Chapter 158 158

Chapter 158 158
SPADE

Lex had decided that we should stay overnight at the hospital after our thorough check-ups and tending to our wounds, but no amount of medicines could heal us of what Hanna and her evil of armies had put us through.
 “I’m sorry.” I had never apologized to Sean since he went to prison for the first time until today. “I was wrong.” 
I was wrong about Sean. He was a victim and had been dragged into this mess because of me. He got hurt and had to be under observation because his wounds gaped and bled.
He still smiled at me and looked grateful after what he’d been through since his release. “You don’t need to apologize. I’ve done many terrible things in my life, and watching you there, seemingly not yourself, I realized I didn’t deserve a second chance.”
“You’re wrong. You deserve a second chance. You served your time, and you were mugged and abducted because of me. And I apologized because I thought you lapsed.”
 “I was going downstairs to throw trash when someone hit me on the back of my head.” He rubbed the bump on his head. “Then I woke up, I was getting punches from a man I’ve never met before, asking me about you that I had no idea about. When he couldn’t get anything from me, he prodded his finger into my wound. And then he said that I would die today.”
 “When Robyn got abducted, we dug into who’s behind her abduction. We started to think that it was an European mafia, but it was bigger than that. I didn’t know we would discover an organization that was involved with some influential people with very deep pockets.” I didn’t have to explain, but I felt like he had the right to know, knowing he almost died.
 “What are you gonna do now?”
 “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “They’re going to jail, but there are still loyal members who are willing to reestablish the organization once they’re back on their feet.”
 “You should be very careful. You just exposed yourself to dangerous people. Maybe you can double your security.”
 I nodded. “Lex will keep someone to watch you once you go home.”
 “No.” He waved his hand. “Who would kidnap me again?”
 “Don’t argue with me, Sean. You talk to Lex. He’s the one who’s deciding your security.”
 He smiled again, but I still saw the horror in his eyes. “I don’t know what they did to you, but are you okay?”
 I exhaled forcibly. “No. After you went to jail, I was thrown into two foster homes. The last one was evil. If what you did to me was painful, try ten times worse than what happened to me in the basement.”
 “I’m sorry, son.” He reached out for my wrist. For the first time, I didn’t flinch or pull back. “I know my apology won’t mean anything, but I’m truly sorry.”
 I nodded. “If you promise to keep your head straight on your recovery and never fall off the wagon, maybe we can start over. If Lex can give you a second chance, then I should do it, too.”
 “I’d love that.” He looked beyond gratefully, his chin trembling, and his eyes overflowing with tears. “Thank you. I promise to keep that promise.”
 “Then I’ll see you there.”
 He wiped his tears and said, “You should go back to bed and rest. We all had a long day. Tell Robyn I said hi.”
 “I will. Rest well, Sean.”
 “You, too, son.”
 As I walked out of his room, I felt tons of weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt relieved. Maybe this was what acceptance and forgiveness meant.
 I was ready to rest until Wave and Quinton appeared. They were both shot. Wave on the arm while Quinton is on the abdomen, both on the wheelchairs. Their injuries weren’t fatal, but they scared the hell out of me. 
 “What the fuck are you doing here? Why aren’t you both in bed?” I glared at them as if I were scolding my children.
 Quinton looked at Wave as if asking him to go first.
 “Just go back to bed. Take sick leave as much as you want. Don’t come back to work until you’re fully recovered. That’s your apology, and I didn’t doubt you did your best to do your job.”
“There were a lot of them, sir. We were—”
“I don’t wanna hear any more explanation. I completely understand. We just have a powerful and capable enemy. This one is not on you.” When they hadn’t said anything. “Unless you’re here to tend your resignation, which I don’t accept, then go back to bed.”
 “Thank you, sir,” they said in unison.
 Robyn and I shared a two-bed private room. She quickly sat on the bed the moment she saw me. I was still trying to pinch myself that I made it out there alive, but I knew the trauma and the pain caused by today’s incident would live on for so long.
 Watching her with a gun to his head and the image of horror in that video had damaged me beyond repair. It cut through the deep scar in my being. It pierced right through my soul. The only thing that kept me going right now was that woman in bed and my family. Robyn was my light, the half of my soul that gave me reason and will to live.
 Yes, that evil might have broken me, but I was on that path for so long, and when you’d been through that pain for a long time, it numbed you, and you learned to adapt, to blend in until the pain didn’t bother you anymore. That was how I beat Hanna and her form of torture and mind control bullshit.
 “How did it go?” she asked excitedly.
“You should be resting.” I joined her in bed even though I had a bed for myself.
 “You’re not brooding. I guess it went well,” she was still prying. It wouldn’t be Robyn if she let this one go.
 I held her chin, allowing her to look at me. Her eyes were filled with horror. My own eyes prickle with tears.
 Just seeing the bandage around her wrists broke my heart over again. I let her rest in my arms because, honestly, I didn’t want her to be out of my sight. Not being able to feel her and seeing her again terrified me.