Black Limit

by Charlotte Byrd

  The box comes with a little note.

  * * *

  These made me think of you. I hope you like them.

  Love forever,

  Aiden

  * * *

  My heart skips a beat. Tears start to run down my cheeks.

  “He must’ve ordered you these before he…” Brie says, her voice dropping off.

  I nod and caress the earrings with my fingers. I love them, Aiden. They are perfect. Suddenly, I miss Aiden so much, I double over in pain.

  “I need to see him.”

  Chapter 9 - Aiden

  When I’m lying here….

  They don’t think I can hear them, but I can. Arguing. Fighting. Just like they did when I was growing up. Why they ever got married in the first place, I have no idea. Were they like this before I was born? Or did I make them into these people?

  Their voices low, but loud. They are whispering, but they might as well be talking. I can only make out some of the things that they’re saying.

  “Your fault.”

  “Bitch.”

  “Drunk.”

  I’m back to being nine years old, sitting in my room, listening to my parents fight downstairs. They don’t think their voices have the ability to carry upstairs. I never say anything. It’s easier for me to pretend that I can’t hear. When I get my first set of headphones, I turn the sound up so loud, I actually don’t hear them. From then on, I associate loud music with my parents fighting. That doesn’t make going to concerts very fun.

  Why are they even here? Who invited them? Who told them? I didn’t tell Ellie about them on purpose. I wanted to pretend that they didn’t exist. I wanted to pretend that I was this solid, adult man with no baggage. But none of us grow up without baggage, do we? Perhaps, the process of growing and maturing is the process of forgiving your parents for what they’ve done. Forgiving, but not forgetting. None of us forget. We all aim to become better versions of ourselves with our own kids. Was that my parents aim as well?

  All of my grandparents died when I was quite young. I don’t have any siblings; just these two. They never get tired of saying that they have stayed together all those years before the divorce for me. Well, who the hell asked them to?

  My thoughts drift to my own child. Will I come out of this intact enough to be the father that he or she will need? Will Ellie and I ever be a real family? My hatred for Blake has subsided to the recesses of my mind. I do not spend any more of my energy on him. It’s not worth it. He did what he did. He got me into this predicament. I don’t have any control over the past. All I can do is learn to live with it right now. In the present.

  The monitors beep somewhere in the background, but not loud enough to drown out their voices. Ellie’s not here now. I can’t sense her sweet presence. All I can do is hope that she will come back soon. I need her. I crave her. I don’t know where I would be without her.

  Dean shuffles his feet as he walks. Arlene stomps her high heels. She uses her fingers to display aggression; he cowers in a corner in return. What have they done to each other over the years? Will Ellie and I ever be like them? No, no, no. Ellie and I are in love. Ellie is my soulmate and I hope that I am hers. We get each other. We are never cruel or hateful. If I ever feel like I’m becoming my parents…I’m going to put an end to it. My child will never hear an ugly word. My child will never hear me disrespect their mother. My child will feel only love coming from me. Children deserve that. It’s not something that I ever had, and it’s something that I will certainly give my child if I get the chance.

  Beep.

  Beep.

  Beep.

  “What are you doing? Stop that.”

  “You knew about this last night, you wino. Why don’t you drink a little less so you can be here a little more for your child?”

  “Fuck you!”

  “Fuck you!”

  “Please, please, Mr. and Mrs. Black. You have to stop fighting. This is having an effect on your son.”

  “Oh, c’mon. He’s a vegetable, can’t you see that? He’s not here! You all did this to him!”

  “Mrs. Black, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  “I don’t care. I’ve signed the paperwork. I’m taking him to a place where he can get actual help.”

  “Mrs. Black, please. He’s in no condition to be moved. Is his fiancée okay with this?”

  “I don’t care. Ellie’s got no say in this. She’s not his wife. She’s a nobody.”

  Beep.

  Beep.

  Beep.

  Chapter 10 - Ellie

  When I go back to the hospital…

  I rub my new earrings between my fingers as I sit in the back of a cab. Brie is staring out of the window with a pensive look on her face.

  “Are you okay?” She turns to me and asks.

  “Yeah.” I nod. “Just hope that something is different today.”

  I run my fingertips over the soft metal at the end of the earring, and suddenly I feel close to him. It’s like he’s almost right here next to me. My heart skips a beat. I can’t wait to see him. To take his hand in mine. To kiss his palms and thank him. Mainly, to tell him that I’m going to be here for him no matter what.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Brie mumbles. I narrow my eyes. Something doesn’t feel right.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “Nothing.”

  “What?”

  “I just have a bad feeling about something. I don’t want to worry you.”

  “About Aiden?”

  “Yes.”

  “Brie…” I plead. Take it back. Why are you telling me this?

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s not my place.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have. I’m worried enough.”

  “I know you are,” she mumbles.

  The cab can’t get to the hospital fast enough. While Brie pays, I run inside and speed over to his room. The anticipation that I had felt earlier somehow morphed into full blown anxiety in a matter of minutes. Brie’s premonition has taken over my mind. What if she’s right? What if something happened last night? How could I have been so stupid? Why did I leave him alone in that room with his horrible parents?

  I run up to the nurses’ station on his floor. They are laughing and chatting happily, holding cups of coffee. Then they see me. Their faces drop. My heart sinks.

  “What? What happened?” I demand. I run to his room.

  “Ellie, please.” I hear them behind me.

  When I burst through the doors, I see nothing but an empty bed. It has been cleaned. The sheets are made. Perfect hospital corners. It’s waiting for its next patient.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Aiden?” My heart seizes up. I can’t breathe. I start to see little dots all around my peripheral vision.

  “Ellie, please, calm down,” one of the nurses says, putting her hand around my shoulder. I knock it off.

  “Where’s Aiden?!” I scream.

  “He’s…” the nurse starts to say. I get dizzy. I try to sit down, but I miss the chair behind me and land straight on the cold linoleum floor.

  “Oh my God! Ellie!” Brie runs over and helps me up. Somehow the fall knocks me out of this sense of helplessness. The room is no longer closing in on me. I take a few deep breaths and look at the nurse whose name I can’t remember.

  “Tell me,” I say, preparing myself for the worst.

  “His parents took him to a hospital in Boston.”

  I hear her words in my head, but I don’t really process them. What? Why? Who the hell gave them that right?

  “His mom made the decision last night. She was convinced that the doctors here don’t know what they're doing.”

  “I thought that they were just going to get someone to come in for a second opinion,” I say. Dr. Briggs comes into the room with a crestfallen expression on her face. She looks defeated.

  “Dr. Briggs, what’s going on?”

  Unfortunately, she doesn’t h
ave much more to fill me in on. She repeats pretty much the same thing that the nurse has told me; instead of getting a second opinion and flying that doctor here, she decided to take him to a hospital in Boston.

  “Is it a good hospital at least?” I ask.

  “Yes, it is. But it’s the movement that’s the problem. They did hire a medical helicopter, but we don’t really know what kind of damage moving him in such a precarious condition will have. None of us recommended it.”

  I shake my head.

  “Where is he?”

  “Unfortunately, I can’t really tell you that,” Dr. Briggs says.

  “What?”

  “You are not technically a relative. And Mrs. Black did not give us consent to share that information with anyone.”

  “I’m his fiancée! I’m the mother of his child.”

  “I know, Ellie. I’m so sorry,” Dr. Briggs says.

  “What do you want me to do? I have to see him. You’re just not going to tell me?”

  “Maybe you can contact Mrs. Black directly and ask her. I’m sure she won’t mind telling you.”

  “If she didn’t authorize me and took him in the middle of the night, then I’m pretty sure that she will.”

  “I’m sorry, Ellie, but I could lose my license over this. I really can’t tell you. Medical records are confidential.”

  “Fuck you!” I say and storm out of the room. A dull pulsating pain runs through the hand that Blake slammed against the kitchen table. It’s healing well, but anytime I get upset, the pain acts up.

  “I’m going to kill her,” I say, walking back and forth in front of the nurses’ station. “I’m actually going to kill her.”

  Brie tries to calm me down. She puts her arm around me, but I just shrug her off. I’m fuming.

  “Who the hell does she think she is? I mean, what gives her the right to barge in on our life and take over? Aiden hasn’t spoken to her in who knows how long. He barely even mentioned her to me. And now that he’s ill and completely immobile, she comes in and takes over? What the hell?”

  “That really sucks, Ellie. I’m so, so sorry.”

  “Let’s get some coffee.”

  I’m alert. Agitated. Far from tired. But I also feel like I need to do something and coffee seems like a good choice. We head downstairs to the cafeteria. Riding down the elevator, I’m clenching the railing so hard that my knuckles turn white. I only notice this when someone gets on and gives me a warm smile. I manage to nod back and this relaxes my body a bit.

  Fuuuuuuuck! I scream inside. Why can’t something go right, for once? Now, not only is Aiden in a fucking coma, but he’s also somewhere where I can’t find him. And the worst part? His parents don’t even want me to. Well, fuck them. I’m not going to let them push me away. I love him and I’m going to fight for him. He would do that for me. I know it.

  I calm down a bit when we sit down in the cafe. I sit by the window and take a few small sips of the hot coffee. I watch the steam come off the top and twirl in the light. Outside, snow is falling. A bad Nor’easter is coming. It’s going to bury the whole North Atlantic coast in feet of snow. If I’m going to get to Boston, I have to go as soon as possible.

  “I’m going to Boston,” I say.

  “What?”

  “I’m going to Boston.”

  “But he could be at any hospital there.”

  “I know, but I don’t know what else to do. I have to try. In reality, there are probably only a few hospitals or maybe even one that they would take him to. The one with the best doctors that specialize in this sort of thing, right?”

  “I guess.”

  “I have to try, Brie. I don’t know what else to do.”

  We sit for a few moments watching the snow fall.

  “I’ll be right back,” she says after a few moments. I’m glad for the time alone. I need to figure out a plan for how to attack this situation. What would Aiden do if it were me? The problem is that Arlene has so many more resources than I do. Still, I have to try. I have to find him and I have to get her to let me see him. I can’t lose him. He’s my whole life.

  Chapter 11 - Ellie

  When I go on a search…

  While Brie is away, I try to think of how I should go about finding him. The first thing I do is actually look him up online. I know that it’s stupid. But he is a celebrity. Maybe someone, somewhere found out about him being taken to another hospital and posted the name of it. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be found on Google except some information about the shooting and the fact that I had killed Blake after he attacked me. Things I already know all too well.

  Then I search for hospitals and doctors specializing in coma patients. Little did I know, but Boston is a mecca of brain medicine and hospitals in general. It seems like if you are afflicted with something, it’s Boston where you want to be. Frankly, I don’t even know where to start. The best course of action is to go back upstairs. Someone up there has to know something. Maybe one of the nurses, or an orderly. Someone must’ve heard something when they were moving him. Dr. Briggs and all the other doctors have made it quite obvious that they were against the idea.

  What the hell is taking her so long? I wonder.

  Where are you? I text Brie. No answer. I finish my cup of coffee and head upstairs.

  I walk straight to the nurses’ station and find one that I remember chatting with earlier. Unfortunately, all of their names are a blur.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name. This has been a difficult few days,” I say to the younger one. The one with the friendliest face.

  “I’m Amber.”

  “Hi, Amber. I’m Ellie. My boyfriend, Aiden Black—“

  “Yes, I know,” she cuts me off.

  “He was shot. They put him into a medically induced coma,” I continue.

  “Yes, I was here for that.”

  “Please, Amber, you have to help me. I went home last night and his mother just took him away. She transferred him to some other hospital, in Boston. But I don’t know where he is.”

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbles.

  “Amber, I’m begging you. He’s my fiancée. We’re getting married. I’m carrying his baby. I need to be with him. I have to know if he’s okay.”

  “Can’t you just contact his mother?”

  “That’s the thing…I don’t know how. She never told me she was going to do this. She just took off.”

  “I don’t know what I can do.”

  I can’t tell if I’m making any progress, but I continue.

  “I’m sure that if you just looked through the computer, you would find his files. There must be some information here about where they transferred him to.”

  “I’m not sure if we’re supposed to do that.” She shrugs. “Private medical information, you know.”

  “Yes, I know. But I’m family. I’m the closest person to him and they took him away. He hasn’t talked to his mother in a long time. I’ve never even met her and we were going to get married.”

  I pause. No, that doesn’t sound right.

  “We are going to get married,” I correct myself. “I just want to be with him. I want to make sure he’s okay.”

  Amber looks around. The other nurses are busy talking to each other and on the phone. One is looking through paperwork. C’mon, please, Amber, I say silently to myself. Please, help me.

  “I really need your help,” I whisper, leaning over the counter.

  “Okay,” she finally agrees. I let out a sigh of relief. Okay, okay, this is going to work.

  “What’s his full name again?”

  I give it to her. She types it into the computer, which is facing away from me.

  “Is he the Aiden Black?”

  “Yep.”

  “The founder of Owl.”

  “Yep.”

  “Oh, wow, you’re lucky,” she says in a girly way, but then catches herself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “It’s totally okay,” I mu
mble.

  “Okay, let’s see here. It seems like they are taking him to —“

  “Amber,” a low disapproving voice interrupts her.

  “Where? Where did they take him?” I whisper.

  “Amber, please come with me.”

  “Why?” she asks.

  “You know quite well that we cannot release medical information to non-family members,” the older nurse with big hair and an even bigger bosom says.

  “Amber, where did they take him?” I plead. “Just tell me and I’ll go.”

  Amber is about to open her mouth. But then the nurse says, “If you tell her, then you are fired.”

  Amber takes a step back.

  “What? You can’t do that.”

  “Yes, I can. You will be fired for disclosing private medical information to a stranger.”

  “I’m not a fucking stranger.”

  “I would like you to leave, Ms. Rhodes. I’m calling security to escort you out.”

  I shake my head. No, no, no. This can’t be happening. I was so close to finding out.

  “Please, ma’am, I don’t think you understand.”

  “I do understand,” she says calmly. The tone of her voice is ice-cold. “I’m sorry, but we cannot tell you.”

  I look over at Amber. Her eyes are wide and filled with horror.

  I’m sorry, she mouths.

  “Now, are you going to leave, Ms. Rhodes? Or shall I call security?”

  “I’m going,” I whisper. “I’m going.”

  * * *

  ***

  I walk down the hallway. My shoulders are sagging with the weight of the whole world on them. What am I going to do now? My mind goes in circles over all the possibilities, but I come up with nothing. Turning at the corner, I disappear out of sight. I hope that’s enough for now for security not to be called on me. I still have to find Brie.

  “Pssst, over here.” I hear Brie whisper. I turn around and see her peeking out of an office.

  “What are you doing?” I whisper back. She motions for me to come over and disappears inside.