The bright lights of the ambulance interior forced me to squint. Finally, I closed my eyes, too overwhelmed to deal with the scene around me any longer.
. . .
I jolted awake.
“Keaton!” I tried, my throat dry and stinging.
“Vivian, it’s okay, sweetheart.”
My mom? I turned to her before glancing around the room.
“Mom? Where am I? Where’s Keaton?”
“You’re in a hospital. We’re in Utah,” she added, running her hand over my hair. “Let me get the nurse.”
“Mom, where’s Keaton?” I begged, stiffening at the ache in my muscles.
She lowered her narrowed eyes. “We’ll talk about him in a moment, Vivian. Let me bring the nurse in.”
The next few minutes were efficiently managed by a nurse as she checked my vitals and asked me several questions about my needs. I accepted the cup of water that she offered me gratefully, the cold fear mounting deep within my chest.
“I need to see Keaton,” I forced, turning toward the door as Matthew walked in.
“I’ll be right outside in the hallway,” my mother replied, patting my head again before exchanging a look with Matthew.
“How are you feeling?” he asked quietly, and I lowered the cup to the sliding table at my bedside, lifting my eyes to his.
“Tell me. I need to know.”
Matthew listened to my pleading words, his chest rising and falling with a deep, even breath. He wore hospital scrubs.
I remembered our clothing on the cabin floor soaking up the pool of blood.
Keaton’s blood.
“I can’t remember all the terms that they used,” Matthew began, reaching for my hand as he lowered to the chair at my side. “He had some kind of stroke from all of the… blood loss,” he managed, lowered his eyes to the ground.
“Had?”
I dug at my neck, scratching as my eyes began to burn. He tightened his grip on my hand.
“He’s alive, Vivian. He’s in a coma, but he’s alive. For now.”
“Take me to him,” I begged tearfully. “Please. Matthew-”
“They don’t know how long he has.”
I tried to sit up, reaching for the bedrail. “Take me to him. Now.”
“Vivian-”
“Now,” I snapped, the unexpected anger taking over my reason. “Where is he?”
“His family is with him. His… father is here. They’ve given him his last rites.”
“No,” I cried, my feet finding the ground.
Matthew wrapped one arm around me, leading me to the door. My knees were incredibly weak, and I knew it was from terror, not trauma.
Not Keaton.
With a jolt of anger, confusion and helplessness, I jerked my body out of Matthew’s arms. He stood stunned for a moment, continuing to walk beside me.
“Don’t hold me like that,” I said, nearly breaking into a run. “Not anymore.”
He looked away, nodding once and leading me to the elevator.
We arrived on the critical care floor, and Matthew spoke to the nurse behind the desk. When she realized who I was, she nodded, making a phone call. Another nurse came around the corner only moments later.
“The family is through here. You are his fiancée?” she clarified.
“Yes,” I breathed, covering my stomach. “I’m his… family,” I replied brokenly, covering my stomach with a protective hand.
“Viv?”
Luke’s voice caught my attention from down the hall. Robin, who I’d never imagined was capable of crying, came running toward me, throwing her arms around me.
“They’re fucking unplugging him,” she cried, scratching at a tear with a black fingernail. “He has a living will with a DNR.”
“DNR?” I repeated, moving toward the room.
“Do not resuscitate.” Luke moved to my side, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Robin, it doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t try to keep him alive, you heard the doctor. Calm down.” He lowered his voice, gazing down at me. “Vivian. This isn’t going to be easy.”
I realized that his eyes were bloodshot, and it was obvious that he’d been crying. My parents stood just outside the door, my dad walking to me and pulling me into his arms.
“Honey.” My dad’s saddened voice prodded my already heavy heart. “You’re not alone, okay?”
I couldn’t cry.
Keaton’s mother sat next to his bed, sniffling into a tissue. I pushed my dad away gently and stepped into the room.
A man that I somehow recognized stood at the foot of Keaton’s bed.
His features were very much like Keaton’s; dark hair and hazel eyes, same jaw, same build.
His father.
“Vivian, dear,” Jane wept, holding her hand out to me. “Come here. Oh, my sweet grandchild,” she murmured, touching my waist softly before resting her head against my side.
“He’s not dying,” I finally broke, forcing eyes in my direction as I gave a tearful scoff. “He’s not. I can feel him. He’s not leaving me. Us,” I corrected, covering my stomach. “Please, can I be alone with him for a minute? Please?”
“Of course you can,” Luke answered, exchanging a look with both of his parents. “He loves her more than anyone in this room.”
“Of course,” Jane repeated, standing. She said something to her estranged husband, and Tony Thorne took a step in my direction.
“Vivian, thank you for loving my son.”
My chin quivered, and I nodded, lowering to the chair next to the bed.
They filed out, one by one, closing the door softly behind them.
I hadn’t really looked at him. I’d seen him from the corner of my eye but couldn’t bring myself to fully look at him.
When I did, I forgot how to breathe.
Keaton was covered in tubes.
They disappeared into his nostrils, in his mouth, in his veins. His face was black and blue from the beating that he’d taken.
His strong arms that had held me so many times, loving me, making love to me were motionless against the cold, white sheet.
“Miss Hale?”
A man stuck his head in the door, knocking twice before entering.
“Are you his doctor?”
“Dr. Braden. I understand that you are Keaton’s fiancée?”
“Yeah. I thought the whole world knew.” I lowered my cheek to Keaton’s hand, closing my eyes. “Tell me.”
He sighed, and I heard him shuffle through his chart. “Tests show that he has a chance of waking up. If he does, he will require rehabilitation, depending on how long he remains comatose.”
“Wait.”
I tried like hell to pull myself together. All I wanted to do was sob in Keaton’s arms. He was right there, right next to me, and we were safe.
Together.
And yet he is a world away from me.
“I’m sorry,” he replied, pausing at the door before leaving me alone.
Finally.
“Keaton, you… you win,” I whispered, threading my fingers through his. “A coma? God.” I pressed my forehead to the back of his hand. “Cliché.”
I laughed and cried at the same time, my heart breaking as I realized that he was emotionless.
I might never see him smile at me again, or hear him make a joke, or feel his lips pressing against mine.
I might never see him hold our baby…
Or feel him hold me.
“Don’t do this,” I sobbed, hysterical tears taking over and wracking my body. “Don’t. I just found you.”
I registered the door opening softly, and felt strong hands on my shoulders.
“Vivian.” Matthew’s voice. “He’s stable right now, and you need to rest. Please, come back to your room-”
“Matthew?” I shrugged him away, gripping Keaton’s hand with all of my strength. “Go away from me. Don’t touch me. Don’t talk to me.”
He looked stunned, his concern turning to confusion. “I-”
“I’m his. He is the other half of my heart,” I whispered, letting the tears slip down my cheeks. “Even if he never wakes up and holds me again, I will never stop loving him. But I stopped loving you,” I forced, letting the words come before I could stop them.
“You are going to need someone,” he began quietly. “Whether you love me or not, I’m going to help you.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you before. And I don’t want to hurt you now. But I have to say how I feel. If it’s just me and my baby for the rest of my life, then that’s it. I’ll be with Keaton, or without him. But not with anyone else. Not with you.”
I watched his heart break for the last time.
He stood by the bed for a long, silent moment.
“I don’t want you to be alone,” he replied, wrecked, his shoulders stiffening.
“I don’t want to be with you.”
I marked that moment as the end of me and Matthew.
He turned and walked out of the hospital room.
My insides turned as I replayed the horrible images from the cabin, breaking into sobs. I rested my head against Keaton’s thigh, crying myself to sleep.
. . .
Sometime later, I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Vivie. Come on, you need a bed of your own.”
Luke’s voice sounded so much like Keaton’s, I almost forgot where I was and why. I lifted my face to his. “Any change?”
“No. Come on. Matthew left,” he added. “Your parents went downstairs for coffee. My parents are in the chapel.”
“Where is Robin?” I asked, forcing myself to stand.
“She’s asleep in a chair in your hospital room.”
“Is Madeline here?” I asked.
Luke gave me a sideways glance. “No.”
“You know I’m not leaving him.” I gestured to the empty bed next to Keaton’s.
“I didn’t think you would.”
“Luke?” I turned toward Keaton, trying not to start crying all over again. “I feel like I can’t breathe for another minute.”
He tucked his hands into his pockets, staring at the bed.
“You’d better keep breathing. He loves you with all of his heart, Vivian. And his heart’s still beating.”
Exhaustedly, I turned to the empty bed, reaching for the blanket. Luke took over, tucking the white, hospital-grade comforter over my shoulders.
“Sleep. He’s right here, and you’re both safe. We’ll be here all night and make plans in the morning,” he assured me.
“Thank you,” I whispered, accepting his hug. “Please wake me up with news, no matter how small.”
“I promise.” He smoothed his hand over my shoulder, glancing at Keaton before turning for the door.
Four Months Later
In Time
V
“I’m coming!” I called, moving ungainly through the living room.
Luke balanced too many bags in his arms, dropping his keys to the floor. “Don’t run,” he ordered, lowering some groceries to the table. “Why do you have your purse? We’re not going back to the hospital.”
“I am.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’ll take a cab.” I ignored him, gathering some of the grocery bags. “They called, asking if I was coming in tonight. I said of course I am. He’s not spending Christmas Eve alone in a hospital room.”
Luke sighed. I stared him down stubbornly.
“We’ll go first thing in the morning.”
“It’s fine, I’ll get a cab. I just show a little belly and they’ll line right along the curb,” I teased, retrieving my purse.
“Oh for Christ’s sake. Come on, help me put these groceries away and we’ll go.”
I grinned.
The days after we were rescued from the cabin had been long and exhausting. I remembered fighting with my parents again about leaving, refusing to go back to Ohio with them. They were angry with the way I’d treated Matthew, reminding me that he’d been a victim in the situation, too.
The fallout had happened in the hospital waiting room right before a press conference that I was asked to give. I’d been nervous and stressed out enough as it was.
Of all the people to step in and defend me in the middle of the hospital, it’d been Luke that put himself between me and my parents.
Luke turned to my mother. “Mrs. Hale, it may be none of my business, but please think about this. If it was you in that hospital room, would your husband go across the country and leave you?”
My dad glanced at my mom, and she shook her head. “No, of course not, but he’s my husband-”
“Keaton is going to be her husband,” Luke replied simply.
Finally, they backed off, and when Keaton was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills, my mom offered to stay in California with me.
“Go home with Dad,” I told her, gentling my voice. “I’m not alone. I have friends here,” I assured her. “My doctor is here, and I really trust him.”
She hugged me tightly. “I’ll fly in once a month. But I don’t want you living alone, not with your pregnancy being so high risk.”
Robin glanced at her mother, and then back to me. “I’m working on some way to stay in LA with her, Mrs. Hale, but I need to talk it out with my brother.”
I knew that Jane had her issues with drinking, and Robin was her sole caretaker. There was no way I would make her stay with me.
“Luke can stay with Mom,” Robin had reasoned. “Madeline moved out, did you know that?”
“What? No,” I whispered, glancing Luke’s way. He stood talking to my father, his hands crossed over his broad chest. When he stood like that, he reminded me of Keaton.
I almost burst into tears.
“Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes, brushing her fingers over her black, pixie-cut hair. “There’s a special place in hell for that little bitch. I swear, all she wanted was Luke’s portion of Grandpa’s inheritance for her fucking little restaurant in Chicago.”
“Poor Luke,” I breathed.
As if he sensed that we were talking about him, Luke said goodbye to my dad, joining the two of us near the waiting room window. “Robin, you need to go home with Mom. Especially now that he’s back.” Luke swallowed hard, and I knew that he was referring to his father. “I’m going to stay in LA for a while. There’s nothing bringing me back to Pennsylvania. Maybe distance from Madeline will help us both.”
“Help you both?” Robin snorted, dropping her hands to her hips. “It’ll help her keep her fucking hands out of your bank account, maybe.”
“Don’t.” He turned my way, lowering his voice. “I’ll stay with you, Vivian, if you’re comfortable with that. I need to be here for my brother. He was there for me when I needed him most, and I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
His strong, quiet words were so poignant, I fought a losing battle with my emotions. “Thank you,” I managed, letting Robin wrap her arms around me with a gentle sigh.
“I’ll fly back and forth. I’m here for you, Viv. You’re our sister now. You were the moment Keaton fell in love with you. Which I think was the first night he found you in my video store,” she added, forcing a breathy laugh from both of us.
“I don’t know what I’d do without either of you. Thank you.”
The press conference was supposed to be brief, simply to address the kidnapping, Keaton’s condition, and the future of the movie. Emmet had prepped me for questions, promising me that any sensitive issues would be ignored.
Ash sat to my right, Emmet to my left.
“Vivian, are you and Ash together?” someone asked.
I sighed, exchanging a glance with Ash. “In the days leading up to our kidnapping, Keaton and I had tried to act like we were ‘broken up’ in an attempt to distance ourselves from the killer.” I pumped my air quotes and immediately thought of Keaton. Forcing a deep breath, I continued confidently. “Ash and I have never had any romantic involvement,” I assured them, my voice thin and empty as cameras flashed m
y way.
“What about your old boyfriend? Are you going back to him, with Keaton gone?”
Emmet actually stood up at my side, and I could feel the impending tornado of insults ready to fire from his flowery vocabulary.
“Keaton’s not gone,” I snapped furiously, tears on instaflow the moment I thought of the possibility of him no longer breathing. “He’s going to wake up for me. For our baby.”
That was the moment that the press chose to run over and over and over on the news as they plastered me onto the headline of every tabloid. I became the center of attention across the world overnight.
The men associated with our kidnapping were found and tried, both sentenced to several life terms. They’d been hired by Derrick, and the entire kidnapping, as well as the other women’s murders, had all been funded by the settlement that he received from Keaton in his lawsuit.
When Keaton woke, I would make sure that he never learned that information.
Matthew and I had spent hours with the FBI rehashing everything that had happened at the cabin. When I talked about stabbing Derrick through the eye with the toothbrush, the woman taking our information tried but failed to hide her shock.
Matthew reached for my hand, and I let him hold it for a few moments before pulling away.
He went back to Ohio, not saying goodbye, not saying anything. I was left with the most disgusted feeling for what I had said to him, but I couldn’t let him think for another moment that I would ever be his again.
Kelsey made a play for attention, lamenting that she hadn’t been there to help us and assuring the tabloids that she had nothing to do with her ex-lover’s actions.
After she was cleared by the authorities, she was photographed making out with Rob Jansen, Hollywood’s next up-and-coming director.
Some things never changed.
“You’re feeling okay? No headache?” Luke asked as he quickly put the groceries away. I shook my head, quickly stocking the refrigerator with the cold items.
“No, I feel fine. Hey.” I stopped, catching him by the hand as he finished shoving the empty grocery bags under the sink. “Have you heard from Madeline?”
His hazel eyes, too much like Keaton’s, flashed with pain.
Before A Perfect World: Movie Trilogy, Book Two (The Movie Trilogy) Page 19