“I’ll go make the call,” he says. He stops in front of Hayley and looks down at her, “will you be okay for a minute?”
She nods and he kisses her gently before walking away, tapping on his phone.
Nathaniel stands up and asks us each if we’d like some coffee. We all shake our heads except for Ellen, and he too leaves the room, heading for the coffee machine around the corner.
I pull out Gwen’s phone which I took from Lucas back at her apartment and scroll through her contacts list when my eyes land on Patrick’s number. Although the thought of him has my blood boiling with rage, he has a right to know. I press call, and it doesn’t take long for him to answer.
“Hello, Gwen.”
“Um, no. It’s Zach,” I reply.
“Oh. Um… H-hello,” he stutters. I guess I’m the last person he expected to hear from.
“I just thought I’d call and let you know that Gwen’s in the hospital.”
“What? Is she alright?”
“She’s hit her head, she’s undergoing tests right now.”
“Which hospital?” he asks.
“Mount Sinai.”
“We’re on our way.”
∞∞∞
Patrick and Susanne burst through the door and when he spots me, he hesitates for a second before continuing forward.
“Zach,” he greets.
I can’t bring myself to meet his eye, but I clear my throat, holding out my hand to him, and he takes it hesitantly.
“Any news?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Not yet.”
“What happened?”
“Her ex. They had a fight. My guess is he pushed her, and she fell, hit her head on the coffee table. But I wouldn’t put it past him for it to have been deliberate.”
Susanne whimpers beside him, covering her mouth with her hand to stifle a sob.
“This has happened before?” he asks.
I nod. “A couple of months ago, he hit her across the face.”
“Christ.” He runs his hand over his face.
“Mr Gilgunn?” I spin on my heel to find a female doctor standing behind me. She looks at me. “Are you the man who came in with Miss Sullivan?”
“I am, yes.” I take a step towards her. “Is she alright?” In the corner of my eye, I see the others rise from their chairs and come to a stop beside me.
“Hello, I’m Doctor White. She’s undergone some tests and so far things are looking good. She has a mild concussion but a nasty gash to the side of her head which we’ve had to stitch back up. She has some bruising, especially to her upper arms and around her neck. At the moment there’s no need to worry, we’ll continue to monitor her throughout the night, you’re welcome to go in and see her now, just bear in mind she needs her rest.” Doctor White says.
“Of course. Thank you.” I smile.
She turns to leave, and we head for her room.
Chapter 47
Gwen
The first thing I notice when I wake up is the incessant beeping that punishes my ears, the clinical smell of antiseptic that lingers in the air, and the harsh bright lights that stings my eyes, not helping to dull the throbbing in my head. It feels as though someone is standing on my skull and it's about to explode.
What am I doing here?
Why does my head hurt so much? My mind is a complete blank.
I squint against the light and take in the room. I’m lying in the middle of a hospital room wearing one of those hideous gowns that do up at the back but never fully cover your ass. The machine beside me beeps rhythmically, showing my heartbeat is steady.
The door opens and Zach slides into the room. When his eyes lock with mine I see his shoulders drop in a sigh and his face softens.
The memories of the last time we spoke flood my mind. Why is he here?
He’s followed in by Kyle’s parents, Patrick, Susanne, Kyle and Hayley, who when she spots me, breaks into a sob and rushes over to me, wrapping her arms around me gently.
“Oh my God. I’m so happy you’re okay,” she cries.
“Hales, stop crying, you’re going to set me off, and no one wants to see that.”
“Sorry.” She smiles weakly, wiping a stray tear with the back of her hand.
I glance over to where Zach is standing, directly in front of my dad. I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now, being in the same room with the man who killed his parents.
Ellen and Nate both give me a hug and a kiss, telling me they’re glad I’m alright before they leave the room to let me get some rest, promising they'll be right outside the door if I need anything, Patrick and Susanne do the same. Kyle and Hayley leave soon after, leaving just Zach.
“Hey,” I say.
“Are you alright?” he asks.
“Well, my head feels like I got trampled on by a herd of elephants, but apart from that...” I trail off, the corner of my mouth curving into a smile. He lets out a small laugh before taking a seat at the side of my bed. “Why are you here, Zach?”
“Why am I here? Because you're the most important person in my life.”
The door to my room opens and a nurse pokes her head around the door. “Do you need anything, honey?”
“Something to dull the pain in my head. Vodka would be nice,” I joke.
“I’ll see what I can do.” She laughs. “A vodka would be nice right now, thanks for putting that thought in my head, now I’ve got to get through another six hours before I can get one.” She gives me a wink.
I laugh and instantly regret it, the pain in my head throbbing even more.
“I won’t be long.” She smiles before closing the door behind her.
“I’m the most important person in your life? When did you decide that?”
“Gwen…”
Okay, maybe I’m being a little harsh, but the last time I saw him, he was leaving me get some space between us. If I was so important, wouldn’t he have stayed and tried to talk to me about it?
But he’s here now, he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t care, right?
I turn to him. “So what happened? Why am I here?”
“You don’t remember?”
I shake my head.
At that moment, the door opens again, and the nurse returns with the pain relief. “Now, it’s no vodka, but it will help with the pain. It’s not very strong, we have to be careful as you have concussion, but it should help a little.”
“Thank you,” I tell her. I look back towards Zach. “So, what happened?”
“Not now, baby. Just rest, okay?”
“You won’t leave?”
“I’m not going anywhere, not this time. I’ll be here when you wake up,” he reassures with a smile, taking my hand in his and pressing it to his lips.
Zach’s eyes are the last things I see as my eyes drift closed.
Chapter 48
Zach
I sit with Gwen and watch her sleep for a while, content with the knowledge that she’s okay.
I get that she’s angry with me, what with how I left things, but I need to explain to her that the situation has changed. That I’m never going to leave her again. I thought that space and time away from her was what I needed, but it’s not. I need her.
I stare at her, at the huge bandage around her head and the nasty bruise around her neck. The thought of his hands around her throat has me seething. This would never have happened if I’d stayed. If I hadn’t been a coward and ran like I always do. Yeah, the thought of love scares me, it’s no wonder after the shit my ex-wife pulled on me, but after what’s happened to Gwen today, I’ve realised something, losing her scares me more. In fact, it terrifies me. Seeing her lying on her floor, still and unconscious... I can’t even put into words how it felt.
What if Lucas hadn’t called me when he did? Gwen would most probably be dead right now, and that thought alone sends chills running up and down my body.
Kyle pokes his head around the door, pulling me from my thoughts. “The police are here, thoug
ht you’d want to know.”
“Okay, thanks.” I stand up and press a kiss to Gwen’s forehead and follow Kyle out of the room, but not before taking one last look at her over my shoulder.
Two police officers are standing in the waiting room when Kyle and I arrive. I give them my statement and tell them everything I know, as told to me by Lucas, and also how Josh hit her a while back. Kyle gives his, and tells them the same story as I did from that day when we arrived at Gwen’s apartment to find her scared and crying, sporting a large red mark on her cheek from where he hit her. They say they need to speak to Lucas, because even though he is only three years old, he was the only witness to it. When the police are satisfied with the information they have, they agree to come back later and take Gwen’s statement when she’s feeling up to it.
“We’re going to head home. Call us if anything changes,” Kyle says.
“Of course. I’m gonna stay here.”
Kyle nods and he and Hayley leave, followed closely by Nate and Ellen who leave shortly after. Now I’m alone with Patrick and Susanne. Wonderful.
Patrick sits opposite in the waiting room, rocking back and forth anxiously in his seat. I stay silent, not knowing what to say. The tension between us is ridiculous.
Susanne excuses herself, leaving us alone.
“Zach,” Patrick begins. “I want to thank you for calling me about Gwen.”
I shrug. “Whether I like it or not, you’re her dad. Thought you had a right to know.”
“I really appreciate that. I’m glad she has you. It’s a comfort to know she has someone to take care of her.”
“Like you didn’t when you got blind drunk and landed yourself in prison, leaving her without a mom and a dad?” I snap.
I see him flinch out of the corner of my eye as I continue to stare down at the floor, refusing to look at him.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I can never take it back, and I regret it every single day. There’s no excuse for what I did.”
“You’ve said all this before when I visited you in prison.”
“I know, and I’m telling you again. I. Am. Sorry,” he says.
For some strange reason, I believe him. I can see the remorse in his face as he speaks.
“After you visited me, did you go and find her?” he asks.
“What do you mean?”
“I just wondered whether, after our conversation, you went to look for Gwen. I mean, you have to admit it's quite a coincidence, you two... together.”
“No, I didn’t go looking for her. She’s Kyle’s wife's best friend, that’s how we met.”
“Do you love her?” he asks.
“Yeah, I do. Her and that little boy are the most important people in my life. I made some mistakes in the past and I hurt her, but not again.”
I don’t know why I’m even talking to him about this, talking to him like we're friends or something. I mean, I hate him right?
“We all make mistakes.” He pauses for a moment. “Zach, I know you’ll probably never forgive me, and you have absolutely every reason not to, but I hope you do, in time.”
Could I ever forgive him? I'm not sure. We have a long way to go before that ever being possible, but he's a part of Gwen’s life, I’m not gonna be that selfish bastard who makes her choose between us. She has a chance to know her dad again, if I had the same chance, I sure as hell wouldn’t pass it up, so who am I to deny her that?
“I don’t like it, and I don’t forgive you, not yet anyway, but I love Gwen and I won’t force her to choose between her dad and her boyfriend. I won’t take her father away from her like you took mine from me. She needs you. Lucas needs you. So if it means you being a part of our lives, then I can live with that, for her sake at least.”
“Thank you, Zach. You don’t know how much it means to hear you say that. I can see why my daughter loves you so much.”
“Don’t push it,” I say, a ghost of a smile touching my lips as I finally manage to meet his eye.
He lets out a small laugh.
Chapter 49
Gwen
When I wake up, my eyes instantly search for Zach, who, as promised, is still sat beside me, my hand clutched tightly in his.
“Are you feeling better?” he asks when he sees that I’m awake.
I nod. “A little.” He stares at me for a moment before his face falls into his hands. “Zach?”
When he looks up at me his eyes are bloodshot. “I’m so fucking sorry. I should have been there for you, none of this should have happened, I should have been there to protect you.” His voice is thick and strained.
“What did happened?” I ask.
“I got a call on the way to the airport from you, only it wasn’t you, it was Lucas. He said that you wouldn’t wake up and that Josh had been there. You were on the floor, bleeding.”
It's then that it comes to me in tiny flashes of memory. I see Josh, angry and wide eyed yelling at me, the look of fear on my son’s face until everything went dark.
Panic grips me. “Lucas! Is he okay? He must have been so scared.”
“Gwen, he’s fine. He was amazing. He’s so clever.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “So, how did I end up here?”
“We seem to think that you were pushed and hit your head on the coffee table,” he continues.
“I remember. He was saying something about drugs and being set up,” I say. Zach's face falls. “Did you have something to do with it?”
He nods slowly. “Gwen, we had to do something. We couldn’t let him get away with what he did to you.”
“What did you do?”
“We found out he was dealing drugs, so we planted some in his car and tipped off the cops. They arrested him.”
“So it was you.”
“I am so sorry this happened to you, but I’m not sorry Kyle and I did it. We did it to protect you. He had it coming to him. I just don’t understand how he got bail, he should never have been let out. He won’t get away with this now. He attacked you while out on bail, after this he won’t be out for a long time. The police have been here, they’re coming back to tomorrow to take yours and Lucas’s statements, if you’re up to it.”
I remain silent for a moment.
“Are you mad? Do you hate me now?”
“No I don’t hate you. I could never hate you,” I say, reaching for his hand and squeezing. “Airport? Where were you going?”
He clears his throat. “Back to Boston. I was going to get some space to figure everything out, but when I got that call from Lucas, I’ve never been so scared in all my life. Not knowing if when I got there, you’d be dead or alive.”
“Zach,” I breathe out.
“I know I've said this before and I’ve given you no reason to trust me, but I am never leaving you again. I promise. For so long I’ve been so scared of love, of giving my heart to someone for fear that they'd break it, but losing you scares me more.”
The backs of my eyes prickle with tears at his words. “Oh, Zach.” Unshed tears begin blurring my vision.
“The thing is, you stole a piece of my heart that night a year ago, and you’ve taken so many pieces since that my heart doesn’t belong to me anymore... it belongs to you.” He brushes stray hairs from my face and tucks them behind my ears, cupping my face in his hand. I lean into his touch as much as I’m able, as a single tear trickles down my cheek, which he swipes away with his thumb. “I love you,” he breathes.
My heart stops beating.
“I love you so much, baby. I'm just sorry it took me so long to realise it. You have me so spun up that I can't see straight. Nothing makes sense without you. And as for that little boy of yours, I think I've fallen for him as hard as I’ve fallen for you,” he says.
He loves me. Those words mean more to me that I ever thought possible.
“I love you too, so much. Lucas does too you know. When you’re not around, he talks about you all the time.”
“Well, I’m gonna be around fo
r a long time, if that’s what you want?”
“Yes. I'll always want you. Always,” I say. “But what about Patrick? I mean, he's my dad and I want him in my life, can you live with that?”
“We talked earlier, and I agreed to try, for you. It's not going to be easy, but I promise I’ll try.”
The Promise Page 21