Page 37 of One Vow

He let go and my head banged hard against the concrete sidewalk. He walked off and I watched as the light slowly faded away.

I woke later, after the sun set, in an alley. My thoughts were broken into as small increments as I could whittle them down.

I missed the meeting.

Felicity would never forgive me.

The school would never forgive me.

And for the two or three minutes I remained conscious, I couldn’t forgive myself. I deserved this, I just wished he would’ve waited a few hours.

The next time I opened my eye, only one worked, I was in a hospital room. Alone. I was hooked to a machine. “Am I okay?”

My words sounded like ‘grr grr grkay?’ but it didn’t matter because no one heard me anyway.

I tried to sit up, tried to move, but I managed only to wiggle a finger as I tried to reposition myself. What the hell. My body wouldn’t respond to a single one of my commands.

But then it came back to me. Ryder. The meeting. Fuck.

And I needed to get home. To explain to Felicity why I’d missed the chance to throw myself at the mercy of Glouster University and their council of leaders led by her father.

This time, I pulled myself up. And a nurse rushed into the room. “Hey! Hey!”

She pushed my shoulder until I finally relaxed against the pillow behind me. But she also underestimated the urgency of my being able to leave. As soon as she let go, I moved again. This time she shoved me without any regard for my pain. “Listen. We found your ID. We’re trying to get a hold of someone.”

It hurt to breathe, and the talking was probably going to be my final act of courage, but I had to try.

“My wife.” My mouth felt broken. “Her number’s in my phone.”

She handed me my cell from the table by my wallet. My broken cell. Fuck! I wasn’t going to win any good husband awards because I didn’t know my wife’s number.

No. This couldn’t be happening. We’d only been married nine days. Nine glorious days with Felicity. Who would probably end up thinking I left her because no way her dad didn’t call to tell her I didn’t show up.

I needed to go home. Needed to see Felicity.

The hospital was probably one of the hardest places I’d ever tried to sneak out of. Someone in scrubs was always walking down the hallway, and I couldn’t take the elevator for the obvious reasons, well, I didn’t have my own clothes, and my ass was hanging out of the back of my little gown. But I made it out and made it home to find Felicity on the sofa, crying.

She hadn’t even looked up when I walked in. I sat beside her, with no idea what I looked like or how she would react when she looked up, but I certainly expected her anger. “You missed the meeting.”

Her eyes, normally sparkling and happy, burned with anger and disbelief.

“Lis.” Did she not see the bruises? The stitches beside my eye? My busted lip?

“They kicked you out, Finn.” She nodded then scoffed then buried her head in her hands. “Kicked you out.”

“What about Jameson and Keaton? What about Ryder?” They’d all been offered the same deal.

“I don’t give a fuck about them.” Her mouth compressed into a thin line. Her eyes narrowed. It was like her face was shutting me out, one expression at a time. “I cared about you.”

Cared. Past tense.

I looked at the room. The blankets on the floor. The candles burned down. The DVD cases on the table. Then I looked at Felicity. Sheer black robe. Heels she’d kicked off on the floor beside the sofa. Eyes red from crying.

“Lis.” I had to explain. “I tried to be there.”

She sighed. “Do you think I did this to myself?”

She wouldn’t even look at me. “Lis, please. Ryder…”