Forgiven--A Second Chance Romance

by Garrett Leigh

  Like she’d heard my thoughts, Rebecca laid a cool hand on my arm. “Luke, I know you’re upset, and worried about Mia, but there’s really nothing you can do while you’re in this state. We’ll find her, I promise.”

  I didn’t believe her. Didn’t believe the doctors who said the jackhammer in my skull was a mild concussion when it felt like my brain had fallen out the back of my head. Or Fran when she took Rebecca’s place and bemusedly told me everything was okay. Because it wasn’t okay. And it wouldn’t be until I had Mia safe in my arms.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Mia

  I put my foot down on the A road and zoomed out of town towards the hospital.

  Beside me, Gus gripped the dashboard. “Jesus. We’re not going to be any good to him if you kill us before we get there.”

  I ignored him and drove faster, closing my ears to Gus’s complaints and my struggling one-litre engine. All I could see was Luke lying bloodied on a hospital bed, or worse, a fucking morgue, and my world narrowed to getting to him as quickly as possible.

  “You know, if it’s really bad, he won’t even be at Stoke Mandeville. They’ll have airlifted him to London or some shit.”

  Words beyond me, I growled and clenched the steering wheel. Gus rubbed my arm, but his attempts at comfort fell by the wayside as I fixated on the implications of what he’d said. Matched it with Fran’s neighbour’s ominous words. “Luke’s been in a terrible accident.”

  Terrible. What did that even mean? Was he already dead?

  I changed lanes, undertaking a boy racer in a souped-up Golf as my car shuddered and shook.

  “Mia.”

  “Shut up,” I snapped. “I just need to get there.”

  “I know, but—”

  “Just fuck off!” My voice rang out in the cramped car, bouncing off the stained interior. “Unless you want to talk about how Billy still has your number after your non-hook-up all those years ago.”

  “I’ve had the same number for fifteen years. It’s not relevant to the fact that you’re going to get us both killed.”

  It really wasn’t. But my mind was racing so hard, nonsense was merging with terror. I had no control over anything, except how fast I drove the goddamn car. I ignored Gus and pressed my foot to the floor.

  “Mia!” Gus’s voice dropped an octave, authority he’d never had over me seeping into every syllable. “Listen to me, you need to slow down, pull over, and stop the car, okay?”

  “No.”

  “Just do it. There’s a police car behind you, and it’s flashing you to pull over. If you don’t do it, they’ll make you, and you’ll be even further away from finding Luke.”

  It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. My gaze flickered from the clear road ahead of me to the blinding blue lights in the rearview mirror, and my foot slipped from the accelerator of its own accord. The car slowed, veering sideways until Gus steadied the wheel. “Fuck.”

  He sighed. “Yup.”

  Somehow I managed to pull onto the lorry park at the side of the road. The police car blocked me in, and two officers got out.

  Cringing, I tried not to think about the bazillion speed cameras I’d zoomed through. Did they arrest people for speeding? Take their license away on the spot?

  The hysterical idiot in me had no idea, and the thought of Gus’s terminally slow driving had my teeth chattering as an officer approached my window.

  “Be cool, Mia,” Gus murmured. “Do not lose your shit.”

  At any other point in my life, I might’ve lamped him one, but apparently there was a tiny part of me clinging doggedly to common sense. A part of me that knew if I was to stand any chance of getting to Luke I had to swallow whatever the police officer had to say.

  I painted a calm expression on my face and opened the window. The officer bent down, glancing quickly between me and Gus.

  “Mia Amour?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded. “Get out of the car. We’ve been looking for you.”

  * * *

  I could’ve screamed when the friendly officer suggested I follow him sensibly to the hospital, but the remainder of the journey passed in a flash. I ditched the car at the main entrance, sprinting away, door wide open, leaving Gus to park it and deal with the police.

  Inside, an A&E receptionist directed me to a corridor at the back of the department. Even though it was a different hospital, it was so much like the route I’d taken with my mother’s body to the mortuary. Same grubby white walls, blue floors. Same pictures on the walls. It even smelled the same.

  My heart, seized by fear since the moment I’d realised Luke wasn’t safe, thudded like a spiked bowling ball. Pain lanced my chest with each slap of my tatty Vans on the vinyl floor and the damaged teenager I’d once been turned and ran all the way home.

  But the masochist in me kept going. If the worst had happened, I needed to see it.

  Another reception desk came into view, but I barrelled into the back of someone before I reached it.

  “Rebecca!” Somehow, she was the last person I expected to see.

  She caught me as I stumbled, saving us both from crashing to the floor. “You’re here,” she said. “I was just coming out front to meet you.”

  “Why?” I gasped out. “Is he dead?”

  “Who?”

  “Luke. Is he dead?”

  “God, no. He’s okay, Mia. Didn’t they tell you in the police car?”

  He’s okay. Relief washed over me like a drug, and I swayed on my feet, even though the words didn’t truly sink in. “I haven’t been in a police car.”

  My voice sounded far away. Rebecca stared like she wasn’t sure whether to shake me or hug me. “How did you get here, love?”

  “I drove.”

  She muttered something under her breath and tightened her grip on my arm. “I told them to bring you in, get you off the road so we could ensure you were safe, but that doesn’t matter now. Let me take you to Luke, then we’ll have a chat, okay?”

  I nodded, my brain already checked out of the conversation and fixated on Luke. I let Rebecca tug me along the corridor, ignoring her until she came to what I needed to know.

  “He’s in pretty good shape, considering,” she said. “He got hit hard, but landing on the grass probably saved him.”

  “What?”

  Rebecca stopped, glanced around, then pulled me into the doorway of a storeroom. “You do know what’s happened, don’t you?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know anything.”

  Rebecca scowled as if she wanted to kill someone, but I was too far gone to worry that it might’ve been me. She shook her head slightly and her grip on me softened. “Mia, Luke was hit by a car this afternoon. It drove into him at speed and threw him across a car park. Like I said, he landed on the grass and broke a couple of ribs. He also hit his head, which left him unconscious for a while, which is why it took some time for the call to reach me.”

  Unconscious. Broken. Each word hit me like a punch to the gut. “I don’t understand.”

  “I know it’s a lot to take in,” Rebecca said. “But I’ve seen him, I’ve spoken to him. He really is okay, just anxious to see you. Let me take you to him, all right? We’ll sort the rest out later.”

  The rest. A different strain of dread rippled through me, but getting to Luke overrode it. Steeling myself, I painted more fake calm on my face and followed Rebecca out of the doorway and to the end of the corridor. Round the corner, police and nurses milled about. We pushed through them to a side room door where Rebecca let me go, squeezing my arm before she stepped away, evaporating instantly from my limited circle of awareness.

  I pressed on without her and pushed the door open, drawn to Luke like a fragmented moth to a flickering flame.

  He was sitting on the edge of a bed, arm wrapped around himself, face t
ight with pain as he glared fiercely at his mother, but his expression changed when he saw me. Darkness melted and he smiled, his strong shoulders sagging with a relief I felt in the deepest part of me. “Mia.”

  I rushed to him and threw my arms gently around his neck. “Luke, baby. I’m here.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Luke

  She smelled different, as though fear and panic had altered her DNA. In the back of my aching mind, I knew the notion was ridiculous, but everything seemed ridiculous right now. I kept waiting for the penny to drop. To wake up from a nightmare my sharp bang to the head had somehow distanced me from. But as hard as I wished it all away, nothing changed.

  Rebecca stood at the end of my bed, sparing me a glance every now and then as she explained the situation as it currently stood.

  “The car that hit you is registered to Morgan Benson,” she said. “The paramedics who picked you up have stated that you said it was him driving before you lost consciousness.”

  Beside me, Mia tensed, a shiver running through her slender shoulders. I wanted to pull her close, hold her tight against me until she could only smile, but I couldn’t. Somewhere along the line, I’d swallowed a pill that had left me pretty much immobile. Despite my entire world hinging on what Rebecca had to say, staying awake was a struggle.

  Mia squeezed my hand and said something.

  I blinked. “What?”

  “Never mind.”

  She turned back to Rebecca and I mourned the loss of her gaze on me. Missed her, even though she was right there.

  On my other side, Gus rubbed my shoulder, as much a comfort as her, in his own way. His hand was warm and strong, his palm rough with long hard days of work we’d done together. He bent down and his fingers grazed the tender spot on my temple. “It’s okay, mate. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

  I loved him like a brother, but I didn’t believe him.

  “Anyway,” Rebecca went on. “We’re checking him out, and as soon as I know anything, you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, I suggest you get some rest. Officers will be stopping by throughout the night, and hospital security know not to let anyone else in to see you. Stay put and we’ll talk again in the morning.”

  She left, and I tried to piece together what she’d said while the others milled around, murmuring shit I couldn’t hear. It took a while for me to realise Mia and Fran were huddled in the corner, and even longer for it to dawn on me that it was the first time I’d seen them in the same room for more than a decade.

  A flurry of emotions hit me. For a long moment I feared I was going to be sick, but the dizzying sensation faded, leaving warmth in its place. The situation we were in was so fucking wrong, but somehow that felt right.

  Fran came to my side. I sensed bewilderment in her, but she was stoic, like she’d always been, even when life passed her by. “Gus is hungry,” she said. “The police are going to fetch us something from the KFC across the road. We’ll be just outside if you need us.”

  The thought of greasy fried chicken turned my stomach even more. I nodded and waved her away. “Be careful.”

  “We will, son.”

  She left, taking Gus with her, and I was finally alone with Mia after God knew how long.

  I reached for her and she was there before I could blink, hopping up on the bed beside me, cuddling cautiously into my good side.

  “How are you feeling?” she whispered. “You look terrible.”

  I’d already learned the hard way that rolling my eyes right now was a nauseating experience. I settled for an infinitesimal shrug. “I’ve felt better.”

  “Don’t.” Mia turned so her face was inches from mine, her eyes wide and searching. “Not now, okay? I need you to tell me the truth, no matter how much you think it might hurt me. Don’t you see? The wondering has always been worse.”

  In time, perhaps I’d understand the gravity of what she was saying. Right now, I could only take her literally. “It hurts like a bitch,” I admitted. “And I’m worried about puking on you. But I feel like this happening was maybe for the best—”

  “Luke—”

  Gingerly, I pressed my hand over her mouth, never to silence her, just to give myself a chance to get a sentence out. “Mia, if this happening helps the police catch whoever has been forcing you to live in fear, I’ll take it a thousand times.”

  My hand slipped from Mia’s face, revealing her familiar, comforting scowl. “You’re an idiot, then.”

  “I’ve never claimed to be anything else.”

  She had no argument for that, but her glare remained. “If anyone needed to be hit by a car, then it should’ve been me. Even if it is this... Morgan Whatsit—I don’t even know his name—I was still the target.”

  I started to argue, but my ribs protested, and I groaned instead. Mia’s gaze widened. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re not.”

  More argument flickered at the edge of my consciousness. Sentences fell out of me, but made no sense, and my vision blurred hard enough to wipe my brain of just about anything. Anything but her.

  Mia peered at me, then seemed to shake herself. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter right now. We can’t do anything until Rebecca comes back with more information, so why don’t you try and sleep?”

  Sleep was the last thing on my mind, but my body had other ideas. Awareness slowly slipped away from me and my head found its way to Mia’s chest. Her breast pillowed my cheek, and her heart beat like a drum against my skin. Her fingers trailed softly over my face, and despite the deep ache in my torso, and the spinning sensation I couldn’t seem to shift, I felt as well as I ever had. Safe. Loved. My only fear was how long it would last.

  Mia

  Battered and bruised, Luke still slept like a dream, a serene version of his beautiful conscious self. I could’ve watched him for hours. Did, in fact, watch him for hours. A nurse came by and dimmed the lights, covering him with an extra blanket and offering me a pillow.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to move him.”

  Absently I pondered where Gus and Fran had got to, but I didn’t have the energy to worry about them. Rebecca had advised us not to leave the hospital. I could only trust they’d taken her seriously. Besides, my brother was a fucking hero. If Luke’s mum was safe with anyone, it was him.

  But even as I thought it, I knew it wasn’t true. Luke was the toughest man I’d ever known, and this nightmare had nearly killed him. The strongest man in the world was no match for a speeding car, and in the dark hospital room, the fragility of life was more than I could contemplate.

  With trembling hands, I slid my fingers into Luke’s silky hair, careful to avoid the swollen lump where he’d hit his head. He’d sustained a concussion and the doctors were fairly satisfied that there was no lasting damage to his brain or skull, but it was clear to me every time Luke met my gaze that the man I knew so well had been turned upside down. The grey tinge to his usually glowing skin, his obvious confusion at simple questions, and his inability to focus on the conversations around him... He wasn’t right, and neither would I be until he was healed.

  I almost didn’t care about the rest of it. The name Morgan Benson meant nothing to me outside of this room, and his motivations seemed almost irrelevant.

  Almost, because there was a part of me that couldn’t stop thinking about him. A garbled exchange with Luke had given me a face to match to his name, and I retraced the steps that had led me to his brother’s house a few days ago. The wedding booking had been last minute and panicked. The original, out-of-town florist had suffered a catastrophic fire at her premises, leaving her unable to fulfil her orders that weekend. As the only local florist free, I’d picked up the job. Coincidence? I had no idea, but the image of flames ravaging a building, creeping closer and closer to the people I loved most, kept me awake while Luke slept.
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  It was dawn when Rebecca returned. I started to move, but she stilled me.

  “Don’t disturb him. I just came to tell you Morgan Benson has been arrested. I won’t know any more for a while, but right now, just focus on Luke, okay? I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more.”

  She left as abruptly as she’d appeared, leaving me barely wiser than before. Luke had been so adamant that it was Morgan Benson who’d hit him that I hadn’t questioned it. The confirmation seemed pointless, but the relief that Benson was behind bars left me dizzy. He’d nearly killed Luke. What would I have done if I’d lost him? If the precious time we’d spent together in recent months was nothing more than a cruel joke?

  Contemplating it hurt too much. And I didn’t need any encouragement to focus on Luke. I went back to gazing at him and fretting over his injuries. Gus joined me a little while later.

  “The police took Fran home. They think she’s safe while they have that dude in custody, but they’ll keep an eye on her.”

  “What about you? You should go home too.”

  Gus snorted. “Fat chance. I couldn’t leave him any more than you could. And I kind of promised Billy I wouldn’t.”

  “You spoke to him?”

  “A few minutes ago. He’s freaking out a bit, but I think he has someone with him. At least I hope so. Fran’s in bits worrying about both of them.”

  I hadn’t stopped to think about how having both her boys in different hospitals was affecting Fran. I’d kept Luke to myself all night without giving her a second thought.

  As though he’d heard my thoughts, Gus shook his head. “She’s glad you’re here. Luke and Billy both hate being mothered, so if you weren’t, chances are he’d be in here on his own.”

  “That’s not true. You’d be here.”