Shattered & Mended (5 page)

I place my hands to the sides of hers and beg her to tell me what’s wrong. “Allie, look at me. Tell me what’s happening, please,” I beg. 

At my plea, she stops shaking her head and lifts her eyes to mine. Her glazed eyes bore into mine, her glare sinister enough it’d make the toughest of men cower. “Get the fuck out of my room,” she growls.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Get out of my room!” she screams.

“The fuck I will. Allie, dammit, tell me what’s happening right fucking now.” Her eyes are dark as midnight, and tears pour from them like a busted fire hydrant. “It’s all coming back to me … Why I’m here, what you did, what I saw … Oh, God, why?” she cries.

“Al, you have to hear me out. You have to know that I—” 

“You can take your excuses, shove them up your ass, and get the fuck out of my room!” she bellows, reaching to the side of her bed and pressing the call button for the nurses.

“Fuck no, not until you tell me what you saw. I’m not fucking leaving!” The nurse comes over the speaker and asks how she may help Allie. “If you’re considering telling them to come get me, you better tell them to bring every soldier they have enlisted in the United States military. Every. Fucking. One. Because I promise you, that’s what it’s going to take to haul my ass out of here if I don’t get some answers to my motherfucking questions,” I spit. 

She swipes her tears away, sucks in a breath, and responds to the nurse. “Yes. Can you send all of your security officers in here to remove an unwanted visitor? And you will need them all,” she replies angrily.

“Why do you always have to be complicated? I came in here because I’ve been worried sick about your ass, not to fight. Oh, and while you’re remembering shit, you remember this …
.
I’ll be back. Hell or high water, I’m going to find out where my daughter is,” I promise. 

Eight

~Allie~

Mother of all holy shits, this is insane. Why? Why are these painful and unwanted memories flooding my mind? I was fine with being here and not knowing why. Completely. Fine. Couldn’t they have approached me with warning? Flashbacks? The physical pain from the fall is nothing compared to what I feel from these memories of betrayal. Why? How could he do this to me? All I’ve heard since he’s returned is how much he ‘loves’ me, and how we’re meant to be. Obviously not. When you love someone, truly love them, you stay and work things through. You sure as shit don’t turn your back on them, and then find the easiest piece-of-ass to rid your anger. Oh, God, just take them away, all of them. I don’t need any memories of Wyatt and me, and absolutely none of him fucking my best friend. My eyes burn, physically burn as the flashes of him slapping her on the ass come to view. And her moaning, her pleasurable moans are like needles being jabbed into my ears. 

“Why are you still standing there? Leave!” 

“No! Tell me what I’ve suddenly done to you?”

“You’re kidding, right? You seriously can’t stand here, look me in the eyes, and pretend you don’t know why I can’t stand the sight of you.”

If he won’t leave, and security wants to take their precious time getting here, I’ll remove him myself. It takes all the energy I have stored to remove my covers and swing my legs off the side of the bed. I reach out and grab my IV pole to pull myself up but fall faster than I stand. I’m on my hands and knees when I see Wyatt’s shoes come into view.

His arms cuff mine. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” The sensation my body experiences is abnormal, nothing I’ve experienced from him before. I become nauseous and contact with him makes my skin crawl. 

“Don’t touch me,” I spit, pushing him away from me with all my strength. He doesn’t budge.

“Just shut up and let me help you.”

Help me? That’s a first. “I don’t need your help, never have.” Okay, I need him a little bit, but only to pick myself up off the floor, that’s it. I will not show my weakness in front of him, not anymore. I hold tightly to the IV pole with one hand, take the other and grab a tight hold to the waistband of his jeans, and then slowly pull myself off the floor. I turn around and rest my hands on the bed to stabilize my breathing. The more upset I get, the faster I breathe. The faster I breathe, the more pain rips through my ribs. 

I whip my head to the side and see Wyatt adjusting the covers. He then gestures for me to crawl back onto the bed. “Please, just stop. Leave,” I beg.

“Get in the damn bed, Allie,” he orders. He untangles the tubing to my IV and grabs my elbow in an attempt to help me up onto the mattress.

I pull my elbow away from him. “Again, I don’t need your help. I can do it,” I argue. “Where is security anyway?” I mumble. 

“Believe me, baby, security ain’t gonna be enough. I’ve already told you, I’m not leaving.” 

“Why? It’s what you’re best at. Just go. You’ve never had a problem doing so before, shouldn’t be any harder for you now,” I point out.

He reaches out and his hands firmly cup my face, preventing me from pulling away. He bends down and stares intently into my eyes. “I don’t know what else I have to do to prove to you that I love you, and that I’ll do everything in my power to win you back. You giving away our daughter, carrying another man’s babies … none of it’s enough to turn me away from you,” he confesses.

“Yeah, but you sleeping with another woman is enough for me to wish our paths never crossed and that you never existed. You’re
the biggest
mistake of my life, aside from handing over Lacy,” I sneer.

At my words, his face contorts with pain. For the first time in my life
, I find pleasure in causing him pain. His eyes gloss over and he licks his lips before turning away, leaving me with the view I’m so used to seeing—his back. He walks to the door and places his hand on the knob. Turning back, he points his finger at me and opens his mouth as if he’s going to speak but doesn’t say anything. His nostrils flare as he inhales a breath, and he’s fighting hard to restrain his tears. He bites his lip and drops his head. “Even that, as much as it hurts, is still not enough,” he murmurs.

“Then what is, huh? I’m done. I can’t even look at you without seeing you buried inside of her and smacking her ass. It makes me sick. You make me sick.” My brain’s pounding in protest to my screaming, and my voice comes out as a defeated whisper. 

Finally, security knocks Wyatt away from the door as they burst through, looking for confrontation. The man dressed in a navy-colored uniform looks between me and Wyatt, confused. “We got paged to come here and remove a visitor for disturbing you. Is this the guy?” he asks, jabbing his thumb to Wyatt. My eyes remain attached to Wyatt as I watch escaped tears roll down his cheek. And as much as I believed I wanted to break him, seeing his tears crush me.

Wyatt shakes his head. “No, sir. No problems here. I was just leaving.” He swipes his tears away and averts his eyes to the floor before exiting my room. Karma came around and yanked my nipples faster than she’s done before. The pleasure I felt in breaking his heart immediately backfired and broke mine more than I did his. This evil bitch Karma needs to mind her own fucking business.

***

“Knock, knock,” Sophie sings, opening the door and waltzing into my room. Oh, the nerve of this bitch. She has a brown bag in her arms and a huge smile beaming across her slutty little face. She sits the bag down on the stand next to my bed and begins pulling out aluminum containers filled with my favorite food, Chinese. What an evil little whore she is. “Girl, I’m so happy your ass decided to wake the fuck up. Gah! I’ve been dying to hear your voice,” she smiles.

She opens the containers and, surprisingly, the smell makes my stomach roll, and not in a good way. I pinch my nose with my fingers to block the smell. “Put the lid back on.” She lowers her chin to her chest and raises her brow.

“What? Oh. My. Damn. It’s the concussion, right, making you sick?”

How dare she stand in front of me, just as Wyatt did, pretending everything’s fine. “Why are you looking at me like that? You’re staring at me like I put shit in your mailbox, again,” she snickers. My face is hard as stone, just like my heart is toward her. “Seriously, stop looking at me like you want to bite my damn head off.” I do, dumbass. She turns her attention back to the food and replaces the lids back onto the containers. I cock my head and watch her in disbelief. 

She finishes putting the food up and hops onto my bed. She crisscrosses her legs and pats my thigh. “Spill it, bitch; what’s goin’ on inside that crazy ass head of yours?” she probes. Didn’t I have enough conflict with Wyatt earlier? In my opinion
, it was enough to last me a lifetime, and I’m not in the mood to relive this shit again. All I want to do is have my bandages removed and go home. I’m grouchy; this bed hurts my ass, and the hospital food is disgusting. But I guess now is better than later; might as well get this out the way.

“Why did you come here, Sophie? Better yet, how can you waltz in here and pretend you didn’t betray me?” Her face falls and she looks all sorts of confused. “What the hell are you talkin’ about? You’re my sista from anotha mista. I want to make sure you’re okay. What’s your problem?” 

“You slept with Wyatt, Sophie. My Wyatt! I walked in on him fucking you. Pleasuring you the way he’s only supposed to pleasure me,” I snap.

“Oh, hell no. First of all, I had no fucking clue my Cooper was your Wyatt—no clue. Secondly, he is not to pleasure you in any way; you’re with Blake,” she fires back.

Yes, I am with Blake, and he’s the only one I want to be with. Wyatt’s not worth another sleepless night, but despite all that he’s done, he still owns a major portion of my heart. I don’t want him to, but he does. I want to be able to lovingly hate him, but this specific piece of our bodies–our hearts—it’s an involuntary muscle, and we have no control over it. 

“I don’t need you to point out that I’m with Blake. I know this,” I hiss.

“Um, think you could chill it with the snappy-ass attitude? You’re hurt. I get that, but does it really make sense for you to be upset with me? How was I supposed to know the guy we’ve talked about is the same man? Honestly, Al, I had no clue.” 

I consider her statement for a moment, and let it sink in. She’s right. There’s no way she would’ve known that Wyatt and Cooper are the same person. “I know,” I sigh.

“Do you want me to go?” she asks, standing from the bed. I nod. Not necessarily because I’m angry with her, just that I need to process all this madness. The images of her and Wyatt is too fresh, and I still can’t look at her without seeing him in her. “Okay, I’ll go. I truly am sorry that you had to see that,” she apologizes.

“I believe you.” Honestly, I do. Do I forgive her for sleeping with Wyatt when she had no idea we were connected? I’m not sure. I’m in no position to make decisions right now.

“I hope so. I can’t deal with your hatred, not toward me, at least. You know I would never go behind your back and betray you. I’d never hurt you, bitch, and you know it,” she smiles. She gathers the food she brought, slings her purse onto her shoulder, and heads to the door. “Soph,” I call. She turns around and flashes her dark, puppy-dog eyes at me, mascara accompanying her tears as they glide along the side of her face. “I don’t hate you. I just need some time, okay? I’ll call you once everything sets in, promise.” She smiles her sad smile and nods. Once she’s gone
, I grab the phone and call Blake. I need to see him. I need him to take me into his arms and tell me everything’s going to be okay.

The phone rings once, and Blake’s immediately on the line. “Hey, beautiful, how you feeling?” he asks.

“You know, like I fell down several flights of stairs, kissed the concrete, and had surgery … Not bad,” I joke.

He chuckles. “Ahhh, joking. That’s my girl,” he boasts.

“You coming by tonight?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“Is that even a question? You know I’ll be by. Plus, I have a surprise for you.” 

“A surprise? I think I’ve had enough surprises for one day,” I complain.

“Yeah? What happened?” 

“Don’t really want to talk about it right now. I can tell you that my memory came back, many unwanted and sickening memories.”

“I’m sorry, babe. Listen, I have one lady I’m waiting on to begin pushing, but it shouldn’t be long. It’s her fifth baby, so the little sucker should fall right on out,” he says matter-of-factly.
“You’re nuts,” I laugh.

“Only for you,” he replies seductively. His voice gives me spaghetti arms, making it even more of a struggle to hold the phone up to my ear.

“Oh
,
yeah? Well, I’ve got something that only goes nuts for you,” I purr.

“Don’t, dammit. Don’t you try to get me wound up
. You know you’re restricted from having sex, right?” What the fuck? No, I didn’t know one could be restricted from having sex. I sit in silence, pondering my sex-
forbidden doctor’s order. “Babe, they’re calling for me. I gotta go. Like I said, this shouldn’t take too long. I’ll deliver this bambino, shower, and be up right after. Love you.” He ends our call before I’m able to say it back. Along with many things I wish to forget, how time consuming Blake’s career is, that’s one of them.

Wet warmth wakes me as Blake covers my face with kisses. “Hey, baby. Sorry it took so long.”

I pull my arm up and wrap it around his neck. I pull him to me and gently cover his mouth with mine. “It’s fine. I was sleepy anyway. What happened to that baby sliding right on out?”

He smiles against my lips. “Apparently, kegels work, even for those women whose pussies look like it’s been hit by a meteor,” he shrugs.

“Not funny, Blake,” I scold, gently slapping the back of his neck. “That could be my pussy flappin’ in the wind in only a few months.”

He pulls his head back, pokes his lips, and scrunches his brows
. “No, it won’t. You need to recognize you’ve got the best doctor in the biz, baby.” He’s so sure of himself, so cocky and confident. I’ve never once doubted he’s the best doctor I’ve ever known, but he’s no plastic surgeon, which is exactly what I’ll need after pushing two humans from one of the smallest parts of my body.

“No. There’s no way I’m letting you deliver our babies. It’s just—it’s weird.” He arches a brow and pulls back. “Plus, you’re only a resident,” I add.

He frowns and places his hand over his heart “Now, babe, that’s not nice. I’m a badass physician,” he brags. He pushes off the bed and goes over by the sink. He rummages through a few drawers and returns with a weird pair of scissors. He brings the scissors up to the side of my head.

“WHOA! Look here, Edward Scissorhands, Dr. Dixon says to stick with your part—not his. That’s your part there, not here,” I say, pointing from my lady bits to my head.

“Calm down, Al. Believe me, I know what my part is,” he winks. “All I’m doing is removing your bandages. Don’t worry, Dr. Dixon left the orders in your chart,” he adds. I relax back into the pillow and allow him to begin snipping. It only takes three snips before he’s unwrapping the bandages and pulling them away from my head. I didn’t realize just how taut the bandages were before, but now that they’re off, it’s like breathing in a breath of fresh air. My head doesn’t feel as heavy, and I’ve never been happier to feel my nappy hair fall around my shoulders.