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“I can’t leave him. I can’t leave Tiero behind,” I whisper shout, garnering a few curious glances our way.
“Shh, Sunshine. They can’t know about this,” he whispers into my ear.
“I’m not leaving him, Ade. He needs me.” Even the notion!
“He might not make it.” Aiden speaks the words I don’t want to hear. “If that were to happen, we’d need to be prepared and act swiftly.”
I shake my head furiously.
No, no, no, no, no. Just no.
That’s not happening. It can’t. It won’t.
“Ella,” Claudette’s soft, understanding voice chimes in. “Tiero would want you and the baby safe. It’s why he took a bullet for you, to protect you and your unborn child—”
“He’d want me by his side,” I interrupt.
“He loves you as fiercely as I do.” It’s Aiden who speaks up this time. “And if I were him, I would most of all want you and my child out of harm’s way, safe and protected somewhere where I could find you after the storm passes.”
I shake my head and bury my face in his chest again.
No. I’m not leaving.
“Ella, please think this through. There’s no margin for error here,” Ade tries again.
Stubbornly, I shake my head, climbing off his lap.
“I’m not leaving him,” I whisper angrily.
How can he ask this of me?
“I’m going to the bathroom,” I announce.
Aiden and Claudette share a look, a silent exchange passing between them.
“I’ll come with you.” Claudette stands and walks to the sliding door with me. Roberto and Franco immediately jump up from their seats and flank me.
I hate having them follow me everywhere. All I want is some privacy.
The four of us walk in silence to the bathroom. In an all too familiar routine, Franco stops us from entering the ladies’ room and goes in first to check for any threats.
When he declares it safe, Claudette and I enter, leaving the two men guarding the door.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” Claudette says as soon as the door closes behind us, her face the most serious I’ve ever seen it.
There’s no trace of the jovial, teasing woman I’ve come to love. It stops me in my tracks, the stall handle cold in my hand.
“Do you remember me calling your name just before the first shot was fired?” I nod my head. The whole gruesome scene will forever be etched into my mind.
“Did you get a vision of what was going to happen?” I hadn’t considered this.
If that’s the case, Claudette saved my life. If she hadn’t called out, Tiero and I would have been just that tiny bit further away from the hospital and that bullet would have hit me instead of my plaster.
I blanch, a wave of dizziness hitting me. I step toward the hand basin to hold onto it.
“I had a vision. But it wasn’t about the shooting. To be honest, that took all of us by surprise. No, my vision was about the car you were about to drive off in.”
“What about it?”
