Broken Ever After (36 page)

“
Doesn’t- explain- why.” I mumbled.

“
I was worried about you.”

“
Why?”

“
Because I love you.” You should have thought about that
before
fucking someone else.

“
But…
everything
…”

“
That doesn’t matter just now; we’ll talk about it when you are feeling better.”

I was back to crawling out of the darkness
, I was in my bed at Uncle Robert’s again. He’d crawled in the bed behind me and was slowly pulling up my nightdress; his big hands running up my legs pulling them apart. I tried to keep them together but he was a lot stronger than I was.

“
No, no, no… Don’t! Please don’t.” I started to cry.

“
Olivia, wake up baby. Come on, wake up.”

“
Jamie?”

“
I’m here, baby, shh… It’s ok, you’re ok.” I tried to wrap my arms around Jamie but it hurt, I couldn’t stop crying.

“
Olivia, when did your nightmares come back?” Mum came to stand beside me at the other side of the bed. Where did she come from?

“
Her first was last Friday night; she has two or three a night.” Jamie said.

“
It’s been over a
week
? Why didn’t you tell me baby?”

“
It’s over a
week
? How long have I been here?” I struggled to sit up but Jamie pushed me back down onto the bed. “How long have I been here? What day is it?”

“
It’s Monday.”

“Monday? Luke?” I remembered a voicemail telling me he’d appear in court on Monday morning.

“He pleaded guilty, don’t worry.” Dad told me.

A doctor appeared in the door way.
“How’s my girl doing?” My dad’s friend, Dr Colin Murphy walked in the room.

“
Are this lot upsetting you? I can kick them all out if you like?” he winked at me as mum stood back to let him in. Jamie tried to pull away but despite the bandages over my hand, I kept a tight grip of his so he couldn’t. “How are you feeling?” Colin asked.

“
My throat and my head hurt a lot. My arms sting too and my hands.”

“
Your throat hurts from the tube we had to put in to help to breathe, you have a linear fracture just here.” He gently stroked over the bandage on my head. “You have a nasty bump I’m afraid but no permanent damage.” He handed me a glass of water which I gulped down quickly.

“
What, so no metal plates?” I gasped as I handed him back the empty glass.

“
You’re not cool enough for those.” He leaned over me to grab a cord attached to the drip. “This drip has Morphine in it, it’s a PCA pump so you can release a dose of it every twenty minutes if you need to, but you know it’s only if you really feel you need it ok? You will be locked out of it if you press it more than once in the twenty minutes.” I nodded; I knew how patient-controlled analgesia worked. “Good girl.” He passed me the call button for the nurse’s station and told me to call whenever I needed anything. “If you start feeling sick or dizzy then let us know. Try to have someone with you if you need to get up but for the minute I’d like you to stay here.”

“
Can I get up to go to the bathroom?”

“
No you have a catheter still-”

I held my hand up for him to stop talking
, I’d heard enough. “Urgh… Gross.” I felt disgusting and just wanted to get up for a shower.

“
Would everyone mind giving Olivia and I a minute alone please?” Colin asked.

“
Why?” I tightened my grip on Jamie’s hand.

“
I just want to talk about what happened. I thought you’d prefer to do that alone.”

“
It was a massive accident.” I could see that everyone visibly relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. “I was angry, I lost my temper and I bashed in my mirror; the whole thing came down on me. I tried to pull some of the glass out but I couldn’t see it very well, I went in the shower to wash it but still couldn’t see, I remember I screamed but no one came. There was so much blood; I don’t remember anything after that.”

“
You know you did yourself no favours trying to pull out all the glass, honey.” My dad said.

“
I know that, but I panicked. I’m sorry, I never meant for all of this to happen.” I began to cry. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid.

Colin leaned over to kiss my head.
“You need to sleep, sweetheart. We’ll look at getting you moved later on.”

“
Ok.” I sniffled as I lay back down and turned to face Jamie. “Thank you, Dr Murphy.” I called to him as he left the room. I held my hand back over to Jamie; he took it and sat beside me again. “Stay?” I whispered to him. I don’t know why I’d asked him that, but my head hurt too much to argue with myself over it.

“
Of course” We stared at each other for around half a minute before I closed my eyes to go back to sleep. I couldn’t though. I had so many questions running around my head. Where was Riley? Why wasn’t he here? Why the hell was Jamie here? Why did I want him to stay?

I co
uld hear mum whispering to Jamie. “John and I have some patients to check on, Austin has a meeting to get to and Lord knows where Riley has disappeared to. Is it ok with you if you stay with her? Give you some time with her if she wakes again?” Why are they so cool with him being here?

“
That’s ok, I want to stay.” Relief shot through me.

“
Thanks for being here… You’re so sweet with her.”
God, really mum?
Why is she not busting his balls? “She’ll listen eventually, she’s just stubborn.” I heard the door close, then silence.

Jamie lifted my hand
, pressing his lips gently against the bandage. “I’m
not
stubborn.” I whispered, feeling Jamie jump.

“
I thought you were sleeping.” I smiled weakly and opened my eyes to look at him.

“
I’m not tired and I need a shower or at least to brush my teeth. Do you know if anyone brought me a bag or anything?” I looked around the room but couldn’t see anything apart from cards and flowers.

“
You can’t get up, Angel, you know that. I don’t know if you have anything; I only came just before you woke, I’ll have a look.” Jamie started pulling things out of the cabinets, I saw my blue bag but didn’t recognise the one he looked in first; he gave it an odd look and put it back. “Got it.” He handed me my bag and I started pulling things from it. “I’ll fetch you some hot water.”

“
Thank you.” I whispered as he handed me a bowl of warm water and a cup filled with cold.

“
I’ll just go grab a coffee and give you a minute.” He passed me a towel and went to walk from the room but a phone started ringing on top of one of the cabinets.

“
That’s Riley’s phone.” Is he actually here? I looked around out of the window but still couldn’t see him.

“
It says Frank McIntosh is calling.” Jamie gave me an odd look to ask if I knew who it was.

“
That’s Frank from security. Answer it.” I told him.

“
Hello? Th-” Jamie listened as he was cut off from talking I presume. “You-” Jamie was cut off from talking again and Frank obviously hung up on him. “What the fuck?”

“
What’s wrong?” I was worried, from what I could hear Frank sounded pretty pissed off at Riley. Jamie looked worried which made me worry even more. What was going on?

“
Nothing. Where’s your phone?” he smiled at me but his clipped tone said he felt like doing anything but smile at me.

“
In my bag, why?” I pulled it out and switched it on.

“
Can I see it a minute? I just need Austin’s number.” He took out his own phone, which I noticed was different to the one he had a few days ago.

“
I’ve put my new number in for you.” He said as he handed my phone back to me.

“
Your new one?”

“
I err… had an accident with my other phone. I’ll just go grab my coffee and ring Austin and come right back.” I nodded.

“
Jamie?” I called him as he headed for the door. “I- I’m glad you’re here.” I felt awkward being so relieved that he was around.

“
Me too.” He smiled
my
smile at me. “I won’t be long.” Jamie closed the door gently behind him. I didn’t know how long he would be so I quickly set about washing all the areas I could with as little pain possible, I was adamant that I’d be out of this bed before the day ended so that I could take a shower. I inspected my bandages and re-arranged my hair from the mess it had been left in and put it in a neater bun. I was just re-packing my wash things when the door was knocked lightly and opened.

“
You were qu-” I stopped talking when I noticed it wasn’t Jamie coming back in.

“
Shhh” Riley said as he peeked his head out of the door then locked it as he closed it, he pulled the blinds closed at the observation window and peeked out behind them checking for someone.

“
Riley, what are you doing? Where have you been?”

“
We need to get you out of here. Come on, get up.” He started pacing the floor at the foot of my bed with his hands clasped behind his head looking agitated or maybe anxious? I couldn’t tell. He kept glancing at his watch and back to the door.

“
What? Why? I can’t just get up, I’m all wired up!” I nodded at the IV sticking out of my hand and he groaned. He went to a cabinet at the other side of the room and grabbed handfuls of bandages, gloves, cotton balls and medical tape and shoved them all into a big black bag, the one that Jamie had pulled out just minutes before. He came over to my bed and grabbed my hand with the IV, took the tape off and gently pulled it out, holding a ball of cotton wool over the spot of blood.

“
What the hell are you doing? You can’t just do that! I need that in!”

“
Just be quiet.” His tone was clipped and angry and scared me. He put a fresh ball of cotton wool on my hand and a piece of tape over it to hold it down. “Come on, we need to move you before he comes back in!”

“
What? Who?” Before who comes in? I can’t just leave!

“
Jamie! He’s not who you think he is. Your Uncle Austin sent me back to get you now that you’re awake; we need to move you, Baby Doll, come on.”

“
But… I can’t! I can’t get off the bed! I have…” I pointed to the side of the bed indicating I still had a catheter in.

“
Oh for fuck’s sake, lie down!”

“
You aren’t touching it!” I clamped my legs shut; there are just some things in life that guys you… like? Have sex with? Whatever… there are just some things in life that guys shouldn’t see or do!

“
Just fucking lie down. Relax!” He pushed my knees apart. It was hard to relax when he was barking things at me and handling me the way he was. “Big deep breath in, I want you to slowly release it and when you do, relax your muscles ok?” I nodded. “One… Two… Three.” I breathed out and he carefully removed the tube. “Now you can get up. Get dressed quick!” He threw my clothes at me from my bag. I don’t get it, how is Jamie dangerous? He was just here a minute ago and- and… My parents wouldn’t leave him with me if they thought anything was off about him. That included if they thought he’d cheated on me.
My head really fucking hurts
. I needed to lie back down. I slowly lowered my head back to the pillow and closed my eyes. “Oh no you don’t, you need to get up.
Now
.”

“
But I’m so tired. I need to rest.” I whined.

“
We don’t have time; we need to go, Olivia.”

“
Why is Jamie dangerous?” Riley glared at me with a look that screamed ‘You aren’t together, why do you care about him?’

“
He was planning something.” he shook his head. “I don’t know what or why and I don’t want to stay to find out.” He rushed out and let out a big sigh. “Do you know he was fucking four other girls? Not just you!” He spat at me.

My mouth fell open and tears came to my eyes that I pushed away. I shouldn
’t really be surprised. He’s hot, why would he just want me? A silly, little school-girl; It didn’t make sense for him to want me. It didn’t even make sense that Riley would want me. He was six foot four of pure sex god. I was five foot four of insecurities and self-loathing all wrapped up in a hideous bow of psychological problems.

“
I saw him with three of them, kissing each of them. Austin asked me to follow him, I saw him taking them to his house.” When? My head spun and pounded. Wow, I could really use my drip back in. I hurried to get dressed while Riley packed more dressings. “He’s the head of MTI, Liv, you know this makes sense. Do you remember your Uncle telling you about the note? When we were in the car driving away from the office, he told you that you weren’t safe. The note was from him, Liv. It was a ransom, it said Austin needed to hand over money or Jamie was going to take it from you personally. He has photos of you Liv.
Private
photos. Do you want those getting out?”