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“Yes, sir. What can I answer for you?” The doctor turns to my dad.
“Why didn't the doctors notice her lungs were affected by the broken ribs during the first surgery? Ben tells me she had two surgeries,” he scolds.
“At the time of the first surgery, just after she was first brought in, there were minor signs of lung deflation, the punctures were sealed but either a new puncture formed or the doctor missed one in his tests. We will be having someone look into the situation. The lungs re-collapsed several hours later while a nurse was in her room completing some of her routine checks when she noticed the indications of her condition. She was rushed into emergency surgery immediately.”
“Honey, relax. Isabella is here, she's awake. She's okay.” My mom comes into view and wraps her arm around Dad, then peers down at me with a warm smile. Her other hand rubs along my hairline.
The doctor’s voice interrupts. “If that will be all, we will need to notify the police that Isabella has woken up. They want to interview her about the accident.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Mom says.
The room is quiet except for the machines humming and the monitoring of my heartbeat. Ben comes back into my view.
“So, this wasn't the way I was expecting to meet your parents.” He smiles.
I return his smile, or at least I think I do.
“Once you get better, we'll need to speak about your communication skills. We didn't even know you were dating someone, especially someone like Ben,” Mom gushes.
I want to crawl under the blanket but moving isn't pleasant. I slowly point to the ice chips and my mother rushes to give them to me. After I've slowly chewed several, I attempt to speak. The doctor was right, it does hurt, but I power through.
“What the hell happened?” I rasp out, looking to Ben.
I see a swirl of fury in his eyes.
“Elliot Hunter,” he simply states.
“Your old friend? The one who…?” I let my question trail off purposely as Ben nods.
“I went down to the police station not too long after I first came to the hospital and it was him.”
I want to cry, I can't imagine the amount of pain that he's feeling right now. I've never had any additional contact with that man aside from the time where Ben kicked him out of his office.
Why would he target me?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Benjamin
Officer Simon came and spoke with Bella an hour after she started talking. She was clearly in pain with every movement she attempted to make. It pained me to see her like that.
He also shared the latest developments regarding Elliot. Seem once he knew the cops had identified him, he began talking. He blamed me for ruining his life. Because of my parents’ deaths and being forced to start a new life, he wasn't able to come up with the capital to start the business we were planning on his own, so he never really had a stable career. He had schemes and dreams, or whatever he would call them, and sought out heavy hitters to invest, but nothing ever came to fruition. He believed I’d black-balled him to other companies, which was not the case. I didn't think about him. He also felt that, since his great love died all those years ago, I didn't deserve to have one, and that's the reason behind the car accident.
Somewhere in his messed-up head, that made sense to him.
It makes no sense to me.
The general consensus of the room, among Bella, her parents, and me was to press charges for attempted manslaughter. But since the charge is so hefty, I couldn’t make the decision, the district attorney would. As the officer was leaving, he asked to speak to me.
“Mr. Hunter has lawyered up,” he warns. “Between you and me, he doesn’t show a modicum of remorse,” Officer Simon says.
“Not surprised.”
“I'm sorry this all happened to you. I can't even imagine the day you've had,” he says.
“It feels like today has been several.” I palm the back of my neck.
“Take it easy, and I'll be in touch.”
