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Chapter 13
I hear a blood-curdling scream from the kitchen, which jars me awake. I jump out of bed, fear gnawing away at my belly. I find Olivia crumpled on the floor, clutching her stomach. She peers up at me, and the pain on her face is apparent.
“It hurts, it hurts so much. Please help me, Lucian,” she whimpers.
She clutches my arms as I pick her up, and I feel wetness near her backside. When I slide my hand around her, I notice that it’s stained with blood. I’m on the edge of hysteria as she passes out in my arms.
“No, sweetheart, stay with me,” I beg.
Her eyes flutter open, then shut just as quickly. She had surgery two weeks ago, and things were going well. The cancer had not spread, and her prognosis was excellent. Her appetite had come back, and in a few days, she would be starting again at Eltech. What the fuck had gone wrong?
I carry her to my bedroom and cradle her in my arms on the bed. My phone is charging on my nightstand, and I tear the charger from it before dialing 911. They tell me it’ll arrive as quickly as it can, but I damn Manhattan traffic all the while. The bleeding seems to be getting worse, and I can feel it soaking my pajama pants as I continue holding her against me. There was nothing I could do to stem it.
Twelve long minutes later, the paramedics arrive to take her from my arms. While they strap her to the gurney, I slip on clean clothing as fast as I can. My hands were caked with blood, but I didn’t care. I want to be in the ambulance with her. I promised to be there every step of the way.
At the hospital, they wheel her into the ER, and the doctors begin working on her. Her blood pressure is extremely low, and she was in hemorrhagic shock from blood loss, I hear the nurse say. They begin fluids, giving her a transfusion and hooking her up to monitors while administering medications. A nurse questions me, and I quickly explain about her surgery and that her recovery was going well. They wouldn’t tell me what was wrong with Olivia.
Minutes after she was brought into the ER, she is rushed upstairs to the operating room. I stood there watching the orderlies clean the blood, wrappers, and debris from the floor of the room she had occupied. My eyes burn as my tears threaten to fall. It was barely six in the morning, but I call everyone I could.
An hour later, my friends and family are in the waiting area of the OR with me. We hope someone will come and give us some sort of update, but no one does. Lexi, noticing my stained hands, prods and tells me to wash them, but I don’t care about my appearance. I just want Olivia to be alive.
“Lucian, what happened?” Matty asks.
I am numb and find it hard to speak. “I-I found her on the floor. She was holding her belly… there was blood. She was bleeding. I couldn’t stop it.”
Lexi turns her head into JC’s chest and begins to weep. I was envious of her at that moment. I needed someone that I could bury my head against. Instead, I scrub my face with my hands.
Hours later, a doctor finally shows up to talk to us. Olivia survived the surgery. She had some type of tearing in her colon at the site of her suture. I couldn’t understand why after two weeks when we thought the danger was over, that this could happen. But I wasn’t family, and I kept my questions to myself, letting Matty and Lexi take the lead.
It was past two in the afternoon when they finally let us see her in the ICU. One by one, we visit with her. Tubes are stuck in her arms, and one for breathing was in her mouth. When it was my turn, I hold her hand, stroking the back of it with my thumb. I didn’t want to leave her. The steady rhythm of the heart monitor soothes me, then beeps, letting me know she is still alive.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know, I am being shoved out of the way amid screams of “crash cart” and “code blue.” The monitor no longer beeps, and the glowing green line was flat. Olivia is dying before my eyes. I am ushered out by someone, but I don’t remember who.
The doctor is screaming orders to the nurses. I continue standing by the entrance to the room as they work on her. My fists are clenched so tightly that they sting when my nails cut into them.
Minutes tick by, seeming like hours as they try to bring her back to life. A beep from the monitors could be heard, then it dies, and they shock her again. My chest constricts until I can barely breathe as I pray for her to survive. When I hear the doctor announce her time of death, I collapsed.
Two male nurses help me up and escort me to the waiting room where the doctor was speaking with everyone. The space was filled with sobbing cries, prayers, and looks of shock. My mind replayed the last eight hours. How did we end up here?
Megan grabs my hand, and I pull away, not wanting to be touched. She keeps talking to me, but I don’t hear a word. In a daze, I back out of the room to escape the heart-wrenching scene before me. I couldn’t deal with this, not again! I had to get out of there as fast as I could.
I took the stairs, the calls of my name shutting off behind me. I almost trip as tears blind my descent, but I make it to the lobby and burst through the front door out into the cool air. I begin to run as fast as I can, my lungs burning by the time I finally stopped many blocks later.
I can’t stop crying, and I heave, gutturally howling. Even then, I’m aware that people nearby are moving away from me. My cell that I had stowed in my back pocket starts ringing with endless calls. I ignore each one. By the time I arrive back at my building, my clothing is disheveled, and my face is hot and swollen.
I violently smash the button for the elevator, and when it opens, the two people behind me hesitate, then back away.
I enter the loft and look around. My mouth is parched, and I need something to sate the burning in my throat. I start for the kitchen but stop short at the thick dried puddle of blood where I had found Olivia hours before. I back away, my thirst no longer a priority. I wander the space until exhaustion overtakes me, and I collapse on the living room couch. My mind eventually shut down, and I close my eyes.
“Lucian? Wake up,” I hear a voice echo.
Recognizing it, I’m startled awake. When I get my bearings, Olivia’s soft gaze stares back, her green eyes bright but tired. I want to grab and hold her. She’s alive! I’m stretched out on the plush couch in my living room. It was all a horrible nightmare, and she’s alive, I repeat to myself.
“You look like you just saw a ghost.”
To admit to her what I just dreamed about would make her statement a reality.
“I had a bad dream.”
