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Forty-Three
HANNAH
“I’m fine,” I say. “Seriously, I’m fine. They’re just keeping me here until the doctor comes in to discharge me.”
Marci, June, and Belle are crowded around my hospital bed. Belle’s mascara is ruined, leaving dark streaks down her pale cheeks. Marci keeps walking back and forth in the room, lifting her hands and shaking them in front of her like she’s got her hands around someone’s neck. June sits on the edge of the bed, occasionally smoothing the pale green bedspread with her free hand, the other is holding mine.
“I can’t believe this happened,” June whispers. “I’m so sorry, Han.”
“I should never have fucking left you alone in that apartment.” Marci’s raging. She stops, throttles the air again, and glares around the room. “I should have locked the door behind me. I should have?—”
“This is not your fault,” I say.
“No,” Belle says, and hiccups around a sob. “This is Savage’s fault. It’s his fault. He brought this down on you.”
“That’s not fair,” I say. “He?—”
“He nearly killed that guy,” June says.
I gnaw on the inside of my cheek. Nothing can wipe away what happened yesterday. Every time I close my eyes, the events repeat in my mind. I’ve already talked to a therapist at the hospital, and I’m going to make a booking with a woman at a private practice in Heatstroke after I’m out of the hospital.
“He should be arrested for it,” Belle says. “For everything. I can’t believe?—”
“Guys, stop,” I say. “Savage had no idea that this dude would get out of prison and come after me. It’s not his fault. He saved me.” Even if he did act like he didn’t give a crap about me to do it. The least of my worries right now.
I’m in hospital because the doctor was worried about the baby. I fractured my hand on that dude’s face, so it’s in a cast, and though most women with POI who do fall pregnant aren’t high-risk, the OB GYN wants to be sure everything is fine before they let me go.
I’ll be walking out with a prescription for prenatal vitamins. And a conversation I need to have with Savage.
I can’t get the memory of what he did to that man out of my mind.
It was violent. Visceral.
His pupils were so large and so focused on my attacker, it was like his eyes had gone completely black. And then he… He did those things to him.
What’s even weirder is that I’m not sickened or afraid of him. Savage protected me. He did what he could to make sure that I survived that encounter.
“I don’t like it,” Belle whispers, and grabs a chair from next to the bed. She pulls it closer and sits down, fiddling with her hands in her lap. “I don’t like any of this Hannah. It should not have happened.”
“This is so fucked up,” Marci says. “And now you’re pregnant with his baby too. Like what the fuck.”
June and Belle already know. I told them when they first arrived at the hospital.
“Guys, relax. I love you all, but you have to trust that I have this under control.”
June strokes the back of my hand, reaches up and brushes my hair back from my face. “We know, honey. We’re all a little stressed out.”
“Han, I can’t imagine my life without you,” Belle warbles.
I smile at her. “Yeah, who will talk to you about how awful Leo is?”
She gives me a watery grin in return. “He’s not so bad.”
“That,” Marci says, pointing at her, “is something we’ll be discussing in length. But first, Hannah, what are you going to do about Savage? You can’t be with him, right? I mean, he’s clearly unhinged.”
“He saved me,” I say. “And you don’t know what he’s been through.”
A knock rattles the door, and a police officer, a female with her hair tied back in a glossy bun and kind eyes, smiles at me. “Miss Taylor?”
