by C. A. Harms
“Hey, it ain’t my fault you weren’t paying attention.”
Garrett hit rematch and got settled with a determined look on his face. I broke out in laughter, and he flipped me off just as our mother entered the room. I waited eagerly for her to lay into him, but she just stood in the open doorway of the kitchen. Then I saw it, the fear in her eyes, her chest rising and falling so fast that, had my own heart not been beating rapidly, I may have commented on it.
“What’s wrong?” I finally forced my legs to move, and I stood up, turning completely around to face her.
“There’s been an accident.”
“Dad?” Garrett asked with fear in his voice, and instinctively, I reached out to place my arm over his shoulders. He was a little shit on most days but protecting him from anything hurtful was my first thought. Like holding him would make it better, but I thought having him close soothed me, too.
“That was your father on the phone.” Mom walked closer, and I noticed how she was only looking directly at me. “No one knows exactly what happened, but—” Her voice broke, and she took in a deep breath to attempt to collect herself. “Maddison and Grace are on their way to the hospital by ambulance.”
And my world fell apart, and I fell to my knees. My brother tried to hold me up, but the size difference between us was just too much.
I couldn’t fucking breathe, but I knew I had to get to her.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chloe
I sat in the waiting room, staring down at my hands, still stained with blood. Only the blood was not my own. I just kept seeing Maddison and the way her body flopped around uncontrollably over and over in my head.
The screams, God, they echoed.
I jerked in response to someone’s touch, and I looked up into the eyes of my father. That was all it took. Tears began to fall from my eyes, and my body shook so violently that he had to grip me tight and hold me close. “Shh,” he tried to soothe me, only it didn’t help. Nothing helped.
“It all happened so fast.” I could barely understand myself. “One second she and Grace were teasing one another, and then she fell. The horse went crazy, bucking around, and Maddie just bounced around with him.”
“I know, sweetheart.” But he didn’t know.
“No, you don’t.” I couldn’t see him through my tears. “It was awful, the screams, the sounds. I can’t get ‘em out of my head.”
Grace tried to intercept the reins and tame Storm, but in the process, it got tangled around her wrist, and I swore I heard the snap. Then her cry, it was like it stunned the horse, but only for a few seconds. The slack in the rope allowed Grace to detach the knot, and when she pulled her hand back, her wrist was twisted in an odd angle.
Then Storm started again, only this time he whipped his head and knocked Grace back into the fence. The power of his thrust caused her body to hit with such force that the top two planks busted, and then she tumbled to the ground.
I was frozen, unsure of what to do.
Then I looked up just in time to see Reed clear the fence and use the top of the fence to hoist himself high enough that he was able to get a good hold on the saddle. He did his best to slow down Storm while Gramps and Gavin worked to unravel Maddison.
And I still hadn’t moved. I stood with my back to the fence. I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. I just knew that I was terrified of what I had just seen.
Then everything went crazy. Gran screaming from the house that she’d called 911, Reed rushing to Grace, Gavin and Gramps trying to secure Maddison to the ground. I could still see it all so clearly.
I fell to my knees when Gavin said that Maddison’s pulse was weak, and I wept in my hands. I didn’t even remember crawling toward her or running my fingers through her hair, but I remember the very second I lifted my hands before me and saw the blood that coated them.
“She’s got to be okay. They both do.” The sadness in my father’s eyes was hard to see. He had always been the strong one, the one my mother and I needed whenever times got tough. But none of us knew how this would turn out. None of us knew the condition of Maddison or even Grace, for the matter. He couldn’t shelter me from this; he couldn’t make this better. No one could.
“Where is she?” I looked up to see a frantic Mike running toward the waiting area. I didn’t think I had ever seen him look so bleak. His eyes were reddened and swollen, and panic was written all over his face, in his actions; you couldn’t miss it. He was terrified.
“She’s with the doctors.” Alexis’ voice broke as she spoke, and Colt moved in quickly to comfort her.
“She was riding Storm.” Reed didn’t get to finish his sentence before he was pinned to the wall. Mike had his shirt bunch up in his fist, his face only inches from Reed’s.
“I told you that fucking horse was a liability,” he seethed, applying just a little more pressure to Reed. I heard gasps from around the waiting area, a few cries, and a whole lot of commotion. The guys were all rushing forward to pull Mike off Reed, but Reed held up his hand to stop them all.
It was heartbreaking watching Mike try to hold himself together. His body shook then shuddered with a sob before he quickly regrouped and rounded to anger once again.
“It’s okay,” Reed told Mike, only to trigger his nostrils to flare in maddening rage. “She’s gonna be okay. But she needs all of us to stay strong, Mike. We have to do it for her.” Here Reed was trying to soothe Mike while his own daughter was behind closed doors with no answers of her condition.
“It’s okay.” I knew what he was really telling Mike was that it was okay to break.
A sob escaped him, but he pushed against Reed’s chest.
“They’re both gonna be okay.” The vibration in Reed’s voice was my undoing, and I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my sobs. My father had gone to help when Mike grabbed Reed, and I was sitting alone in a far-off corner watching it all unfold.
Reed repeated his words again, and Mike’s chest suddenly began to shake, sobbing yet not fully giving in to the emotions, holding his head high, gripping Reed’s shirt tight. The two men locked eyes in a standoff until Mike began to crumble, falling forward. Reed wrapped him in his arms, and Mike shattered, letting go of every ounce of strength he held inside.
“I’m sorry,” I heard him cry into Reed’s shoulder, and at that point there wasn’t a dry eye in the place, not even those of complete strangers.
Each one of us was being tested, trying our strength, and feeding on our fears.
We all gathered close, lining the waiting area. Everyone was here. And we waited, the sounds of sniffling, prayers repeated over and over.
The silence was defeating.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Mike
Maddison:Going out for a ride with the girls. Miss me while I’m gone and know that I’ll be missing you too. Love you!
I think I had read Maddison’s last message to me at least fifty times. My fingers hovered over her name, tears dripping onto my hands that held my phone like a lifeline.
I didn’t know why I did it, but I sat there and just started sending message after message of all the things I’d say to her if she was here right now standing before me.
Mike: I love you, and I always miss you even when you’re only two feet away. Not only are you my best friend, but you are the woman who holds my heart in her hands. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. You are my world. I need you. You can’t leave me. I won’t make it without you, Mad. You are my world.
Please don’t leave me.
I keep having this vision of you in a white dress, your arm linked with your dad’s as he walks you down a path of white rose pedals directly toward me. I want that. I want that so bad. Please, pretty girl, come back to me.
“She wants that too, ya know.” I looked up and found Raven standing before me. In her hands was Maddison’s purple phone. “They gave it to me to hold when I got here.”
I nodded, still staring at the phone.
&nbs
p; “Family of Grace Jackson.” We all stood, and the doctor’s eyes widened. “You are all her family?”
“We are,” Reed assured him as he reached out and linked his fingers with Aunt Kori’s.
The doctor nodded before looking at the iPad he held in his hands. “Grace suffered a wrist fracture of her right wrist. In most situation, we see either ulna or radius fractures, but in Grace’s case, she has broken both. There is also a tear to the tendons that attach her thumb, as well as a large open wound to the back of her left shoulder. We can repair all with surgery.”
Everyone nodded and talked amongst themselves until the doctor started to speak once again.
“During the fall, Grace did hit her head, which left a cut that required stitches. She is very sore, but we’ve given her some pains meds that should start to relax her.”
“Can we see her?”
The doctor scanned over the large group of people, and his eyes widened.
“Not all of us. Just her parents, us,” Kori said hopefully, and the doctor nodded as he began to lead them away.
“And what about Maddison?” I stepped forward when the doctor turned back around to face me.
“Maddison?” The fact that he said her name like he didn’t know her pissed me off. But then I realized he probably didn’t know. There were so many doctors, and each had different patients. I knew this.
“Douglas, Maddison Douglas. She came in at the same time as Grace Jackson.”
He offered a nod. “I will look into Mrs. Douglas’s case and have someone come out and update you on her condition.” With that, he motioned for Reed and Kori to follow him, and the three disappeared behind the big swinging doors.
I wandered down the hall. I needed some distance. I didn’t go so far that I couldn’t hear if Maddison’s name was announced but far enough that I was out of the view of others.
There were so many times while I was deployed that I’d gotten that empty sadness in me that nothing could fill. Like I’d been gutted, nothing more than a hollow shell. Then it was caused by being homesick; now it was because my heart had been torn from my chest. Or so it felt.
“You doing okay?” I closed my eyes and let my head hang forward when I heard Raven’s soft whisper. “I don’t mean to crowd. I just know that if Maddison knew how upset you were, she would want someone to check on you.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted without looking at her. I wasn’t trying to be an ass. I just didn’t want to talk. I wanted Maddison.
“I know you’re not, but I understand.” It grew silent, and I wasn’t sure if she was still there. Then she spoke again. “I’m sorry for making things so weird before.”
“You didn’t make things weird. We did that fine on our own.” I looked out the window in front of me. “But if we’re apologizing here, it’s me that should be telling you I’m sorry. I should have been honest from the beginning.”
“You were in love with Maddison—”
“Am,” I corrected.
“I was about to say, ‘and you always will be,’ but you didn’t let me finish.” Finally, looking back at her, I saw her grinning. “I saw it. I think everyone did. You two belong together.”
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath.
“She’s gonna make it through this, and she’s gonna be giving us all shit for worrying about her.”
“What if she doesn’t?” I instantly felt guilty for saying those words.
“She will,” Raven said. “She has to.”
I didn’t know how long I stood there staring out into the open parking lot before me. I watched people come and people go, some crying, others smiling and even laughing. I knew that our sadness was not their fault, but every time I saw someone who was happy, it grated on my nerves.
“I need the family of Maddison—” I didn’t even wait for him to finish her name before I was running toward him, practically shouting yes as I closed in on him. “Are you family of Ms. Douglas?” A round of yeses echoed throughout the waiting area.
The doctor repeated the surprised look the first doctor expressed before he quickly recovered.
“First and foremost, Ms. Douglas’ vitals are good. She is stable.” A humming noise filled my ears, and I reached out to steady myself on the counter at my side. “Her ankle is broken, and we’ve done surgery to repair the damage to her tendons and muscles that were compromised from the fall and the continuous trauma she’d suffered.”
The words “trauma” and “suffered” made my stomach churn.
“Our concern is the nerve damage may be so extensive that she may never get full functioning of her foot again. She will have to go through physical therapy when she’s able to.”
All things we could deal with. Hell, I’d carry her everywhere we went if I had to.
“The injury to her head is a little more concerning.” And there it was. “The fall mixed with the continuous batting of her skull against the ground.” My vision grew blurry. “There is a lot swelling, especially to the left side of her face. Her jawbone, her eye socket, all suffered from the impact.”
“What are you saying?” Alexis asked, and if I thought I couldn’t break any more, I was proved wrong in that very moment. Maddison’s mom looked completely lost, and her father, I had never in my life seen Colt cry. Then Colton was sitting in the corner, his body hunched over, shaking heavily as Gran tried her best to soothe him.
“What I’m saying is that your daughter’s injuries are extensive, but unfortunately we will not know the severity of them until she’s awake and is able to talk to us.”
“But what can be caused by this type of injury?” I knew this, I didn’t need him to break it down for me, but I knew everyone else needed to hear it, and I couldn’t be the one to explain. My heart couldn’t take it.
“In some cases, the patient wakes up, and with monitoring of the swelling, they can make a complete recovery. But there are those rare cases where a patient doesn’t recover completely. They may suffer from speech deficiencies, among other struggles.”
“And her memory?” The doctor looked at me, and for a split second, I thought he might recognize me.
“She may suffer some temporary memory loss or…” He paused, his throat bobbing when he swallowed hard. “It could also become permanent.”
An echoing silence filled the waiting area, and I found that I suddenly wanted to punch something. No, I wanted to pulverize something until I’d reached the point where I had lost all feelings in my hands. Pivoting around, I walked down the long corridor that led to outside, and the second my feet hit the concrete pavement, I started to run. Not because I couldn’t face it; the last thing I wanted to do was leave Maddison. The problem was if I didn’t leave, I would explode, and I needed to get rid of some of the anger I felt.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chloe
“Has anyone heard from him?” I asked as I looked around the waiting room. Everyone instantly looked at their phones, like magically there would be a message from Mike saying, I’m here and all is good. Does anyone need coffee?
A collective “no” was spoken, followed by those shaking their heads. Maria looked worried, sad, and to be honest lost.
“Does anyone have Landon’s number?”
Again, everyone shook their heads and said no, except Rhett.
“I don’t think I have Landon, but I’m sure Terrance does. They’ve been hanging out lately.” He was already dialing his phone as he stood and gave AJ, who looked half asleep, a kiss on her forehead. The baby was with her parents.
Reed and Kori were still in the back visiting with Grace, who we’d been told was awake and talking. She was also continuously asking about Maddison and me. I hadn’t found the strength yet to go back and see her because I knew the moment I did, I was only going to fall apart again.
“Mr. and Mrs. Douglas.” A tall, older doctor stepped in and looked around the group. Colton stood and helped Alexis up as they moved closer. “Your daughter is back from her MRI. She is in
her room. If you would like to go back now and see her, I can take you. However, I do need you to understand that she has a lot of swelling and bruising. She doesn’t appear as the Maddison you’ll expect. We do have a plastic surgeon coming in to have a look, but unfortunately, it will be a while before those procedures can take place.”
This was insane. All of it. We were out on a ride, having a great time. We were teasing Grace about Terrance, they were teasing me about my humiliating moment with Landon, and we were all laughing. Maddison was on cloud nine, talking about the house they were renting and Mike. Hell, every single time his name was mentioned, she would beam with such joy it was blinding.
We all watched as Maddison’s parents were led back, holding hands with Colton trailing close behind.
“Sweetheart.” I looked up to see my mother standing at my side. “Do you need anything?”
“I’m good,” I assured her and attempted to smile, but it felt so wrong.
“You should try to eat something.”
“I’m fine, Mom. Really, I am.” I wasn’t even close to fine. “Please, I’m okay.”
She nodded, reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear, and then moved back toward the waiting chair next to my father.
The sounds of crying, loud sobs, could be heard. But as I scanned over the waiting area, there wasn’t a person who could be responsible for such a cry.
Then the doors opened, and out walked Alexis, who was being supported by Colt. Chills covered me from head to toe, and a fear that something had gone wrong was so overwhelming that I was up and moving before I could think twice. Pushing open the heavy doors, I looked left and then right. Frantically, I scanned over each room as I passed until I got a glimpse of Colton’s bright blue shirt, and I paused. I could hear him talking, but I had no idea what he was actually saying. Moving in a little closer, I waited and listened.