Chapter 229 RECOVERY AND JAIL TIME.
KAI’S POINT OF VIEW.
The adrenaline mixed with the fierce determination to see Aurora well and breathing properly again was the only thing keeping my legs from stumbling under Aurora’s weight. Dad helped me set her properly so I could sit by her side while Everleigh sat in the passenger seat, so Dad could drive.
I stroked her dark hair, my hand firmly wrapped around hers. I felt her weak, but alive grip on my hand, and the way she squeezed my hand, as if to let me know she’s here…that she had not given up yet. Dad drove like a bat out of hell, speeding and swerving through cars. He didn’t stop, skipping past traffic lights so we could get to the family hospital; the one the horsemen family collectively owned for only members of their families.
“Finally.” I breathed, rushing out of the car. The medical team was already on standby to collect Aurora from us. They helped lay her on a gurney. In the process of wheeling her away, I didn’t once let go of her hand, my fear of her getting hurt all over again too strong to ignore.
She’s in this mess because I let her go once before. I’m never ignoring my intuition ever again. The sterile, white fluorescent lights of the Westridge Medical corridor blurred as we sprinted. The only thing that felt real was the dry, frantic heat of Aurora’s palm against mine. Every time the gurney jolted over a threshold, my heart lurched with it. Every time I stared at her moving chest, my brain came up with different scenarios ending with that chest stopping, with her pulling away, with me losing her.
We stopped suddenly, but before I could ask what happened, I felt a bunch of hands pushing me back. I didn’t once let go of Aurora’s hand; my eyes were wide with alarm. "Sir, you need to let go so we can do our job, and get the patient the help she needs!" a nurse shouted, her voice barely piercing the ringing in my ears. I watched all of them like they were the enemy.
They could be working for Marloise…..I could have missed. This could be a plan. Maybe they all wanted to push me aside so she could finish her plan. No….I can't let go, I can't let her down. Not again.
"I'm not leaving her!" I roared. My voice sounded feral, no longer the controlled tone I’d spent years crafting to hide the hell I suffered every time I closed my eyes. The hell that stopped only when I looked into Aurora’s eyes again. “I’m not moving an inch without her!”
"Kai, let them work!" Dad’s hand clamped onto my shoulder, a vice-like grip that finally forced me to skid to a halt, but I fought against it, not letting go of Aurora’s hand either.
Just then, a bunch of doctors pushed me at once, their hands lifting me against the wall while the nurses wheeled Aurora in, forcing our joined hands apart. “No! No! Aurora! I need to go with her…. Please, let me go with her. I can't live….I can’t live without her. I won't!” I roared, but they sealed the door shut, the doctors still holding onto me so I couldn’t move.
All I could do was fight, or try to fight their hold while hoping and praying silently that I did not fail her, that Marlpise was not somewhere in there with my soul. That I wouldn’t lose Aurora again.
Because she wasn’t only my girlfriend, or my fiancé… she was the very essence of my life. The second she stopped breathing, I would too. There’s no life for me except one where she exists in it.