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Five minutes later we’re pulling up outside the hospital, and from the minute the back doors of the ambulance were thrown open, it’s all a haze.
I remember telling the police what I know and giving them a description of the woman that has ruined everything. I remember when Tris and Harm turned up, yet I don’t remember calling them. And I remember every second of Amelia’s fall, not able to rid it out of my mind as I pace in the emergency waiting room, wishing I didn’t feel as helpless as I do right now.
“Please,” I grind out to the receptionist on the front desk.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t give out information to just anybody. Fam—”
“Family members only, I get it, but she’s my girlfriend for Christ’s sake!”
Her eyes widen at my raised voice and a hand lands on my shoulder, trying to calm me down. “Nate, I think you need to come and sit down.”
I turn angrily toward Tris. “And I think you need to stop trying to father me. All I want is to know if my girlfriend is still alive.” His eyes flash at the word girlfriend but his face softens as mine crumples. “I just watched her fall from a three-story-high railing. I deserve to know if she’s still breathing.”
A sob escapes me and my gaze falls on the receptionist who has a stoic expression on her face. “I really am sorry, but it’s policy.”
I turn away and let Tris steer me back to the seating area where Harm gives me a sad smile before standing up. “Let me see what I can do.”
She places her hand on my shoulder and gives it a small squeeze before kissing Tris and telling him she’ll be back soon.
Tris leans forward with his elbows on his knees, his stance matching mine. “How long have you been together?”
I scoff. “I don’t even know if that’s what you’d call it. The first few weeks were incredible, I realized she’d been in front of me this entire time and I’d not even noticed.” A sad smile graces my lips. “Sure we’d flirted countless times, but never anything serious. I guess until we’d crossed that barrier I hadn’t realized how much she lights up my life.”
“All of our lives,” he says quietly before adding, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sighing, I say, “She was worried we’d upset you.”
“Always thinking about everyone else but herself,” he comments, and I realize he’s right.
“That’s why she moved out.” I stand and pace in front of him. “The packages, this woman turning up; they can’t be a coincidence. I think she was putting us at arm’s length because she didn’t want to get us involved.”
“That would make sense.” He growls in frustration. “But it was a stupid idea.”
I nod my agreement. “If she’d have told us, we could’ve helped and this would’ve been over a long time ago.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “She wouldn’t be in surgery fighting for her life right now.” I slump down into a seat. “Remember a couple weeks back when I told you I couldn’t imagine what you went through at the hospital?” He nods, closing his eyes briefly. “I won’t say I know what and how you felt, but now I can’t only imagine, I’m experiencing my own brand of personal hell and pain.”
His muscles visibly vibrate as he clenches his hands and walks over to the front desk. “My friend needs some information on his girlfriend. Please, just give me a nod if she’s stable.”
I watch the commanding Tris come into play and she sighs. “Sir, I can’t do that.”
My vision turns hazy as tears stream down my cheeks, a raised gruff voice in the background paired with a familiar voice breaks through all the white noise, but I can’t seem to muster the strength to lift my head.
“Nathan, I presume?”
The tense tone of the voice has me raising my head slightly, seeing an older man with salt-and-pepper hair standing in front of me. He looks tired and angry, but I don’t concentrate on that, his strangely familiar eyes grabbing all of my attention.
I nod subtly and he stands up straighter. “I’ve been asked to tell you how my daughter is doing, but I don’t see why the hell I should when I have bigger things to think about.” A muscle ticks in his jaw.
It takes me a minute to process what he’s said before I’m standing up, wiping my cheeks and ridding them of the tears t
hat have settled there. “You’re Amelia’s dad?”
“Beth,” he grinds out. “Her name is Beth.”
My gaze flicks over to Tris before settling back on the man in front of me. “Not to us she’s not. She’s our Amelia.”
He scoffs, his eyes flashing with a warning. “She’s not your anything.”
I let his words settle between us before I sigh. “I’m not doing this right now, all I want to know is if she’s okay and I’ll stay out of your way.”
