You’re Everything I Need: A Forbidden Romance

by Ford, Mia

  “Hello?” he sounds a little confused. Or maybe tired. “Lexi?”

  “Hi, Cooper, sorry I’ve just realized how early it is. But I want to say thank you.”

  “Thank you? Why, what for?”

  “These delicious chocolates. I’m just eating them now and they are really nice.”

  “Chocolates? I didn’t send you any chocolates.”

  “Oh.” My blood runs ice cold. If it wasn’t my friends and it wasn’t him, then who was it? “Oops.”

  “You got sent some chocolates, did you? Do you think you might have a secret admirer?”

  Is it just me or does he sound jealous at that idea? It makes me want to run with it. “I don’t know.”

  “Hmm, it sounds to me like you do. Do you think it might be Adam?”

  “Urgh, no surely not? I hope not! But then he doesn’t know where I live so it can’t be.”

  “I don’t know who it could be then. That’s very strange.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t you? You aren’t just winding me up, are you?”

  “I promise you that I’m not. I probably should have sent you chocolates. I wish I had now, I keep thinking that I need to do something to celebrate our newfound friendship.”

  I smile to myself, making a note to tell Flora that she was at least a little bit right in her assumptions. It might not have happened, but he did have the intention to do so.

  “Oh well, sorry I called you so early in the morning for no reason then. My mistake.”

  “That’s okay, I don’t mind being disturbed by you.”

  Oh no, that’s too close to the wire. My heart clutches tight in my chest, I press my hand to my stomach, a deep sickness swirls in me. I can’t stand the flirting, it makes everything so difficult to bear. I squeeze my eyes shut.

  Although… what the fuck is going on? This is weird, it’s even harder than normal this time. My head spins violently, I don’t know what’s going on. This isn’t just hurt anymore, this is something else, something deeper.

  “I… I…”

  “Are you okay, Lexi? You don’t sound like yourself?”

  “I don’t…” I’m whispering. I can’t get any words out. Something has tightened inside of me and I can’t claw it back. Normality has completely evaded me. “I don’t know.”

  My vision blurs. I blink a million times but I can’t quite see. I stand upwards, knocking the chocolates to the ground accidently, and I stagger across the room. I need water and lots of it. I’m so dehydrated, it’s horrible.

  “I need water…” I rasp out. “I don’t feel good.”

  “What do you think it is? Are you sick? Do you need anything?”

  “No, not sick. It’s just a funny moment, that’s all. I’ll be fine.” I shake my head, but I can’t get my thoughts straight. “I think once I’ve… I’ve had a drink… I will be fine.”

  I press the phone to my ear with my shoulder and grab a glass. My shaky fingers can’t grasp it and it smashes to the ground. I mutter out a string of expletives as I reach for another one.

  “Lexi, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m coming over.”

  “No, you don’t need to worry.” The water splashes everywhere. I don’t know how much I get into the glass. “I’m okay. I’ll be fine. I just need a drink and then I will be… I’ll be…”

  “I’m going to sort out a babysitter and I’ll be there. Caroline can probably do it.”

  “No, Cooper.” The words feel impossible to get out now. “I’m fine.”

  But I’m not. That’s becoming increasingly obvious by the moment, I don’t know what’s happening to me, but it isn’t right. I really do feel ill now, I can barely see a damn thing and my head is pounding, the dribble of water that I’ve had to drink hasn’t helped at all. I’m actually a little scared.

  “I might just… just call my friends. It will be okay.” Krysten and Flora. That’s who I need right now. People who really love me and know me at my worst. Not Cooper. It’s hard enough there. “They will… they’ll take care of me. I will be okay… I will be fine.”

  Everything pin holes, a blackness overshadows my vision. I can hear Cooper still talking to me, but his words have taken on a wah, wah, wah quality. I stagger backwards, hitting something, knocking myself hard. The hot pain radiates throughout my whole body, shaking me to the core. Somethings falls to the ground with a clatter, probably my cell phone, but there isn’t anything I can do about that now.

  I need air. That’s my main priority right now. I need to breathe.

  I suck back but it isn’t enough. My throat is closing over, I’m slowly losing myself. The more my lungs squeeze tight, the more panic coil through me, which of course makes oxygen even harder to get in.

  Help me, I want to scream, but I don’t know how to. Help me, I need help now.

  I regret telling Cooper that I don’t need him because I do. I need him so badly. If I could see I’d pick up my phone and call him back, beg him never to leave me again.

  Cooper, I want you, I need you, this is a mess.

  It has to be the chocolates. Everything was fine before then. Something about the chocolates is bad news. But it’s too late now. I’ve eaten most of them, they’re gone. Inside of me doing whatever the hell they are designed to. And that’s the last thought that goes through my mind as my body gives up completely. My muscles shut down and I slump to the ground, probably in all the glass. The blackness comes for me entirely then. It swoops over me and completely shuts my brain off.

  Whoever the hell did this to me… they’ve won.

  21

  Cooper

  “Lexi!” I scream into the phone, trying to get her attention back. “Lexi, what’s going on?”

  Something is wrong, she sounds really weird and now… now I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what I can do but I absolutely have to help her. I can’t leave right away, not until Caroline comes along, but I need to make sure someone is there. Unfortunately, I don’t really know any of her friends. I know she talks to Sally, but I don’t think it’s enough for her to go around there. Plus, deep in my gut, I know it’s bad.

  “Fuck!” I hang up to Lexi, even though she’s gone anyway, and I call 911. I reel off the situation to the woman on the phone, insisting that she needs an ambulance, and she agrees to send one. It takes me a while because I don’t honestly know what’s happened, but the terror in my voice must be enough. Thank goodness.

  Once I’m reassured that’s going to happen, I call Caroline, praying that she will be available. I don’t ever normally ask her about her weekend plans so she could have lots going on for all I know.

  Still, I have to try. There aren’t many people I trust to look after Aubrey.

  “Hello…”

  “Caroline, I need you,” I gush out before she can finish her greeting. “I’m sorry, I know this is a lot to ask because it’s your day off and you probably have lots of stuff going on, but it’s an emergency.”

  “You’re in luck. I don’t actually have anything on today.”

  “Oh, thank goodness.” Relief floods me. “That’s amazing news. You have no idea how much I appreciate this. I’ll pay you triple the normal amount. I just need some time to get to the hospital.”

  “Why? What happened? It isn’t something to do with you, is it?”

  “No, no, just my…” Guilt crushes me as I say this next word. “Friend. She’s sick. She needs the doctor.”

  “Oh, no, I’m sorry. That sounds terrible. Okay, well I will get to you as quick as I can.”

  “Thank you, Caroline. You have no idea how much this means.”

  Once I hang up the phone, I pace up and down, wondering what’s going on. Luckily, at the moment, Aubrey is quite happy playing with her toys and watching the TV. I didn’t exactly have plans for us today anyway, so I’m sure she will be better off with Caroline. Especially with this going on. I wouldn’t be any fun. Even now, the idea of Lexi sick on her own, lying across her apartment all by herself
, is horrible. I can’t stand it. She sounded like she couldn’t breathe, like she was really struggling - it was awful. I can barely contain myself.

  After what happened with Nora, I guess I’m even more paranoid. I have so much dread being away from the people that I care about, particularly when it seems like something explosive is happening.

  Time ticks by much too slowly. It’s almost agonizing, but thankfully, Caroline turns up before I can really lose my head. She rushes in quickly with promises to do all kinds of fun things with Aubrey so she barely even notices when I run out the door. This is why I love Caroline, she’s so good for my girl.

  I hop into the car and speed off, driving much too quickly towards Lexi’s home. I’m barely even thinking about the possibility of being pulled over by the cops as I go, I’m laser-focused on finally finding the truth.

  “The best-case scenario,” I mutter to myself as I zoom on, trying to give myself a little boost of positivity, “is that nothing has happened and I’ve overreacted about everything. Lexi will be fine and we will have a good laugh about it. Everything will be fine. She will think I’m an idiot, but I can hack that!”

  There’s a worst-case scenario but I don’t want to think about that!

  I pull up outside Lexi’s home, but there’s no sign of an ambulance. That worries me, I hope they’ve been here already. But I need to check to be sure. I race to her door and bang my fist against it, hammering hard. I even press my ear to the door but there doesn’t seem to be any noise inside…

  “Are you looking for the red-haired woman who lives there?” I spin to see an elderly woman staring curiously at me. I nod silently. “The paramedics picked her up earlier. She wasn’t in a good way.”

  “Oh, so she’s gone to the hospital already. That’s good news.”

  “It isn’t good news. She’s sick.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I was on the phone with her when she got sick so I called the ambulance…” All of a sudden, I realize that I’m pointlessly explaining myself to this woman. “I have to go anyway.”

  “I hope that she’s okay,” she calls after me. “Send her my love.”

  I wave my hand behind me, hoping that’s enough. I need to urgently get into my car. I have to get to Lexi quickly to find out more. This isn’t the best-case scenario, but it’s not the worst either. I have to admit, I was a little scared that I would find her dead. I know it’s extreme but I just can’t help it. What with Nora and everything.

  Now, what I need to do is get my head in check so I don’t act like a fool when I get there.

  I drive again, trying to keep at a more reasonable speed so I don’t get pulled over. Now that I know she’s being looked after I don’t have to be such a demon. I can use this time to get myself in order. I breathe deep as I drive and consciously slow my heart rate down. Lexi will need me to be fully in control.

  I walk purposefully through the doors to the hospital, straightening out my clothes as I go. I head to the reception desk and lean over to speak to the woman sitting behind there.

  “I’m looking for Lexi. She was brought in here not so long ago.”

  “Okay, well I will need more information than that. Lexi…? Do you have a surname?”

  Shit. I don’t know her surname. I don’t know anything about my employees like that. I leave all of that to the HR department. Maybe it’s the same as Nora’s. I know the women in their family don’t change their names when they get married. There’s a chance she might be of the same name. I really have to try.

  “Headley. She was sick, I don’t know what happened. They went to pick her up…”

  I reel off her address hoping that will lead them to who I’m talking about, and thankfully, her eyes light up. “Oh right, okay. Well I can’t tell you anything right now.” My heart sinks so low I nearly lose my freaking mind. “You’ll have to take a seat in the waiting room, but someone will come to see you.”

  “But I need to know now, I’m really worried about her. I’m the one who called the ambulance.”

  “We can only give information to family. I’m sorry, I know that must be disappointing to you…”

  Shit. Now this is pretty messed up, but right now I need to use the connection I have to my advantage.

  “Actually, I am family. I’m her cousin.” I gulp down guiltily. “So, you can tell me whatever.”

  “You are?” She doesn’t look like she trusts me.

  “Through marriage. I have a child and I’m married to her cousin. My name is Cooper Ventry.”

  It’s a bit cringey to use this, but I have to. I don’t think Nora would mind anyway. Anything to take care of Lexi. Right now, I just want to be sure that she’s okay. Even if that means really embarrassingly using my name.

  “The family have asked me to check in because I could get here first. As soon as I have something I’ll ring them.” I hold out my cell phone as if that’s my intention. It probably is, but for now I’m just saying what I need to. “They are waiting for me to call and I just don’t want them to start endlessly ringing you.”

  This woman looks harassed. I’m sure the idea of getting a string of phone calls is what sways her. “Okay.”

  She puts in a call to someone. I can’t hear what she’s saying but I hope it’s getting me through. While I wait, I wonder if the right thing to do would be to call her family. But then there will already be millions of questions about why the hell I’m here for someone who, to most of them, is only my employee. I don’t want to add more to it by phoning before I have the full information. I hope I’m doing the right thing anyway.

  “Right, if you can go and sit in the waiting room the doctor will come soon.”

  I do as she commands, but I don’t sit. I already know that I can’t be still. My legs are restless, I feel itchy all over, I don’t like this at all. If someone doesn’t come soon I’m going to start yelling.

  “Are you Mr. Ventry?” Finally, someone comes for me. “Can you come with me?”

  I follow him into a room with my hands all shaking as I do. He takes me to a private room and closes the door behind him. This to me doesn’t spell good news which really freaks me out.

  “What’s going on? Is Lexi okay? Can I see her?”

  “She is currently stable, but right now, she’s having her stomach pumped, so you can’t see her right now..”

  “Pumped? Why? She wasn’t drunk, was she? That only happens when people are drunk.”

  “It’s actually used in all kinds of operations when there are things in the stomach that shouldn’t be there. I can’t say anything too certain at the moment, but it seems like she’s been poisoned.”

  Poisoned? The world spins and the foundation beneath my feet falls away. “Really?”

  “Like I said, I can’t say for sure, but early tests indicate small traces of arsenic.”

  “The chocolates,” I gush back in shock. “It has to be the chocolates.”

  “What do you mean?” He jumps on this, needing as much information as possible. “What chocolates?”

  “She was on the phone with me, like I told the operator when I called for an ambulance, and she was talking about a mysterious parcel of chocolates that came through the post. She thought they were from me, but they weren’t. She didn’t know where they came from. That’s when she got sick.”

  “Right… okay.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Well, I think this is going to involve the police. I’m going to have to give them a call because if it is poison it will involve an investigation.”

  “An investigation.” Of course. I should have known this would happen. “Right.”

  “So, any information you can give them will be excellent.”

  I nod slowly, all of a sudden realizing how little I know about Lexi. They will ask me all about who might have done this to her and I honestly won’t have any idea.

  “Okay, well I think I’m going to give her family… the rest of her family, a call to get them here too because then we can help th
em as much as they need. I’m sure they will want everyone.”

  “Right, okay. Well, I will leave you to it. Right now, she is stable but being worked on. When something changes I will let you know. For now, you can stay in here, and the rest of the family when they arrive.”

  Well, now I have a whole load of awkward phone calls to make. This is going to suck…

  22

  Lexi

  My brain drifts. That’s the only way that I can describe it. I’m floating like I’m on a cloud or something, floating above reality. I can hear noises, sounds that probably should terrify me, but I’m disconnected from it all, it won’t touch me no matter what happens. I’m safe up here, flying, no longer scared.

  But why was I scared? What had me so terrified in the first place? I need to remember that.

  Oh… the chocolates. Of course. Someone sent me chocolates in the post, and they made me sick. I don’t yet know why they made me sick, but they did. I wasn’t well at all. I think I might even have collapsed.

  Cooper. I was on the phone with Cooper, that’s something else. I told him not to help me, that I didn’t need it because I was going to call Krysten and Flora, but I don’t think he would have done. I know what he’s like and I’m sure he wouldn’t let it go. If he could sense any of my terror he wouldn’t let it go.

  I wonder if he’s here. I wonder if he raced around to my apartment to help me. That’s just like him, if he can. I vaguely recall him saying that he was going to get a babysitter, so he probably is.

  Oh! If he’s here then I’m probably being rude just lying here with my eyes closed. I should open them to see him. To thank him for everything that he’s done. My eyelids feel heavy, but I can do it for him.

  “C… Cooper,” I stammer out, my throat croaky. “Cooper, thank you.”

  I just about prize my eyes apart, but it’s challenging. I can’t get them all the way apart. I see a lovely, comforting shadow above me though, a male body which can only belong to Cooper. He’s here. A smile spreads across my face, I can’t keep it in check. I’m so happy that he didn’t listen to me.