Unjustly Destroyed (Incapable Part Two) (20 page)

Chapter Twent
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Four

It’d been two days since Emmalin was placed in her medical coma. The nurses had been coming in and out, checking her blood sugars on the hour, every hour. They were also checking for any signs of major organ failure, so between that and the constant checking and running of blood tests, I was a little glad she was out for it.

We finally got the good news we’d been hoping for when Dr. Stiles came walking in.

“We’re going to take her out of the coma.”

My face lit up for the first time in days. “How soon will she wake up?”

“It’s different for everyone. It could be anywhere from a few minutes, to a few days, and I almost have to warn you; in some cases, it could be never.”

My heart dropped, and I looked back at Emmalin. She had color back in her face, but the bruises from what that fucker did to her were still pretty evident. “So, there’s a chance she won’t wake up at all?”

“It’s a risk, Mr. Mandrake, in all cases. All we can do is hope.”

My shoulders slumped at the prospect of her not even coming out of the coma.

Please. Don’t. Leave. Me. I need you.

Chapter Twent
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Five

“I hate zombie movies, but if I had to pick one, it’s this one. It’s actually pretty funny.” I looked over at her. She seemed paler today. I sighed. “They said a few days, Emmalin. It’s been four. I know you like to rile me up, but this is the one time I need you to not do that. I need you to wake up. I need you here with me. So please, I’m begging you. Wake. Up.” I stroked her cheek.

“No, you need to wake up. You don’t care about getting hurt. You always care for everyone else and never think twice about caring for yourself. I’m sitting here going out of my mind, willing you to wake up. I can’t sit here and live my life without you, so I need you to wake up. Do you hear me, Emmalin? You don’t get to lie there and give up. Wake up, dammit! I love you, don’t leave me.” I looked at her closed eyes, hoping for even a flutter. 

Nothing. 

“Grayson.” I turned around at the sound of my mom’s voice. 

“Tell me what to do to fix her, Mom. Tell me what to do.” Tears welled in her eyes as she stood next to me.

“We pray, son. We pray, and we hope she comes back to you. To all of us. And when she does, you never let her go. No matter what.”

***

"Any change?"

I didn't even look at my father as he pulled up a chair next to me and handed me a coffee. "No. They said her blood sugars were more stable." I rubbed my face, feeling the three-day old facial stubble. "So far, no sign of organ failure, which is good."

“I had to lie to your mother, and I make it a point to never lie to your mother. You know how she is. I think it's time you told me the entire story, Ethan."

I cringed. My father only called me by my middle name when I was in trouble. I shut my eyes tightly. "You can't ask me."

"I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. I need to know what we're up against. You love her?"

My eyes went to his. Blue eyes to blue eyes. "Of course I do."

"You want to protect her?"

"With my life," I said through gritted teeth.

"Good. Because so do we. She's a part of our family now, and we protect our own. She may not have the Mandrake name, but she's a Mandrake, through and through."

I smiled. She'll be a Mandrake. I took a deep breath. Where to begin.

Two hours later and after some calls, my father, who can be even scarier than I am, especially when he's in lawyer mode, managed to have his contacts locate Ashley, and obtain a warrant for her arrest. He also had charges filed for not only attempted abduction regarding Abby and Emmalin, but involuntary manslaughter with intentions, for the death of Tyler.

"I won't tell your mom or Meredith and her husband about this. As far as they know, Emmalin was shot during a store robbery. But you will have to tell them eventually."

I took a deep breath, knowing one day that I would. I already betrayed Emmalin, having to tell my dad, even if I did leave out a lot of details.

He stood up, and walked closer to her, studying her. He lightly traced the side of her face and turned to me. "Jesus, you picked a strong one. Don't let her go." I nodded as he left the room. I didn't plan on it. I never planned on it.

I woke up to someone’s hand on my shoulder. I jumped, looking first at Emmalin, and then to the hand on my shoulder. Isabella smiled down at me.

“Grayson, how about you get out of here for a while. Get some fresh air.”

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving her.”

She nodded. “I figured that. That’s why I had Chace get you a change of clothes and some food.” She handed me a bag.

“You mean, you and Chace talked?”

She smirked. “Not so much talking. More like, me telling him to make himself useful and get you some clean clothes.” She jerked her chin toward the bathroom. “Take five minutes and shower. If she so much as flutters her eyes, I promise to come get you. Even if that risks me seeing your junk. Don’t worry. Emmalin raved about it, so I’m hoping she does move just so I can see it.” She winked at me, and I laughed. A real laugh, then I stopped and glanced at Emmalin. She needed to be here with us. I reluctantly got up.

“I won’t be more than five minutes.”

Isabella nodded.

Isabella

I sighed, and made sure the bathroom door was shut all the way before I turned to Emmalin. “You can stop faking now.” I brushed her hair from her face. I felt my eyes tearing up. “We need you, sweets. If I tell you a secret, will you wake up?” I continued stroking her hair. “You were right about Chace. But it’s complicated, and you’re the only one I want to talk to about it. That, and you know, we all love you. Especially that man of yours. You picked a good one, babe. A real good one. So promise me something. Promise you won’t leave us. We like having you around. Tyler is just going to have to wait sixty more years before he sees you again. Don’t leave us, okay?” I heard the shower go off, and I quickly wiped away my tears. A few minutes later, Grayson came out.

I shook my head. “Same.”

He resumed his place by her side, and I gently kissed her forehead. I turned to Grayson. “I have to go, but don’t forget to eat.” He nodded, not taking his eyes off of her. I walked out of the room and stopped. Chace was leaning against the wall. I cleared my throat. “How long have you been out here?”

He crossed his arms as he looked me over. “Long enough.”
Shit
. Did he overhear what little I said?

“Were you eavesdropping?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, you could at least pretend to sound guilty about it.”

He moved closer to me. “Why? Lying only wastes time, Isabella. I prefer getting straight to the point.” His eyes bore deep into mine as he stepped closer. The sound of a door closing made me come to my senses, and I stepped to the side.

“Make sure he eats.” I turned and left.

Chapter Twent
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Six

Grayson

"Magda has been cooking up a storm. It's ridiculous, you should see her. She's taken over our entire kitchen, making all of your favorite foods. I told her I didn't want to eat without you." I continued stroking her hand and lowered my head.

"You can't let those meatballs go to waste."

I jerked up. Emmalin was gazing at me.

"Holy shit." I lunged at her, hugging her tightly. Probably too tight. She winced, but I didn't loosen my grip. "God, baby, you scared me. You fucking scared me." I kissed her all over. She was here. She was back. My life was back. I reached over and hit the call button. A few seconds later, a nurse came in. She looked at Emmalin and smiled, immediately walking over to assess her.

"Welcome back, Ms. Ross. I'll page the doctor." Two minutes later, the doctor came in.

"Good morning, Emmalin. I'm Dr. Stiles. You gave us quite a scare." I watched as she shined a light in Emmalin's eyes and looked her over. "Emmalin, do you know where you are?"

Emmalin looked around the room. "Hospital?" Her voice was hoarse as she spoke.

"Can you tell us the last thing you remember?"

"Um. I remember yelling, and Carson and... Oh my God, Abigail?" She turned toward me.

I nodded. "She's fine. She's completely fine. I don't even think she knew what was going on."

Her eyes began to tear up. "I'm so sorry, Grayson."

"She's fine. I promise." I gently wiped her tears away.

"Ms. Ross, you were shot in the chest, which punctured your left lung. We call this a sucking chest wound, and unfortunately, there was no exit wound. Because your lung collapsed, this turned rather quickly into Pneumothorax. You coded several times, en route to the hospital, as well as during surgery. We were successful in removing the remaining debris. But, because of all the stress on your body, your blood sugars began to act erratically, so the safest possible decision was to put you into a medically-induced coma, to allow your body to heal."

Emmalin cleared her throat. "How long have I been out?"

"You were taken out of the coma five days ago. Today was the sixth day." The doctor paused, and I knew what was coming next.

"Ms. Ross, there's more. There was also extreme sexual trauma."

I gripped her hand tight. She took a deep breath. "I don't want to talk about that."

"There is a counselor I want you to speak with. We understand this is a sensitive nature."

Emmalin wiped away a tear.

"There was one other thing. During blood work and surgery, we discovered that you were about three months pregnant."

Her eyes shot up and she looked at me. "I'm pregnant?" For the first time since awakening, there was a light in her eyes. Now I had to watch it be doused out.

I pulled her closer to me. "Were, baby."

She looked to the doctor. "Because of the gunshot wound, and you coding, as well as multiple kicks to your abdomen, we weren't able to save the baby."

I leaned into her. "We can always try again. You got pregnant, and your chances were slim. We can try again, baby," I whispered in her ear.

She shut her eyes. If Carson wasn't already dead, I would kill him all over again. That's two babies she lost because of that family.

"How soon can she go home?"

"We need to run some tests, of course. Make sure she has no problems breathing. You are going to be in pain for a bit, Ms. Ross, but that's to be expected. If all goes well, I would be comfortable with releasing her in two to three days."

I nodded. Emmalin had already stopped listening and retreated into herself. I stepped back as the doctor and nurse checked her over. Emmalin stayed quiet the entire time. Twenty minutes later, they were gone. I walked back to her side.

"I've texted everyone that you're awake, but told them not to come until tomorrow. I don't want to overwhelm you so soon. Not to mention, I kind of wanted to be selfish for a bit." I gave her a small smile and she turned her head. I decided to keep talking. "Everyone's excited to see you. Isabella. Chace. Noah and Abby made you a giant card."

"You should go," she whispered.

"Even when you're quiet, you're funny, Emmalin." I stroked her hair, and she jerked away from me, scooting to the far corner of the bed. She looked so small and fragile. I was imagining that even if she wore my ring, it would slip right off with the amount of weight she lost. I lowered the side rail and climbed in next to her. She tensed when I wrapped my arms around her. Her breathing began to shudder, and my heart clenched. Beaten. Raped. Miscarriage. I didn't know too many people who’d gone through what she'd gone through in life. I held her while she cried. "We'll get through this," I whispered over and over in her ear, until she fell asleep.

Emmalin

Dr. Stiles made good on her word and released me three days later. Grayson stayed by my side the entire time, except when he needed a minute to compose himself when the sexual assault counselor entered the room. I didn't want any visitors, with the exception of the police and Grayson's lawyer present, asking me questions. I was briefed beforehand about what to expect and what to say. The questions were quick since everything was being deemed as self-defense, with Carson kidnapping Abigail, and the rape. I was just "defending myself from another worthless human being," the officers’ quotes.

The media went into a frenzy and had camped outside the hospital. The story that was eventually being written was that I was shot during an armed robbery. I couldn’t turn on the news without it mentioning me or Grayson, and the alleged attack.

"How's your pain level today?" Grayson jiggled the pain meds and came over, turning the TV off.

I looked at Grayson. He was doing everything he could to take care of me. "It's more tolerable today." He raised his eyebrows. He knew I was lying. In addition to being shot, I had three broken ribs, bruising all over, and half my face looked like a Mack truck hit it. I was the definition of sexy. We managed to keep me completely covered leaving the hospital.

He strolled over to me and lightly brushed his fingertips over my face. "The swelling has gone down a lot." I watched as he unscrewed the bottle of pain pills and took out two, then handed them to me with a bottle of water.

"Stop acting brave. I already know you're brave, but I also know you're in pain."

I took the pills and swallowed. "I don't like how they make me feel. They make me tired, and I'm tired of sleeping."

He nodded. "I know, but sleeping is good. It's allowing your body to heal without interruptions. Your diabetes delays your healing time, so it takes twice as long."

I leaned my head back against the pillow. I had maybe a half hour before I went back into dreamy land.

"Everyone's been asking when they can visit. I was thinking maybe invite people over tonight."

I shook my head. "I don't want to see anyone." I buried myself deeper into the comforter. I heard him sigh.

"Okay. Maybe in a day or two then." He crawled into bed behind me and turned on a movie. He always held me until I fell asleep.

"I love you, you know that right?"

I started to relax as he rubbed my back.

I nodded. "Thank you."

He momentarily paused. "You're thanking me for loving you?"

"And for taking care of me. You didn't have to. I didn't want to turn that gun on you. That was the hardest thing for me to do, but I needed you out of there. I needed to do that. I never would've hurt you; I need you to know that."

"I know, baby." He continued to rub my back.

“Abby said something. Right after the drugs hit my system.” Grayson, pulled me tighter against him. “She told them that I was diabetic, and that you taught her what to do.”

He nuzzled into my neck. “Of course I did. I’m working on Noah too, but he’s a little younger, so he hasn’t quite grasped all of it, but he’s getting there.”

God, I loved this man.

“And you totally called it,” I whispered.

“What’s that?”

“That I was,” I took a moment to swallow the lump forming in my throat. “That I was pregnant. I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t. I didn’t think it would ever happen.”

“You had a few symptoms with the nausea, and I noticed you were always tired. It reminded me of when Meredith was pregnant, plus the mood swings, but you were also losing weight. You were adamant that you weren’t, so I didn’t want to push.”

I felt the tears spill over, as I thought how even as I started to bleed from what I thought was from him kicking me in the stomach, it was from me miscarrying, and he still raped me again. I started to feel myself drift off with that last thought.