I dug some cash out of my pocket and gave it to the cab driver. I hoped Jacksin wasn’t mad that I’d taken some out of his wallet.
Once the cab pulled away from the curb, I checked the time, knowing my father would be there any minute. His flight had landed forty minutes ago, according to his voicemail. He’d been in an uproar when he left it, telling me how embarrassed he’d been over the way I treated Ethan.
Like he had any room to talk about how to treat people. I was livid that he thought he could talk to me that way, especially considering what I knew about him. It pissed me off that he could live on such a high horse after the terrible things he’d done.
The man had magic hands. He had the ability to save lives. God had given him a gift and he wasn’t using it properly. Just thinking of the cabinet with all the files of people who were either dead or still struggling made me even angrier.
I sighed and walked up to the front door of my childhood home. I paused with a frown. Two more cautious steps brought me up to the slightly opened door. Thinking that maybe my father was already home, I reached out and pushed the door the rest of the way open.
My breath caught as I stepped onto the broken glass in the foyer. The house was completely trashed. I didn’t recognize the living room. The couches were ripped apart, cushions lying in random places all over the room and feathers floating everywhere. Glass coated the floor, picture frames full of memories destroyed. Reaching down, I picked up a ripped picture of my father and me.
With shaky fingers, I went to grab my cell phone from my pocket before I realized I didn’t have it. There was no telling where in my apartment that thing was. I cursed and walk toward the kitchen to get the cordless. I slightly thanked my father for not getting rid of it when I made fun of him for being the only person left who had one.
With my back to the wall, I worked my way through the foyer and toward the kitchen. A nail from where a picture used to hang caught my shirt, prompting me to turn with a gasp. After releasing my shirt from the nail, I stepping into the kitchen and froze immediately.
The intruder was still there. Instinct told me to run for the door. I could still see it out of the corner of my eye and I was pretty sure I could make it out of the house without the trespasser knowing I was even there. Taking a step toward the door, my flats hit a patch of broken glass. I heard the crunch under my shoe the same time the intruder did.
He turned, his face going pale in fear of being caught. He was older, with greasy graying hair and deep, dirty wrinkles. His mouth opened in shock, revealing rotting teeth and cracked, chapped lips. His wide eyes took me in and he quickly reached for something in his jacket pocket.
I didn’t have time to react before he lifted the gun on me with shaky hands. He was as scared as me, and a scared person with a gun was never a good thing. He took a small step in my direction prompting me to move as well. I began to back up, but I slipped on a jagged piece of glass.
I knew it was my only chance, so I moved as fast as I could to run. The loud blast of the gun echoed off the walls in an ear-piercing howl. Something slammed into me, knocking me onto the floor.
39
Sin
I pulled up into the driveway at the doctor’s house and jumped out of the car. I’d barely put my car in park. For all I cared, it could have rolled into the street and got smashed into a million pieces.
I ran up the lawn and to the open front door. Everything was silent, which was never a good thing. Once I stepped into the house, broken glass crunched loudly under my feet, but the only thing I could hear was the pounding of my heart.
“Emily!” I roared, and my voice echoed off the walls. I longed to hear her voice—to know she was okay, but there was nothing, only the sounds of broken glass, and my heart beat. “Em…” I started to call for her again, but then I saw her.
Her legs stuck out from the doorway of the kitchen. I ran to her, dropping to my knees in a pile of broken glass, at her side.
“Emily? Talk to me, Emily.” My voice trembled as I touched her softly.
And then I saw it. There was a puddle of blood seeping into the knees of my pants. It spread across her shirt from her shoulder and down her side. Her pink shirt was soaked in crimson. My stomach felt weak, and the room began to move around me.
Reaching out, I touched her shoulder softly, and she moaned, turning slightly toward me.
“Emily.” My voice cracked. “Talk to me, baby. What did I do? Oh God, what did I do? I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so fucking sorry.”
I swiped at a tear that was tickling my cheek and pulled my cell out of my pocket. My fingers fumbled across my phone, leaving spots of blood that I hadn’t known was on my hands.
I caught the phone between my head and shoulder and grabbed Emily’s hand.
“9-1-1 what’s your emergency?” The operator sounded loudly.
“Someone’s been shot. We need help now!” I shouted out the address and begged her to get them here as fast as possible.
“Yes, sir, help is coming as fast at they can. They’re already on the way. There were already reports of gunshots in your area. Sir, could I please have your name?” she asked.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I hung up and pulled Emily into my lap.
“Help’s on the way, Em. Just stay with me. Please don’t leave me, Emily. Please. This is all my fault. I know I’m a fuck-up, but please don’t leave me.
Her eyelids fluttered as she turned toward my voice and squeezed my hand. She was weak and her skin was already paling from blood loss. I squeezed back and brought her cold hand to my lips, giving it a soft kiss.
“Jacksin?” she rasped.
She started coughing and a tiny bit of blood spewed from her mouth, landing on her drying lips.
“Shhh, don’t talk. Fight for me, baby. I need you to hold on. They’re on their way.”
She closed her eyes and I gave her a good shake. “Emily?” I called her name in a panic, and her eyes popped back open.
“I need to tell you. I love you, Emily. I love you so fucking much. I know I shouldn’t. I have no right to after what I’ve done, but you saw past the monster I was becoming and you brought me back to life. Forgive me for everything I’ve done to you, Emily. Please forgive me.”
Again, I swiped angrily at a falling tear. Dammit! What was taking them so long to get to her?
And then I heard the sirens. They grew louder and louder, and I knew it was only a matter of minutes before they arrived. It didn’t matter what happened to me; I wasn’t leaving her.
“What the hell? Who are you? What are you doing in my… Emily? Oh my God, Emily!”
My head snapped up at the sound of her father’s voice, and he came rushing toward us.
“What did you do?” he asked me while staring at his daughter in horror. “Get away from her!” he roared as he dropped to his knees at her other side.
My fist clenched, but it was Emily’s soft moan of pain that brought me back to reality. I already caused her enough heartache. I wouldn’t hurt her anymore.
Leaning down, I pressed a soft kiss on her temple and pushed her hair away from her blood-covered lips.
Her father pressed against my shoulder to push me away. I looked up into his beady eyes and for a second it struck me how much he really did care for Emily. He looked like he was ready to murder me.
“I said get away from her!” he yelled at me.
He began checking her vitals and ripping her shirt off to check the wound. He was a doctor—a dirty doctor—but he was a doctor, and she was his daughter. He had to save her. He had to.
Slowly, I got to my feet and watched as he softly talked to her while checking her wound. She cried out a little when he probed it gently and her pain struck my heart, angering me all over again.
“That’s my girl. Fight it, sweetheart,” he said to her, and again she called out in pain as he lifted her arm to check her more thoroughly.
“You did this,” I hissed, and he looked up at me in confusion.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.
“You did all of this, remember that. Save her life, because if she dies, I will kill you!”
And I meant it. If something happened to Emily, we were both to blame, and since I already felt dead, he deserved to die, too. If something happened to her, I’d kill him. And this time it wouldn’t be for Chelsea, it would be for Emily.
I didn’t go straight home, but I knew I couldn’t go to the hospital for two reasons. One: I was sure to go to jail. All Emily’s father knew was he found me there with her and she was shot. He knew nothing about the man who was supposed to kill him for me. He had no idea there had been a second person there, and regardless of how I tried to explain it to him or the police, it wasn’t going to look good on me, and I saw bars in my future.
Two: I couldn’t watch another person I loved die. Call me selfish, but I couldn’t do it. And if by some chance she made it through, she deserved better. I loved her enough to give her a better chance at life than being stuck with a crazy fucker like me.
Not to mention, I wasn’t even sure if she had feelings for me the way I did for her. Either way, it was for the best all around. I would always love Emily. I’d love her for being the one person bright and beautiful enough to pull me from the brink of death. I’d love her because she was her. She was the most amazing woman I’d ever known.
Because of everything that went down, I knew what I had to do. I had to leave. I had to go as far away as possible, and I had to do it for me and for Emily, too. I reached into my glove compartment and pulled out the last thing I’d bought for Chelsea.
I ran my fingers over the metal Eiffel Tower. Paris. I was going to run to Paris.
White rocks crunched under my tires as I pulled my car up to the last place I ever thought I’d have to go. It felt like a million years since I was there watching them lower my daughter into the ground. I didn’t think I’d survive that, and I definitely never thought I’d ever be able to come back to her resting place again.
I had to say good-bye. Chelsea deserved that much from me. I needed to tell my baby girl good-bye and I needed to move on. She would want that for me, and since I wasn’t able to ever take her to Sleeping Beauty’s tower, I’d make sure the parts of her that lived in my heart would.
I made my way across the graveyard, careful not to step on anyone’s grave. I passed headstone after headstone until my eyes landed on Chelsea’s name. Bending over, I ran my fingers across the fresh grass that had grown over her space.
“There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I don’t think of you.” I sighed, kneeling down in front of her headstone. “I know it seems like I deserted you, but I thought I was doing what was best for you, baby.”
My eyes filled with tears, blurring out her headstone and the praying cherub carved into the marble above her name.
“I want to regret what I did. I tell myself I was wrong, but I found love again, and I can’t find it in me to wish I hadn’t ever met her.”
I placed a single pink rose on top of the headstone.
“You were everything I could ever want in a daughter, Chelsea. You’re the reason I can love, the reason I can forgive, and the reason I will never forget the happiest time of my life. I’ll thank God every day for the rest of my life that he gave you to me, even for the short time you were on this earth. You made my life perfect.”
I kissed my fingers and placed them over her name.
“I love you, princess.”
I stood and swiped at the tears on my face. Pulling out the Eiffel Tower that I’d bought her, I bent over her grave and placed it next to the flower.
“Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty.”
40
Emily
I woke three days later, feeling like death had run me over with a big truck. My father was sleeping uncomfortably in the chair beside my bed, and the sounds of the hospital monitors filled the room.
I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain cut through my chest and shoulder that made me gasp for air. I tried to remember everything that happened, tried to remember why I was in the hospital, but everything was blurry. All I could see was Jacksin’s eyes and tears falling from them.
And then as if someone turned on a big, bright light, all of the memories of the day I was shot came rushing in. I remembered everything. The feel of it, how the man who did it went rushing out of the house. I remembered Jacksin at my side, crying and begging me not to leave him, and then another memory moved in.
The memory was so strong. The heart monitor beside me sped up as I remembered it so clearly. Jacksin told me he loved me. He confessed his love as he held me bleeding in his arms.
Just like that, I tried to sit up again, ignoring the pain, until my father pressed a hand against my good shoulder, holding me down.
“No, sweetie, you have to stay down. You lost a lot of blood and you were in surgery for a long while.”
“Surgery?”
“Yes. You were in there for three hours while they tried to stop the bleeding and remove the bullet.” His face turned red and angry. “When I think of what those vile men did to you…” His voice trailed off. “The police have been waiting to talk to you. The sooner they catch the bastard that did this to you, the better.”
“Daddy, where’s Jacksin?”
Before he could answer, there was a light tap on my door before it was pushed open. Two policemen walked in and took off their hats.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Gelding. How are you feeling?”
I moved, flinching slightly. “As good as I can, I suppose. Have you guys been waiting outside my door this entire time?” I was only half kidding.
He laughed nervously. “No. Actually, we were just coming down by chance that you were up.”
“I guess you guys got lucky. I’m sorry, this is my father, Dr. Gelding.”
Both police officers looked at my father and gave him firm nod. “We actually met your farther a few days ago. He’s hasn’t left your side since you got here.”
“Well, I don’t think you’re here just to see how I am…”
“No, ma’am. We actually just needed to ask you a few questions and then we’ll leave you to rest. We figured it was best to talk to as soon as we could so everything was fresh in your memory.”
I took a deep breath and even that hurt. “Of course. What would you like to know?”
“We haven’t been able to figure out much about the man who shot you. It seems his file was stolen from your father’s office.”
His eyes flashed to mine and a soft pink touched my cheeks. Not because I’d been the one to steal the file, but because I remembered all too clearly what had happened in my father’s office.
“The hospital is trying to dig up what they have on him but haven’t been able to get that information to us yet. We’d like to know anything you can tell us about him. Did he let anything slip that might help us find him?”
And then it registered what he’d said. I tried to sit up farther in bed. “I’m sorry, did you say shot me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I shook my head. “Sin didn’t shoot me.”
He frowned. “Sin? Is that what he said his name was? His name’s Jacksin.”
“Yes, I know, but he didn’t shoot me. I was shot by the man who broke into my father’s house. Jacksin saved me. He called 9-1-1.”
My father reached out and squeezed my hand. “It’s over, sweetheart. You don’t have to pretend anymore. He can’t hurt you. You’re safe.”
I pulled my hand free of his and practically growled at him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t pretending with him.”
“You’re talking out of your head, Emily. You’ve been under a ton of stress and stress can do that do you.” He continued to try to talk me out of my feelings.
“No!” I said firmly. “I know exactly what I’m talking about, and Jacksin didn’t do what you think he did.”
“We didn’t see any sign o
f anyone else being there, Ms. Gelding.”
“Of course not! He wasn’t going to stay around after he shot me, and since you were so sure Jacksin was the one who shot me, you didn’t bother to look for anyone else.”
The officer cleared his throat uncomfortably. Ms. Gelding, if you don’t help us, we can’t press charges against—”
“Press charges? I’m not pressing any charges unless you find the actual man who shot me.”
“Emily…” My father started, outraged.
“I said I’m not pressing charges.”
“Ms. Gelding, I understand that you probably feel some sort of compassion for this man. We know his daughter did pass a few months ago and your father was the attending doctor. He might have felt some resentment toward your father and took it out on you. You don’t have to worry that he’ll—”
“I assure you, officer, that’s not the case. I won’t be pressing charges,” I repeated firmly.
The officer looked slightly annoyed, but I didn’t care. When he realized I wasn’t going to back down, he sighed.
“I’m sorry to have wasted your time, Ms. Gelding. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
I smiled at him politely. “Thank you, officer.”
My father gave him a terse good-bye and waited until he had closed the door before standing and going in on me.
“Have you lost your mind, Emily? That man—”
“Did nothing, but save my life,” I said icily.
“I know he’s more involved than you’re letting on, Emily. I don’t understand why you’re protecting him. Did he threaten you? Did he say he would hurt you if you said anything? Or hurt me? I promise you, daughter, he won’t lay a finger on you ever…”
“He told me everything,” I yelled at him. “I saw the files in your desk. All those lives you played with. How could you do that?”
His face paled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear. Again, you’ve been under lots of—”
“No! I saw them with my own eyes. Jacksin’s not the monster. You are! All those years I looked up to you. You were my hero, and all that time you were passing up surgeries that could save lives because of money.”
The Wrath of Sin Page 17
