventually hire. I intended this office to be a starter location. We would only grow from the initial space, I was sure of it.
The business aspect should be reasonably simple, after all, since I went to college for literally that reason. But the people part—that would likely prove to be difficult for me. One-on-one, I’d probably be fine. Overall marketing in the scope I planned to reach? I was glad for his input.
