“Save your strength, angel. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“Jesse, I—” Her breath came out as a wheeze. “I love you.”
Vivian closed her eyes and didn’t open them again. I shook her again to jolt her back into a conscious state, but it didn’t work. My pulse spiked.
“Vivian? Come on, angel. Wake up.Wake up!” Hot, angry tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t lose her. Not like this. I couldn’t stand the thought of Vivian dying in my arms.
I didn’t even get to tell her that I loved her, too.
Chapter 35
Vivian
Iwas only partially aware that I’d been drifting in and out of consciousness. It all felt like a dream. Snippets of conversation held in low, concerned murmurs. Bright lights overhead. The beeping of heart rate monitors and the whir of various other equipment. The smell of latex and the calm blue of nurses’ scrubs.
It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. Days. Weeks. Months. In the end, it didn’t matter. The second I thought I was alert enough to return and face reality, I was hit with an almost euphoric level of relaxation. It was probably the medication, but I wasn’t ever awake long enough to piece together what was going on around me.
I didn’t dream of anything while I was under, though I did occasionally hear a voice. Sometimes it would talk to me. Sometimes it would talk to someone else. It was low and soothing. Familiar in its richness and lilt. While I wasn’t aware enough to comprehend anything, I did get the sense that the voice belonged to someone who cared about me. I could tell through their tone, always gentle with an edge of protectiveness.
When I finally managed to summon the strength to wake up, it was morning. The sun was out and shining, rays of warm light streaming in through the sheer white curtains. The scent of antiseptic and plastic filled my nose. It wasn’t unpleasant, just different. The soft voice over a PA speaker down the hall alerted me to the fact that this wasn’t home, but a hospital.
And God was it a fancy place.
This wasn’t some cramped, dark, understaffed inpatient wing. This was a private room, the kind that only super important people or celebrities could afford so they didn’t have to recover from their ailments with a simple curtain separating them from the next patient. Cream walls and freshly cut flowers in tall vases and a big flat screen TV mounted opposite me for entertainment were clear signs of the private institution.
I knew for a fact that my health insurance through Blue Cloud Financial would never cover a place like this.
No, I knew exactly who to thank for this private room. The man in question was sitting right next to me, holding my hand like a lifeline.
Jesse was asleep in the guest chair next to my hospital bed, folded over with his head resting against his forearms. His dark stubble was growing in, and I thought he looked rather dashing. I contemplated waking him up, but the dark circles beneath his eyes were a good indicator that he needed the extra Z’s.
I turned on the TV instead and quickly turned the volume to its lowest possible setting so as to not disturb him. The first channel to pop up was the local news, big red borders and fast-moving headline ticker sweeping across the bottom of the frame. I was about to click away to find something more relaxing —maybe one of those boring documentaries Jesse liked because they were growing on me— when video footage of Alistair McCloud flashed across the screen.
“The investigation continues into Blue Cloud Financial’s illicit activities,” the anchorwoman explained. “This comes just a week after the arrest of the investment firm’s Chief Financial Officer, Alistair McCloud, who has alleged ties to organized crime and gang-related activity. Police raided several locations suspected of being the operational hotspots of the Azure Cartel and have made several major arrests of head members. McCloud is expected to appear in front of a judge later this week. If found guilty, he could serve several life sentences behind bars.”
I was hypnotized by everything I was seeing. It was strange, but I hoped the courts didn’t treat him too harshly. Even though I thought what he did was reprehensible, hedidkeep the cartel from killing Molly. It was proof enough to me that he wasn’t all bad. Maybe that was naive of me, but it was the truth.
I shifted in bed, my muscles sore and my skin tight. The bedsheets were starchy and stiff. Uncomfortable. As I readjusted my position in bed, I noticed the tightness in my abdomen. I laid my free hand onto my stomach to inspect. I could feel the stitches, the taught bandage. And that was when it hit me.
“The baby,” I blurted, freaked out. Everything happened so fast. I didn’t remember much about the attack, only that I’d been hit while trying to save Jesse. What if something happened to the baby?
Just as I was starting to hyperventilate, Jesse awoke. He stood immediately and grasped me firmly by the shoulders, likely to keep me from hurting myself. He spoke softly, “Everything’s fine, angel. The babies are fine. The cut was long, but not deep.”
“Babies?” I echoed.
The smile that broke out across Jesse’s face was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Pure joy and elation. Excitement. Bone-deep devotion and love.
“Yes, angel. We’re having twins.”
I finally took a much-needed breath. “Twins… Do we know what they are yet? Or is it to early? I’ve never done this before.”
Jesse chuckled. “It’s too early to tell. All the doctors could tell from the ultrasound was that there are two of them and they’re both doing well.” He reached behind him to retrieve a small slip of paper, a sonogram by the looks of it. “Here.”
I squinted at the image. “I have no idea what I’m looking at.”
Jesse pointed to two little dots near the center. “That’s one, and this is the other.”
Giddiness erupted within me, happy tears welling up in my eyes. “Oh my God, they’re so tiny!”