“Shh, it’s okay. They’re going to get him out, and everything will be fine.”
Luke walks us back a few paces, holding me upright.
But what if it’s not?
Brody might die, and I might never get a chance to tell him that he was right.
My heart shreds at the thought.
I want a chance.
I want him so much.
Chapter 55
Wren
Luke doesn’t let go of me while we watch from a short distance as the fire service tries to get Brody out of the car. The first responder is here now, too, administering first aid from the windscreen. And in the distance, I hear more sirens. It’ll be the ambulance.
My body is numb. Luke’s rigid with fear, and I’m sure he needs me as much as I need him.
“Why is it taking so long?” I ask, wiping tears from my face.
“I don’t know,” he mumbles. After a long pause, he speaks again. “He thinks I hate him.”
“No, he knows you didn’t mean what you said. He does think I want a divorce.”
The ambulance screams to a halt at the side of the road, and two paramedics run to the scene.
Thank God they’re here. They’ll help him. They’ll make sure he doesn’t die. I can’t lose him.
I feel like I’m floating off somewhere else. As if I were watching this happen in a movie or a dream. Brody is strong. He’s going to pull through. When he does, I’m all in.
“Did he say anything?” Luke asks.
“He only turned his head towards me, and then you pulled me back. I don’t know if he was fully conscious.”
There was so much blood. I bite my lip at the image forming in my head of Brody so broken. Taking a breath, I lean heavier against Luke.
“He’ll be fine,” Luke says again.
We are both only sure of one thing: we need Brody to be all right.
“Carefully. Support his head and neck.”
Luke and I sit straighter as the fire service and paramedics bat instructions back and forth while things are put in place to cut pieces of the car apart. Brody has to be slid out as carefully as possible.
It takes forever, or that’s how it feels, before they gently ease him onto a stretcher with a neck brace in place.
I gasp once he’s out and the paramedics fuss over him.
Luke and I stand as Brody’s placed on a gurney and carried towards the ambulance. He looks awful, pale, and bloody. His skin has lost all colour.
“Is he okay?” I ask, staring at his chest and almost falling over my feet.
“He’s unconscious but breathing,” one of the paramedics tells me. “Are either of you family?”
Yes. “I’m his wife,” I breathe.
Thank God.
“You can ride with him.”
Luke lets me go. “I’ll meet you at the hospital and call everyone on the way.”
I gasp again. “We didn’t call anyone!” I couldn’t think of anything other than Brody.
“Just go, Wren. I’ll sort it.”
Nodding, I dash to catch up to the paramedics and hop into the back of the ambulance. One of them is right beside Brody, where I want to be. But the best person to be in that seat is definitely not me. So, I sit at the end and watch. I’m too scared to touch him.
The engine roars to life, and we begin to move.
“You’ve seen lots of accidents. Do you think he’s going to be okay?” I ask.
Dark brown eyes peer up at me, and the paramedic gives me a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry. I really can’t answer that. He’s strong and doing well, considering.”
There is so much more I want to say, but I sit back and allow him to focus solely on Brody. He’s the only thing that matters.
After what feels like an eternity, we pull up outside Accident and Emergency, and the back door is opened. I get out first and stand to the side, trying to keep out of the way and not be a nuisance.
“What do we know?” a doctor asks as Brody is wheeled into the hospital.
“Brody Harris, twenty-one-year-old male, involved in a single-car accident, unconscious when we arrived on the scene …”
I zone out because I remember something from the phone call with Brody right before the crash. The sound of another vehicle.
Brody wasn’t speeding, so he said, and he’s done that route a thousand times before. Could he have swerved to avoid another car? But why wouldn’t they have stopped when his car flipped?
A nurse touches my arm. “I’m afraid you can’t come any further. If you wait here, someone will take you to a family room in a minute.”
The paramedic who was in the ambulance with me stops also. I suppose it isn’t his job to go in there; he’s done his part.
“Thank you,” I say numbly to the paramedic.
He nods. “He’s strong, Mrs Harris. You be strong, too.”
My body leaps like his words physically attacked me.
Without another word, he heads back out of the hospital, ready for the next call.
Mrs Harris. I’ve not been called that. And obviously not since I didn’t want to be married.
I turn around and lean against the wall. My heart beats painfully.
“Wren!” Luke runs towards me.
My legs won’t allow me to move, like they’ve suddenly turned to concrete. “He’s been taken into… somewhere behind that door. I don’t know.”
“What did they say?” he asks, handing me my bag that I left in his car.
“All I know is that he’s unconscious but breathing. A nurse said someone would take us to a family room soon. That sounds bad, don’t you think?”
Luke frowns. “Why?”
“Because you wouldn’t want a patient’s family out of the way if you thought they would survive.”
Luke’s eyes darken with anger. “No. Don’t.”
“Are Louise and James on their way?”
“Yeah, and Mase is picking up Felicity. Mum and Dad are coming with Emma. Everyone will be here soon to make sure he’s okay.”
“God, what would have happened if he hadn’t called me back? The other car left him there.”
“What other car?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe there wasn’t one… but I swear, I could hear another car on the road, right before the screeching tyres.”
Luke’s eyes turn thunderous. “We need to tell the police that. They might already know. If the fire service looked at the road after Brody was taken out of the car, they’d have seen two sets of tracks.”
I can’t worry about that yet.
“Mrs Harris?” the nurse says.
Luke lifts his eyebrow, and I turn to her.
“Is he okay?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have an update just yet. I’m here to take you to a family room.”
“Brody’s parents and siblings are on their way. Mine, too.”
She nods. “We can show them to the room when they arrive. Please, follow me.”
Luke and I walk a step behind her, following her through the corridor, making left and right turns that my mind is not remembering.
She opens a door to a small pale-yellow room with seating around the perimeter. In the middle is a coffee table holding magazines, and to the left of the door is a water cooler.
“We’ll let you know how he is soon.”
“Thank you,” Luke says as she leaves us to it.
I wonder how many people have been able to read those magazines. My mind is all over the place. I can’t even recall what turns we took to get here, let alone read an article and take any of it in.
“Now, we wait,” I say, looking out of the window along one wall.
The sun shines brightly onto the hospital, making the grounds outside look more like a manicured park.
“She called you Mrs Harris.”
I look over my shoulder. “They know I’m his wife. I don’t feel the need to correct her.”
Frankly, I don’t have the energy, and telling that
story makes it seem like a joke. In this moment, it feels anything but.
“If there are any decisions to be made, Wren, it should be Louise and James.”
I sit down next to Luke, my heart sinking to the floor. I don’t want there to be any decisions.
“I understand that my legal right isn’t the same as my moral right, Luke.”
Besides, I know that any decision Louise and James might have to make would be in Brody’s best interest and not theirs, the same as me.
“All right.”
“I still can’t believe you married my best friend.”
I chew my nails.
“Funny, I always thought Mason was your best friend.”
He shrugs. “They both are, I suppose, but I can have more serious conversations with Brody.”
“Will you be having one of those when he wakes up?”
“Yeah.”
“I hope it goes better than the last one.”
His lips crack into an amused smile. “It will. This really puts things into perspective.”
You can say that again.
“Do you know what you’re going to do yet?” he asks. “With the divorce, I mean.”
“Oh, I know what you mean. And not really.”
Except that I do. I know I’m going to rip the paperwork up into a thousand pieces. Or maybe less. Brody is right; we need time to get our heads around what has been happening between us.
Marriage might not be the perfect way to start a relationship, but divorce is undoubtedly worse.
“Go with your heart, I guess,” he says.
I’m pretty sure I know what my heart wants. And it’s lying on a hospital bed.
Our parents arrive, everyone frantic with worry and asking Luke a million questions.
My head hammers with a deep-rooted headache. I can barely breathe with worry. I’ll do anything to fix this. Anything to make him okay.
Mum sits beside me and says something, but I can’t focus.
Brody looked dead.
That doesn’t mean he is. He’ll fight to get better.
I reach down for my handbag, looking for painkillers. I pull my hand out, and the world stops.
The black casino chip.
“No,” I sob.
“Wren?” Mum says.
I’m vaguely aware of everyone crowding around me, looking at the small black circle on my palm.
“What is it?”
“My ring,” I whisper.
“Your what, darling?”
“I must have put it in my bag at some point that night. I assumed I’d lost it.”
Louise kneels in front of me. “Your ring?”
My pulse thuds in my ears. “When we were getting married, Elvis asked us to exchange rings, but we didn’t have any. Brody pulled this out of his pocket. I stuffed it in my bra.”
With a half-laugh, my heart breaks in two, and I collapse into Mum.
“I love him,” I sob, closing my hand tightly around the chip.
Chapter 56
Brody
I wake up to pain radiating through my entire body.
It’s dark, even when I manage to crack my eyes open. The room is dimly lit and smells faintly of cleaning products.
“Brody…”
I wince as Wren’s voice cuts through the room, and my skull.
“He’s awake,” she says. “Brody, can you hear me?”
Pretty fucking hard not to.
When I slide my eyes to her, the first thing I notice is how puffy her eyes look. She’s still impossibly beautiful. And loud. I can’t think of anything better to open my eyes to.
I open my mouth but speaking feels like using energy I just don’t have.
“Shh. It’s okay, love,” Mum says, leaning over the bed. “Dad has gone to get a nurse.”
There was a crash.
Fuck, my car is a write-off.
I remember the deafening sound of metal and turning over. Then, everything went black.
Groaning, I close my eyes and listen to them instead. My eyes sting, my head throbs, and I’m pretty sure every bone in my body is broken.
Wren takes a ragged breath that sounds like she’s been crying for a while. Fits her glossy eyes. It must be sometime in the middle of the night. She stayed. She would be allowed to legally, but she didn’t have to tell anyone we were married.
I feel my lips curl.
I knew we weren’t done.
“Brody, are you okay?” she asks.
Her hand slips into mine.
Yeah, I’m fine.
“Uh-huh,” I murmur.
“Can you stay awake until the nurse comes?” Mum asks.
“Mmhmm.”
Wren laughs. “You’re not usually this quiet. It’s odd.”
As soon as I don’t feel like I was flipped in a car, I have a lot to say to her.
“I’m sorry, Brody,” she whispers.
I turn my head, and despite the throbbing pain between my eyes, I open them. “’S-okay.”
She shakes her head, but whatever she’s about to say, I don’t get to hear it. Someone comes into the room.
I glance over, squinting my eyes because it hurts so fucking much. Can I get some morphine? Dad’s smile is wide. Behind him is a nurse. A very hot nurse from the Philippines or somewhere that way. She could fulfil a lot of fantasies, but all I want is the puffy-eyed girl holding on to my hand so tight that she might break bones in there, too.
“Hello, Brody,” the nurse says. “How are you feeling?”
“Been better,” I rasp.
“I’ll administer another shot of morphine for you.”
She comes at me with a tiny torch before she gives me my damn morphine. As soon as it kicks in, which, thankfully, is fast, I feel a bit better. Though, no more awake.
“What time is it?” I ask when the nurse leaves.
“Almost three in the morning,” Mum replies.
Dad has stepped out again to call Mase and Felicity.
“I’ve been asleep for a while.” I left work after lunch, and I’ve only just woken up.
Wren arches her back. “Yeah, you’ve been sleeping for hours in your comfy bed, and we’re all stuck on tiny chairs.”
Lifting my eyes, I smirk at her. I guess she’s done being worried about me then.
“I’m the patient.”
“You’re dramatic.” She pauses and bites her lip.
I take a deep breath. God, I’d love to be biting that lip.
“Was there another car on the road?”
Another car?
“Yeah.” My eyes widen. “There was another car. A silver Ford Escort, I think. New shape. It was on my side of the road.”
She scowls. “The bastard didn’t stop.”
“They’ll be back first thing,” Dad says as he walks into the room. He sits on the end of the bed. “You look awful, son.”
Despite the dull pain, I laugh. “Thanks.”
The nurse confirmed my injuries—two broken ribs, a broken wrist, and a concussion. Not to mention, cuts all over my body from the broken glass. Of course, I look like shit.
Wren squeezes my hand. “They cleaned the blood. You looked worse earlier.”
“Thank you,” I say dryly.
She lowers her gaze, and I feel it. The pain, the memory of seeing me with blood all over me. She and Luke found me.
“I’m fine now,” I tell her. “I’m going home tomorrow.”
Laughing, she says, “I bet you a hundred pounds, you’re not.”
“Gambling, huh? You should go to Vegas.”
“Dumb shit happens in Vegas.”
“Yeah.” I chuckle.
Dumb maybe, but I don’t regret marrying her.
“Do you need anything, Brody? Water?” Mum asks, reminding us that her and Dad are in the room, too.
“Water would be good. You know, you guys should go home and get some sleep. Wren is right; you can’t sleep in chairs.”
I sip the water she holds in front of me.
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“We’ll be okay,” Dad says.
“All I’m going to be doing is sleeping. There’s no point in you staying. Get a couple hours sleep and then come back at visiting time in the morning with Fliss and Mase,” I tell them.
I’m not seven. I don’t actually need my parents to sit by my side all night. Though, it was fucking nice to wake up and see them.
Mum and Dad glance at each other, knowing I’m right.
“Okay,” Mum relents, putting my water on the side. “But we’ll come back first thing.”
“Of course.” I grin.
“We’ll drop you at home, Wren,” Dad says.
“I’m not leaving,” she says, stubborn as ever.
I look over.
“Don’t even bother,” she tells me. “I’m not going anywhere. Besides, we need to talk, and you’re now awake.”
Can’t say I’m not loving her stubbornness at the minute. “You can’t sleep in a chair.”
She lifts her chin. “Watch me.”
“Wren…”
Shaking her head, she turns from me to my parents. “Thanks, but I’m staying the night.”
Dad laughs. “All right. Do you need anything?”
“I’m good.”
Mum and Dad leave after two very slow minutes of good-byes.
Wren turns to me with tears in her eyes. “You’re a bastard.”
Well, I wasn’t expecting that.
Chapter 57
Wren
I actually want to punch him in the broken ribs for how much he terrified me today.
“Sorry, what?” he asks.
He looks exhausted. I know I shouldn’t be doing this now, but his parents leaving has opened the dam.
“I was so scared,” I admit, my eyes stinging with fresh tears. “I heard the crash, and I was screaming your name, but you wouldn’t answer. Luke practically had to put me in the car. Then I saw you in that turned car with blood everywhere, and I thought you were going to die.”
I swallow a golf ball and swipe the tears from my face. I never want to feel like that again.
“Wren, I’m sorry.”
“I was going to kill you if you died.”
His face falls but only for a second, and it’s replaced by a hopeful smile. “You do like me, then.”
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