Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 123922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
“Promise me!” I repeated, tears streaming down my face as I began to cough again.
“Please, don’t make me choose-”
“Promise!” I screamed through my coughs.
Kane wailed, “I promise!”
I tightened my hold on him. “I love you, so m-much. You’re perfect, inside and out...” I paused to cough once more, “you make me so h-happy.”
“Stop it!” Kane bellowed at me. “Stop talking like that. Just stop. Please.”
I slumped, as the weight on my chest grew heavier.
“Do not go to sleep!” Kane shouted and slapped my face with force, but I didn’t feel it. “Keep your eyes open.”
Sleep.
That sounded so good.
“Aideen!” I heard Gavin’s voice whimper. “Please!”
I wanted to comfort him and Kane, but I couldn’t move.
“Tired,” I rasped.
“Just rest a little, but don’t go to sleep,” Kane said, his voice cracking.
I opened my eyes and gazed into his for a long moment and just in case I didn’t wake up and see his face again, I said, “Bye.”
The force of my words hit him like a train, I saw it.
Goodbye.
“No,” he whispered, “it’s never goodbye. It’s I’ll see you later, remember?”
I slid my eyelids closed when they became too heavy to keep open.
“Don’t you think of leaving me, Aideen Collins. I need you. I love you, babydoll. Please, stay with me. You can do this, I’m right here with you. Me and you?”
Me and you.
I heard loud sirens then a lot of shouting and commotion. I didn’t need to open my eyes to confirm there were now loads of people around me—I could sense their presence.
“Sir, please, save her. I’m begging you. Please.”
Kane.
“She’s almost thirty weeks pregnant, don’t press on her stomach! Don’t let me sister and nephew die. Please save them. Please.”
Gavin.
“Move back. We’ll do everything we can, but you both have to stand back.”
Everything became noise.
“Aideen!” I heard his voice through the cloud of haziness. “Stay awake, babydoll.”
“Aideen!” This was Gavin.
I wanted to reply to them both, I really did, but I just couldn’t stay awake any longer. I let myself fall into darkness, but just before my mind when blank I saw Kane’s smiling face and it put me at peace. I just hoped if I didn’t wake up, he could somehow find peace, too.
Blinding white light.
That’s what I was greeted with when I blinked my eyes open. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light, but even when they did, I still had to blink a lot. They stung pretty bad.
I squeezed my eyes shut and attempted to lift my hand to rub them. I frowned when I found I couldn't. There was some sort of wire on my arm and I had no idea what it was. I forced my eyes open and tried to look down, but something on my face prevented me from seeing.
There was a mask over my nose and mouth.
What the hell?
I closed my eyes again and placed my hand on my bed and felt for Kane, but I just felt mattress then a rail?
“Kane?”
When I spoke, it sounded more like a rasp and it hurt like fucking hell. I erupted into a fit of coughing, and each cough tore through my throat.
Oh, God.
What was wrong with me?
“Aideen, it’s okay.”
Kane?
I opened my eyes and focused them until I could see his face. He was leaning over me and it looked like he just woke up.
“Where-”
“Don’t speak, babe,” he cut me off. “You’re in the hospital.”
The hospital?
“Wh-”
“There was a fire at the school. You were trapped for a little bit, but you’re safe now. You’re safe, babydoll.”
A fire in the school?
I tried to think of a fire, but I couldn’t.
My mind drew a blank.
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
“You don’t remember?” Kane questioned.
I tried to think hard, but nothing came to me so I shrugged my shoulders.
“It’ll come back to you,” Kane murmured.
I nodded my head and tried to sit up a little, but I yelped when pain shot up through my leg. I pulled the blankets off my lower half and stared down at the royal blue cast that covered my mid-thigh down to my ankle of my right leg.
What the hell?
Kane gripped my hand. “Your knee and shin bone were broken. You’ll have to wear the cast for eight weeks until the damage repairs itself.”
I blinked.
What the fuck happened to me?
I examined the rest of my body for any other signs of injury, and my eyes zeroed in on the white bandage that was wrapped around my left arm from my elbow to my wrist. I stared at it then looked up at Kane.
He frowned. “Second degree burns. You’ll need a skin graft.”
Fucking. Hell.
I checked out the rest of my body but saw nothing else, so I looked at Kane.
“You have a black eye, and a swollen jaw, but that’s it. Everything else is okay.”
I slowly nodded my head.
“Are you in pain?”
Surprisingly no.
It hurt when I tried to talk, but other than that I was okay.
I shook my head.
“Good,” Kane said. “Pain meds and some fluids are in the IV drip. They’ve had you on it since you came in last night. You’ve been here for sixteen hours now.”
I’ve been here for sixteen hours?
“Are you okay?” Kane asked me.
I instantly shook my head.
I didn’t know what happened to me, or why I was so busted up. It made me feel like a stranger in my own body. I didn’t like it.
I looked down to my hands and stared hard at them. I tried so hard to think about what happened to me. I could remember going to school for detention. I had one kid to look after. One kid. My classroom. On our own.
One second things were misty and dark, and the next images flooded my mind.
Philip.
Fire.
Smoke.
Caleb.
My baby.
I widened my eyes to the point of pain. “Baby,” I rasped then fell into a fit of coughing.
“Easy, darling,” Kane soothed and got me some water to drink. “Small sips, swallowing will hurt.”
I whimpered in pain when I swallowed the little bit of water I had in my mouth. It felt like lava was sliding down my throat.